AgRow House is a vertical community with spaces to grow, eat, and sell crops; to raise livestock; and, to live sustainably. The design stems from a commitment to creating a culturally relevant building by identifying the traditional New York Row House as a typological reference. By hybridizing the Row House with a vertical farm program, AgRow House can become a prototype - not only for the given site, but also as a prototype for modifications to existing vernacular structures. Vertical farming is envisioned to become an integral part of the urban living experience. Each “unit” within the vertical community combines a customizable vertical farming system with an efficient apartment layout.
When people are directly connected to food production, they are better able to analyze their impact on the environment. If, instead, there was a separation between the commercial cultivation of food and the residential functions for the purposes of a vertical farm, we risk perpetuating the disconnectedness of our current food consumption process.