design

August 16, 2015 at 04:25PM

architecture, design Leave a comment

agritecture:

If you run out of space for farming, look to the subway Tokyo is a big city. But despite what you see in the movies, Tokyo is a pretty green city. There are parks and gardens scattered all over and even a small mountain out west.

Still, when you think of farming, what typically comes to mind is rolling pastures and open skies, not a beautiful city park. And definitely not subway tracks.

In a prefab warehouse in Nishi Kasai, a less than idyllic neighborhood in the eastern part of the metropolis, I meet Masahiko Kakutani. He works for Tokyo Metro, the company that runs the vast subway system in the central part of the city. Kakutani is the main farmer behind “Tokyo Salad,” the Metro’s new farming enterprise, farming that takes place underneath the Tozai Line.

Kakutani takes me inside and tells me that they grow the crops in a hygienic clean room. Then he disappears. When he comes back, he’s in a scientist-looking outfit. He hands me a white coat, mask and hat to put on — and alcohol wipes for my microphone.

We walk through multiple doors, into an air shower where we spin three times, and finally step into a room filled with large shelving units and an elaborate system of tiny pipes. This is hydroponic farming, and it’s a little sci fi.

“We’re currently growing romaine, red mustard, riccola, Lollo Rosso, endive, and chicory,” Kakutani says. Six kinds of lettuce and four kinds of baby leaf.

SOURCE http://ift.tt/1KpDvsh

August 15, 2015 at 06:19PM

architecture, design Leave a comment

archatlas:

House in Travessa Do Patrocinio Rebelo de Andrade Studio

From a small lot with it’s unique implantation, this project has raised early on a couple of challenges… and along with them, ideas emerged. The box housing deviates from the gable to create a vertical yard (glass box), with a straight ladder connecting all floors, an allusion to the famous stairs of Alfama, running between the all 4 floors walls and linking the various dimensions. This courtyard is the heart of the house, bringing light to the interior, enhancing the main entrance and creating a real exterior/interior relationship. In terms of material, we chose to polish the rectangular form and give the block the face of a tree, making it one more element of the square, which resulted together with the existing tree and water fountain, in a triad. The program was set up almost automatically, the technical services and garage with direct access from the street, the first floor holding the private area of the house. The second floor is the social area, with a direct connection to the coverage, extending social into outdoors, being the view related to the social side and the private area to both square and Embassy, the setting of a typical Lisbon experience, which is a truly intimate relationship between quarters.

Images and text via Rebelo de Andrade Studio http://ift.tt/1TGuBRE