4.9.11

Sustainable designers 3: Window Farms (Design for Food 1)

One interesting and recurrent idea these days is to try to grow your own food, even though you may live in a small apartment in the middle of a large city. We commented a bit about this in the DIY post, but I believe it needs some more looking into.

To do that, more than theorize and reflect about how much more sustainable growing your own food can be, we'll look into two existing designs that help you do this: the Windowfarms (this post) and the Parasite Farm (next post).

Window farms is an open community that started with some people in New York that decided to grow their own vegetables on their apartment windows. To do this they came up with a vertical hydroponic planting system that uses a small water pump, or air pump to circulate the water and nutrients needed for the plants. They started promoting this with an open Internet community where users can share their experiences and ask questions to each other. The project started in 2009 with the help of a Kickstarter fund, and has gone viral since then. Now they make window farm kits that they sell through Internet while they still keep the on-line community active and growing, as they say, one window at a time.
 
Image via Window Farms

There are many good things to say about this initiative, but my main critiques is the need of an electric pump. There are some window-farmers that don't use pumps and have commented this on the community page. Still the problem seems to be how to deliver the needed amount of oxygen in the water without the need of using electricity. They are all open for suggestions on this topic, so good ideas are very welcome.

Image via Window Farms

To learn more about the Window Farms read up on their websites, follow their video channel or check out their Look Book.

2 comentarios:

  1. what about a solar-powered electric pump? peristaltic pumps require very little power

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  2. Smart! How come I haven't seen that before??

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