• Organic vertical farming and permaculture are some of the most regenerative activities.

• We design and build replicable solutions to grow food at homes in cities

• Our first project is in the Fairview neighborhood (San Francisco East Bay) consisting of green roofs and walls with edible gardens, and a mini food forest.

CITIES NEED TO BE REGENERATIVE

Current real estate developments are focused on making the most $ per square feet. We propose a way to switch to a model based on making the most positive impact on the ecosystem per square feet of urban real estate development.

We have identified net zero to net plus organic vertical farming as one of the most regenerative activities.

By using clean energy and sustainable practices for the assembly or fabrication of the food growing systems in a Home, we intersect Food, Energy and Fabrication. These are needs in cities, but also huge sources of impact on our ecosystems.

Permaculture is another practice that enhances the positive value of these impacts. We also strive to use the limited space in urban residential properties to incorporate other permaculture components such as food forests.

Permaculture and net zero to net plus vertical farming activities result in a broad impact on economics, health, innovation, sustainability, climate, and biodiversity, among others.

By combining architecture, vertical farming and permaculture, we propose solutions to grow organic food at homes in cities. These urban homes with farms make the following specific positive impacts:

• Healthier food closer to home.

• Community trading, collaboration and interaction.

• Restoring the ecosystem by increasing natural capital.

Property owners need incentives and service providers need support to provide these solutions.

For this project, we need funding to build four urban house farms for two adjacent homes being built in the Fairview neighborhood in the San Francisco East Bay. The funds will be used to meet the budget of the property owner, enabling him to fully build the farms; and to help us develop the urban house farms tools and community.

We are currently focused on three types of Urban House Farms:

1. Green Roofs with edible gardens
2. Green Walls with with edible plants
3. Mini food forests

All of these have many other regenerative values such as carbon sequestration, aesthetics and green economy growth, to name a few.

The first two types have other important regenerative values such energy efficiency, by enhancing and reducing the insulation for the home; And the trifecta of reducing the ecological footprint, offsetting carbon and green house gas emissions; by reducing the construction materials (of the walls and roofs).

The third type contributes with soil restoration and biodiversity. There are more imaginable positive impacts with this kind of project.

This specific project, the Urban House Farms @ Fairview, consists of four farms for two adjacent new homes that will be built in the next year or so in the Fairview neighborhood in Hayward, California.

We, as sustainable architectural designers and builders, have incorporated the three types of urban house farms for this project.

For “Home 2” , there will be a green roof and a green wall. For “Home 3” there will be a green wall that turns into a green roof, and a mini food forest. The project has been approved by the property owner, and by the planning department of Alameda county.

We are currently completing the permit phase to begin construction. Even though we have devised a clever design and construction method to build these farms at a reasonable cost, the property owner / developer has shown concerns with the added cost, which is understandable and common. THIS IS WHY WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT.

With this project we plant the seed of an urban house farm at a place based location. This seedling intends to become a forest of farms, interconnected with the mycelian web3 network. Each of these food farms will connect with other food farms creating a regenerative network of urban food farms that:

• Result in TRADE and interaction

• Provide a LOCAL source of healthy food

• Enhance COMMUNITY and ECOSYSTEM

• Begin a movement related to FOOD and NATURE that contribute to tilting the tipping points towards a better ENVIRONMENT within our CITIES.

With the funding we can create a “regenerative credit” for the real estate property developer (in this case the property owner / builder); And a small percentage of the funding will be used to develop the tools for this proposed network.

This regenerative credit will allow this project to be built at closer to standard construction costs and allow yields of organic produce, ensuring its net plus nature.

For example: An exterior wall is needed. An “Edible green wall” costs 300% more than a standard exterior wall (quadruple the cost). If we obtain 75% from this funding round and 75% from other funding sources, then the property developer will in fact build an edible wall at only 100% more of the cost of a normal wall. That 100% can become a return of investment in 14 years with the value of the organic produce plus the beautiful nature added.

The Green roof has more promising numbers. It costs 100% more than normal roof (double the cost). With that 100% funded, the property owner will be able to build organic roof farm at the cost of a normal roof and take zero space from the ground.

Green is the new gold. The Mini food forest is a privilege to build in tight urban spaces, but brings the highest yield. Thus improving further the outcomes of this project.

With the numbers used in our example we can estimate the cost of the project. The total inevitable cost for the property owner for the exterior wall, roof and outdoor space where we propose the regenerative farms is approximately $24,000. The farms would cost $68,000. The added cost is $44,000.

If we fund $30,000, the customer would have to come out of pocket with an extra $14,000 for the added costs. With $1,300 organic crop yields a year, the ROI is 12 years and then perpetual surplus.

All the plants and trees of these farms are perennial thus reducing the service and maintenance costs down to almost zero. The result is net plus monetary and natural capital. Not to mention the place-based positive impact and the potential growth of this model.

The property developer is motivated to build these features, but with his budget alone, they may need to be downgraded or reduced in size. Any funding will help get this project closer to its full potential, and set a precedent for future projects of this kind.

Another interesting fact is that in a usual residential urban development of this size, out of 12,000 SF of property, by subtracting the home footprints and driveways, only about 1,500 SF would remain green. This green is commonly just a lawn with a few plants and one or two trees if any.

By adding green walls and roofs, we are doubling the green areas, and ensuring the property is regenerative with the permaculture practice of making food garden and tree canopy layers. In this case, multi-dimensionally.

One more thing: With the L shaped mini food forest and perimetral tree canopy layer, we are trying to connect groups of trees in neighboring properties thus creating corridors to enhance the potentially biodiverse urban ecosystem for arboreal life such as birds, squirrels and more.

LET'S BRING REGENERATION TO CITIES. WE CAN JOIN OUR FORCES WHERE THEY ARE MOST NEEDED.