2019 SOM FOUNDATION RESEARCH PRIZE
Hot Farms is a year-long, faculty led research project by Clare Lyster at the School of Architecture, University of Illinois at Chicago supported by the 2019 SOM Foundation Research Prize.
The investigation comprises a research seminar and design studio that explores the spatial potential of industrial symbiosis. Specifically, it applies scientific and geospatial research of data infrastructure and agriculture toward the design of new spatial scenarios that combine food production with data storage. It aims to utilize the vast amount of heat currently expelled from data storage facilities into the atmosphere (incoming cold air is used to cool the servers and the warm exhaust is then released) as a resource for the production of food. In other words, the project identifies new spatial configurations based on the premise that your twitter account is a resource for food………TWITTER FEEDS!
Farm 1 The site for the research is Ireland which is currently one of the largest data clusters in Europe with over 50 data service farms in operation in the area around Dublin, the nation’s capital city. These data farms, including facilities for the big four- Amazon, Google, Facebook and Microsoft, aggregate along a 44km fiber optic cable known as the T50 that encircles the city. Data hosting demands energy and at the current rate, over 30% of Ireland’s energy will go toward data storage by 2030.
Farm 2
Since the Ireland supports a widespread cattle industry, agriculture accounts for 32% of emissions in Ireland mainly the result of methane and spreading slurry. No surprise that Ireland's total GHG emissions per capita are among the highest in the EU and it is struggling to meet mandates to lower emissions.
Farm + Farm These two farm types provide the context for our investigation. Through a process of industrial symbiosis, -- waste from data becomes a resource for agriculture. Think of it like this: Your Instagram feed is stored in a data center, the exhaust from which, when cleaned is piped to a greenhouse and used to grow food. In so doing 2 problems are solved—heat exhaust is treated and dependency on animal farming is reduced. Many forms of agriculture rely on carbon or heat for increased yields, in particular greenhouse farming, cricket farming as well as certain kinds of marine agriculture such as kelp and seaweed. A move away from animal husbandry, to alternative agricultural production also frees up grassland for reforestation. In this context, the seminar and studio understands industrial symbiosis as an environmental strategy by integrating data and food production systems, and more significantly, as a design tool to speculate on new agri-info hybrids that envision the future planning of a regional territory.
The SOM Foundation Research Prize was founded to cultivate new ideas and meaningful research with the goal of addressing critical issues of our time. The topic for the 2019 prize, “Shrinking our Agricultural Footprint,” seeks to define new spatial conditions that reduce our agricultural footprint and advance approaches to sustainability and resiliency in the short‐ and long‐term future.