Agro-Housing 
Conceptual Approach

According to a UN report, by the year 2010 about 50% of the Chinese population will reside in cities. This huge migration from rural regions to new urban megalopolises will create a dramatic cultural and social crisis, a loss of existing traditions and considerable unemployment. Massive urbanization will form random communities, severely deplete natural resources, exhaust urban infrastructures and transportation systems and will increase air and soil pollution.

The concept of Argo Housing is a new urban and social version that will address problems of chaotic urbanization by creating a new order in the city and more specifically, in the housing environment. Argo-Housing is a program that combines within the same building, a high-rise apartment complex with a vertical greenhouse.

The idea behind Argo-Housing is to create a space close to home where families can produce their own food supply according to their abilities and choices. This will allow the citizens more independence, freedom and additional income.

Advantages of this innovative building typology

Produces food for tenants and the surrounding community.

Produces organic and healthy food that is disease and fertilizer free.

Creates an abundance of crops for self-consumption and sale for the neighbors.

Requires no special skill set for the greenhouse operation.

Allows for flexibility and independence regarding the working hours of the greenhouse.

Creates extra income and new jobs for the inhabitants residing in the building.

Creates a sense of community and softens the migration crisis of migration that is according in cities today.

Preserves rural traditions and social order.

Creates sustainable housing conditions and reduces air and soil pollution.

Improves the building’s microclimate and reduction of its energy usage (cooling and heating).

Uses water from the existing high water table and recycles grey water for the gardening.

The concept of Agro-Housing is to have housing programs that will allow the formation of a new social and urban order that can be replicated as it represents basic human values lost in the process of modernization and progress. Additional expected benefits from Agro-Housing include the decline in commuting, the decline in further transportation system development and the replacement of the zoning strategy by more sustainable urban conception.

Advantages for cities that adopt Agro-Housing

Allows urban growth with fewer investments in infrastructures and transportation systems.

Creates new jobs within neighborhoods and the independence of citizens.

Forms public awareness regarding sustainable concepts and benefits.

Contributes to environment preservation.

Reduces water and energy consumption.

Improves the quality of urban life and economic independence for cities.

Lessens traffic and commercial spaces caused by the moving of and the selling of agriculture.

Agro-Housing is a place for living that will create a new urbanity, contributing to the preservation of traditional and communal values.

Argo-Housing will promote the idea of sustainability and will dramatically reduce environmental problems in an era of globalization and urban migration.

Agro-Housing and Sustainability

The Argo-Housing is a combination of housing and urban agriculture. The building is composed of two parts: First, the apartment tower and second the vertical greenhouse.

The greenhouse is a multi-level structure for cultivating crops such as vegetables, fruit, flowers, and spices. It is equipped with a drip-irrigation system, a heating system and natural ventilation.

The Argo-Housing project suggests spaces for community activities. The greenhouse may serve as a place for casual or professional meetings. The roof garden offers an open air green space for recreation and informal gatherings. The Sky Club on the roof is designed to host social gatherings and celebrations, while the ground floor includes a kindergarten thereby welcoming young children to stay close to home and their parents. The Argo-Housing project provides diverse spaces for the benefits of its inhabitants.

The Agro-Housing project has a minimal footprint in order to free maximum ground surface for gardening and rainwater harvesting. The materials used for the paving are recycled and cover limited surfaces. The parking area offers a large number of spaces for bicycles in the shade. The garden vegetation uses the natural cycles of the local environment to harmonize the landscape.

Sustainable Qualities of Agro-Housing:

Community & Quality of Life – Since sustainability is a holistic approach, our concern is to embrace social and economical conditions for the well-being of the inhabitants individually and as a community.

Communal Spaces – The Argo-Housing project provides a diversity of spaces for the benefit of its inhabitants such a kindergarten on the ground floor level and a sky club surrounded by a green roof on the top.

The Greenhouse – The vertical Argo-Space permits production of fresh food for families and for the community, thereby reducing commuting and creating a harmonic and holistic environment of sustainable life in an urban space.

Energy 
Natural Ventilation – The inner vertical space of the building functions as a ventilation shaft for the apartments as well as for the greenhouse. The apartments benefit from cross natural ventilation while the balconies and shades reduce cooling loads. During the summer the opening of the top level of the atrium space will create a thermal chimney and enable air circulation pumping the hot air out and allowing fresh cold air to flow indoor.

Shading – In summer the greenhouse floors will serve as vertical screens and shades along with the greenery for cooling the inner part of the building. South facing apartments have shaded balcony blocking the summer sun.

Energy & Lighting – The natural Day lighting will minimize the building’s need of artificial lighting. Responsible use of lighting, occupancy sensors, timing devices as well as dimmer controls will be integrated in the building.

Passive Solar Energy – During the winter, the low angled winter sun will penetrate the building and heat the high mass elements which will absorb the energy during the day and emit it as night. The greenhouse’s glazed wall will trap hot air within the building. That hot air then subsequently continues to circulate the heat within the different sections of the building.

Active Solar Energy – A solar heating system delivers heat energy from the collectors on the roof to each apartment by a forced circulation system.

GSHP – Ground Source Heat Pump using high water table and the constant ground temperature all year round provides a heating and cooling system without the combustion of fuels, carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide.