This apartment high-rise concept won a sustainable housing award recently in China. It integrates a vertical greenhouse into the high-rise. Designed by Knafo Klimor Architects, the “agro-housing” concept allows the residents to produce their own food, reducing commuting needs and providing a green neighbourhood. The greenhouse is a multi-floor structure for cultivation of crops such as vegetables, fruits, flowers and spices, equipped with a drip irrigation system that re-uses grey water. 
The greenhouse climate is controlled through natural ventilation and a heating system. A roof-top terrace garden offers open-air green space for recreation and informal gathering.
A sky club on the roof is designed to host social gatherings and celebrations, and a kindergarten on the ground floor keeps young children close to home and family. The individual apartments allow maximum flexibility to arrange interior spaces to accommodate family changes over time, including integration of a work space.
The building has a minimal footprint in order to free the ground surface for gardening and rainwater harvesting. Paving is limited and made of recycled materials.
Here’s a presentation video of the project.
Link: Living Steel
Great.
It is a great Idea I like to invest in Hydroponics I need to understand the cost of the products one ton of vegetables.
water consumption, electricity, the cost of building squire matters.
see also http://www.verticalfarm.com
i love this building, as i m a architectural final year student, i malso going to design energy efficent highrise apartment, it gives me too many idea for my design project, i m in search of plan and its detail information if any one found any thing detail about this building please send me
hey pls can i have the technical details of this multi storey hydroponics if u have found it?
I love the idea! It is a concept for future-not far from now- sustainable food crop production for every urban dweller. It is not difficult to implement but the benefit is overwhelming. I love to call it eco-building!
Was the cost of hydroponics solution and the work involved factored into this project design? Not very cost efficient to say the least, but I love the idea.
This is the best building I’ve seen. Honestly, I would move to China for it. (I love gardening, but I want to live in a highrise.)
http://www.a-green.cn
Hydroponics is a great way to maintain your own indoor garden without having to worry about what type of soil to use for different plants, how to obtain it, how much space the garden will occupy, etc. In the hydroponic method of gardening, a plant is grown in a water solution or a specially designed growing medium like rockwool, peat moss, vermiculite, etc.
Posted story on Digg…trying to contact the companies about GreenEnergyTV.com, so they can post their video.