Co-City

The world population is growing rapidly, but the size of our little blue planet… that’s pretty much set in stone.

As cities are sprawling and taking over farmland, and as we literally have to live on top of each other, new ways of sharing limited space need to be imagined. Trends are developing that rethink our notions of farmland and personal space to accommodate our increasingly growing and urbanisingpopulation.

Studio Precht’s The Farmhouse incorporates agriculture into architecture for city-dwellers. They turn a necessity into a desire; their stunning suggested housing system reconnects people to the natural source of their food, while simultaneously reconnecting them to each other. Their vision is one of a more sustainable and communal way of city life.

In Rotterdam, the Floating Farm reimagines the rural farm into an aquatic one. They tackle the lack of land by moving the farm onto open water while updating it technologically with robots that clean up the urine and feed the cowsand systems that recycle waste into manure for growing new food for the cows. We’re wondering if the cows won’t get seasick and dream of stable green pastures, but the farm believes they’re floating some great ideas for the future!

The father and son behind Nemo’s Garden believe they can top the idea of a floating farm by moving it underwater. As in: in the ocean. This provides a lot ofsolutions to common issues with farming on land: there is plenty of space,temperatures are stable, pests don’t have access to the crops, and by growingthem in little air-pods the seawater evaporates onto the plants as fresh water,offering a self-watering system. Also, it’s a lot more affordable. We are curiousif we will reminisce about the time our basil didn’t taste salty, but we’ll tryanything once!

Co-living is another thriving new trendthat we assume will only expand. Flats the size of hotel rooms, losing some personal space but gaining in communal areas.Think communal city gardens, kitchens, laundry rooms, living rooms, sharingequipment, cars…or even setting up communal electricity production. Co-living tackles the lack of space and the housing crisis while offering a fewwelcome side effects: it brings people together in a positive way, perhaps evensolving urban loneliness.

We have done our best to give credit to all whose imagery we have used in this presentation. However, in an era of digital sharing and social media, it is not always possible to identify the original source. Please contact us to add the correct credits: we@tchai2021.henrihoogeveen.nl