Harvest Green Project by Romses Architects

Winner of “The 2030 Challenge” organized by the City of Vancouver “to address climate change plans and to guide greener and denser development, reducing carbon emissions for the future,” the “Harvest Green Project’ by Romses Architects will grow vegetables, herbs, fruit, fish, egg laying chickens, and a boutique goat and sheep dairy facility through the vertical farming. Featuring a green design, the structure will harvest renewable energy with photovoltaic glazing and small and large-scale wind turbines to support the solar and wind-farm infrastructure.

The concept of ‘harvest’ is explored in the project through the vertical farming of vegetables, herbs, fruits, fish, egg laying chickens, and a boutique goat and sheep dairy facility. In addition, renewable energy will be harvested via green building design elements harnessing geothermal, wind and solar power. The buildings have photovoltaic glazing and incorporate small and large-scale wind turbines to turn the structure into solar and wind-farm infrastructure. In addition, vertical farming potentially adds energy back to the grid via methane generation from composting non-edible parts of plants and animals. Furthermore, a large rainwater cistern terminates the top of the ‘harvest tower’ providing on-site irrigation for the numerous indoor and outdoor crops and roof gardens.

In addition to food and energy harvesting, the proposal purposefully incorporates program uses for residential, transit, a large farmers market and supermarket, office and agricultural research and educational facilities, and food related retail/hospitality. The result will be a highly dynamic synergy of uses that compliment and support each other.