Millions of people in the US experience food insecurity on a daily basis. This problem has been exacerbated by the pandemic, which has pushed the total number of Americans experiencing hunger to an estimated 42 million people, many of whom live in urban food deserts which lack adequate access to fresh and affordable food.

With the aim of tackling this urgent issue, creative agency Framlab has developed Glasir — a conceptual project which involves building groups of modular vertical farms to provide low-income neighborhoods with access to fresh produce.

Glasir takes the form of greenhouse-like cubes designed to be installed anywhere in the city where there would be room for a standard tree. The target, however, is to build them in food deserts, where there is an infrastructure barrier to nutritious and affordable food.

The system runs on renewable energy and rainwater, and it even helps reduce air pollution using an outer layer on the greenhouse modules. “There’s a chemical process catalyzed by sunlight that would allow the material to break down air pollutants,” architect Andreas Tjeldflaat tells euronews, adding that his ambition is “to confront environmental harm and social inequality within our food […]