The Ikea's Flat-Pack GARDEN for Townies

The Scandinavian design company “Ikea” is taking indoor gardening up a new level, The “Growroom” is made of plywood, DIY spherical garden which is designed for city living where space is limited. The “Growroom” is a 9ft high piece of living furniture for growing plants, vegetables, Bonsai and herbs; it is made of just 17 sheets of plywood. The “Growroom” was formed by Space10 a “future living lab” supported by Ikea. The first “Growroom” was built in 2016, and exhibited at the Chart Art Fair in Copenhagen.

It has been designed to be within your means to build and can be assembled in your comfort zone of your own home. It is thought, that this is the future vision where healthy food is grown more locally. The major challenge is that traditional farming takes up a huge space and in the modern era, and space is a limited resource in our urban environments. Therefore, the “Growroom” has a minor spatial footprint as it grows vertically. Unluckily you can't buy pre-cut plywood, but it is an open source design and the dimensions are available to download from Ikea website. Hence, you have to cut the plywood with a CNC machine, a laser cutter or a table saw and put it together using a screwdriver and hammer. The overlapping slices mean that plants can get light on each level and making it an impression shape for growing greens.  At 2.8 x 2.5 metres, it is sufficient for folks to sit inside and pause for a moment of reflection.

Furthermore, you can say either it as “part of the floating cityscape”. The shelves are 7cm deep which lets space for the soil and the designers suggested treating the plywood beforehand to protect it. It is designed to support our everyday sense of well-being in the cities by generating a small oasis or pause architecture in our high paced societal scenery, and allows folks to connect with nature as we smell and taste the abundance of herbs and plants. Moreover, local food represents a thoughtful alternative to the global food model. Hence, it diminishes food miles, as huge pressure on the environment, and educates our children of where food actually comes from. The “Growroom” is an open source design, which helps people to copy the design without asking and architects have to motivated people to build their own locally.  In this way, you could produce food of the highest quality that tastes better, is much more nutritional, fresh, organic and healthy, and that local food production represents a serious alternative to the global food model.