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Window Farms
window farms
        are suspended, hydroponic, modular, low-energy, high-yield
            edible food gardens
            built using low-impact or recycled local materials

These vertical gardens, located in windows throughout the city, are intended to inspire other New Yorkers to design and implement their own window farms, creating a network of urban food production.

Signs in the windowfarms will challenge people to create their own and direct them to a website where we can all share photos, plans, designs, and information. Together, we will derive viable methods for growing food under the local conditions of our own homes.

Right now, the growing network of window farmers is creating a variety of design and DIY innovations that you can build off of. These pioneers are creating how-to instructions that we will release to the public in mid-June.

Do you want to build your own window farm? In mid-June we will be launching a web site where you can learn how, and share your development process with other window farmers. Send an email to windowfarmers@gmail.com, and we'll send you an email when the site is live.

Would you like to commission a window farm for your home, office or storefront?
Email us at britta [at] windowfarms [dot] org for more information.

Window Farms at Eyebeam
We installed a window farm at Eyebeam, 540 W. 21st St., NY NY. It will be on display throughout June 2009.
It's loaded with 25 plants: tomatoes, lettuce, beans, cucumber, okra, basil, arugula and peppers.

 
In February 2009, through a residency at Eyebeam, Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray began to build and test the first Window Farms prototype. Growing food inside NY apartments is a challenge, but within reach. The foundational knowledge base is emerging through working with agricultural, architectural and other specialists, collecting sensor data, and reinterpreting hydroponics research conducted by NASA scientists and marijuana farmers. We have been researching and developing hydroponic designs that are inexpensive and made from relatively inexpensive materials. The working prototype is a drip system made from recycled water bottles, holding 25 plants. Beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, arugula, basil, lettuce and kale are thriving.

 

 

While completing the first Prototype in mid-April, we invited a dozen "Pioneers" to join us in creating Window Farms. We asked them to approach the project like a night class, devoting one night a week for two months. We showed them our prototype and presented the DIY research and development we did so far and invited them to build on our research to create their own designs. Currently, the Pioneers are designing their systems. Their innovative ideas are adding to the knowledgebase about DIY hydroponics.

Window Farms Pioneers

Results of the initial research and development process will be made public in mid-June 2009. Want to build your own window farm? Send an email to windowfarmers@gmail.com, and we'll send you an email when the site is live.

About and Contact

This project fits within a larger context of our collaborative work: collaborative distributed R&DIY solutions for environmental issues. Our inspiration for community involvement derives from concepts of local production (think of the coming network of 3D multi-material printers), mass customization, and crowdsourcing. We envision the DIY aspect, not as a nostalgia-inducing hobby or a compromise during hard financial times, but as a futuristic infrastructure-light alternative to big R&D. Instead of waiting for products and services to be developed by industry, local social networks develop solutions for themselves by dividing scientists' breakthrough findings into actionable local steps.

To learn more about Britta and Rebecca's work, see brittaandrebecca.org. To learn more about Window Farms, email us at britta@eyebeam.org.

 

Initial Prototype Research and Development

On Display

Eyebeam Window Gallery
May 26th - July 13, 2009

Window Farm in Eyebeam's window gallery

Window Farms was on display at Eyebeam's Open Studios on May 15th and 16th.

 

 

For more information, email britta [at] windowfarms [dot] org. Learn more about other projects here.

  

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Upcoming:

Window Farms are being built in apartments around New York City. The results will be posted here in mid-June.

June 16-20: A large Window Farm installation will be at Eyebeam at 540 W. 21st St, New York, NY for the Eyebeam Benefit & Mixer.

Recent:

Window Farms on Inhabitat

Eyebeam Open Studios

Window Farms Flickr Set

Window Farms on YouTube

Window Farm
Britta and Rebecca creating a window farm in Brooklyn.

Window Farms salad
The first window farms salad, April 09.

Window Farm
Window Farm in a Brooklyn apartment

Window Farms
Inverted water bottles, suspended with fishing line, holding plants growing in expanded clay pellets.

Window Farms seedlings
Seedlings in hydroponic grow medium, almost ready to be placed in the window farm.

 

Window Farms is the work of Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray.

With the indespensible insight and assistance of Lindsey Castillo, Matt Ell, Ian Hays, Ezekiel Healy, Morgan Jones, Sydney Shen, Ted Ullrich, and Gabriel Willow.


Sponsored and supported by Eyebeam and Submersible Design.