Buildings could be more alive...
At Architecture & food (A&f), we believe buildings need not just be inert containers of our daily activities but active, positive contributors to natural cycles by designing them with appropriate materials and technology.
Architecture & food (A&f) is a specialist practice dedicated to promoting a holistic approach to addressing the Climate Emergency with four key strategic deployments:
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Low-Carbon materials like natural stone to replace concrete, steel and fired clay brick as the elements in a building designed to last hundreds or thousands of years.
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Carbon-sequestering, biogenic materials like timber to replace all other conventional materials as the elements in a building designed to last decades.
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Urban Food Systems, ranging from low-tech, soil-based, open-air growing, through Building Integrated Agriculture modes like rooftop greenhouses, and eventually high-tech Vertical Farming
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Circular Technologies to capture the value in building waste streams, including harvesting excess heat from multiple sources and converting foul solids and liquids into useful commodities.
We see the city’s outermost layer as a productive, living membrane weaving between sunlight, leaf, fruit, root and soil.
London comprises approximately 200 million sqm of mostly pitched roof area and 8.9 million people, each consuming about 150g/person/day of fresh produce items amounting to 55kg/person/year or a total of 487,275,000kg.
A commercial hydroponic greenhouse can grow a range of products from salad leaves through to vine crops at productivities between 20-80kg/sqm/annum. An average productivity of 40kg/sqm/annum encompassing the full range of produce could be applied to 12.2 million sqm of roofspace, or 6.1% to achieve the current demand.
Mission
Why Urban Food Systems?
In an era defined by a broken food system comprising falling food literacy, food quality, food diversity, food availability, food supply chain resilience, soil health, land availability, alongside rising urban populations, socio-political instability, obesity, climate unpredictability, and food prices, A&f proposes reimagining buildings as productive urban agents rather than inert containers with windows and doors.
BIA comes in many different modes ranging from basement mushroom farms to artificially lit interior farms, to façade farms and lastly, to rooftop farms. They can be open to the elements like a rooftop allotment, protected from some of the elements like a rooftop or façade greenhouse, or they can be fully protected like a basement mushroom farm or plant factory/vertical farm.
Given their clear Architectural character, A&f is most focussed on building-integrated greenhouses for their value in converting food miles to food meters using incident sunlight and rainwater while reducing the host building’s energy costs.
How Urban Food Systems are adapted to context.
We don't believe every building should take on food production, but do believe that...
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on private housing, farms offer amenity and opportunities for micro to boutique enterprise, supplementing incomes and raising asset value.
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on social housing blocks, farms can offer local adult and youth employment and may be complemented by community kitchens and food literacy programmes that drive social cohesion, better eating patterns and health outcomes.
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on commercial buildings, farms become long-term tenants, help cut energy and maintenance costs, and for the most courageous, can even offer a convert liquid and solid waste streams.
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on schools and care homes, farms serve educational and therapeutic purposes, all while generating a supply of hyperlocal fresh produce for hyperlocal sale.
Where a farm might not work in the short term, a building integrated greenhouse might offer an attractive amenity space.
Who we are...
Oscar is a UK and Spain registered Architect actively contributing to the definition of Regenerative Design through accumulated expertise in Urban Food Systems, Architectural ETFE design and Carbon Negative Construction.
He has worked at high profile Architectural practices including Foster + Partners and Wilkinson Eyre Architects on a range of project sectors, stages and scales with pronounced experience in large scale residential, commercial, rail infrastructure, biome design and Green Belt village masterplanning.
Since 2020, he also acts as Director of Policy for UK Urban Agritech, a 50+ member professional body for technology-led urban agriculture and vertical farming enthusiasts and professionals, and currently leads a campaign to get urban food systems their own planning Use Class.
In 2022 he was the UK external consultant to an Interreg-NWE-funded research project called GROOF, assembled to define the state of the art of the Building Integrated Greenhouse.
In 2022, alongside Christophe Egret from Studio Egret West, he led the Hackney Sitopia Design Think Tank Module unit at the London School of Architecture and occasionally teaches and lectures at other Architecture schools including the RCA and University of East London.
Oscar can speak the language of technology-led horticulture and apply design thinking to any architectural or spatial challenges urban farmers may be dealing with, particularly those seeking to exploit synergies between growing operations, their host buildings and their immediate environments.
Principles
Our practice is founded on core principles that guide every project:
On Clients
We believe the best design emerges from genuine partnership: clear communication, no egos, no pretension.
We guide when direction is needed, and listen when clients lead.
When collaboration is strong, buildings not only succeed; they turn clients and consultants into lifelong friends and collaborators.
On Incentives
We prefer to charge fairly for time and expertise, not as a proportion of contract value that can incentivise the very approach we are trying to avoid.
In our view, “expensive” doesn’t automatically mean “better.”
On Climate
In the words of Mark Blyth, Climate Change is not politics, it’s physics.
Atmospheric carbon oscillated between 250-290ppm since the dawn of Civilisation over 10,000 years ago, rose to 270ppm at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution and has shot up to over 425ppm today, eroding the predictability of weather systems modern society is built upon.
Our ambition goes beyond Net Zero. We believe the built environment should not only reduce emissions but actively sequester carbon, restoring atmospheric balance.
On Materials
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We champion low carbon and carbon-sequestering materials.
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We use high-embodied-carbon materials as a last resort.
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Every design decision is guided by the principle of material scarcity and we agonise over its provenance, life-cycle footprint and legacy.
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We prioritise passive solutions over mechanical ones.
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We target appropriate technology over tech solutionism.
On Approach
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Retrofit first; New-Build last.
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Waste is a design flaw, not an inevitability.
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Buildings should contribute positively to natural systems, not disrupt them.
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Even small design choices, like reclaiming waste heat or reusing food waste, can have outsized effects on carbon and cost.
On Costs
Excessive construction costs are not inevitable. Simpler, smarter forms with natural materials that age gracefully create affordable, enduring, and beautiful buildings that don’t need renovating every decade.
On Value
The Built Environment should give back more than it consumes.Every ray of sunlight, every drop of rain, every gust of wind is a free resource and our job is to design buildings that capture and use them.
Cities are heavily underperforming in biospheric terms. With productive rooftops, façades and landscapes, they can, and must do more.
Our Clients & Collaborators
Below are some of the organisations A&f has had the pleasure of working with
