Gionata Gatto, an Italian designer based in the Netherlands, has soiled and seeded suitcases and such for gardening on the go. Designed as a graduation project, UrbanBuds enlivens luggage to grow up to 36 different food plants, either as still life or meals on wheels. Get a handle on your personal baggage and turn any place into a sustainable space simply by showing up and showing off some cultivation.
Via Designboom
Home Farming
Pesticides. Genetic-modification. Mistreated animals. It could just about kill anyone’s appetite to hear about all the horrible news about food production. Fortunately, the emerging food revolution focuses on both health and re-establishing the connection between people and the food they eat (making it harder to abuse our food sources). Designers are both leading and answering this shift in interest. Philips Design has begun an investigation called ‘Food Probe’ that looks at current social trends and how this may affect the way that people will eat in the future — and how this will manifest in design. Their investigation includes three parts: a self-contained farm for the kitchen, a nutrition farm and a high-tech cooking device.
San Francisco already diverts over 72% of its waste from landfills thanks to rigorous recycling efforts, and now the city is set to cut down on trash even more with the country’s first mandatory composting law, which took effect yesterday. Residents and businesses now have six weeks to start composting food waste, plant trimmings, and other items. Needless to say we’re thrilled by this initiative, and we invite everyone to join us as we chat with Mayor Gavin Newsom about it next Wednesday in our final Green Talks webcast!
By 2050, the world’s population will have increased by 3 billion people, requiring an additional chunk of arable land the size of Brazil in order to grow enough food. Add to that the potential loss of coastal property from rising sea levels, crop loss from drastic weather related incidents, and the need to reforest large swaths of land to sequester CO2. What we’re left with is a global mess that could be helped by a new agricultural technique – vertical farming. Located in an urban setting, the vertical farm is a win-win idea that automates the production of food in a more sustainable manner, by reducing waste, pollution and carbon emissions.
If you were at West Coast Green this past weekend you would have surely noticed the elegant bamboo structures along the waterfront surrounded by beautiful native landscaping. What you may not have realized unless you looked closely is that the structure was actually supporting hanging gardens of marsh grass and was a way of preventing and remediating pollution from water runoff. A collaboration of The Natural Builders, Design Ecology, Floating Islands and Bertotti Landscaping, the installation was the talk of the trade show and highlight for us at Inhabitat.
Grant Associates recently won an international design competition to plan the largest garden project ever to be constructed in Singapore, the Marina South Gardens. The structure, which is inspired by the shape of an orchid, features a group of cooled conservatories in its center as well as a series of enormous solar supertrees that provide the gardens with an abundant source of rain water and renewable energy.
For this year’s International Garden Festival at Jardins de Métis/Reford Gardens, Jane Hutton and Adrian Blackwell created this garden installation called Dymaxion Sleep. The project featured a hammock-like structure floating above triangulated planting beds modeled after Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion World Map. With scents of lavender, lemon geranium and peppermint wafting up the resters noses, the project is the perfect place to lounge outdoors.
Via Pruned
No, we’re not advertising for PNC. But they are – on the side of their headquarters building in downtown Pittsburgh. They recently finished installing what is said to be North America’s largest living wall. Designed by Kari Katzander of Mingo Design and made possible with the expertise of Green Living™ Technologies, PNC’s living wall is not only beautiful, but should help reduce energy use as well. This spectacular vertical garden is impressive in size as well, and is roughly the size of a doubles tennis court! Check out a pic of the full wall after the jump.
By now you have probably heard that composting helps make a garden green because it is an effective way to deliver nutrients to plants and reduce food waste. Previously we featured the Jarst planter, which makes composting food waste in your home easy with a side compartment that can distribute the compost directly to the plant soil. Here, we see this idea transform into something to fit the city scale. With Envi, industrial designer Julien Bergignant, proposes a concept for a city trash can outfitted to collect and then process public food waste, all while adding some green texture to the city landscape.
James E. McWilliams seems like he may be a big bummer at a lot of cocktail parties. You can tell, because the introduction to his book Just Food is continually defensive. “My goal here is not to write a reactionary tract against the locavore movement,” he writes, yet his real and well-researched analysis of sustainable agriculture is laced with sideways critiques and subtle condemnations of current green culture. Within the pages of Just Food lie a mixed series of sustainable solutions and conflicting emotions regarding the challenges of eating an ethical diet.
Some people like suburbia for the wide open spaces, yards, and the sense of privacy, but the ‘burbs are not nearly as efficient as urban centers are. What if there was a way to bring all of the positive qualities of exurbia into the city while keeping all of the efficiency of an urban core? What about stacking blocks of suburban space onto blocks of urban space, similar in theory to vertical farms, creating modular gardens, orchards, parks, playing fields, community centers and even homes? The concept is already out there. Dreamed up by two Sydney-based architects, Skyburbs introduces the qualities of the suburbs into denser urban environments.
Few would challenge the introduction of a bit of greenery into a city environment. Toronto residents, Eric Cheung and Sean Martindale, are making this basic urban space ideal into a reality with their poster pocket planters. The duo carve their way through existing posters to create little pockets, then fill them with potting soil and plants to create an impromptu green wall system. The result is a bit of greenery that effortlessly blends into the existing urban landscape. Best of all, Eric and Sean want to empower eco- and locally-minded folk by keeping the process open source– and are making their cutting patterns available online.
Head’s up green thumbs and urban gardeners across the states! Do you have an extraordinary edible garden project that you’re dying to share with the world? Well now’s your chance because Fritz Haeg and crew are currently accepting submissions to include in the expanded 2010 edition of Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn. They’re looking for examples of “full frontal gardening” from a handful of locations across the US that transform lifeless …
Results are in for the ReBurbia competition to re-envision the suburbs, and we’re thrilled to count Forrest Fulton among the top three winners for his Big Box Agriculture proposal! This creative and adaptive design takes advantage of empty big-box retail stores and turns them into suburban organic farms, complete with in-house chefs, restaurants, and renewable energy generation.
Imagine having flora and fauna living inside the bricks of your building! A snow-white style fantasy? Not according to the designers of ‘Brick Habitats’ – bricks that have a little pocket for plants to grow and birds to hang out in. While most of the other entries into our massive Reburbia competition to find bold, new solutions to fix up suburbia propose large-scale solutions for the re-organization of housing or land use, Brick Habitats by Chooi-leng Tan envisions a much subtler change to the suburban landscape. These built-in brick coves are like mini-condos that attract native wildlife back to the suburbs!
In the forests of Meghalaya, India, the War-Khasis people have discovered a patient way of crossing the many rivers of their wet region. By guiding the roots of an abundant species of rubber tree, they were able to create a living system of bridges that are in some cases over one hundred feet long and can support the weight of 50 people!
Looking to grow your own vegetable garden but afraid you don’t have a green thumb? Chris Chapman’s Roll-Out Veg Mat could be just the solution you’re searching for. The corrugated cardboard mat is sowed with four types of vegetable seeds and organic fertilizer all ready to be rolled out – all you need to do is add water and soil. Chapman plans to create different mats for different seasons, keeping in …
“How do you grow your own food in the big city if you ain’t got no land?” Easy – do what these Brooklynites did and start a Truck Farm! True, you don’t usually think “1986 Dodge Ram when you think “green vehicle“, but this pickup with ripe rows of arugula, lettuce, broccoli, herbs, tomatoes and habaneros thriving right in its flatbed, is definitely an exception. To make matters even more awesome, “four-wheel farmer” Ian Cheney and his partner Curt Ellis of Wicked Delicate, have even been documenting their automofarm in a series of musical, lyric-accompanied, video shorts (”The recession was upon me, my health was slipping away. I decided what I needed, was more vegetables everyday.”) resulting in both hilarity and a cult-like following as they spread love (and broccoli) around New York City.
We’ve seen trees molded to form fantastic living chairs before, and now a young group of German architects are bending trees to their will to form a new breed of living architecture. The team is calling their tree-shaping system “Botany Building,” and while it may not be the cure to climate change, it’s an incredibly interesting way to create living structures.
While most of us are delighted by the idea of bringing the outdoors in, we are equally excited by the concept of bringing the indoors outside! These “lawnge chairs” get the job done. Designed by artist Lisette Spee in collaboration with architect Tim Van Den Burg, the playful seats are part of a series of lounge chairs created for public spaces in Valkenberg Park in Breda, Netherlands.
Like the rest of the Inhabitat crew, I get to spend a good part of my day ogling the finest futuristic farming fantasies that the interwebs have to offer. From towering vertical agriscrapes to vegetation-packed geodesic domes, my eyes are bombarded with images of the perfect urban farm daily, but when it comes to actually growing anything myself, I must admit rather sheepishly that I don’t know my sugar snap peas from my snopeas. Well, all of that is about to change because Rooftop Farms, a real-life 6,000 square foot organic vegetable farm with a view of the Manhattan skyline is now open to anyone who wants to lend a hand. Luckily for me, that hand need not be blessed with a green thumb…yet.
Lots of cities have farmers markets, but most — if not all — of the produce comes from rural farmers that use oil-intensive methods of transportation to cart around their food. With 80% of all people on the planet projected to live in cities by 2050, food production will have to move into cities if it is to remain cost-efficient. A Swedish-American company called Plantagon has conceived of an incredible solution: a massive urban greenhouse contained within a geodesic dome. The vertical farm, which consists of a spiral ramp inside a spherical dome, is currently in the development stages.
Rooftop and balcony gardening has seen a great resurgence as of late, but many apartment dwellers lack balconies, rooftop access, or garden space and are unable to indulge in these green trends. Apartment gardeners, take heed! The Green Indoors is a high-tech gardening solution that provides ample light and water to growing plants while making the most of available space by housing plants vertically. Up to 24 specialized plant pots can be connected to the stand to grow any number of vegetables, herbs, or flowers all year long.
When we first saw this living, growing Garden Chair we quickly found ourselves captivated by its whimsical nature and perfect union between pure green design and functionality. But don’t be confused. What looks like something straight out of Narnia, is in fact the product of an ingenious method of tree shaping developed by a couple of artists at Pooktre!
Urban restoration projects are definitely the new agrarian frontier, as city dwellers rethink the possibilities for crop production in zones formerly deemed barren or simply too gritty. One can no longer be oblivious to the mediocre quality of fruits and vegetables, the costly trucking of fresh produce, or the senseless, landfill-bound packaging involved. It is high time that food production solutions sprout up in one’s own backyard or on windowsills or rooftops that can also patch together a vibrant community. During the summer of 2009, the public art project, Sharecropper, aims to create a united system of agricultural production in the heart of NYC via a fresh interpretation of the landowner tenant agreement. This micro-farming initiative by artist Leah Gauthier might inspire New Yorkers to view wild edibles as agents of change, thanks to the parcel owners who have donated their unorthodox growing spaces for the greening of their real estates.
Here at Inhabitat we are big botanical architecture fans, but we also love seeing ideas that stand to add an extra bit of foliage to our lives. So, if you are a fan of Patrick Blanc’s Vertical Gardens or even Mass Studies’ Foliage Covered Botanical Building and you fancy your very own extra bit of wall-mounted greenery, the team behind ELT Easy Green …
Hoping to bring some color and cheer to the streets of Toronto, Canada, street artist, Posterchild, decided to become a guerrilla gardener by potting six perky marigolds in an abandoned flyer box. The newly-transformed planter box is illustrative of the point that forgotten pieces of urban furniture may be used to beautify the streets of the Canadian city with very little effort.
Gardening enthusiasts living in cities will certainly cheer for Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray’s Window Farms experiment. The artist-in-residence duo at Eyebeam have teamed up to develop a DIY system for creating “suspended, hydroponic, modular, low-energy, high-yield light-augmented” vertical gardens that will enable anyone to start their own garden right in their very own window. Britta and Rebecca were showcasing their prototype at Eyebeam last week and have enlisted a dozen or so volunteers that are building their own farms — all to go on display in windows throughout NYC from May 31 to July 14.
Green walls are not only spectacularly beautiful, but they also help enliven a space, humidify the air, and process toxins. We loved this simple and modular living wall by Greenworks, a design duo from Stockholm. The design we saw at this year’s ICFF consists of a lovely felted plant wall with a self-automated watering system and a sturdy base. Inserting more plants into a room through planting tiles, potted plants, or a living wall provides a healthier indoor air quality, as well as a more beautiful space.
Tired of saving your fruit and veggie scraps only to have to carry them to another location to compost? You’ll be happy to hear that designers Leonardo Fortino and Andrea Bartolucci have developed an ingenious solution for precisely this problem: Jarst. Featuring a seal drum and cap inside a traditional flower pot, Jarst brings composting right to your countertop and makes sure plants get the nutrients and energy they need to stay happy, healthy, and in some cases, delicious. Fresh basil, anyone?
Is your desk drab or boring? Do you need a little extra feng-shui in your home or your office? Why not try a grass square to brighten up your desk and give it a little something extra. These grass squares were designed at the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design, Israel, by Uri Romano and Assaf Yogev of nine99 Design as a way to combine nature and architecture. By bringing some nature indoors like these moss mats, the designers hoped to provide a grounding piece of nature.
For those that consider themselves sophisticated designfolk, topiaries may seem the stuff of Edward Scissorhands suburbia or the artistic outlets of a housewife with hedge shears. But consider this – these carefully crafted plant forms are an eco-friendly alternative to promotional billboards or waste-making flyers, and can add to the environment rather than take away from it. If you’re in the market for some seriously impressive shrubbery, there’s no better man for the job than Topiary Joe.
Doomsday devices they are not – these seed-sowing plant bombs are one design team’s weapon of choice in the fight against global desertification. Consisting of a biodegradable shell loaded with a potent payload of plant capsules and nutrient-rich artificial soil, Seedbombs are designed to be dropped out of planes to help slow the spread of desert regions that are growing due to deforestation and other man-made causes.
Too many tomatoes? Too few fava beans? Why not swap them with Veggie Trader, a brand new online community for gardeners and eaters alike. On the site you can list fruits, veggies and herbs and either negotiate a trade or just plain buy and sell them. And beyond supporting at-home gardening and fresh eats, Veggie Trader also hopes to build communities of gardeners by encouraging users to plan their harvest and specialize in certain crops.
Vertical farms are one of our favorite future-forward concepts for creating sustainable cities. Providing locally-grown produce and food will not only help us reduce our carbon emissions significantly, but also help us become healthier. Romses Architects recently came up with an amazing concept for a vertical farm in Vancouver as part of the City’s 2030 Challenge. Complete with a tower for growing fruits and vegetables, a livestock grazing plane, a boutique dairy farm, commercial space, transit lines, renewable energy and more, the Harvest Green Tower has the potential to be a food growing, energy producing, living, breathing sustainable transit hub.
LOTS MORE GREAT GREEN DESIGN STORIES HERE... KEEP READING!
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