We began our day by visiting Rotterdam’s Floating Farm. The Floating Farm is a prototype designed to create a more circular farming process. It is stationed in water, similarly to the floating houses we visited earlier in the trip. With the constant changing of water levels, the structure must be built to adjust to these changes. The building has poles that are grounded at the bottom of the sea so that the farm does not move side to side but still allows the farm to go up and down with the tide. The farm features a vertical farm, cheese kitchen, a cheese curing room, and cows.
In the vertical farm, the UV lights are powered completely by the solar energy harnessed in the solar panels. They primarily grow microgreens that have more than double the nutrients than traditionally grown greens. Additionally, in the future they are planning to adjust their prototype by adding the vertical farms to the top of the farm as opposed to the base level of the farm. Currently, the rocking experienced in the basement of the farm is affecting the growth of the greens. Building up would allow the farm to maximize the upward space they have and allow for better growth of the greens.
The operator of the cheese kitchen uses the milk from the cows to make the cheese and has won multiple awards for the best cheese. He experiments with different types, spices, and cure time.
The cows are able to exit the farm to a space on the port with greenery to keep them healthy. The cows are fed with recycled food waste such as orange peels, bread, and corn pulp from restaurants that have partnered with the farm. The farm has also been looking into ways of repurposing the cow manure. A previous intern for the company was experimenting with turning it into building blocks to replace wood in furniture.
After the farm we took a tour of RDM, an old shipyard that has been transformed into a center for innovative businesses and technical education. Each of the businesses that hold space in RDM must meet certain standards in terms of their energy usage and long-term goals. Some of the businesses that stood out to me are,
- Hardt Hyperloop – A new mode of transportation that utilizes magnetic fields in a tube to move a vessel of people and cargo.
- Paebble – A company that has made a concrete adjacent that stores CO2 in the material with 29% lower embodied carbon.
- RAMLAB – A metal 3D printer that is focusing on creating different parts of ships with the idea in mind of using it for repairs on ships.
- Urban Reef – Designs 3D printed out of living materials that are meant to integrate open systems into the city and encourage the growth of habitats in urban settings.
