Millennium Mills, Machine for Production
Team
Name: Simone Sanna
Nationality: Italy
Institution / Company: Department of Architecture, Design and Urban planning, University of Sassari
-FINALIST of London Vertical Farm Competition
The project transforms the host building into a production machine. Addition, subtraction and are some of the themes used in the Millennium Mills conversion project into a vertical farm. The given the load-bearing structure of the main body it was converted all into production area by sectorizing it in the different modes, column in tanks or panels, laboratories and buildings were added as parasites in the facade opposite the river. The two bodies that jutted inward were completely transformed, one with a facade consisting of photovoltaic panels that can orient themselves the other is inspired by capsules arranged in a lattice structure that allow fruit plants to grow out of the ground.
Water is supplied by drawing water from the river through a system of pipes that brings it to the top of the building into tanks for purification, the water then through a system of secondary pipes will then be transferred throughout the structure.
Electricity in part will be generated through the photovoltaic façade and will be used to keep the whole structure alive. The different colored lights are also designed according to the growth period of the plant.
The area in front has been converted into an urban park, giving back to the population a usable area that is no longer abandoned. The interior includes domes for growing fruit trees in a controlled environment that are visible from the outside.
#Urban agriculture #Vertical farming #Food production #Environmental impact #Urban Park
