Young architects from the Polish design studio Ggrupa developed a concept to fight hunger in Africa in the most architectural approach: they designed a skyscraper. And not only that it`s quite a big structure, it is also movable. The Idea behind the Mashamba Skyscraper is a temporarily boost of harvest, trade and education in agriculture. Once the area around the building developed itself to a point where it becomes self-sufficient, it moves into another region. For this Idea, the design studio Ggrupa was rewarded with the first place of the eVolo Skyscraper Competition 2017.

Lack of Knowledge Transfer

While poverty halved worldwide in the past 30 years, it barely dropped in Africa. In sub-Saharan countries over 40% of the people are still living in absolute poverty. More than half of them are working as small farmers. Their demanding work is suffering from poor infrastructure, limited markets and weak governments. The green revolution`s mix of fertilizers, irrigation and high-yield-seeds hasn’t reach those regions yet.

All-in-One Skyscraper

The Mashamba Skyscrapers task is to tackle the farming problems in several ways. First, it functions as an educational centre, which provides knowledge about agricultural techniques. Beside learning, people can exchange their experiences with fertilizers and modern tools. The building can also store all necessary equipment. The ground floor of the Mashamba works as a food market, where the farmers can sell their products to the local population. Most remarkable feature of the skyscraper is its structure, which is made out of modular elements. They allow an easy construction, deconstruction and transport. When the region around the Mashamba is starting to prosper, and becomes self-sufficient, it can be simply moved to another struggling region.