Shanghai is getting an entire 'farming district' with towering vertical farms and seed libraries

Shanghai may be known for its towering skyscrapers, but a large part of the city will soon have towering vertical farms that grow fruit and vegetables.

The city is planning a 250-acre agricultural district, which will function as a space to work, live, shop, and farm food. Called Sunqiao Shanghai, it will include new public plazas, parks, housing, stores, restaurants, greenhouses, and a science museum. Some of the crops will be grown hydroponically indoors (i.e. under LEDs and in nutrient-rich water rather than soil).

The masterplan was conceived by the design firm Sasaki, which has offices in Massachusetts and Shanghai. It's part of a larger plan to turn a portion of the city into an ag-tech hub, Michael Grove, a principal at Sasaki, tells Business Insider. In the mid-1990s, Shanghai's government designated a 3.6-square-mile area of the city for agricultural production, hoping that bioengineering and biopharmaceutical companies would set up research facilities working in tandem with city greenhouses.

Shanghai only constructed 3 single-story greenhouses at the time. Sasaki was commissioned to expand the plan for Sunqiao, Grove says. There isn't a construction timeline yet, but Grove estimates that a crew will break ground on the project by 2018.

Check out the renderings below.