"Vertical farming is a method for growing crops in multistory buildings. Few consider it a bad idea, but the vertical farming industry continues to progress from an abstract dream to concrete designs, with engineering projects in Sweden and Canada bringing food closer to urban dwellers.
Farmlands may have turned into suburbs near cities, but sky farms allow urbanites to reconnect to their agricultural roots.
"Nestled in the the city of Cuenca, in the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha is a fine example of the absolute maximization of available space that the 15th through 18th centuries could provide.
Perched high atop a hill, 85 miles East of Madrid, the City of Cuenca lacked the option to spread out as population grew, so they did the next best: they expanded upwards, and outwards.
Once a common sight throughout the entire city, these houses, know as “hanging houses” seem to cling perilously to rocky outcroppings. Sometimes topping out at seven or eight, gravity defying (for the age) stories, these rascacielos, or skyscrapers often extended out over the valley far below.
The only remaining, intact structure of this type is Las Casas Colgadas, translated literally as The Hanging Houses, is now the location of the Cuenca Spanish Museum of Abstract Arts as well as a restaurant."
via atlasobscura.com
"Do you live here?
Tens of millions of Earthlings live and work in the bustling and seemingly intertwined American mega-metropolis of the Philadelphia-New York City-Boston corridor (bottom-center splotch) captured in this stunning “Cities at Night” panorama of the East Coast of the United States along the Atlantic seaboard."
via universetoday.com
The smallest town in the United States
In the late 19th century, 2000 people lived in Buford, Wyoming. Railroad workers needed somewhere to settle, and the small town wasn't half bad in terms of pop-up cities in the barren West. But as the railroad progressed toward the Pacific, the workers moved with it, leaving Buford to slowly decline into almost-nothingness.
Today, the mountain town of Buford has only 1 permanent resident. Hundreds of people everyday pass through the town on Interstate 80 but only one man, Don Sammons, holds down the fort. Sammons operates the Buford Trading Post, and his been alone since 2008 when his son moved away. Despite its tiny size, it has become somewhat of a roadside attraction for its street sign that states quite plainly: Elevation 8000, Population 1.
"Dating back to the Byzantine Empire, the City of Manazan features an entire rock face, carved to create a vertical village of tiny rooms. Naturally protected from invaders and the elements, this rock-cut village has survived through centuries of war and regime change in Central Anatolia.
Although seemingly impractical, Manazan stretches up five stories and across 3km of cliffs, and was a fully functioning city centuries ago. The intricate series of caves and tunnels housed churches, storage facilities, family homes and even cemeteries, all high above the ground on the cliff face.
Today, the city is no longer inhabited, but locals from Taskale still use the temperate caves to store wheat, cheese and other grains, and the region is actively developing the area for greater revenue from tourism."
"The largest Pre-Columbian city in South America, Chan Chan is an archaeological site located in the Peruvian region of La Libertad, five km west of Trujillo. Chan Chan covers an area of approximately 20 km² and had a dense urban center of about 6km². Chan Chan was constructed by the Chimor (the kingdom of the Chimú), a late intermediate period civilization which grew out of the remnants of the Moche civilization. The vast adobe city of Chan Chan was built by the Chimu around AD 850 and lasted until its conquest by the Inca Empire in AD 1470. It was the imperial capital of the Chimor until it was conquered in the 15th century. It is estimated that around 30,000 people lived in the city of Chan Chan.
Chan Chan was added as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986."
