work

Digitala Tomater / Digital Tomatoes

Team: Göteborg Energi, Greenhouse Living, Kajodlingen

Status: An ongoing conceptdesign for sustainable, urban foodproduction in Göteborg. 
Client: Göteborg Energi. 
Pre-study Financed by Viable Cities (Vinnova, Energimyndigheten, Formas). 

 

Download The Complete Pre-Study here:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/goteborg-energi_digitala-tomater-f%C3%B6rstudie-activity-6732570014064402433-h3vd

DIGITALA TOMATER:

Digital Tomatoes is about how we want to shape the sustainable cities of the future;

Cities where cycles of energy, water and industry close much more locally.

Cities that are resilient to crises and climate change.

Cities where we locally produce more of our food in a sustainable way.

Cities that affirm the latest digital technology to achieve sustainability.

Cities with human urban environments with a presence of cultivation and food production.

The city of the future is BOTH more DOWN TO EARTH and more VIRTUAL.

 

1. FOOD PRODUCTION OF THE FUTURE - IN THE CITY

A large part of households' climate impact comes from the food we eat. We cannot just look at energy efficiency, transportation and sustainable construction. We must find solutions for truly sustainable food production. Part of the solution is to sharply increase the proportion of food produced in cities.

 

Why?

Production close to consumers minimizes transport, provides access to freshly harvested and nutritious food, cultivation can be conducted energy- and water-efficiently, in cities there is enormous access to waste heat and nutrients, we break the dependence on fertilizers and pesticides. Food production and cultivation also become visible in people's everyday lives, which contributes greatly to attractive urban environments.

 

2. THE DIGITAL NEEDS OF THE FUTURE - EDGE DATA CENTERS

Digitization in society creates an increased need for server capacity to be able to process and manage data in different ways. Development is fast and new applications are coming, such as self-driving cars, real-time games, 5G, IoT and AI. The applications require higher data speeds and faster response times. Therefore, the data processing needs to be placed close to the user. The solution for this is local computing power in a new type of data center called Edge Datacenter. The development is fast and already within a few years, a large part of the companies' data will be handled in the local Edge Datacenter.

 

3. THE ENERGY SYSTEM OF THE FUTURE - WASTE HEAT, SOLAR CELLS & HYDROGEN

The servers in the data center generate waste heat that heats the greenhouses. LED cultivation lighting enables vegetable production all year round. Solar cells on the roof interact with fuel cell technology and store their energy in hydrogen storage.

 

1 + 2 + 3 = DIGITAL TOMATOES

Digital Tomatoes connects URBAN FOOD PRODUCTION with EDGE DATA CENTER and the absolutely latest ENERGY TECHNOLOGY. We have developed a concrete proposal that includes building design, technology solutions and operation. We have also calculated the economy for construction and operation with a view towards BUILDING a first facility in Gothenburg.

Ankis Greenhouse home

General consultant: Greenhouse Living

Location: Klippan, Sweden

Area: 90 m2  (150 m2 greenhouse)

Status: Under construction. Planned finalization spring 2021

Client: Anki Pozson

 

Our client Anki came to us with a beautiful forest plot near Söderåsen's national park in Skåne and 4 existing housing units for temporary accommodation that she had bought 2nd hand. Maybe you could put them in a greenhouse ..?

There will be a permanent residence for 2 people divided into a private sleeping module and one for friends visiting. They are connected by the "conservatory" - a heated greenhouse for dining and socializing that functions as a greenhouse-in-the-greenhouse. During the summer months, the sliding glass door opens and the boundary against the outer greenhouse space is blurred. Sleeping modules and conservatory are enclosed by a greenhouse in single glass only heated by the sun. It creates fantastic outdoor spaces on the large roof terrace - the rather compact home (90 m2 heated livingarea) flows out into the 150 m2 greenhouse that extends over two floors. Compact and generous. The sustainability ambition is very high and Ankis greenhouse villa will be a unique accommodation with very small ecological footprint.

Eco-Cycle:
The household's gray water (bath, shower, laundry) is collected in a tank, and then distributed out into several plant beds for the cultivation of vegetables and greenery on the roof terrace and on the ground floor. Irrigation and nourishment to the plants while simultaneously purifying waste water. The remaining about 10% of the waste water (black water from WC) is led to municipal sewage in the street.

Rainwater is collected from the greenhouse roof and collected in a tank. It is then used for flushing WC and for for irrigation of crops.

Energy efficiency:
The house is heated and ventilated with FTX technology for maximum heat recovery.

Solar cells are integrated into the roof of the greenhouse and in combination with battery storage and a charging station for electric cars, most of the household's electricity consumption is produced locally.

The greenhouse's protective effect keeps the heat losses from the house's heated parts down and the total energy performance of the home becomes very good.

Terraced greenhouse homes

General consultant: Greenhouse Living

Location: Peri-urban to urban settings

Status: Conceptstudy

Client: private individuals or developer

This a Naturhus for a denser urban context. The 2 types of Terraced Greenhouse Homes we have developed is an affordable naturhus-typology designed for a more urban setting.  

 

The basic design consist of a compact 3-4 room apartment on ground floor and a generous greenhouse-terrace on second floor. The idea is that you can expand the house yourself by adding insulated rooms to the upper level in different ways. When you need them and when you can afford it. Since the add-ons is restricted inside the greenhouse space, no building-permit is needed.

 

This eco-cycle housing concept includes great opportunities for cultivation and with fantastic climate protected greenhouse spaces. The glazed garden means extended spring and autumn seasons on the roof.

 

The gray water is circulated and purified locally in each house and contributes to the cultivation. A group of 20-30 terraced houses can share certain facilities locally, such as heating and blackwater purification. We believe that this concept would adapt perfectly to a group of self-builders (byggemenskaper) with a truly sustainable urban lifestyle in mind.

We are looking for interested developers to our terraced greenhouse homes, give us a call !

"Get a lott" - greenhouse apartments 

General consultant: Greenhouse Living + Helhetshus arkitekter

Location: Göteborg, Sweden

Status: Competition entry for apartmentbuildings in wood in Gotenburg, Sweden. (markanvisningstävling)

Client: Tuve Bygg

Get a Lott

Here, rational wooden building technology meets innovative environmental technology and a holistic approach to sustainability. The vision is a sustainable building that produces food, instead of waste. A house where the residents share ideas and gadgets, and become aware of what the eat and what is being spilled into the drain. A house that, throughout its life cycle, minimizes its ecological footprint. A house and at the same time a greenhouse. The residents receive "a lot", an apartment and a farm in one.

GREENHOUSE APARTMENTS
We have created greenhouse apartments with the possibility of cultivation that resembles a country house with own garden. During large parts of the year, the greenhouse can be used and the living area increases.  The greenhouse is heated by the sun and provides a climate corresponding to Northern Italy. There are fig trees and patios and a long growing season.

MORE SPACE FOR THE MONEY
The heated residential area is kept compact. The modular building system enables a rational and cost-effective construction. In this way, financial space is given to add the greenhouse to living space instead of expensive heated space. The result is a larger livingspace compared with conventional production.

A SUSTAINABLE FAMILY HOUSE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CITY
The apartments in the house are suitable for everyone, but especially families with children who otherwise seek out from the city center to get a child-friendly residence with ground contact. In the house there are two-storey 'row houses'. A rowhouse street with such a central location means sustainability even in a city-building perspective. In the basement you find the  'Tool-square'.  Here you can renovate furniture, repair the bike and spend time with your neighbours. Transport demand is also a priority; There are plenty of bicycle sites supplemented with the possibility of bicycle shower and also a car pool powered by solarcells. The greenhouse balconies with plantbeds circulate rainwater and cleans grey-water from bath, dishes and laundry.

WOOD AND GREENERY PRESENCE IN THE STREETS
The greenhouse balconies are built with a pillar-beam structure of gluelam wood exposed in the exterior. The static simplicity of the construction provides associations to early modernism and connects the project to the surrounding functionalist architecture. The glass facades make the interior of the greenhouse a significant part of the building's external design. It gives a holistic impression of strong woodprecence, lush greenery and the lives of the residents in their greenhouses.

Stenmark Pizza & Burgers 

General consultant: Greenhouse Living

Location: Trelleborg, Sweden

Status: Förfrågningsunderlag complete. Expected relization 2023 

Client: Stenmark Pizza Burgare

High ambitions to create the best pizza and burger made by locally produced groceries in the "Worlds most climate smart restaurant building". Thorough studies about sustainable choice of material and investigations concerning energy will take this building far towards the goals. Residual heat from the wood oven will warm the conservatory, a part of the greenhouse, to give it an even, nice climate throughout the year. The heated greenhouseterrace on top of the kitchen contains a highly efficient cultivation of tomatoes and greenleafs to their own use in the restaurant. Graywater from the kitchen will be circulated in the cultivations completes the circular ambition. The guests will enjoy a all-year round experience of eating fantastic pizzas and burgers in a greenhouse environment. 

Fjätervålen 

General consultant: Greenhouse Living + AIX arkitekter

Location: Fjätervålen Ski resort, Dalarna, Sweden

Status: Parallell Competition. Winning proposal.  

Client: Serneke

The  task is to ceate a masterplan for Fjätervålen Skiresort i Dalarna, Sweden. Our client Serneke has the ambition that it should be the most sustainable skiresort i Scandinavia. Greenhouse Living, in close collaboration with AIX arkitekter,  came up with an overall solution containing a car-free masterplan, 100% wood-constructions, solarcells covering all roofsurfaces, a source-separated wastewater system, production-greenhouses to provide here-produced vegetables etc.. 

AIX arkitekter, the big architect company with a unique experience in massive-wood contructions in combination with Greenhouse Livings eco-cycle-approach to urban- and buildingdesign. 

 

Lindbacken Naturhus 

General consultant: Greenhouse Living

Location: Uppsala, Sweden

Area: 140 sqm  (400 sqm greenhouse)

Status: Completed 2017

Client: private

A private greenhouse accommodation for families with children in Uppsala municipality. The villa has a large greenhouse room in two levels facing south, lower level with plant bed while the upper greenhouse room serves as a terrace for socializing with dining areas, outdoor kitchen and barbecue. The greenhouse has a woodframe cladded with insulated glas-panels. The plant bed purifies gray water from the shower and laundry, and converts the nutrients into fruits and vegetables. The roof covering, made of solar cells supplies the villa with electricity.

"GöteborgsMat" - city district greenhouse

Team GöteborgsMat: City of Göteborg - dep. of urban farming (stadsnära odling), Greenhouse Living, Kajodlingen, Stadsjord

Status: A prestudy 2019 for a design of a city district greenhouse and a network for urban foodproduction i Göteborg. 
Client: the city of Göteborg

link to full report (pdf):

https://stadsnaraodling.goteborg.se/wp-content/uploads/STADSDELSV%C3%84XTHUS-GBG_utskick.pdf

 

The district greenhouse – Stadsdelsväxthus - can produce food in the form of fish and vegetables in a significant amount. A district greenhouse can function as a hub for food distribution of smaller producers, so that consumers more easily can shop for locally produced, high quality food. It may include education facilities for educating more urban growers and work as a meeting place for residents in the district. It can welcome visitors from all over the world and demonstrate and teach how cities can organize their food needs.

 

The proposal also contains an idea of a distribution network where smaller growers are connected to district greenhouses and larger commercial growers. In the future, we shop locally produced food and Gothenburg can stand for a significant part of its own food consumption.

 

Will Göteborg become the first city with organized urban farming?

Uppgrenna Naturhus

General consultant: Greenhouse Living

Location: Uppgränna, Sweden

Area: 520.0 sqm  (200 sqm greenhouse)

Status: Completed 2015

Client: www.uppgrennanaturhus.se

Photographs: Ulf Celander

 

A conference/cafe/event- building in Uppgränna, Sweden. An existing red barn was demolished and replaced by a modern building with ground floor partly submerged in the slope. The upper entrance level consists of an insulated building partly surrounded by an unheated greenhouse that extends over the entire roof. The greenhouse includes room for plant beds and shelter terraces with expansive views of Lake Vättern and has a climate comparable to that of Northern Italy. The exterior is portrayed with inspiration from traditional Swedish barn houses, with its simple doors and shutters. All windows and doors fitted with shutters in a red wooden panel wall. This adds dynamics to the façade and reduces heat radiation when the house is not in use.

 

Eco-Cycle:

The greenhouse allows for a closed local loop of recycling sewage waste. Large plant beds cleanse and take up nutrients in the wastewater, converting these into fruit and vegetables. The house does not require connection to the municipal sewage system. Living in a greenhouse encourages a sustainable and non-toxic lifestyle. It becomes very clear why you should not emit pollutants in the environment, as it returns to your own recycling system.

Sundby Naturhus

General consultant: Greenhouse Living

Location: Vallentuna, Sweden

Area: 150 m2  (240 m2 greenhouse)

Status: Completed (almost) in 2018.

Client: http://www.sundbynaturhus.se/naturhus/

Image 1 and 3 are from Publication; "Naturhus", Natur&Kultur. Photo by: Christian Gustavsson

 

Private greenhouse home for a family in the municipality of Vallentuna, north of Stockholm. A two-story house in load bearing timber placed inside a greenhouse and thereby moved to a climate more equivalent to northern Italy, than the actual location in central Sweden. The unheated greenhouse single glass facade protects the house against wind, rain and snow and creates generous outdoor space with fantastic qualities. The inner façade consists of simple oiled woodpanel with integrated zones for facade plants. A lush timber cube covered with glass.

The greenhouse allows for a closed local cycle of plant beds that purifies and absorbs the nutrients in the wastewater and transforms it into fruits and vegetables. The house is not connected to a municipal sewagesystem.

Tech Farm 

General consultant: Greenhouse Living

Location: Stockholm (several sites)

Status: Conceptual design for a Co-Live/Co-work concept. Developed at a number of different sites around Stockholm.

Client: https://www.techfarm.life/

 

Tech Farm is about sharing. Share for a sustainable lifestyle. As a member of the Tech Farm community, you share ideas, thoughts, contacts and knowledge with your friends in the collective. One also shares the physical resources needed for a whole lifestyle. Housing, workplace, garden, gym, storage room, kitchen, sauna, restaurant, farms, meeting places, washing machine, wifi and compost.

Tech Farm has a very compact organization and in the proposal "Tech Farm Stockholm", which accommodates 80 residents, it has 37m2 heated surface + 5m2 greenhouse area / person. This includes housing, workplace and supplementary premises such as restaurant, gym, spa and hobby room and workshop. By comparison, the average housing area in Stockholm is 34m2, average office space / workplace 15m2 and to this is added the above mentioned supplementary premises.

The building's frame and insulation consist of wood. Wood is renewable, stores carbon dioxide and is relatively energy-efficient in manufacturing. Can also enable quick assembly. Its relatively low weight can also reduce concrete use in the foundation. Solar cells cover the facade and parts of the greenhouse roofs. This makes the house partially self-sufficient on electricity and thanks to a smart design of battery storage, you can cut power peaks and shift the use of the solar-generated electricity from daytime to em / evening. Which increases the proportion of used solar electricity. The building is dimensioned according to the international passive house standard and thanks to a well insulated shell, compact form factor, smart installation control and home automation, you reach a heating demand as low as 10 kwh / m2 / year. (according to the passive house standard max. 15kwh / m2 / year). In combination with solar cells, it allows the house to reach a level of plus energy building. Ie a building that actually provides energy to the surroundings.

The greenhouses act as the garden of the house and offer lush arborets, tomato farms, patios, and kitchen gardens. The plant beds (totaling about 300m2) purify the house's BDT water by infiltrating the processed wastewater. Pollutants are broken down by microorganisms in the bed and the plants absorb nutrients and water and produce greenery and fruits and vegetables. The residents become partially self-sufficient in vegetables and fruits.

The vision is a sustainable building that produces food, instead of waste. A house where the residents share living space, knowledge, ideas and gadgets. A house that generates energy instead of just consuming it and finally, introducing reflection and learning about what you stop in and what you flush down the drain. What you flush down comes back to your own circulatory system and into the tomatoes you eat for breakfast. A sustainable architecture that promotes a truly sustainable lifestyle.

Munkaskog Naturvillor

General consultant: Greenhouse Living

Location: Habo, Sweden

Status: Masterplanconcept (not realised)
Client: Johan Ihrman

A masterplanstudy for a "naturhus-village". A modern Eco-village. Single-family houses mixed with apartment-villas and a kindergarten gathered around a common "meadow". Each household has a private greenhouse attached to the apartment for cultivation, hand-out and for a local eco-cycle of greywater. The village share a common greenhouse that also functions as a local plant for purification of blackwater and generation of bio-gas. A "Naturban" way of living that embrace the natural cycles of water, nutrition and energy in a structure with many "Village-qualities".

Naturhus N

General consultant: Greenhouse Living

Location: -

Status: Conceptstudy

A compact naturhus with a minimized footprint, designed for a hilly site.  

Skyhouse

General consultant: Greenhouse Living

Location: Dalsland, Sweden

Status: Competition proposal for "Dalslandsstugan 2.0". 2015

A compact greenhouse villa where the plant bed is located on the roof, giving a cultivable roof terrace with 360 ° views.
The insulated volume is kept down to reduce production costs, but in return the property expands into the greenhouse, and on a sunny day you have a 140 m² "spiral-shaped" living room that extends from the main house up the staircase to the roof garden. The accommodation is well suited for hilly terrain, as the plinth base makes minimal impact on the landscape and since the own sewage is taken care of and cleaned in tanks and plant beds, the building can be placed “off-grid”. Placing the plant bed on the roof saves a lot of groundsurface. The concept has great potential in urban, urban environments, such as townhouses / semi-detached houses in urban environments.

Skyhouse is a development project to develop ideas and technical solutions for a more compact and cost-effective nature house. A full-scale prototype house is under construction and will be erected at Anders Solvarm in Sikhall, Dalsland.