The Windowfarms Project
“These vertical, hydroponic, modular, low-energy, high-yield edible window gardens are built using low-impact or recycled local materials. Windowfarms is a vertical urban farming project for New York City apartment windows. The system is made from common water bottles and inexpensive parts available at hardware and hydroponic stores.
It is supported by an information crowd-sourcing effort. This web platform allows people to collaboratively innovate globally toward more sustainable cities using locally available materials to suit locally specific conditions, a process the group call R&D-I-Y (research and develop it yourself). The team is interested to learn from participant’s experience as they design for their own micro environments, share ideas, rediscover the power of their own capacity to innovate, and witness themselves playing an active role in the green revolution.
‘Big Science’ R&D industry isn’t always free to take the most expedient environmental approach. It must assume that consumers will not make big changes. Its organisational structure tends toward infrastructure-heavy mass solutions. A distributed network of individuals sharing information can implement a wide variety of designs that accommodate specific local needs and implement them locally. The Windowfarm team tend to think ordinary people can bring about innovative green ideas and popularise them more quickly.
Founder, CEO and Head of R&D Britta Riley has co-founded and run 5 companies over the past 10 years. She belongs to a creative and ever evolving breed of social entrepreneur. Ted Ullrich too, played a major role in helping design, develop, test and fabricate multiple versions of the project with Britta, Rebecca Bray and the creators of the project.
High profile installations of the Windowfarms project were conducted at Eyebeam Art & Technology Centre and the Whitney Museum of New York. Other team members include: Andrew Carter, Michael Zick Doherty, Pirapha Thongtavee and a team of educators.
Researchers have argued that to grow your own food is the most effective action an individual can take for the environment, not only because of the Food Industry’s heavy carbon footprint but also because participating in agricultural production cultivates a valuable skill set around sustainability issues. Many neighborhoods, particularly low income ones, in cities around the world are considered food deserts, meaning little fresh food is easily accessible. Residents tend to consume processed, packaged, and canned food.
It’s estimated that with current US industrial food production, it takes 7-10 calories of fossil fuels to produce 1 calorie of food. Furthermore, many of the vegetables we get at the store have lost a good deal of their nutritional value in transit. The group believe people in cities need to be exploring alternatives to these very real logistical issues.
Few other projects working in these issues provide opportunities for such direct personal involvement, make such productive use of existing construction, or so directly target urban dwellers estranged from agricultural issues.
Window farming city dwellers can grow their own food in their apartment or office windows throughout the year by means of these elegant, inexpensive, vertical, hydroponic vegetable gardens made from recycled materials or items available at the local hardware store. The first system produced 25 plants and a salad a week in mid winter in a dimly lit 4’ x 6’ NYC window.”
I encourage you to find out more. JOIN them today and cultivate your own valuable skill-sets around sustainability. Give voice to your choice through your actions.
