The Dacha Wrap: urban crop pockets

The Datša Wrap is a facade concept for a prefabricated apartment building system for Tallinn, Estonia. Small planting and garden areas, called Dachas, are introduced in the poché facade, with the aim to grow food in dense urban areas. Could the active facades of sustainable future apartment buildings also develop the understanding of resilient ecosystems, micro climates, and energy concepts for the local community?

Dachas have historically been summer houses in the periphery of small cities, where one could grow their own yearly food supply.

The term is borrowed from Russian да́ча (dáča), originally "gift, portion, land (granted by a prince)", from дать (datʹ, “to give”) to have. Growing cities have slowly taken over the datša areas, repurposing them for higher value real estate. Bringing dachas onto the rooftops and facades of buildings, could recreate those agricultural pockets, which offer a closer relationship to food production as well as leisure.

The Dacha Wrap on the sLender apartment building

The ongoing research on the sLender building system, which proposes a metamorphosis of the century old timber apartment building system called Lender, named after Voldemar Lender, the mayor of Tallinn 1906-1913. The sLender building system investigates topics such as fire regulations, modular timber structures, energy autonomy and acoustics, to develop a contemporary take on the Lender building. The Dacha Wrap is one proposal, how vertical gardens could be a biodiverse part of the fire escape route and climatic regulation system for multi storey living.

Alternative routes and crop pockets in side the facade

The Dacha Wrap connects the apartment balconies with alternative routes to the roof and street level. Each vertical street on the east and west facades has pockets to grow crops, the southern facade is covered with photovoltaic panels.