An expansive master-planned complex to facilitate urban agriculture and private/public collaboration, The Agro Food Park is Denmark’s version of “Silicon Valley” for food research and development. From experimental greenhouses to vertical farm prototypes, the park is bringing together academics and businesses to work on creating a sustainable future via global food security.

Co-designed by an array of architecture, engineering, technology and agriculture firms, the food park was first opened in 2009 and already hosts nearly 100 companies in 44,000 square meters of space. The newly-expanded plan, however, will grow the park by 280,000 square meters over the coming decades, requiring careful strategic planning reflecting environmental considerations.

The long-term master plan features a communal Lawn showcasing experimental developments, a main-street Strip hosting various gathers and activities, and a series of Plazas to facilitate interactions between companies and researchers. The huge complex is also designed to recycle its own waste efficiently and minimize its footprint, a “practice what you preach” approach to ecological urban agriculture.

“Innovation occurs best when knowledge is concentrated in clusters and cross-pollinate. By linking food production to urban life, we have tried to create an environment where people, knowledge and ideas meet. The dream is to create the framework for agriculture’s answer to Silicon Valley.”

Though the plan is complex, the mission of the place is simple: to feed the world in a healthy way. The expressions of that mission, however, vary greatly, from initiatives to use clean energy and create biodiversity to facilitating healthy air and clean water. In short: it is not just about good food, but how best to produce edible goods in a sustainable way.

“Embracing Agro-Urban Ecosystem Design, the AFP treats urban and agricultural development together as a unified, productive and restorative ecosystem,” said the project architects.

“By integrating the carbon cycle and other ecological processes into large scale urban systems and their surroundings – buildings and energy flows, water cycles and wastewater treatment, land use and food production – the AFP creates economic value within the urban and agricultural infrastructure.”

Looking as much like a kind of outer space habitat system as a campground compound, an assembled complex of POD units can be arrayed in whatever pattern suits the available space and user needs.

The larger ‘Maxi’ sleeps up to 8 people while the smaller ‘Mini’ sleeps 4. Each type can be joined using POD connectors and modified via additional accessories, including an ‘inner sleeping cell’ that divides space within a given unit, separating kids from adults, or at least: sleeping zones from play spaces.

Part of the promise of the system is the ability to weather bad days almost entirely within a closed complex, separating space for sleeping from areas for socialization and storage. Connective tunnels can be closed off to provide privacy or opened for mutual access. These features could also come in handy at festivals and gatherings where some seclusion might be desirable from time to time.

Weatherproof and durable, a compound composed of these modules is as much a temporary tiny home as a camping tent. With dollar prices in the high three figures, these may not be the most affordable solution, but the creators of POD are more interested in quality than cost savings.

Meanwhile, a new and improved version is also on its way: “The all new POD Elite range will go even further to create a social camping experience with interconnecting tents. Totally innovative and stylish, further improvements have been made to the Elite range including enhanced UV protection and a lighter weight, more durable design. Functionality and fun unite in this bespoke camping product.”

It will be a brand-new, from-scratch American city like any other, with urban, suburban, exurban and rural zones dotted with houses, malls, power plants, police and fire stations, missing only one key ingredient: inhabitants. Currently under construction in the New Mexico desert, the Center for Innovation, Testing, and Evaluation (CITE) is a sort of real-life Sim City, the “first of its kind, in scale and scope,” a unique “fully integrated test, evaluation and certification facility dedicated to enabling and facilitating the commercialization of new and emerging technologies.”

Known informally as City Lab (click to enlarge the diagram above), the 26-square-mile urban laboratory complex has a billion-dollar budget and will host all kinds of tests, including but not limited to: intelligent transportation systems, smart grid technologies and green energy strategies. Wired for data collection and replete with tunnels, system-wide scenarios can be monitored in the minutest detail, a dystopian twist on what might otherwise seem an idyllic mid-sized city capable of supporting 35,000 citizens.

Complete with all the infrastructure of a ‘real’ city, the developer’s target clients include university researchers, federal agencies and commercial enterprises. The facility aims to combine elements of private and governmental test environments like Gravesend, a military and police complex in the UK, Liberty City, a drone-oriented cityscape in the US and Mcity, a newly-built autonomous vehicle testing site in Detroit.

If you have one in your town it is a safe bet CITE has one as well, from churches and highways to a city hall and even an airport. While this place contains all a community could ever hope for, the only ‘residents’ of the place will be a staff of over 300 that maintain its infrastructure and supervise experiments. Imagine the reaction of some archeologist from the distant future, seeing a sort of dystopian settlement wired for full surveillance and connected by a vast array of underground tunnels (The Cabin in the Woods comes to mind, poster below), but at the same time oddly unoccupied and devoid of art, brands or billboards.

Noting the lack of these quintessential hallmarks of modern civilization, a professor at the University of New Mexico decided to ask what kind of public art would fit such a strange and made-to-be-deserted city. Her students solicited proposals from around the country and selected a set of winners. Ingenious ideas included: sculptural mounds made from the dirt displaced during excavation, testing paint colors around the complex for durability and weather resistance and a farcical strategy to sell lots and gentrify the faux city.

More from Pegasus Global Holdings: “As a privately-owned, privately-operated test and evaluation center, CITE is open and accessible to a wide array of public and private customer segments – domestic and international. The structure and policies in place at CITE are specifically designed to remove legal, cultural and budgetary impediments as are currently prevalent in the process of moving beyond basic research and development activities.”

Shrouded in 150 trees that absorb 200,000 liters of carbon dioxide per hour, this massive five-story, block-spanning residential building occupies its own protected inner-city ecosystem.

Located in Torino, Italy, 25 Verde was designed by Luciano Pia (images by Beppe Giardino) to serve both the residents of the complex as well as the surrounding urban environment. Its living facade forms light, sight and sound barrier on all sides but also regulates pollution and temperatures in and around the structure.

Rich foliage provides shade during the summer and lets more sunlight in during the winter. Situated on the ground and in planters above, each species was carefully selected for its growth needs, colors and other attributes relative to the project’s goals. At ground level, a raised-earth effect provides privacy for residents and a sense that the entire complex is growing right out of the soil.

Steel tree-shaped supports reinforce the appearance of an urban forest while a series of wooden platforms, trellises and towers make the entire complex feel all the more like a treehouse in the heart of the city. Paths and courtyards provide residents and visitors a great series of moments that combine elements of nature and urban design.

The same company known for printing 10 home in less than 24 hours is back with a new record-breaking construction project: a multistory apartment structure built using recycled building materials and fast-hardening cement, paired with an ornate villa assembled using the same technologies.

Construction waste forms the aggregate base of WinSun‘s quick-drying concrete, while a huge 3D printer array is responsible for building the large prefabricated parts that are then built on site with steel reinforcement and regulation insulation.

In a twist that will able to those who enjoy truth in architecture, much of the extrusion process is evident on the interior and exterior walls of the villa component as well.

Drawing on CAD files, the printer lays out the pattern like a cake decorator squeezes out frosting, creating space-frame gaps for insulating materials, plumbing and electrical – a high-tech process to quickly create a pair of low- and mid-rise buildings.

According to WinSun, “This process saves between 30 and 60 percent of construction waste, and can decrease production times by between 50 and 70 percent, and labour costs by between 50 and 80 percent. In all, the villa costs around $161,000 to build.”

While the company has yet to reveal just how big of a structure they can build using their existing equipment, their future goals include larger buildings, perhaps even prefab skyscrapers, and possibly bridges or other infrastructure. From 3Ders, “Today’s press conference attracted more than 300 building industry experts, investment bankers as well as media reporters. Ma Yi He, CEO of WinSun explained: the company’s success is due to their unique and leading techniques. First is their exclusive 3D printing ‘ink,’ which is a mixture of recycled construction waste, glass fiber, steel, cement and special additives. According to Ma, waste from recycling construction and mine rest produces a lot of carbon emissions, but with 3D printing, the company has turned that waste into brand new building materials. This process also means that construction workers are at less risk of coming into contact with hazardous materials or work environments.”