The Valley

The Collective Urban Farming Depot is conceptualized as a radical solution and a contested urban fantasy. Through provocatively choreographing the food system and public participation on a limited site footprint, the project attempts to open up a discussion regarding London’s food insecurity, machine production, and human relation to land. The farming depot collapses the whole food production process from a territorial scale to our site. Using the vertical farming strategy, we turn an abandoned site into a food production machine to make urban farms a considerable food source. The form is optimized to maximize the growing area. Sowing, growing, harvesting, retailing, and composting are all integrated into the megastructure.

With the capacity of the farming depot structure, the site becomes a landmark, just like the British Museum and the Guggenheim in Bilbao, attracting citizens and tourists across the city. Farming becomes a mass recreation activity alongside visiting art galleries, museums, and theatres.