We've reported on several eye-catching floating architecture projects lately, including a "parkipelago" and a greenery-covered office. This solar-powered urban poultry farm is the most off-the-wall idea of the bunch though and, assuming it goes ahead as planned, will host roughly 7,000 egg-laying hens, as well as an area for growing food, in a harbor in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
The building is officially named Floating Farm Poultry and was designed by Goldsmith for a company named Floating Farm Holding BV.
It will be based on a floating platform with three pontoons and will measure 3,500 sq m (roughly 37,670 sq ft), spread over three floors. Its interior layout will consist of a lower level used for farming vegetables, herbs and cresses under LED lighting, while upstairs will be a production factory floor for processing and packaging. The uppermost level is conceived as the poultry area and will contain the egg-laying hens.
With its semi-transparent facade, much of the interior process will be visible and the idea is that visitors will be able to view the inner-workings of the urban farm.
The building will also be topped by solar panels. We've no hard figures available, but Goldsmith indicates that the solar panels will create a significant amount of its required electricity, though it will still draw power from the grid too.
"What mainly interests us as a Rotterdam-based architecture firm, is that the project gives new meaning to the harbor area of the city in general," Goldsmith's Wesley Leeman told us over email. "To elaborate; all 'traditional' polluting harbor activities that were still fairly present inside the city center roughly five decades ago have all been moved out of the city, and have shifted westward towards the coast. Similar developments can be seen in most of the big port cities in Europe of course. The floating farm makes use of this 'void space' on the water to create a new sustainable form of industry in the harbor, that is based on circular principles."
We've no word yet on when Floating Farm Poultry is due to begin construction nor an estimated date of completion, though a Goldsmith representative did confirm that the project is planned to go ahead and will be situated in a Rotterdam harbor, next to the Floating Farm, which it also previously designed.
Source: Goldsmith
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