"The building accommodates climates for plants and humans under a conservatory roof."

Rooftop greenhouse Agrotopia is Europe's largest research centre for urban food production. With its faceted glass facades, monumental entrance staircase and stacking of functions, Agrotopia gives a striking architectural appearance to horticulture on the roofs of the city. The innovative building is an example for future food production in the city, intensive use of space, circular energy and water use and making greenhouse horticulture more sustainable.

Agrotopia is built on the roof of the vegetable and fruit auction REO on the ring road of Roeselare; the logistics heart of West Flanders for fruit and vegetables. With a spectacular view of the wider area and the city, urban horticulture on industrial roofs is given a prominent place in the skyline of Roeselare.

Agrotopia by Van Bergen Kolpa Architects and Meta Architectuurbureau

Rooftop Greenhouse Agrotopia

“Vertical Farm Beijing gives a striking, architectural appearance to horticulture within the city.”

Vertical farm Beijing is China's first innovation center for urban food production. With its faceted glass facades, monumental entrance hall and stacking of functions, Vertical Farm Beijing gives a striking, architectural appearance to horticulture within the city. With its reuse of water, passive heat gain and natural cooling, the building shows how food can be produced sustainably in the urban environment.

The Vertical Farm was built on the campus of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science; Beijing's and the rest of China's innovation center for fruit and vegetable growing. The transparent three-story building is the prominent entrance to the campus' research facilities and overlooks the city and the ring road in downtown Beijing.

Vertical Farm Beijing

COFCO Eco Valley

Vertical Farm Beijing in A+U

The Hengshui Vertical Farm building is the research and demonstration center of the Hengshui Rural Revitalization and Demonstration area; the International Horticultural Park of China.

The building consists of four layers. The automated vertical daylight-free crops under LED lighting with laboratories and processing areas are located on the first two layers. Some of these facilities have glass walls and are located at the Entrance and Experience hall on the ground floor. The Demonstration center for horticultural suppliers is located on the third floor. On the fourth roof floor is the Sky Farm situated with compartments for horizontal fruit and leaf vegetable cultivation.

The building has a glass facade and sustainable low-energy cooling based on adiabatic evaporation. With the characteristic ultraviolet light, the building glows in the evening like the Treasure box of the Horticulture Park.

Vertical Farm Hengshui

Vertical Farm Beijing in Domus

"The total building manifests itself as a strong sculpture made up of a rhythm of robust concrete frames refined with reclining fillings of glass and slightly shiny metal plate."

Manufakture is a design for a multifunctional food building on the Abattoir site; the oldest former cattle market in the Anderlecht district in the center of Brussels. The striking building is one of the new and iconic "urban warehouses" around the future Market square.

The building is a flexible skeleton filled with a stack of functions. In the plinth there are meat cutting workshops around a logistics hall and facilities for the market master. Above it is a two-level parking for visitors and market staff. The parking structure can also be transformed into food workshops in the long term. A swimming pool complex with a view of the Brussels skyline is located on the roof. The indoor and outdoor pools are heated with the residual heat from the cooling of the food workshops.

The symmetrical layout of the building, in the heart of the urban axis of the site, forms a powerful ensemble with the historic market hall opposite.

Manufakture Brussel

"The building is a proud building; a transparent sculpture of steel and glass based on a standard Dutch greenhouse type."

The new Demonstration Centrer is located at the entrance of the Eco Valley area in Beijing. The center shows the newest technologies for sustainable growth of vegetables, fruits and flowers. COFCO aspires a Demonstration Center where agriculture, ecology and leisure come together. In the center visitors can experience and enjoy the production and taste of fresh food and flowers throughout the year.

 The special entrance and wetland garden form the high and spacious heart of the building. From this central hall the volume terraces down to the agriculture and leisure zones. The building has been divided into different rooms with a specific landscape theme. A routing system is designed, inspired by a Chinese knot, in such a way that short or long routes can be made. In the central hall lies a wetland garden with in the heart a central plaza. Beside the wetland, there is a flower kingdom with spectacular flower hills and hanging plants ceiling, a restaurant on a flower hill, a theatre, a self-picking garden a vegetable kingdom, and a high-tech agriculture demonstration zone.

Metropolitan Food Clusters

COFCO

"Innovative buildings where the future generation urban horticulturists is trained."

"The modular building blocks for production, engineering and logistics allow different business setups for Vertical Farms to be configured."

Dutch Fresh Port is a new business park that is developing into the largest international fresh cluster in the fruit and vegetable trade in the Netherlands and Europe. Vertical Farming offers wholesalers and processing companies such as van Gelder Groente en Fruit, Bakker Barendrecht and The Greenery a sufficient and continuous supply of high quality. Vertical Farms with thirty cultivation layers of 1-5ha are possible within the Dutch Fresh Port. These can be integrated with the new construction on relatively small plots or developed into independent buildings for collective use. The buildings are characterized by a logistic plinth surmounted by the Vertical Farm with energy-producing facades.

Vertical Farm Rotterdam

Van Gelder Taste Valley is the design for the new building of van Gelder Vegetables and Fruit at the Foodcenter Reijerwaard Ridderkerk. A unique Food Experience Center with Rooftop Greenhouse creates a powerful entity with the logistical main building. In a closed competion, van Bergen Kolpa Architects designed this iconic building that gives van Gelder a prominent place in the Greenport between the Markethall and the Europoort.

Van Gelder Fruit and Vegetables is a hypermodern family business with a rich tradition. In order to accommodate the growth of the company, 45,000m2 of new construction has been chosen with a sustainable and innovative appearance.

Van Gelder Taste Valley

The Client aspires a showcase of its worldwide involvement in food production and processing. The companies ambition is to achieve food security for Qatar with worldwide production from horticulture, livestock, fisheries and open field agriculture providing a healthy meal for all its inhabitants. The expo is planned on a location near Doha with an agricultural programme of 3,3 hectares combined with education and lodging facilities. How to envision the clients ambition in a desert condition?

Food Valley
The building is organized around a central food valley. The food valley acts as a sunken oasis with terraces showcasing worldwide agricultural landscapes. Spaces around the valley can accommodate education, laboratories and lodging. The building can be equipped with a high techno-logy sustainable cooling system and sweet water production depending on location/access to cold seawater.

Worlds of Food Doha Qatar

"Food production in and on buildings for green and healthy cities."

Architecture

van Bergen Kolpa Architects focus on architecture, urban design and landscape. Central to the working method is creating a balance between program, landscape, buildings and ecology. Jago van Bergen en Evert Kolpa.

Dakserre Agrotopia, Rooftop Greenhouse Agrotopia, Agrotopia, Timber Tower Rotterdam, Duin Almere, Vertical Farming, Rooftop Greenhouse, Architecture for Food, Co-Housing, Dutch Architect, Rotterdam Architect, sustainability, Family Scraper, Maasbode