WindowFarms Vertical Hydroponic Farming and Crowd Sourcing Project
WindowFarms is a vertical urban farming project for New York City apartment windows. The system is made from common water bottles and inexpensive parts available at hardware stores and hydroponic stores. It is supported by an information crowd-sourcing effort at our.windowfarms.org.
I played a major role in helping design, develop, test and fabricate multiple versions of the project with Britta and Rebecca, the creators of the project. My specific contributions include design and fabrication of the lighting systems, installation schematics for Eyebeam and the Whitney Museum, material sourcing and research, logistics for pumping, suspension system, and bottle covering, project documentation and photography, and scheduling for fabrication of installation components.
I also re-designed an Informational How-To PDF (see below) and helped up-hold the crowd-sourced aspect of the project by helping conduct group meetings and community build-sessions, as well as helping maintain the website.
High profile installations of the WindowFarms project were conducted at Eyebeam Art & Technology Center and the Whitney Museum of New York.
WindowFarms installation in front window in Eyebeam Art & Technology Center, New York.
WindowFarms installation in front window in Eyebeam Art & Technology Center, New York. Photo by Britta Riley/Rebecca Bray.
WindowFarms installation in front window of the Whitney Museum, New York.
WindowFarms installation in front window of the Whitney Museum, New York.
Installing in front window of the Whitney Museum, New York.
Family Day at the Whitney Museum. Photograph by Po Ewing.
Family Day at the Whitney Museum. Photograph by Po Ewing.
Family Day at the Whitney Museum. Photo of Britta Riley, project creator, and Maya Nayak, fellow WindowFarmer. Photograph by Po Ewing.
Installing in front window of the Whitney Museum, New York.
A prototype of combined bottle suspension and root covering system. The roots of the plants must be shielded from sunlight to prevent them from trying to photosynthesize.
A prototype of combined bottle suspension and root covering system. The roots of the plants must be shielded from sunlight to prevent them from trying to photosynthesize.
A prototype for a single bottle suspension with integrated cerculine fluorescent light.
Finished lighting system for the Eyebeam installation.
Fabricating the lighting system for the Eyebeam installation.
Finished lighting system for the Eyebeam installation.
After strategizing with Britta, I designed a set of Design DNA Characteristics to help visualize the evolution of the WindowFarms system.
A finished document I designed to communicate the System Evolution of the WindowFarms project. Identifying which parts of each version did NOT work was one of the objectives of communicating a DIY design process. The fonts, colors, and styles used in this document would become a sort of graphic standards guideline for other Windowfarms documents.
