BIA 02 : Terraced Housing with Integrated Greenhouse Concept

 

By unifying the rooftops of an entire block of terraced housing, BIA 02 offers the productive area to support a commercial horticultural operation serving local residents and businesses with high-quality, fresh local produce.



London's rooftops are largely constructed of materials that degrade under sunlight and create conditions that we then mitigate using fossil fuel derived energy, air conditioning being the most pronounced. If the solar facing skin of our built environment were to be trained to harvest photons to produce plants that we then commodify, 

 

• Fresh produce would travel a matter of meters from harvest to plate and could be distributed via community grocers, complemented by community kitchens occupying community halls which now have functions that keep them open all day.

• Greenhouses would mitigate thermal losses from the residences.

• Boiler exhausts could be captured to carbon enrich horticultural environments

• Food waste from residences could be processed via anaerobic digestion units located in basement levels which supply the block with supplementary biogas and heat alongside nutrients for the horticultural operation.

• Rainwater from collected from the greenhouse could be diverted from overburdened sewer systems for us in the horticultural operation and as resident greywater.

• Heat gain within the greenhouses could drive stack ventilation in the residences below.

 

If half of London's existing 20,000 hectares of roofspace were to be retrofitted with commercial grade rooftop greenhouses, a productivity of 40kg/sqm/annum (conservative by commercial horticultural practive) would yield 1.33kg/person/day, equivalent to 380% of what the average Londoner currently consumes.