A Windowfarm is a vertical, hydroponic growing system that allows for year-round growing in the windows of your house or apartment. It lets plants use natural window light, the climate control of your living space, and organic “liquid soil.” Using a hydroponic system, nutrient water is pumped bottle to bottle, helping feed the roots. The Windowfarm allows you to grow food all year, while maximizing space.
Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray are the artists behind the Windowfarm project. The first Windowfarm system produced 25 plants and a salad a week in mid winter in a dimly lit 4’ x 6’ NYC window.
With the Windowfarm project, they developed a Windowfarm kit that you can purchase to make your own Windowfarm, as well as providing directions on how to build your own. They also built a website that supports an online community of windowfarmers around the world. Online, growers can share ideas, and work to get better at growing food in the local conditions of inside the home.
Riley and Bray call it R&D-I-Y, or Research & Develop It Yourself. On the website, there are changing designs for vertical hydroponic systems. Users propose experiments, test techniques, and contribute to developing a shared knowledge base. Currently the website has an online community of 25,872 Windowfarmers from around the world.
The goal of the project is to empower urban dwellers to grow some of their own food inside year-round and to empower citizens to collaboratively & openly innovate online toward more sustainable cities and improved urban quality of life.
Researchers have argued that for someone to grow some of his/her own food is the most effective action an individual can take for 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 having depleted nutrients. The Windowfarm project explores how people in cities can explore alternatives to growing and getting food.
The project has grown, and Britta Riley has stayed with the project full time since it started. Bray is working on other projects but serves on the project’s board. Sales of windowfarm kits, sourced locally in New York, and donations (such as those from a Kickstarter campaign) help fund the project.
Image Source:
Windowfarm Project
Links:
Download the Windowfarms Project Look Book (3mb)
Research and Develop it Yourself Website
Britta Riley TED Talk: A Garden in my Apartment
Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray Artist website