Fazenda Cubo Hydroponic Culture / Estúdio Lava

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Text description provided by the architects. The renovation of a shed on the first floor in a small building located in the district of Pinheiros, had the challenge of housing, in only 90m², the greatest possible number of shelves for the hydroponics of vegetables of Fazenda Cubo, in a interior system, with light. Architecture becomes a support infrastructure for market gardening in the intra-urban space, reconfiguring the consumption-production relationships established between the urban-rural. Thanks to technology and architecture, food production moves to the urban center thanks to a hydroponic system of water recirculation, which allows the control of the number of nutrients received by vegetables, photovoltaic lamps, which allow photosynthesis of plants, and the acclimatized chamber, which allows the control of temperature, humidity, air quality and pests, structuring a sustainable, self-sufficient, low water consumption and pesticide-free system .

The project part unfolds from this concept and saves the language of agricultural greenhouses usually implemented in rural areas, creating an internal facade inside the hangar, affirming the displacement of the greenhouse in the building. Self-structured cellular polycarbonate is used, creating a translucent panel that allows light to pass from inside to outside and vice versa. A window is integrated into the front of the chamber, providing internal visibility from the street and inviting visitors and passers-by to enter and learn about the production process inside. There are a total of 7 shelves over 2.5 meters high, with a production capacity of up to 2,500 vegetable plants at the same time, equivalent to a production area of ​​1.5 hectares. in conventional models.

With the implementation of a vertical urban farm in São Paulo, we fuel the debate on the connection between urban and rural environments and recognize the need to think about alternatives for food production in large metropolises, promoting it to “Zero km” and allowing short flows between production and consumption. Indoor farms are combined with other urban agriculture actions that are already a reality in São Paulo, and allow us to imagine alternatives that promote the reduction of our ecological footprint and the structuring of a food system in continuity. with the urban space of the city, establishing a greater link between the urban citizen and the production of his own food.