Vertical Farm Beijing
7 maart 2024
With Vertical Farm Beijing, van Bergen Kolpa Architecten is delivering China's first innovation center for urban food production for horticultural company AgriGarden and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science CAAS.
With its faceted glass facades, monumental entrance hall, and stacked functions, Vertical Farm Beijing gives a striking architectural face to urban horticulture. With its water reuse, passive heat recovery, and natural cooling, the building demonstrates how food can be produced sustainably in the city.
The Vertical Farm is built on the campus of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science, the innovation center for fruit and vegetable production in Beijing and the rest of China. The transparent, three-story building forms the prominent entrance to the campus's research facilities and overlooks the city and the ring road in central Beijing. A building for innovation and education. The 3,500 m² building, spread over three floors, houses a range of innovative vertical farming systems around a monumental entrance hall. An educational route through the building leads visitors past fruit trees in open ground, automated vertical lettuce cultivation, fruit growing under LED lighting, and a rooftop greenhouse growing tomatoes and cucumbers under daylight. Vertical Farming To provide millions of residents in China's major metropolises with green and healthy food, production must be integrated as much as possible into and around the city. Vertical Farm Beijing offers the solution in the form of stacked horticulture on a compact footprint. A new type of building for professional cultivation, accessible to a wide audience, that celebrates the central role of food in the city. Sustainable Water and Energy Use: Not a single drop of water is wasted in this building. When irrigating the plants, residual water is recycled and reused. The building's climate control utilizes natural ventilation and evaporative cooling. For heating, passive heat harvesting from the sun and residual heat from LED lighting are used. Transparent Sculpture: Vertical Farm Beijing is a proud sculpture of steel and glass that underscores its agricultural and public function. The building features an exceptionally slender steel structure, silhouetted against the Beijing sky by a series of transparent bay windows. The entrance is striking thanks to its expressive, faceted facade of transparent glass. Throughout the day, the bay windows provide reflection-free views of both the interior and exterior. In the evening, the building, with its various LED lighting options, becomes a beacon in the city.