Grow
Daan Roosegaarde’s latest artwork GROW is an homage to the beauty of agriculture. In the world film premiere GROW appears as a luminous dreamscape of red and blue waves of light over an enormous field. GROW is inspired by scientific light recipes which improve plants’ growth and resilience. Most of the time we hardly notice the huge areas of the Earth which are literally feeding us. GROW highlights the importance of innovation in the agriculture system: How can cutting-edge light design help plants to grow more sustainably? How can we make the farmer the hero?

Grandir
GROW, la dernière œuvre de Daan Roosegaarde, est un hommage à la beauté de l’agriculture. Dans la première mondiale du film, GROW apparaît comme un paysage onirique lumineux de vagues de lumière rouges et bleues sur un immense champ. GROW s’inspire de recettes lumineuses scientifiques qui améliorent la croissance et la résilience des plantes. La plupart du temps, nous remarquons à peine les immenses zones de la Terre qui nous nourrissent littéralement. GROW souligne l’importance de l’innovation dans le système agricole : comment une conception d’éclairage de pointe peut-elle aider les plantes à pousser de manière plus durable ? Comment faire du fermier le héros ?

PLUG-IN ECOLOGY: Urban Farm Pod with Agronomy
The Plug-In Ecology; Urban Farm Pod is a “living” cabin for individuals and urban nuclear families to grow and provide for their daily vegetable needs. It is an interface with the city, potentially touching upon urban farming, air quality levels, DIY agronomy techniques in test tubes, algal energy production, and bioluminescent light sources, to name a few possibilities. It can be outfitted with a number of optional systems to adapt to different locations, lighting conditions, and habitation requirements. While agricultural food sources are usually invisible in cities such as New York, the pod archetype turns the food system itself into a visible artifact, a bio-informatic message system, and a functional space.

Omelia Contadina
‘Omelia Contadina’ was born out of JR’s interest in the difficulties encountered by a large number of small farmers and inhabitants of rural italy. Alice Rohrwacher explains the origins of the project: ‘last autumn, during a walk on the border between Umbria, Lazio and Tuscany, I told my friend and artist JR of my concerns about the destruction of the agricultural landscape, violated by the intensive monocultures with which major corporations are shaping entire territories. I told him, as the daughter of a beekeeper, of the mass death of insects that such changes bring about… At one point, we stopped at a crossroads: on all sides, uninterrupted rows of hazelnut trees filled the landscape as far as the horizon. As we looked upon this, we commented to each other that it looked like a war cemetery. On the way back we decided — if it looks like a cemetery, we have to hold a funeral. But it must be a funeral full of life!‘

Forced Landscape
Rachael Champion’s site-specific sculptures and installations are engaged in a discourse surrounding the dependant yet unclear relationship between industry, technology and nature. Her works consist of large scale constructions and dramatic architectural interventions that question the shifting interactions humanity has with the natural world and considers their boundaries, separations and progressive implications. Through manipulating information from diverse influences that include brutalist architecture, agriculture, raw materials, municipal infrastructure, public space and ecology, Champion questions the layered and dynamic complexities of our shifting physical environment.

Synthetic Sustainability

Graham Thompson tries to redefine urbanism by proposing urban synthetic hyper structures that sustainably manage urban density, personal space, and communal areas. A fresh graduate from the Bartlett School of Architecture the proposal features undulated surface towers, farming zones, clean energy generating systems, green transportation facilities and recreational areas. The sustainable structure would come along a water depository within barren undeveloped land ready for zoning. The undulating bionic towers of the project would act as urban farming zones that promote local flora and fauna managed by the inhabitants for sustainable growth. These agricultural zones have individual harvesting grids with water filtration and nutrient monitoring systems. The tower canopies are layered with solar recharging zones to harvest solar energy and locally meet power needs. Graham also visualizes eco train stations for green transportation along with green service stations for eco car charging.