Sustainable Tall building Design - 'Food Tower'

I chose Sustainable Tall building module in my second term of studies. It was fun and exciting to work on a scale of that big. We opted to work on a live site in London.. Hurrey!! It was good for us to learn more on a same climatic conditions. The other climatic zones where Singapore and Dubai which are completely different context from I had studies in the first term. We were a team of three (Jesna Mathews, Carmen Du and me).

The site is located  by the Thames river on the Blackfriers road, London. It was an exciting site to work with. The major impact that has to be considered was the impact of the context on the building and vice versa. Since all three of us are foodies, we wanted to design a food tower. I should not forget to mention Carmen Du did a major background research to justify our need for the food tower. We were surprised to find that 80% of UK's food is being imported from other countries. And our research became deeper and we had a very strong reasons for our food tower.

The 'Food Tower' we designed was named as 'Vertical farming skyscraper'. The tower is designed to be elevated to 20' height in consideration of the flood prone area. This 20' accommodates informal and temporary activities like the farmer's market, promotion activities and shop for the food tower and mainly growing spaces. The building is divided into zones. The division is by the growing allotment areas and service floors. The first block is office and laboratory block with a test zone of plant growing allotment areas. The rest of the tower are residential and allotments at intervals.

The shape and size of the building is a result of repeated testing of block models for shadow analysis, impact of light and wind on the building and to its surroundings, growing areas/ allotments, and aesthetics. The top of the building possesses an extensive view of the skyline of London.

The building is designed with major concern of the sustainable aspects of water recycling, solid waste management, use of solar energy, purification, rainwater treatment, choice of materials, designing zones, etc. Care is taken for every step to make it more sustainable. The tower was designed to 30% sustainable activities which can reach up to 50% in no time. The residents who live in a food tower is encouraged to take up a different lifestyle of growing their own food. If full effort is being put, the effectiveness can be made 100%.