Article written about Chris Jacobs and Vertical Farming
This fantastic article was published by and written by Green and Save and written by Steve Surman. Having had an article written about my involvement with the Vertical Farm movement was very flattering, and helped to shed some light on my contributions to Dr. Dickson Despommier and the class that came up with the idea itself.
The first ever article about Vertical Farming published in a national magazine put my Vertical Farm Tower on their cover, as well as a few pages inside. The magazine was called Plenty Magazine, and shortly after that publishing, New York Magazine picked up the story, and published 4 pages with a "centerfold" image of my circular farm design. This really started the movement worldwide, and helped to accelerate the Vertical Farm ideology that had been stagnant in the halls of Columbia University for 6 years. Here is the article.
New Rendering of Orignal Vertical Farm
The classic circular Vertical Farm design in a desert surrounding. All deliveries as well as the entrance are underground. Bottom floor of this farm would be a Produce Market.
Modeled and rendered by Dean Fowler. Design, Chris Jacobs and Dean Fowler
Lumigrow Lighting System
This amazing new light from San Francisco based LumiGrow Inc. is quickly becoming the industry standard for high tech LED horticulture lighting solutions. I’ve read on many blogs and threads that this lighting system is very effective. The company has partnerships with University California Davis, Duke University and several commercial growers. Although more expensive than standard horticulture lighting, LumiGrow has a return on investment of 12 to 18 months. This system can change the color of the LED’s for differing growth cycles…growing, budding, etc. Pretty amazing, IMHO.
More info can be found here.
Sonotube Aeroponic System
If a Sonotube could be fully waterproofed, then this system could work. Here's a quickie design I banged out in Rhino - a 3d app I use.
New Fogponic System
I love this system. It's simply brilliant. It's called the Dominaero Propagation System and is developed by Fogponics.com. It's really meant for cloning, but with a chiller, can be used to grow. You can find more about the system here.
This is not me in this video. This individual shows off his Fogponic system.
New Vertical Farm Design for Los Angeles Area
New Designs as of September 19 08 originally presented to the Mindshare group at www.mindshare.la in Los Angeles. Special thanks to Dean Fowler for his help in modeling and rendering (and design help) the "black" building...soon to be GREEN! These renders will be updated very soon with foilage and plant life...and more color on the actual structure.
I worked very hard on the balsa models...but in all fairness, they were built using Rhino 3D and rendered using the Maxwell Rendering Application.
Original Concept Designs
Here are some conceptual designs that were developed prior to the Vertical Farm published in the NYtimes.com article.
...and one with Vegitation:
New York Magazine writes about the Vertical Farm
This is a truncated version of this website article...originally published in New York Magazine (April 2007). This article started the Vertical Farm revolution.
Magazines that have published and written about the circular Vertical Farm
The Circular Vertical Farm designed by Chris Jacobs was, in fact, the first attempt to design a "Vertical" farm from scratch. According to Dickson Despommier, The Living Tower, designed by Pierre Sartoux actually wasn't originally designed to be a Vertical Farm. Some popular magazines have published the circular farm, and they are below:
vertical Design Structure Studies
Here are a few renderings of a new Vertical Farm design that would have a glass shell (not yet rendered) with an outside structure to support the inside hydroponic facilities. These are just rough design sketches - as the final is in development. The inside of this structure would house efficient LED lighting systems in the red, green, and blue spectrum's.
These new designs will have full housing on the top and bottom of the multi-level hydroponic facilities, including a full produce shop on the ground floor. The housing is still in development. Solar systems will surround this structure and will help to power the thousands of LED lights. The pins that come out of the X structures serve to hold the outer glass that will surround this structure.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
