During the last two years Italian architectural firm Studiomobile have been working in the United Arabian Emirates, developing housing projects and infrastructure projects. Recently they developed their concept ‘Seawater Vertical Farm’.

From the developers:

‘The world is running short of fresh water. With agriculture accounting for some 70% of all water used, the shortage is closely linked to food production. The provision of clean water is a pre-condition to life, health and economic development and the lack of water in many parts of the world is the root cause of much suffering and poverty. Present methods of supply in arid regions include: over-abstraction from ground reserves, diverting water from other regions and energy-intensive desalination. In many parts of the world, water is pumped out of the ground faster than it is replenished by rainwater. The water table drops and becomes increasingly saline. The salts then poison the soil. None of these methods are sustainable in the long term and inequitable distribution leads to conflict. To make matters worse, global warming is tending to make dry areas drier and wet areas wetter.

The growth in demand for water and increasing shortages of supply are two of the most certain and predictable scenarios of the 21st century. Agriculture, with a high demand for water, is a major pressure point. Fortunately, the world is not short of water, it is just in the wrong place. Converting seawater to fresh water in the right quantities and in the right places offers the potential to solve all the problems described above.

The Seawater Greenhouse uses seawater to cool and humidify greenhouses and to convert sufficient humidity back in to fresh water to irrigate the crops. This tecnique is being used for several projects in the south of Spain, in Oman, in Abu Dhabi and in the South Africa. The Seawater Vertical Farm has been developed in order to increase the efficiency of the system (by exploting the stack effect), to design safer and easyer to control settlements and to create a concept that can be used in different situations including the metropolis environment. That’s why we located our Seawater Vertical Farm in Dubai where the lack of fresh water and of local vegetables, in addition to the high soil value calls for a Seawater Vertical Farm as a solution.

The air going into the greenhouse is first cooled and humidified by seawater, which is trickled over the first evaporator. This provides fresh and humid climate for the crops that in these conditions need very little water as they are not stressed by excessive transpiration.

The Concept:

Phase 01 The air going into the greenhouse is first cooled and humidified by seawater, which is trickled over the first evaporator. This provides fresh and humid climate for the crops that in these conditions need very little water as they are not stressed by excessive transpiration.

Phase 02 As the air leaves the growing area, it passes through the second evaporator which has seawater flowing over it. During this phase the humid air mix with the warm dry air of the ceiling interspace. Thus the air is made much hotter and more humid.

Phase 03 The warm air is forced to flow upward by the stack effect that is temperature induced. In the central chimney the warm and humid air will condense when in contact with plastic tubes where cool sea water is pumped. In the surface of the condenser many drops of fresh water will appeare, ready to be recollected in a tank to water the crops and for other uses.’

Related posts:

1. Petting Farm // Almere // The Netherlands // 70F Architecture
2. Dragonfly, A Metabolic Farm For Urban Agriculture
3. Vertical Park By Jorge Hernandez de la Garza
4. Vertical Landscape Urbanism // Holmestrand // Norway // L.E.FT + STUDIO hp AS
5. Sustainable ‘Vertical Village’ For Dubai Designed By GRAFT Architects