The mini-farm is currently producing tomatoes, eggplants and hot peppers, but with autumn on the way they will soon be switching to different seasonal produce. The vegetables are grown using automatic irrigation systems, and LED lighting supplements the daylight that floods in through the mall’s windows.
Currently the agricultural project is hosting bi-monthly activities to try to encourage participation. They are bringing in horticulture experts to help introduce participants to basic growing concepts so that they can raise their own fruit and vegetables. Visitors are taught how to sow seeds in a little planting box, which, once sprouted, can be picked up and taken home.
Photos by Helen Morgan for Inhabitat
There are a couple of drawbacks to the farm. Participation is free, but to join in any planting activity customers have to demonstrate a receipt of purchase from any shop from the mall – and the minimum price tag is $150! So it’s not accessible to the average Shanghai resident. Also, a pig pen has been installed, and watching the little piglets enclosed in a small space is pretty disheartening.
In addition to an urban farm, the mall features huge basement art galleries and a stunning rooftop terrace and garden. Perhaps K11’s example will encourage urban farming to catch on in Shanghai – in a city that is constantly changing, urban agriculture could quickly flourish.
+ K11 Shanghai
Photos by Helen Morgan for Inhabitat
