Project Description
Developed in response to the increasing wildfire risk in Los Angeles, the project repositions the vertical farm as an industrial structure embedded within an engineered wetland. Rather than limiting fire resistance to the building’s walls alone, the project takes a different approach, integrating landscape and architecture into a unified fire-adaptive framework.
The main components of this framework include a fire-resistant wall, a lightweight secondary skin and a continuous wetland infrastructure consisting of a saturated meadow, constructed marsh, and a shallow water belt. Much like the differentiated zones found in natural wetlands, each component performs a distinct role. The wall provides the primary physical protection from fire exposure, while the landscape reinforces its performance by reducing heat, retaining moisture, and slowing the spread of fire. Together, they form a protective field around the building.
To enhance the effectiveness of this approach, the project is designed to operate with a high degree of water and energy self-sufficiency, drawing from municipal networks only when necessary. A rain-collecting canopy integrated into the roof spaceframe, together with a secondary aluminum skin, forms the core of this environmental infrastructure. Extending outward like the solar wings of a spacecraft, the aluminum shell significantly increases the surface area available for rainwater collection while also moderating daylight conditions over the underlying wetland landscape to help regulate evaporation. During dry periods, the skin functions as a photovoltaic surface, supplementing the primary PV system installed on the roof and in the event of a fire, it deflects ember and radiant heat.
The project proposes an alternative approach to wildfire resilience in which landscape, water infrastructure, and architecture operate as a single integrated whole. Through the Hydrated Field-Wall, fire resilience is understood not as a protective layer added to a building, but as an environmental condition embedded within the architecture itself.
Field-Wall Horizontal Section
