London farm tower 2050: new way of living between innovations and trasformations

The research aims are the investigation of the living phenomenon in relation to the population growth, the gradual urbanization of the world population and the need for new technologies for food production in urban consolidated centers. To outline the problem you need to analyze some figures: in 2050 the world population will count up to 9.9 billion people, of which 71% will live in urban areas. It will also be necessary to cultivate 1,000,000,000 acres to meet the need for food. All this inevitably has an impact on metropolitan areas development: city becomes widespread and productive places diminish. City consumes but does not produces. This "forces" us to reflect on the regeneration of urban spaces that can be defined "empty" and on the development of new models able to cope with the problems listed above. The purpose of the research, considering the above data, is to study a new housing model that can squeeze a city portion and make it live on his own relationships, human and economic, in continuous connection with the outside world: the city, like a software can be updated through plugins. The experimentation takes place at the Tower of London in London, an area affected by recent urban expansion projects, which can be defined as "urban emptiness". The social housing becomes common thread between the parties: an "urban emptiness" to densify through an "open" system, ready to reconnect to other empty spaces and leaving permeable contact with the surrounding urban web. The creation of a social network made up of houses, space between the houses and productive places is seen and developed as a urban "component" required to respond to the problems listed above. Housing becomes the instrument through which "rethink" residential housing system by introducing temporal and social set of variables so far unknown as a unique opportunity to define a "new habitat" not only able to provide a service but to ensure human and social relationships,. For this "new urban model" an intensive production of housing would not be enough if it wasn’t based on a complex urban public space. Considering all this I can state that this research wants to be an opportunity to define a methodology of intervention in the established urban centers responding to the rapid urbanization arising problems, and to initiate a radical debate on the listed issues.