Design by Chris Jacobs & Rolf Mohr

We know that stacking people in city apartments leaves a smaller ecological footprint than sprawling McMansions across suburbia. Imagine applying the same idea to growing food. Could metropolises transform from parasitic centers of consumption into hot spots of sustainable production? A team of Columbia University environmentalists is designing a “vertical farm” by combining greenhouse technology with high-rise food cultivation. The goal? To create a self-sustaining building capable of producing a year-round balanced diet for 50,000-plus urban dwellers. All crops — including fish and livestock — would be grown organically and ethically, solar panels would power 24-four-hour grow lights, and irrigation water would come from filtered sewage purified via a series of ponds filled with sludge-loving organisms.