Food is one of the basic needs of every human being. Not long ago it was effortful to obtain food, now we can get products from all over the world in our supermarkets. Almost 30% of the world‘s population are overweight, and at the same time 2 billion people are hungry or eat unhealthy food. Agriculture and cities have always been bound together since the beginning of civilization. Mesopotamia, widely considered to be the cradle of civilization in the west is the best example. By 3000 b.c. Egyptian and mesopotamian farmers developed the world‘s first large-scale irrigation system. Nowadays 38.6% of the world‘s land area is agricultural, while undeveloped and unmodified land is 46.5%. Countries with higher commercial land agricultural area tend to have a high rate of deforestation. This is due to the fact that the main driver of deforestation is agricultural land allotment. Also, nearly half of the crops grown are used as food for animals.

The main focus is to combine agricultural strategies into the forest stratum and have agricultural products readily available for both public and private use. Nowadays urban orchards are becoming a trend since plots of agreeable land aren’t readily available, the proposal is to provide an agricultural system in the form of pods which are suspended on trees, this way households and different institutions can easily adapt this system in their backyards or in allotted public orchard areas. An aeroponics system is used instead of conventional geoponics, making plant growth rate increase substantially. This can help promote local economies, community interaction, a healthier lifestyle and environmental conservation.

Aeon is a project of a vertical garden, it’s a metabolic cycle that includes economical and sustainable use of resources. To make it work and to be able to test it we researched about the ecosystems, plants and animals inside the forest of Valldaura.

VALLDAURA

‘Learning from nature to change the world’

Valldaura’s aim is to be a self sufficient laboratory which research is based on ecological principles with the use of modern technology.

Part of the research was to create the prototype for the Valldaura landscape, which is a forested area. Local plants and animals were taken into account, as to maximize the production yield. Animals aid in ways like pollination and pest control. Harmoniously linking nature and humans.

Valldaura has a lack of arable land and sources of water, the Aeon’s aeroponics system allows soil-less planting and lesser amount of water used.

ECONOMICAL WATER CYCLE

The Aeon uses an aeroponics system which is a process of growing plants in an air or mist environment without the use of soil or an aggregate medium. The basic principle of aeroponics is to grow plants suspended in a closed or semi-closed environment by spraying the plant’s dangling roots and lower stem with an atomizer.

The main source of water can be tapped from any water reservoir/collector. Each pod can have 2 or 3 layers depending on the size of the plants, and every layer will have a sprinkler attached. The interior of the pods are covered with latex to help collect the water, while the pipe below the pods transfers the excess water from one pod to the other.

METABOLIC DIAGRAM

PROCESS

“The goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings”

–Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution

Picture yourself in a forest where everything around you is food. Fruit trees forming an open canopy; assorted native wild edibles, herbs and vegetables thickly cover the ground and are consequently hung from the trees. Food and natural medicine can be easily harvested, and in today’s world since the price of both are steadily increasing it is important to find new ways to cultivate them easily and on any site. The ultimate goal of forest gardening is not only the growing of crops but also, the cultivation and perfectionof a new way of seeing, thinking and acting in the world. By this we can help change people’s lifestyles and habits to a healthier and more productive one.

Consumerism has become a big problem now, people tend to buy all the goods they need rather than finding ways to create it themselves. Take for example the FabLabs, they are promoting do-it -yourself projects which not only aid us economically but also mentally and physically.

The Aeon is a system that promotes sustainability since it targets environmental, social and economic factors. Environmentally, through the increase in plant and animal biodiversity, natural resource use, and pollution prevention . Socially, through the promotion of a healthier lifestyle, education and community interaction. Economically, through cost savings and research/development.

More information on the project can be found in this link:

http://issuu.com/wiltonmachadoneves/docs/aeon_final_presentation/1

Our goal is to combine farming technology and agroecological strategies for increasing food production, fighting climate change and poverty, protecting soil and water while maintaining healthy, livable communities and local economies, motivating positive behavior changes for sustainable lifestyle.

LAND USE AND FOOD DISTRIBUTION NOW

13 million ha are deforested every year

smallholders produce 80% of food consumed in developing countries

to feed 9 billion people will require a 70% increase in food production

1.000.000.000 people in the world are hungry

another billion eat unheathy food

almost 30% of the world’s population are overweight

AGRICULTURAL AREA

40% of the world’s land area. Countries with a higher commercial land agricultural area tend to have a high rate of deforestation. Also, nearly half of the crops grown are actually used as food for animals.

CROPLAND PRODUCTION GAP

Dark spots (mainly the biggest production countries ) indicate locations where significantly more wheat, maize and rice could be produced without deforestation.

FIRST PROTOTYPE

Through Arduino we control humidity, temperature and irrigation, creating the best conditions for growing beans.

The water cycle is used as the main concept to make our second prototype and will be used in the future.

VALLDAURA

We want to place our next prototype in the forest of  Valldaura, to show the possibility of combining agriculture and forest. We planted vegetables in the Food Fab will be transferred in the right time to our final prototype.

SITE

 We analyzed average rainfall, wind temperatures, relative humidity and wind frequency through seasons to understand better which are the better plants to grow in the area of Valldaura.

Choosing the site we observed the daily and annual sun path in order to know where exactly to plant.

Sketching the future prototype we decided to use one water collector that will be connected to all the pots and that will provide water by capillary action and due to  the gravity force. All the pots are connected one to another with ropes, so the capillary action works also between them. The pot itself will be working with the same water cycle and water filtering principals as our first and second prototypes.