Many architectural visions of urban farming show glistening, high-tech towers, overflowing with vegetation, depicting a future when urbanites are fed produce without the transportation of goods from miles away. It is a promising future that is already happening in many cities, without the need of architectural extravagance. Yet, firm after firm continues to release renderings of urban farming that ignore the reality happening on the ground.

Where architectural involvement in urban farms is present, it typically comprises one-off, small-scale commissioned projects. In other cases, farms work with construction firms direct or hire in-house design expertise. At the New York Botanical Garden, Cooper Robertson designed The Edible Academy, an educational-focused complex comprising a raised-bed vegetable garden, propagation greenhouse and a green­roofed classroom building complete with demonstration kitchen for learning about agriculture and nutrition - and cooking the food grown onsite.

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