SMART FOOD CAMPUS - C40 Reinventing Cities - Reykjavík 2021
With the Smart Food Campus project we repurposed an abandoned cement factory into a lively, green, ultra-sustainable food production and distribution hub.
The core of the project is the high tech vertical farms housed in the silos. Once a cement storage, the structure is given a new life and a chance to redeem its carbon-heavy past. In the new, carbon neutral annex made of mass timber and glass is a dark store: a food distribution hub dedicated to online orders. From there, EVs will deliver regular supermarket goods and also the produce grown next door, with the shortest farm-to-table distance available in Iceland. On the opposite side of the silos is the food startup incubator, which will have opportunities to collaborate with both the farms and the distribution hub. On the ground floor and accessible to the general public there is a food court, a farmers market, a zero-kilometre restaurant and a few other attractions for the neighbourhood.
The Smart Food Campus will promote locally grown and produced food in a country that has very limited farming possibilities due to its climate. It will provide Icelanders a chance to eat fresher, more nutritious food with a much lower carbon footprint. It will also be an accessible entry point for food entrepreneurs and a stage for community engagement in the world of high tech and hyper local food.
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C40 is a global network of cities committed to addressing climate change. Through the Reinventing Cities competition, multi-disciplinary teams make proposals to transform select underutilized urban spaces into new beacons of sustainability and resiliency.
The site proposed by the City of Reykjavík is an abandoned cement factory in an industrial area that is being redeveloped into a residential neighborhood.
Jörp created the Smart Food Campus concept and formed a team with Infarm - one of the world's fastest growing urban farming companies, based in Berlin; Krónan - Iceland's leading supermarket chain; Matís - an Icelandic R&D organization focused on food production, biotech and food safety; Eldstæðið - a shared industrial kitchen for food entrepreneurs and small producers.
The design was done in collaboration with Trípólí Arkitektar, and environmental consultancy from Verkís Engineering.
How can we turn a pollution icon into a beacon of sustainability?
Powered by waterfalls and hot springs, Iceland has for decades been in the forefront of sustainable energy production. But while the country’s geology provides abundant energy resources, its climate conditions impose limitations on open field agriculture. Dependency on imports adds cost and a huge carbon footprint to Iceland’s nourishment.
Smart Food Campus will be the launch pad for Iceland’s self-sufficient and sustainable food future. High-yield and commercially viable urban farming, combined with a food startup incubator and a smart logistics hub, will create the synergy to develop and introduce new and hyper local food products. With its own food hall, restaurant, gardens and sky deck the Campus is bound to become the hearth of the new neighbourhood, inviting to socialize and celebrate food culture.
The project will repurpose the abandoned factory into a lively, green, ultra-sustainable food production and distribution hub. If concrete has contributed to the scarring of our climate since Roman times, there could be no better way for an old cement factory to find redemption.
Smart Food Campus is a platform for innovation in sustainable food production and distribution, with different departments working in synergy.
The main departments are the vertical farms, the food startup incubator and green fab lab, and the dark store (a distribution facility that caters exclusively for online shopping). Other areas create opportunities for public engagement, placing the campus in the center of the neighbourhood’s social life: the zero km restaurant, the food court and farmers market, a multi-purpose events hall, a bakery and a winter garden café. Atop the silos there will be an elegant cocktail bar for the neighbourhood.
Part of the program will operate in the existing cement factory. Once up-cycled, this magnificent structure will tell the story of the transformation of the Bryggjuhverfi area into a lively, green and future-proof neighbourhood. The silos covered in plants and adorned with a glass crown will be visible from afar and create a landmark for the community. The old factory’s activated façade will invite passers by to pop in for a meal, groceries or just to see what’s going on in the campus, which is bound to become a weekend destination for food enthusiasts.
The remaining program will be housed in a carbon neutral new building which will set new standards in green construction in Iceland, exploring the economically viable use of locally sourced and locally manufactured materials. The campus will eventually evolve to originate and support a network of urban farms turning under-utilized spaces around the city into sources of fresh food.
A vertical farm consists of crops stacked onto shelves, where plants grow in a thin layer of circulating water with nutrients. Vertical farms are self-contained environment systems that can operate indoors regardless of climate, season or location. Besides nutrients, the operation only requires clean water and electricity–resources that Iceland has in abundance.
If 40% of the produce imported into Iceland comes from greenhouses in the Netherlands, it would be reasonable to assume that all of these imports could eventually be grown right here in Iceland, just a few km from the table. Produce starts losing taste and nutritional value as soon as it’s harvested. The less food travels, the better it is for our health and well-being, and the smaller its carbon footprint.
The Food Startup Incubator, along with the Green Fab Lab will be the perfect platform for food entrepreneurs to develop their products. The proximity with a strong distribution hub (Krónan’s dark store and the farmers market) will help bring their product to market.
In addition to creating several specialist jobs within the campus, the companies developed in the incubator will often outgrow the Campus—as is the case with many companies that started at Matís or Eldstæðið—and become strong recruiters. Also, by substituting imports with domestically produced goods, many production jobs that would have otherwise taken place abroad will be brought to Iceland.
The Smart Food Campus will be an accessible entry point for food entrepreneurs and a stage for community engagement in the world of high tech and hyper local food.
Sitting on the corner of two important main streets - Breiðhöfði (new boulevard between Krossmýratorg and Bryggjutorg, and its bridge) and Sævarhöfði (running parallel to the cliff and connecting Grafarvogur and Elliðarósa) - the project will be a landmark and a connector easing the transition between the upper and the lower neighbourhoods.
Old hardware, new software.
The existing factory building will be completely repurposed and renovated, but without altering its general form. Traces of its past life will remain as evidence of evolution and improvement, and give the neighborhood the character and depth which is often missing in newly developed areas.
A place to dwell, work, or to just drop by.
The Campus’ rich and diverse program will attract people of every age, gender, and class, providing a truly diverse meeting point. The outer layer of the Campus is inviting and permeable from every angle - literally from every corner - and disguises some of the more introverted activities that take place in its core. Offering convenience, places of recreation and work, the building will be a unique neighbourhood magnet constantly surrounded by street life.
“Good architecture is open—open to life, open to enhance the freedom of anyone, where anyone can do what they need to do. It should not be demonstrative or imposing, but it must be something familiar, useful and beautiful, with the ability to quietly support the life that will take place within it.”
- Anne Lacaton, Pritzker Prize laureate.
Design Goals:
To create a cultural institution on the basis of local and sustainable food production.
To create a unique and attractive building without compromising the character and physiognomy of the existing structure and preserving the heritage of the site.
To attract all kinds of people from the vicinity, from all over the capital region and also tourists.
To help prepare the city for a new reality and paradigm where self-sufficiency and resilience are valuable attributes.
To create an iconic landmark that will be a key player in Reykjavík’s youngest and most promising neighborhood.
A twofold intervention.
On one hand the cement factory building and office wing will be discreetly extended to accommodate the new program. The added spaces will morph seamlessly with the existing building.
In order to protect the existing concrete and prevent frequent heat changes which cause the concrete to crack, it will be covered with icelandic rock wool insulation and finished with an untreated aluminium cladding - lending the building a soft and gentle appearance in its new context without compromising the original character or physiognomy. Most of the roof will be replaced by a new and well insulated turf roof.
The first two floors will be thoroughly renovated and adapted to meet the requirements of the restaurant, the farmers market and food court, the food startup incubator and the fab lab.
The main entrance on Sævarhöfði leads to the restaurant to the left, the foyer to the right, and through to the inner plaza/biergarten in the northwest part of the site. With enormous windows and glazed curtain walls, the southwest corner of the Campus will be very permeable and inviting. The restaurant faces the pond and the neighbouring park, with the possibility of outdoor seating in the warmer days of summer. The plaza offers a barrier-free transition between the park and the Campus. For the cyclist, pedestrian or driver approaching the building from west-Sævarhöfði, the Campus will present itself gradually and pleasantly integrated to the park and the pond. For those observing it from afar, the green silos topped by a glass crown will stand out in the landscape, especially when lit and green like an oasis in the middle of winter. By standing before the entrance, under the passage or in the plaza, one can see a lot of what’s going on inside the building. That will create a warm and convivial atmosphere.
From the public foyer with its grand staircase one can access the underground level (parking and part of the vertical farm program), the food court and farmers market on the ground floor, and the remaining floors above.
The lobby on the second floor gives access to the green belt (winter garden) and the more restricted parts of the Campus - namely the fab lab and the food startup incubator.
The machine hall on the 3rd floor will remain in a more raw state, preserving its grandiose proportions and fenestration, offering the community a spectacular multi-purpose event space ideal for a wide range of activities - yoga sessions, concerts, conferences, exhibitions, parties. Adjacent to the hall will be a spacious terrace overlooking the plaza and the neighbouring park.
The silos, which host the main vertical farming facilities, are symbolically clad in evergreens to represent the stark transition from grey, polluting industrial icon to a soft, warm and friendly monument to nature. The silos are crowned with a glazed extension, from which one has the most spectacular view to the Capital region and the surrounding mountains.
The new building, on the other hand, is a completely different construction. Using lighter, sustainable materials - timber, glass, ceramic tiles - it will offer a strong yet complementing visual contrast to the existing structure.
The basement is dedicated to electric vehicle parking and charging stations, and a complete bicycle parking and infrastructure - lockers, changing rooms with shower, bike repair station - to facilitate and incentivize bike commuting. The ground floor will be entirely dedicated to the dark store, except for a small bakery
CLEAN ENERGY USAGE
The electricity available in Iceland's grid is green, reliable and inexpensive. The only sector that still relies on fossil fuels is transportation - thus, reducing food miles and the associated fossil fuel usage is absolutely necessary. Growing more food locally will reduce the overall carbon footprint of the food supply chain.
In addition to using only clean energy, the Smart Food Campus will recycle 4m3/sec of waste water at 30°C that is currently drained from the district heating system into the ocean. This will at the same time reduce the amount of energy required for heating, and cool down the water before it is drained, avoiding thermal pollution.
ENERGY EFFICIENT LIGHTING AND HEATING
“Vertical farming sounds fantastic until you consider its energy use” is an argument that often follows a pitch for urban farming. But in Iceland traditional agriculture is hardly available, so the only alternative to indoor farming is importing. One strategy that vertical farms commonly employ to lower energy usage and cost is to give the plants only the part of the spectrum they need—reds and blues. That’s why many farms look pink. Meticulously monitored LED arrays will emulate the ideal natural conditions for each species, using the minimum amount of resources.
GEOTHERMAL DISTRICT
With a network harnessing 750 MW thermal power from steam, and a water distribution system generating 60 million cubic meters of hot water, Reykjavik’s is the world’s largest and most sophisticated geothermal district heating system. This natural resource has been used since 1930 and massively alleviates the City’s dependence on fossil fuels, making it one of the cleanest cities in the world. CO2 emissions have been reduced from 1944 to 2006 by up to 110,000,000 tons, delivering savings of up to 4 million tons CO2 every year. Geothermal has also contributed to Iceland’s transformation from one of Europe’s poorest nations in to one that enjoys very high living standards.
In arctic climates keeping indoor farms at the ideal operating temperature will require heating throughout most of the year. Because the smart Food Campus will be in a geothermal heating district, the production will be at the same time more sustainable and less expensive than in places where geothermal is not available.
Local, low carbon and innovative food production is the core activity of the Smart Food Campus. The production will be distributed to stores around the city and through online orders, and also in the Campus’ own farmers market, conveniently placed for neighbours commuting by bike, public transport or on foot.
LOW-CARBON MOBILITY
As of March 2020 more than half of new cars sold in Iceland were plug-in hybrid or full electric, and Tesla Model 3 was the top selling car of any kind. Iceland ranks second in the world for EV adoption, only behind Norway. With government incentives and an ever-growing infrastructure for plug-in vehicles, the country will quickly replace most of its existing fleet with zero-emissions alternatives.
But once the domestic mobility system has been completely decarbonized, a problem that will remain is the inevitable shipping of imports into the country. Food usually travels a long way before hitting the shelves of supermarkets in Iceland.
FOOD MILES
One third of the food produced worldwide is wasted. According to the UN food waste is responsible for 7% of global greenhouse emissions. One of the drivers of such waste is the way produce is distributed.
The longer the supply chain, the more vulnerable it is. The longer food has to travel, the more likely it is to expire due to poor stock management. And the faster it has to travel, the larger carbon footprint it will leave behind.
Besides, produce starts losing nutritional value the moment it’s harvested. People want and need fresh produce, but in many places local growth is not possible due to the lack of fertile soil or adequate climate. Some food products like corn, soy, sugar cane, really only grow in specific kinds of soil and sun exposure. But many fruits, vegetables and leafy greens can be grown indoors, in any season, anywhere—even in the Arctic.
If grown locally, produce from vertical farms has an up to 90% smaller carbon footprint than imported equivalents, in addition to being fresher, tastier, more nutritious and independent from external circumstances.
DARK STORE
Dark stores are distribution hubs for online order processing only. They look similar to supermarkets, but are not accessible to the public. One of the outcomes of a year of reduced mobility and restrictions was the wide adoption of online shopping. The trend was previously slow to grow in Iceland but in 2020 it took off and merchants had to adapt very quickly. Betting that the habit will outlive the pandemic, Krónan started to plan its first dark store.
Sævarhöfði’s central position within the capital area is the ideal location for the distribution hub that will process and dispatch online orders for the whole capital area. For the produce grown in the vertical farms or products made in the experimental kitchens, that will mean zero-emmissions logistics, from cradle to table.
TRAFFIC REDUCTION
Instead of many individual cars traveling to the grocery store and back, there will be delivery vehicles servicing dozens of customers at a time, thus reducing the overal number of cars on the streets.
In 2021 the first road legal, autonomous and electric delivery vehicles are starting to operate in California*. It would be reasonable to assume that such vehicles will be omnipresent in the very near future. These machines controlled by Artificial Intelligence software can reduce the cost of transport by up to 90% while enabling 24/7 on-demand deliveries.
