20-foot URBAN FARMS, U-Farms

natmaka

Container+greenhouse... aquaponics in the street!

http://20footurbanfarm.blogspot.com/

Seems to have a few pilot sites in Europe.

Energy efficiency may not be wonderful as the water pump has to lift pretty high, and any container metal scap falling into a tank may wreak havoc, but the concept seems interesting.

BullwinkleII

I dont get it. What's the $3000 container for?

May as well just leave it out and buy a fence.

A container would make a great fish tank though

RupertofOZ

The container is supposed to house the fish tanks and stuff Bull...

http://20footurbanfarm.blogspot.com/p/genesis.html

The concept suggests possibly being powered by methane or other bio-gasses...

Two of the four sites don't show any installed system... just "in study"....

The one in Berlin... just appears to be a "demo" module... the linked site doesn't contain a mention of the system...

The only one that looks like in might be in "production"... but could be "photoshopped"... is the one in Zurich... http://urbanfarmersbox.ch/flyer/UFB_EN.pdf

Claims to produce 60kg of fish.. and 200kg of veges in summer... in a parking lot... apprantly without power... or at least I couldn't see the extension cord anywhere... :lol:

Dave Donley

I like it, portable.

DragonC

Reality is somewhat different. No lush vegetation here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/eekim/6143942205/

Nice try, but I think the maths needs a little more thinking.

RupertofOZ

Yep, totally unimpressed...

earthbound

Can't help but feel like it's underutilizing aspects, like the container structure and the height...
It doesn't take much more to expand on the idea

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By doubling the footprint, you can triple the growing area, you can then go out the other sides (the ends) as well, increasing growing area. I like the idea of using IBC's for water storage within the area to add thermal mass and water for gardening/systems etc...

Here you have 8000L of water storage within the area and it would be fairly feasible to have all of this stacked within the 20 foot container for transport. IBC's for vertical water storage, IBC's for fish tanks within. Lightweight scaffold pipe and bits for elevated walkways and structure, Lightweight nft and vertical growing upstairs a, a few media beds downstairs, worm farms under the beds...

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earthbound

Oh this topic has got me thinking now....

5 or 6 media beds, 3 tables of NFT, 8000L of water storage, and 5000-6000L of fish tanks within the container with other associated bits.

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Or the more compact version, 4 media beds, 2 NFT tables, but still 5-6000L of fish tanks in the container..

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RupertofOZ

Yep, so many ways to do it better... when you know what you're doing... :wink:

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