The integration of urban agriculture into cityscapes necessitates a comprehensive understanding of multiple engineering and environmental factors, including urban fabric, building configurations, and dynamic energy and material flows. In contrast to rural settings, urban areas introduce complexities such as hygrothermal fluctuations, variable sunlight exposure and shadow patterns, diverse plant dimensions and shapes, and material interception. To address these challenges, this study presents an open-source Digital Twin model based on the use of a geographical information system (GIS) for near-real-time solar radiation mapping. This methodology aims to optimize crop productivity, enhance resilience, and promote environmental sustainability within urban areas and enables the near-time mapping of the salient features of different portions of the city using available open data. The work is structured into two main parts: (i) definition of the GIS-based Digital Twin model for mapping microclimatic variables (in particular solar radiation) to support sustainable urban agriculture design and (ii) application of the model to the city of Milan to verify its replicability and effectiveness. The key findings are connected to the possibility to integrate open data (solar radiation) with measurements in situ (illuminance and data referred to the specific crops, with related conversion coefficient) to develop a set of maps helpful for urban farmers but also for designers dealing with the synergy between buildings and urban farms. Initially tested on a neighborhood of Milan (Italy), the model will be applied in the Singapore context to verify analogies and differences. This correlation facilitates a more practical and straightforward examination of the relationships between solar irradiation and illuminance values of natural sunlight (involving both incident and diffuse light). The consistency of measurements allows for the precise documentation of these fluctuations, thereby enhancing the understanding of the influence of solar radiation on perceived luminance levels, particularly in urban environments characterized by diverse contextual factors such as vegetation, nearby structures, and geographical positioning.

Building-integrated agriculture can enhance urban food resilience when a greenhouse allows production during the cold season, especially in facade greenhouse retrofits on existing buildings, which should balance solar access, solar gains, and indoor comfort. This study presents a parametric workflow to generate and compare facade-integrated agricultural devices for a mid-20th-century social-housing block in South-East Milan, combining geometric reconstruction, regulatory constraints, and performance-driven form finding. The work presents a procedure that includes multi- and single-objective optimisation targeting winter solar access, summer overheating control, and sun-hours availability, and identifies the best option through greenhouse indoor climate simulation. The Pareto front was used to filter candidate solutions, and ANOVA and Tukey HSD tests were then used to compare them. Correlation analysis was used to assess the consistency of shape-driven effects across seasonal conditions. Under uniform operational assumptions (high operable glazing fraction and dynamic interior shading activated by facade irradiance), the choices were then evaluated in an indoor energy model. According to the comparison, several optimised geometries perform about the same across goals. The process allows for a clear, repeatable selection of retrofit envelope options that meet energy, thermal comfort, and agricultural production aspects.

The paper presents a methodology for adapting to urban overheating by creating strategically located blue-green oases – combining vegetation and water systems to enhance neighbbourhood thermal comfort. Focusing on Milan’s Corvetto district as an example, the methodology includes 1) identifying socio-environmentally vulnerable neighbourhoods at the city scale; 2) mapping existing cool spots within the neighbourhood; 3) identifying areas beyond a 5-minute walking radius from these cool spots; and 4) proposing local interventions, such as water-based solutions (WBS), in urban spaces that could become new “cool spots”. The results highlight a network of potential new cooling spaces.

This study presents a modular outdoor vertical farming system integrated into building façades to address urban food security and sustainability challenges in Singapore. The design integrates passive climate control, hydroponics and soil-based irrigation, with active monitoring of the vapor pressure deficit (VPD) and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). Continuous visual imaging is used to support growth monitoring and predictive harvesting, reducing labor needs. Under experimental conditions, deployment of UCNP-coated light-conversion films improved crop yield by 30% and reduced plant heat stress. Photovoltaic arrays and battery storage enabled energy self-sufficiency and microclimate management in the modular farm. The results demonstrated that building-integrated vertical farms can enhance urban food resilience and resource efficiency, offering a scalable model for sustainable agriculture in land-constrained cities.