UQ architecture research reveals how families could grow own produce inside apartments

Fresh research from The University of Queensland could help apartment dwellers enjoy a backyard garden in their own flat and a year-round harvest of fruit and vegetables.

UQ School of Architecture, Design and Planning PhD student Thi Thanh Nhan An is bridging the gap between architecture and agriculture with prototype garden systems that integrate urban farming and apartment design.

Her prototype gardens are a greenhouse, a semi-greenhouse and a vertically integrated indoor farm designed to fit inside a city apartment or on a balcony.

An’s project is already bearing fruit.

“I cannot forget the moment when I opened the door and smelt the basil and saw the colour of the purple radish or the green lettuce under the light,” said An, describing an early foray into her prototype greenhouse.

“Hopefully everyone in the city can have their own farming space in their living space in the future.”

An’s prototypes are being constructed at the Brisbane head office of engineering firm and industry partner Fusion Modulair, a city where apartments and townhouses are increasingly replacing the traditional sprawling sections able to accommodate the classic post-war Aussie backyard gardens.

In her semi-greenhouse prototype, designed to be an indoor-outdoor unit that could one day be built into apartment balconies, An has successfully sprouted over a dozen different vegetable types, including beetroot, lettuce, kale, tomatoes and cucumbers.

An said she wants everyone living in urban areas to be able to enjoy the health and wellness benefits of growing their own fresh produce. 

PhD supervisor Dr Silvia Micheli, a senior lecturer at UQ’s School of Architecture, Design and Planning and award-winning designer, said much of An’s produce rivals anything grown outside.

Dr Micheli said the research also offers clear benefits from a sustainability and productivity perspective, because urbanites could grow their own produce on site, reducing the energy cost of packaging and moving food around. 

“With this research, the ambition is to reimagine the way we live in the city and therefore we are rethinking how apartments can be designed to become more sustainable by including productive activities,” Dr Micheli said.

Also supervising An’s research is Paul Gauthier, a professor of controlled environmental agriculture at UQ’s Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI), and a world-leading researcher of vertical farming and protected cropping.

An’s research is new and exciting work because it looks at how small-scale farming could feed a family comparing the three different structures: greenhouse, semi-greenhouse and indoor vertical farming, Professor Gauthier said.

“It’s more about putting the family in charge of the diet,” said Professor Gauthier. 

He said managing airflow inside the units will be critical, something achieved with the help of the partnership with Fusion Modulair, whose systems have been able to manage temperature and humidity for the plants, and across different sections of the greenhouse.

Fusion Modulair chief executive Kevin Harris said his staff have been able to help develop innovative designs to improve the air distribution inside the prototype semi-greenhouse to enhance plant growth, while maintaining a focus of achieving high growth yields using the least amount of energy.

The partnership was already success because the firm, which invests heavily in research and development, is always interested in in anything that its air distribution products can improve, he said.

“It's been fantastic, the collaboration has been very exciting for both sides,” Harris said. 

An’s research will shortly enter the data collection phase following months of design, build and testing.

Her work will focus on collecting data on temperature, humidity, energy, water, growth rates, plant yield, indoor air quality and building design integrating, with the aim of providing industry with new information on how to integrate architecture and agriculture.

Philips, Viridis Lab and Farming Architects are also industry partners in the research alongside Fusion Modulair