By 2050, when the world’s population is expected to increase by two billion people, “scarce” crops—from the massively consumed Arabica coffee bean to the popular avocado—will be genetically modified in laboratories to endure market pressure and environmental challenges to provide solutions to the impending food scarcity crisis in a post-pandemic society. The Lab Oratory envisions a highly curated agricultural landscape that converges the unviable industrial and the exclusive organic production of crops into a reconstructed future of farming. This novel “modus operandi” endeavors to reintroduce the building type of the laboratory in regards to the food industry and thus the boundaries of natural and artificial by creating a space of multidisciplinary experimentation that brings together growers and scientists.
Sited in the Netherlands, in the Wageningen, is co-located with the Food Valley NL, cooperation that attempts to offer food security and enhances the existing food innovation network that expands beyond the limits of Europe. At the same time, the Lab Oratory is located in the Rhine river’s floodplain, offering the possibility to discover solutions in regards to the flooding risks that the Netherlands is facing due to climate change.
The dike that surrounds the plot detaches it from the city by creating a 7-meter height difference. The laboratory’s functions are condensed across a half kilometer infrastructural line that connects the city with the river and generates different multileveled routes. Bookended by public spaces, an amphitheater and library respectively, and elevated as a pier, the infrastructural line is open to the public offering views into the experimental landscape, highlighting the transparency of different uses, to re-establish public trust in lab experimentation. The biosafety laboratories, the tissue culture rooms, the open labs, the microscopy, the botanical garden, the controlled growth facilities, the offices and meeting rooms, the grower’s spaces and finally the greenhouses are placed accordingly to allow the efficient function of the spaces. Following the Köppen Climate classification, the greenhouses are divided into five main volumes that mimic different climate groups; temperate, polar, dry, continental, and tropical climates.
From the lab to the land, multiple multidisciplinary experiments take place. An experiment on three different methods of farming; monoculture, strip cropping, and pixel farming based on a collection of data in regards to crop yield, pest control, biodiversity, pollination, nutrient cycling, water regulation, and soil fertility and an experiment on flood-tolerant crops that mimic the traits of rice consist the main occupation of the land.
The expertise is exported across the world, while crops of the patented seeds arrive daily in the supermarket. As an essential service, the supermarket’s design incorporates integrated agriculture strategies, accentuating the new civic presence within the supermarket in an attempt to rethink the controversial subject of GMOs in aid of combating food scarcity.