A group of Dutch architects have put forward plans for the supermarket of the future; the ‘Park Supermarket’, a cutting edge design for an urban farm in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, contains elements of the farm, park and supermarket and will provide food grown on-site to the population of Rotterdam and The Hague.

The urban farming project was devised by Rotterdam-based Van Bergen Kolpa Architects; the 4,000 acre site will produce everything from risotto rice to fish in the region’s largest metropolitan area. The farm will use a mixture of old and modern farming technologies to manipulate the park’s outdoor environment and grow food from a range of climates, including kiwi fruit.

The Park supermarket aims to satisfy the 170 identified eating tastes of Rotterdam and The Hague, which neighbour the site. It has been shortlisted for a World Architecture Award taking place this month. The outdoor zones will be divided into three broad sections; temperate, Mediterranean and tropical, which, the architects claim, will be achieved using ecologically sustainable means and without greenhouses, as the site is planned for recreational use as well as for food production.

Snaking clay walls, which shield crops from harsh winds and release heat trapped during the day through Northern Europe’s cold nights, geothermal energy, used to prevent football pitches from freezing, and insulating water spray ‘roofs’; pylons which create clouds of water vapour, preventing heat from escaping, will all be implemented to grow exotic foods in the Netherlands.

A small trial section of the site could be operational by the end of the year and, if the project is a success, the Dutch architects claim their innovative urban farming idea could be replicated in greenbelts across the world. Means of using the urban environment to grow food sustainably, shortening the supply chain and reducing food miles, including vertical farms and rooftop growing spaces, have experienced increased popularity in recent years, as more people experiment ways in which the increasingly urban population can be fed sustainably.

However, Dr Nicola Canon, lecturer in crop sciences at the UK's Royal Agricultural College has criticised the plans and questioned whether they could or even should be replicated elsewhere. She said, "Every time you raise humidity, you raise disease affectability -- because where you have good conditions for growth you also have good conditions for disease to grow. I think creating tropical climates next to moderate ones could introduce a host of new diseases and pests to the region in quite an unpredictable way."  

Nevertheless, Jago Van Bergen, the award winning architect behind the Park Supermarket said this criticism missed the point of the project. Speaking to CNN he countered, "I'm not a preacher of any one form of agriculture... but this is about more than sustainable, non-intensive farming, it's about cultivating community ties and giving new meaning to a space on the edge of the city that is currently being used for very little else."

Below is a video on the park supermarket project produced by Van Bergen Architects: