Open Source Flatpack Urban Farm Pavilion
February 21, 2017 11:19 AM   Subscribe

Ikea's Space10 lab has released open source plans for the Growroom, a 2.8 x 2.5 meter spherical garden.
posted by romakimmy (49 comments total) 13 users marked this as a favorite
 
17 sheets of plywood? So...uhhh...this is maybe impossible for anyone without a Plantinum Home Depot Card and a truck.
posted by Keith Talent at 11:34 AM on February 21, 2017 [5 favorites]


Well and, like, a lot of large power tools.

I think I'll stick to my raised beds.
posted by soren_lorensen at 11:36 AM on February 21, 2017


I don't understand why it's spheroid, as it's unstable, blocks light to the lower level, and it would be hard to use existing grow-boxes. Basically a square-walled object would be better to stop local oiks from rolling it away.

The next point is that not all climates are suitable for growing things in the open. Some sort of translucent external covering would have wind-blocking and heat-retaining properties.

And then you have invented the greenhouse.
posted by The River Ivel at 11:37 AM on February 21, 2017 [20 favorites]


Couldn't you build this much more simply and with less material waste as a cube without the visit to your local fab lab or maker space with a CNC milling machine.

I guess that's the point though.
posted by HumanComplex at 11:40 AM on February 21, 2017 [3 favorites]


I'd love to have a somewhat larger version of that with a chair, a lamp, a side table and a Bluetooth speaker to use as a reading room.
posted by ejs at 11:40 AM on February 21, 2017 [6 favorites]


Well and, like, a lot of large power tools.

Just an Allen wrench
posted by bondcliff at 11:41 AM on February 21, 2017 [2 favorites]


If you must go spherical, why on earth would you go with a precarious stacked-rings configuration?

Buckminster Fuller must be spinning in his grave.
posted by Sys Rq at 11:43 AM on February 21, 2017 [7 favorites]


I mean, it looks cool, and the fabrication instructions are juuust accessible enough that I spent a nice 10 minutes at my desk fantasizing about trucking in a boatload of plywood and monopolizing the waterjet cutter at work for a weekend. And it (hopefully) gets more people thinking and talking about urban gardening. Thanks for the link!
posted by btfreek at 11:44 AM on February 21, 2017 [4 favorites]


I'll have you know he's held in a dynamic balance of compression and tension in his grave!
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 11:45 AM on February 21, 2017 [28 favorites]


There's a bunch of cool activity happening in open-source things cut with a CNC machine and a bunch of plywood. Two of my favorites are wiki house and open desk.

I mean, I still haven't made anything they have plans for, but they are fun to fantasize about.
posted by frogmanjack at 11:54 AM on February 21, 2017 [2 favorites]


I always wonder how these vertical gardening things are supposed to work, from a 'growing things' perspective. The ones on the top layer will do fine, but anything below that is bound to be in shadow. I suspect that many of these things are designed from an architecture-first perspective, because if you could really just stack agriculture vertically, people would presumably have been doing it for centuries.

This particular example will only work with shallow-rooted plants no more than a foot high. Which rules out basically all edible plants except for maybe lettuces, cabbages, strawberries, and a few herbs. Garlic maybe. A couple of my wife's runner bean plants would overrun the entire structure in no time. It relies on artificial light, and presumably either an irrigation system, or having someone around to water all those shallow troughs several times a day. That's an investment in equipment and time.

There's a reason we grow crops in fields - they take up an enormous amount of land area, and that land needs to be cheap. The design community really buys in to these ideas of transforming urban spaces into little hipster farms, but the economics don't stack up; the plants are really just there to dress up the structures. I bought some timber to rebuild my raised beds last year, and even though I shopped around for the cheapest source of materials, it's still going to be two or three years before the vegetables we grow will pay us back.

Plus, plywood is absolutely crap outdoors, unless you pay a small fortune for the good stuff; most of the exterior plywood made these days will last a couple of weeks outside in a wet climate before it starts to delaminate.
posted by pipeski at 12:00 PM on February 21, 2017 [15 favorites]


I don't understand why it's spheroid, as it's unstable, blocks light to the lower level, and it would be hard to use existing grow-boxes.

I think the point is precisely that you can put plants that prefer shade on the lower levels. In a traditional garden, you'd have shade plants and direct light plants in different parts of the garden, but the whole point of this "urban farm" is that you put all of your different plants in one place.
posted by tobascodagama at 12:00 PM on February 21, 2017 [1 favorite]


I'm such a grump. I am an avid vegetable gardener and I live and garden in the city. I built my own chicken run and coop. But stuff like this just gives me such a giant meh. I am not going to be building this. No one I know is going to be building this. My local fab lab costs nearly $2000/year to be a member. Some CMU kids with access to a CNC are going to build this as part of a Sustainability 101 class and then stick it on campus and by next semester it's going to be full of weeds. So, fooey, I say.

On a more practical tip: vertical gardening is a thing, but it's usually done indoors, with hydroponics, and it's a pretty precise process that can be pretty resource-intensive.
posted by soren_lorensen at 12:12 PM on February 21, 2017 [7 favorites]


I don't understand why it's spheroid

The designer is named Sine, not Infinite Odd Harmonics.
posted by effbot at 12:15 PM on February 21, 2017 [12 favorites]


Ever seen what happens to plywood left exposed to the elements and regularly subject to water and dirt?

This is like somebody's idea of how things should work rather than how they actually work.

I like the concept but the implementation is.....poorly thought out.
posted by srboisvert at 12:17 PM on February 21, 2017 [8 favorites]


This is not a practical design solution. Even if that's implied at a quick glance. But really it's just designed to get attention, "to spark conversations" about food, cities, urban local small-scale farming, etc. Even the open source plans were created as a reaction to people/organizations wanting to display the original growroom, but shipping internationally and reassembly being unpractical and contrary to the spirit of the whole thing. It was not meant to be the best (or even a good) solution for every urban home. It was just so that more people around the world can look at a ball of plants and spark more conversations and use it "as a way to bring new opportunities to life."

So basically it is design fap, but with noble intentions.
posted by Kabanos at 12:20 PM on February 21, 2017 [7 favorites]


So basically it is design fap, but with noble intentions.

. . . subheading of every M Arch thesis I've ever seen go viral.
posted by Think_Long at 12:24 PM on February 21, 2017 [9 favorites]


collapsing rotten plywood sphere of weeds is how I feel inside though
posted by prize bull octorok at 12:28 PM on February 21, 2017 [23 favorites]


Sigh.. Twenty years ago when people started using plywood for things it isn't appropriate for, there was sort of a cool aesthetic to it. Now, to me, it is the visual equivalent of a nail on a chalkboard.
posted by mumimor at 1:08 PM on February 21, 2017 [1 favorite]


(Also, I think there's some confusion in here about plywood vs. particle board. Particle board will absolutely dissolve and go to shit if you get even a little bit of water on it. Plywood should be fine to use outdoors, especially if you stain it with a waterproof sealant.)
posted by tobascodagama at 1:12 PM on February 21, 2017


But here I think the structural supports and even the pins are made of plywood. I'd think that all of the shrinking and expanding of a moist environment, not to mention the load weight of the planter boxes when wet, could be a major concern.
posted by Think_Long at 1:15 PM on February 21, 2017


That depends on where you are, tobascodagama. Plywood is absolutely not fine outdoors here in Denmark, where this product is from, regardless of treatment. It's also not fine in Munich, where the building I linked to is.

Add earth and water for the plants and it will look terrible in less than a year.

The details are lovely, though.
posted by mumimor at 1:17 PM on February 21, 2017 [1 favorite]


Add earth and water for the plants and it will look terrible in less than a year.

I'd suspect you'd get complaints much sooner than that if you left it on a parking lot in Kødbyen for a year, though also, who needs herbs, veggies, and edible plants when you can go over to Tommi's and get a proper burger? :-)
posted by effbot at 1:38 PM on February 21, 2017 [1 favorite]


LOL, I thought it was obvious at first glance that ALL of those plants were grown elsewhere and repotted for the exhibit! You know, like food styling in adverts and movies, but for plants at architectural ideas exhibits! I'm sure individual plants that did not take to repotting were replaced each morning before visitors arrived at the event.

And yes plywood is the wrong choice, plus the beds were too shallow. Please.

One note - some plants want intermittent sun, and the spherical shape provides partial shade for plants that prefer that. OTOH, I live in earthquake country, so no, I won't be hooking up one of these in my yard.
posted by jbenben at 1:40 PM on February 21, 2017 [3 favorites]


I've always said that the main problem with industrial agriculture is that it isn't small-scale, labour-intensive, and urban enough. They could scale it down further though, I want my lettuce grown in a 1-foot sphere that gets carried around the city and occasionally taken to the opera.
posted by sfenders at 1:53 PM on February 21, 2017 [9 favorites]


I just imagined a growroom at about 1/4 scale, stacked with catnip, with a pile of squirming cats in the middle.
posted by Kabanos at 1:56 PM on February 21, 2017 [1 favorite]


stacked with catnip, with a pile of squirming cats in the middle

They would eventually end up leaping about on and clogging the shelves, in twisty sharp clumps, causing escalating imbalance and risking a giant rolling plywood cat ball.
posted by CynicalKnight at 2:15 PM on February 21, 2017 [5 favorites]


... and thus the backstory of Katamari Damacy begins!
posted by tavella at 2:37 PM on February 21, 2017 [6 favorites]


Cool as an object but extremely impractical. How am I supposed to urinate onto the tomato plants on the top tier? Why are the beds so shallow? Why is it made of wood? Spiders will be raining down on your head within days.
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:45 PM on February 21, 2017 [4 favorites]


...and why are the beds curved, for God's sake? You could approach a sphere with a polygon of n sides and still use regular straight pieces of wood for the beds. If you're going to say "Fuck Practicality!" fine, but stay away from agriculture, pls.
posted by leotrotsky at 4:50 PM on February 21, 2017 [1 favorite]


I'd love to have a somewhat larger version of that with a chair, a lamp, a side table and a Bluetooth speaker to use as a reading room.

For the stated design intentions this is silly for all the reasons mentioned, but I had the same thought that this isn't far off of a really nice sun-room/reading-room. The proportions would need to shift, and you'd want a roof to keep the rain off, but otherwise it would be lovely to sit in the middle of this, with plants all around, a cat in your lap and nap read.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:41 PM on February 21, 2017 [2 favorites]


and spiders raining down
posted by prize bull octorok at 5:45 PM on February 21, 2017 [9 favorites]


This has so little in common with what it's actually takes to raise a few vegetables in your backyard that you might as well use it to "spark conversations" about quantum mechanics.

Or maybe they could try raising some chickens in there.
posted by she's not there at 5:54 PM on February 21, 2017 [4 favorites]


prize bull octorok, way to pee on a daydream!
posted by BlueHorse at 6:25 PM on February 21, 2017


I just had a kind of epiphany. This thing here reminded me of that soccer ball generator thing and my tendency to fall into the trap of moral superiority/outrage/snottyness when I encounter things of this ilk. I think if you could divorce the creativity of the objects like this from the usually stupid/sanctimonious/utopian verbage they would be very pleasant to contemplate. In the future I will erect a blinder to block out the parts about "making the world a better place" and just take in the thing itself. I project that I will be happier. I expect I will be releasing open source plans for my blinder soon, (requires only a little friction stir welding which even the least hip person should have access to at the neighborhood 7-11.)
posted by Pembquist at 7:11 PM on February 21, 2017


Way to pee on a daydream
Way to pee on a daydreamin' boy
Dip Flash's lost in a daydream
Unaware, as spiders deploy

And even if plywood ain't on his side
Dip Flash would like to sit and read outside
He's blowin' the day with cats and plants and all
While spiders fall on his face in the garden ball
posted by Kabanos at 7:25 PM on February 21, 2017 [7 favorites]


I am honored.

I think?
posted by Dip Flash at 8:08 PM on February 21, 2017


Metafilter: Basically design fap, but with noble intentions.
posted by awfurby at 8:12 PM on February 21, 2017 [1 favorite]


And spiders raining down.
posted by jenkinsEar at 8:19 PM on February 21, 2017 [3 favorites]


Dude, forget using this for food. Make it out of plastic and turn it into a spherical hydroponics system for sustainable weed production. Heat lamps can go underneath each of the levels to warm the plants growing below and stop any spiders from raining down
posted by Hermione Granger at 8:24 PM on February 21, 2017 [1 favorite]


Omg you could suspend them all around a warehouse and have different strains growing in each and people could go weed tasting like they're at a tapas bar and it could be like you're in a galaxy of all these orbs

Of weed

But not spiders

No spiders
posted by Hermione Granger at 8:27 PM on February 21, 2017 [3 favorites]


wow that was an unexpected train of thought on my end
posted by Hermione Granger at 8:29 PM on February 21, 2017 [5 favorites]


"The ones on the top layer will do fine, but anything below that is bound to be in shadow. I suspect that many of these things are designed from an architecture-first perspective, because if you could really just stack agriculture vertically, people would presumably have been doing it for centuries."

I mean, they kind-of have. Big sprawling single-crop fields are the new thing, and the product of automation in the form of tractors. But lots of traditional forms of agriculture interlace multiple plants, in layers, that take advantage of their different needs. For example, the "three sisters" of pre-Colombian North American agriculture, where corn grows tall and supports the climbing beans who fix nitrogen to the soil, and the sprawling low-growing squash shades the roots of the beans and corn from the scorching summer sun and preventing weeds and helping to retain moisture.

But yeah, you're going to end up with traditional forms of terrace farming or interconnected crop sets like the three sisters, or highly technological hydroponic type farms. Which, there's nothing wrong with that -- big monoculture crops are also highly technological, and we can be highly technological in a different, less environmentally problematic way. People think "OMG THAT'S NOT FARMING THAT'S UNREASONABLY JETSONS LOOKING" but if you actually pay attention to farming, guys, it's already super technological.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:05 PM on February 21, 2017 [2 favorites]


For example, the "three sisters" of pre-Colombian North American agriculture, where corn grows tall and supports the climbing beans who fix nitrogen to the soil, and the sprawling low-growing squash shades the roots of the beans and corn from the scorching summer sun and preventing weeds and helping to retain moisture.

I tried that in my garden this year, but it was more like the corn grows tall and then rots and falls over while the climbing beans try to go sideways and then die when I accidentally turn off the drip watering for two weeks in mid summer, and the sprawling low-growing squash never germinated in the first place, but the roots are plenty shaded by all the weeds at least.
posted by lollusc at 3:30 AM on February 22, 2017 [3 favorites]


And spiders came raining down.
posted by lollusc at 3:30 AM on February 22, 2017 [1 favorite]


Heee--ikes!!! That had to have been designed by someone who has never grown an actual plant in their life. There are so many things wrong with it that the mind boggles. Where, besides into the soon-to-be-rotten plywood, would the water used to irrigate the plants go? How can anyone reach the plants on the top to harvest or inspect them? Why are the boxes so shallow? No actual food will grow in there! Why is there no Spider Crash Pad at the bottom? We dont want our benneficial insects/arachnids getting hurt when they rain down out of the ceiling!
posted by WalkerWestridge at 10:57 AM on February 22, 2017 [1 favorite]


I guess the good thing is if you're a renter you can roll it from place to place.
posted by turbid dahlia at 2:17 PM on February 22, 2017


The useful parts of this are probably all covered by gutter gardens, which will grow greens and strawberries, frex, and can be very water-efficient if you're careful with leveling and overflow. You need a sun-facing wall in temperate places, less so in really sunny places.

I've been in a five-layered traditional food garden but it was in Nicaragua, they had plenty of sunlight. (Coconut palms, shorter fruit and nut trees, fruiting vines, fruit bushes, leafy greens and root veg. And chickens running through it all. NPP through the roof.) Maybe the sphere would work there, but I would be surprised if it added growing capacity to the land area.
posted by clew at 3:45 PM on February 22, 2017 [1 favorite]


"I tried that in my garden this year, but it was more like the corn grows tall and then rots and falls over while the climbing beans try to go sideways and then die when I accidentally turn off the drip watering for two weeks in mid summer, and the sprawling low-growing squash never germinated in the first place, but the roots are plenty shaded by all the weeds at least."

Geez, we just toss the seeds in the ground and they do the thing, we don't really have to weed or water or anything. (But we're in traditional three-sisters territory, so ...)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:04 PM on February 22, 2017


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