The Bio-productive climatic Façade The aim of the project is to develop designs for a prototype food-producing façade, which would also act as a climatic filter, reducing energy input into the building as a system., The design could be sold either as a packaged system as a curtain wall for office or other buildings, or would create knowledge capital for the architects, designers and suppliers to deliver bespoke systems in the future. Vertical facades of buildings have the potential to be food producing elements in urban food system, with the advantage that they take up very little space within the city. In addition, these systems can aslo help with solar controil, energy use, issues of thermal mass, and even occupant health. The project is an innovative combination of living systems and advanced architectural technology, which come together to produce a unique productive system. The façade utilises aquaponic agriculture technology, which is a more complex version of hydroponic agriculture where fish are introduced to close nutrient cycles. The inclusion of fish reduces the maintenance of the system, and increases its stability so that the food system needs less human (and chemical) input. There are many examples of successful large-scale systems and some smaller packaged systems, but there are none that are built into the façade. The objective of the project is to create a self regulating system, that builds on current expertise in market gardening that can replace or enhance current façade technologies. The project team, is multi-disciplinary and combines existing knowledge of aquaponic farming with expertise in façade design and manufacture, to create a new synergy which will extend the function of the façade and develop new revenue streams for building owners, as well as improving solar control and occupant comfort. The Team is led by Building Design Partnership, who are known for their interdisciplinary practice. The team also includes academics at Queens University School of Architecture; aquaponic farming experts in Aquaponics UK; Façade and glazing system manufacturer Glashaus and the Biospheric Foundation, a research body with expertise in closing urban resource cycles. The project aims to deal with a number of issues with office façade design. FIrstly solar control: plants offer incredibly effective solar shading and also transpirational cooling which could give major performance benefits for the façade with respect to overheating. Secondly the façade may give opportunities for grey or rainwater recycling within the building; thirdly the mass of water may help increase thermal mass in otherwise lightweight buildings and give advantages re radiant comfort in both summer and winter and finally the combination of fish and plants may give some occupant health benetfits.