Defunct cranes tower above world cities as a haunting reminder of sound economic times. The noise of construction now just a mere echo as skeletal half-built structures bear no flesh and house no humans. Sounds bad, but wait a minute, there are ‘green shoots’ springing up in the minds of the more forward-thinking architectural practices and the councils and businesses that employ them.

The fact that everything has slowed down does not mean the end, it just means that we’ve got some time to think. Instead of rushing in and allowing any old design to be built – which in hindsight will probably age just as fast as it took to build. It is no longer viable to construct identikit apartment blocks, with little thought for the future. The disposable age is over and only the more sound ecological and economical of designs are being considered. Less is more – and this will certainly be the case for architecture and town planning for the forseeable future.

Vincent Callebaut Architects have come up with a concept that puts the above sentence into context. Believing that architecture can be a useful tool in encouraging environmental and social focus. The Dragonfly project, proposed for New York’s East River would provide a skyscraper with the unique job as acting as an urban farm – providing food for the city, thus cutting both the economic and environmental costs of transporting food to the inhabitants whilst allowing them to cultivate their own, right on their doorstep. Land restrictions and prices in world cities have previously meant that the idea of farming within an urban environment is not practical, yet to combat this the Dragonfly project stretches itself vertically, dwarfing the skyscrapers of nearby Manhattan, providing a new landmark that would become the true core (literally) of the Big Apple.

Words Dan Szor

Article by supersupertv