The perfect place to grow food crops is where it’s dry, sunny, and 68 degrees all year round. California? The Algarve? Actually, it’s somewhere closer to home—or in this case, work.
According to Dutch artist Nienke Sybrandy, the work desk is the perfect climate for an artificial season; a fifth season so to speak, allowing us to grow food crops while we work—instant salad all year round.
Photography by Sander Moerman.
Above: "The crop diary can be integrated into the office diary," says Sybrandy. "One can casually tend to the crops, when surrounded by them on the Desktoop."
Above: Sybrandy and Wand designed Desktoop, a desk that does double duty as a mini farm. Developed as a prototype in conjunction with the Utrecht Manifest No.4, the biennial for social-design; Desktoop is currently being tested by the Agricultural University of Den Bosch and Philips LED.
Above: The side of the desk is used to store gardening tools while the desk drawer, redundant because there is less use of paper, has been converted into a greenhouse.
Above: The desk light is replaced by a grow lamp. Price for Desktoop is on request; for more information, go to Studio NSybrandy.
N.B. This is a rerun of a post that originally published on September 18, 2012.
Interested in growing your own greens? See Sow Now for Winter Salad.