Vertical Communities

The human population has been growing at least at the rate of 1.2% annually since 1960 reaching up to 6.4B in 2002 and more than 7.0B in 2012. In Davao City, the annual population growth rate is running at 3.22% in year 1990, at 2.41% last 2007 and recently in 2013 at 2.36%. The alarming problem we confront today is that the increase in land area for human use does not expand in proportion to population density increase. It is the aim of this study to address the future problems on land and food shortage through the efficient integration of vertical farms on mixed-use multi-storied commercial-residential buildings in Davao City in order to provide income generating condominiums and produce organic crops for residents in an urban setting. The result of the computations showed that the integration of farms to mixed-use residential-commercial buildings in Davao City is highly feasible. The gross profit is highest using gross floor area percentage ratio combination of 50:5:20 for residential, commercial and vertical farm units respectively. (i.e., 50% of the building’s gross floor area should be allotted to residential units, 5% to commercial units, and 20% to farm units). Moreover the gross profit and ROI of the 50:5:20 gross floor area ratio also generated the highest which amounted to Php 1,785,316,198.00B compared to only Php 501,045,100.00M for the typical commercial-residential buildings in five years. This research has mainly focused on the integration of hydroponics, but the inclusion of aquaponic farms in vertical structures can also be further explored.