Two Swedish architects, Sine Lindholm and Mads-Ulrik Husum, have designed a multi-tiered indoor garden pavilion called ‘Growroom’ while working for Space10 – Ikea’s product development lab that explores sustainable urban living concepts. Capable of growing enough food for an entire neighborhood in one harvest, Space10’s Growroom is part of an ever-increasing list of successful eco-friendly launches from the home décor giant. The main objective: to provide a local food source for cities with minimal outdoor space.

“We could produce food of the highest quality that tastes better, is much more nutritional, fresh, organic and healthy.”

Ikea’s Space10 Lab

From the Flatpack refugee shelter to its biodegradable mushroom-based packaging, Space10’s green design innovation is having a widespread impact throughout the world. Backed by a Creative Common Attribution 4.0 International License, Ikea’s Growroom is an open-source plan available to download for anyone interested in building an “urban farm pavilion.” Ikea is renown for aligning its product development alongside its mission to help build a sustainable future.

The Open Source Growroom Plan

“It doesn’t make sense to promote local food production and then start shipping it across oceans and continents,” according to Space10’s open source plan. So instead of seeking profits, Ikea decided to make an investment in sustainable living. This empowers people living in crowded cities to maximize their living space and at the same time, “spur local communities to grow and source food to share.” Imagine being able to walk into your sunroom and being able to make dinner out of fresh garden vegetables – without heading to the market.

“The challenge is that traditional farming takes up a lot of space and space is a scarce resource in our urban environments.”

Food Architecture

“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,” Space10 explains in its open source plan. With only 17 steps to construct the spherical tower made out of plywood, users can assemble the 9 by 8.2-foot free-standing Growroom with two rubber hammers, a screwdriver, and “a visit to your local fab lab or maker space with a CNC milling machine.” Does the setup process sound overwhelming – especially the “finding a local fab lab” part?

According to an article in The Farm, users that are concerned about finding a CNC milling machine should rest easy: “A new generation of technologies such as 3D additive and subtractive manufacturing to laser cutting and surface-mount manufacture is available to the public in fab labs and maker spaces in any major city.” If you take a look at the “review comments” from the article written in The Farm, you’ll see a slew of fab labs offering their services.

Sustainable Solutions for Urban Living

Growroom reduces food miles, diminishes our carbon footprint, protects our food from pesticides, and teaches children about indoor gardening. Designed to minimize space especially in smaller living quarters, Space10 created an indoor garden that is fully customizable. The interlocking plywood pieces and Creative Common license make Growroom’s downloadable assembly instructions rather easy to follow. Once assembled, you have a green space that is architecturally impressive.

Ikea, once again, is proving to be one of the leading innovators when it comes to consumer eco-technology. Space10’s new Growroom is poised to disrupt an industry way too reliant on supermarkets for their fruits and vegetables.

Source: IFLScience