Here's a modern edible garden that reminds us of playing with Lego bricks: take one old shipping container, snap on a vaulted greenhouse roof, and ... grow food. Has recycled architecture ever been so delicious?
Designer Damien Chivialle, who created the concept of these 20-foot-long Urban Farm Units, envisions the next step too: snap a bunch of shipping container greenhouses together to create a working farm in the middle of a city. Inside each greenhouse is a hydroponic watering system and a metal staircase to the upper level. On the lower level, a fish pond and cleaning tank make it possible to fertilize and recycle water. Upstairs, vegetables and herbs flourish in full sun, protected by the greenhouse roof from the effects of urban air pollution. For more information about the shipping container greenhouses, see 20 Foot Urban Farm.
We spotted the Urban Farm Units via Design Boom and decided to go along for a tour of a shipping container greenhouse in Berlin (other Urban Farm Units have been installed in Brussels and Zurich).
Photography via Design Boom except where noted.
Above: A standard size shipping container houses the Urban Farm Unit's recirculating watering system. Water flows down from the plants above into a fish tank; the fish excrement decomposes in a sewage tank, the mineral-rich water then returns to the plants to be filtered through their soil and roots before returning to the fish tank.
Above: The greenhouse level, accessible by a metal staircase, is supported by scaffolding.
Above: Photograph via YouTube.
On the upper level, tomatoes grow in full sun.
Above: The greenhouse windows, roof panels, and door can be opened to increase air circulation as needed.
Above: A greenhouse module under construction in Brussels. Photograph via YouTube.
Would you consider turning a shipping container into guest quarters? See A Shipping Container Transformed Into the Ultimate Holiday House and, on Remodelista, 10 Houses Made from Shipping Containers. See more stylish sheds, garages, guest cottages, and outhouses (not a typo) in our Outbuildings archive.
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