indoor farms

Shigeharu Shimamura put his plan for the farm into fruition back in 2011. As mentioned before, the farm produces 100 times more food than traditional farming, but an example would probably do best for visual purposes. Right now, the farm has produced 10,000 heads of high-quality leafy lettuce. What is truly mind-blowing isn’t the quantity or the quality of the heads of lettuce. It is the fact 10,000 heads of lettuce is the farm’s output in a single day! If that rate were to be calculated annually, the farm produces about 3,650,000 heads of high-quality leafy lettuce per year!

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floating farms

...designed a solar-powered floating farm. What is unique about it is the fact that through its green technology, it produces 20 tons of vegetables every day.

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Spain food center

Under a tight budget, this charitable food distribution center in Tarragona, Spain was designed and constructed in just three months. NUA Arquitectures created the building using a combination of prefabricated and constructed elements, allowing the structure to be finished with the help of 120 volunteers in the course of a single afternoon, creating a charitable space that provides a secure area to help those in the area who are in need.

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Milan Food Expo - romantizing food

Policy-makers have shied away from targeting agriculture because food is a personal issue for many citizens; the agricultural lobby in Brussels is very well organised because it’s been around since the early days of European integration; agriculture is also seen by many with romantic eyes.

“We have a very idyllic image of agriculture, but that romantic image no longer exists in many places”, noted Eickhout.

Romantic picture of agriculture
Most of the 14 national pavilions in Milan which this website saw from the inside, had romantic touches which don’t correspond with reality.

Almost three-quarters of the world's poultry products, and half of all pork, were created by industrial sized farming. In the EU, just 5.7 percent of agricultural land in 2012 was used for organic farming.

But the Spanish pavilion, for example, showed scenic videos of a shepherd and his flock, and of families eating together, accompanied by serene music. Spain is “Europe's kitchen garden”, an explanatory text noted.

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Microbes in our Buildings (fermented air)

This is a big shift in how we’ve previously conceptualized microbial life. We’ve long treated bacteria as the enemy. But it turns out that few of the germs we’re constantly trying to kill with hand sanitizer actually cause disease—and the more bacteria we have on the whole, the better. In fact, our habit of ultrasterilization appears to be hurting us. A number of recent studies have lent credence to the so-called “hygiene hypothesis,” which attributes the uptick in autoimmune and allergic diseases, including eczema and asthma, to a lack of early childhood exposure to germs.

 Today, scientists studying the microbiology of the built environment are changing the way we think about bacteria and working toward ways to harness their potential for good. Here we’ll use the term “bio-inspired” to refer to design that incorporates biological processes or systems.

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processed food cubes

At a casual glance, they look like colorful toy blocks. But look closer, and you'll recognize a grapefruit, an onion, a kiwi and a piece of tuna, among other bite-size morsels.

"Nowadays everyone seems to be obsessed by where does the food that I eat come from. Is it locally produced? Am I only eating non-processed food, etc.?" the Dutch artists wrote in an email. "So we decided to aesthetically process the unprocessed."

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Milan Expo

"The World Expo is once again upon us. Last time it was Shanghai's turn, now Milan plays host to the gargantuan global trade fair.

The original master-planners, a team that included Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, walked out in 2011 after their vision for a new typology of the Expo, one based on content rather than the individualist (and often propagandist) architecture of national pavilions, was rejected by the organisers."

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Milan Charter

MILAN CHARTER

Past world's fairs have given the world the sewing machine, the Eiffel Tower and ketchup. This one will produce the "Milan Charter," an expert document that seeks to raise awareness about the universal right to a "healthy, safe and sufficient" food supply.

The document seeks commitments from individuals, groups and businesses to ensure food security, decrease food waste and combat hunger and obesity. Pope Francis, who agrees that food is a basic right, is speaking Friday via video at the opening of the Expo.

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Ancient Rome feasts

An informative and richly set of illustrated presentations followed by a discussion with experts on ancient Roman art, architecture and philosophy. Learn about the ways ancient Romans dined, how they enjoyed their food, how they stored and prepared meals from the kitchen to the richly decorated triclinium.

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Obesity and Architecture

The Ohio State University study focused primarily on determining whether the home environment – architectural features and food storage and availability – was associated with obesity, but also measured a number of psychological factors. While architectural features had no relationship to obesity status, several food-related findings did.

People in the study who were obese kept more food visible throughout the house and generally ate less-healthy foods, such as sweets, than nonobese research participants. The two groups spent about the same amount of money on food and reported eating similar amounts of total calories, but nonobese participants spent less on fast food than did obese individuals.

“The amount of food in the homes was similar, but in the homes of obese individuals, food was distributed in more locations outside the kitchen,” said Charles Emery, professor of psychology at Ohio State and lead author of the study. “That speaks to the environment being arranged in a way that may make it harder to avoid eating food. That has not been clearly documented before.”

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