“All it takes to complete the 17-step, architect-designed DIY garden of your dreams is plywood, a visit to your local community workshop, rubber hammers, metal screws and some patience”.  This is billed as the way to feed communities in the future.

This from the designers, “local food represents a serious alternative to the global food model. It reduces food miles, our pressure on the environment, and educates our children of where food actually comes from. The result on the dining table is just as fascinating. We could produce food of the highest quality that tastes better, is much more nutritional, fresh, organic and healthy.

The challenge is that traditional farming take up a lot of space and space is a scarce resource in our urban environments. The Growroom is designed for cities and with it’s size 2,8 x 2,5 meter it has a small spatial footprint as you grow vertically. It is designed to support our everyday sense of well being in the cities by creating a small oasis or ‘pause’-architecture in our high paced societal scenery, and enables people to connect with nature as we smell and taste the abundance of herbs and plants.”

It’s an interesting design and could be a fun project, but feeding neighborhoods with this? I doubt it. What we need in cities is more open space and gardens growing out in the sun. Soon all our green spaces will be inside and the outside world will be metal and concrete. It’s not about just producing food, but creating a better neighborhood, and city.  We need outdoor places for people to be and soak up the sun, and food gardens would serve that function.

More here: Huffington Post