Saltwater farms in the sky to produce food for Dubai

Plans for Seawater Vertical Farms (SVF) in Dubai, designed by Italian architect firm Studiomobile, have been submitted to the government but are now on hold during the economic downturn.

Architects Christiana Favretto, 34, and Antonio Girardi, 35, have been working in Dubai for the past two years on their concept to use seawater to irrigate farms which reach up into the sky like futuristic apartments.

Their company, Studiomobile, has looked at two locations in Dubai for the farms, one close to the Arabian Canal’s opening in Jebel Ali near the coast and a second location in Ud al Bayda, on the Dubai-Al Ain Road.

“We have been working in Dubai for two years developing housing, infrastructure and research projects,” Favretto told Alrroya.com.

“Thus we have some experience over the problems that afflict the area, such as the lack of fresh water and urban transport.

“The SVF have been designed from November 2008 and was presented in Dubai in February 2009.”

Dubai’s long term development

However, the global financial downturn has meant that construction of the buildings has been put on hold, which Favretto hopes will resume sometime next year.

“The problem is the international financial crisis that is obstructing the country’s development,” she adds.

“But by building this project Dubai would say to the world that it believes in a long term development for the city, not only in the short term development related to tourism and finance.

“In fact the SVF can also produce large scale benefits for all the area.”

Farms will provide micro climate

According to Favretto the SVFs trigger the evaporation of large volumes of water, around 10 times greater than that evaporated by an equal area of land covered by grass.

“This will provide a micro-climate of cooler and more humid air in the land near the SVF, reducing the water demand and enhancing the growing conditions for threes and vegetation, thus increasing the potential for precipitation through rainfall.”

The pair have been researching their idea for five years in collaboration with American and Italian universities such as Venice IUAV where Antonio Girardi is teaching.

The concept of vertical farms was created by Dr Dickson Despommier, professor of public health in environmental health sciences at Columbia University in the United States as a solution of how to grow food without damaging natural ecosystems.

Las Vegas farm

Now a 30-storey vertical farm – based on Dr Despommier idea - is being planned in Las Vegas at a cost of $200 million and set for completion in 2011 which could feed up to 72,000.

“However, our project is a completely new concept and uses a brand new technology to make up for the lack of fresh water that will be the key issue of the 21st century,” said Favretto.

“The project has been developed to solve some of Dubai’s problems but these are typical of many other cities: in Abu Dhabi and in Oman they are testing the technology of the seawater greenhouses.

“Many other countries are interested in the SVF and we were contacted also by a firm to verify the feasibility of the project in Australia.”

According to Favretto the SVF is highly sustainable and is a promising alternative to large-scale desalination plants.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, a cubic meter of fresh water produced by the desalination technology called reverse osmosis requires a liter of fuel.

“On the contrary, the SVF uses seawater, sunlight, and passive solar energy to cool and humidify air and to produce fresh water in order to grow plants,” she added.

“Note that crops are in an ideal environment, similar to the one of the equatorial forest, and as they are not stressed by excessive transpiration and harsh climate, some vegetables can produce many harvests per year.”