Farm Kitchen Blends Micro-Agriculture and Design at London’s 100% Design
August 30, 2013 by Robin Plaskoff Horton
Mood board by The Farm Kitchen’s designers, Mette.
As a testament to the prevailing interest in countertop gardening and indoor farming, a conceptual kitchen environment showcasing micro-agriculture will be a key feature at this year’s 100% Design 2013 during the London Design Festival.
The Farm Kitchen, the hub of the show’s Kitchen & Bathroom section, will explore of the integration of micro-agriculture within the kitchen’s social experience. The aim, according to the show’s producers, is “to balance functional growing with conceptual design that retains individual identity.”
As more people migrate to cities, and urban environments become increasingly dense, designers will be challenged to create innovative methods for indoor growing and composting with multi-functional products for optimizing these limited spaces.
The Farm Kitchen will be a conceptual demonstration of an ideal environment for cultivating one’s own farm produce, offering ideas and inspiration for growing food right in tight city kitchens whose small footprints would make it otherwise impossible to accomplish.
Micro-agriculture—growing one’s own organic produce in and around the home often in small countertop containers using traditional and hydroponic methods—offers an opportunity for self-sustainability and control over what we eat.
Many brands are jumping on the popular bandwagon, including Bulbo, a design-led brand whose Cynara and Quadra lighting systems (above and below) with LED technology will be lighting up home grown produce in The Farm Kitchen.
Other brands now offer compact countertop kits with automatic irrigation and integrated lighting, sleek vertical garden systems for creating living walls right in the kitchen, and other high tech technologies that enable regular folks to produce their own food on a small to medium scale.
And as space is often at a premium, especially in cities, these technologies make it equally easy to plant indoors as outdoors.
UK-based design firm, Mette, is creating this micro-agriculture food environment, which will include luxury brand Gaggenau’s stylish built-in appliances to showcase how the latest developments in kitchen design can be combined with urban farming.
I had the pleasure of visiting 100% Design last year during the London Design Festival with the Modenus BlogTour and can agree with the The Farm Kitchen’s designers that it will be “delicious, and stimulating, and full of quirky ideas and talking-points…”
Category: Container Gardening, Containers and Pots, Experiencing, Food & Entertaining, Green & Sustainable, Green Gadgets, Herb Gardens, Hydroponics, Indoor Gardening, Irrigation, Urban Agriculture, Vertical Gardens
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Great article! So many folks are pursuing small-space gardening now. We saw it coming and started to package our worm castings in 1 quart bags to enable folks to buy small quantities for their container plants. Urban gardening is simply taking off!
— August 30, 2013 @ 20:18
Hi Robin, thank you very much for your article! Bulbo’s team is working every day to improve our innovative solutions for farming all year round always deeply engaging with the plants we are growing. News and updated very soon at http://www.bulbolight.com! Looking forward to seeing you in London!
— September 1, 2013 @ 05:39
You are so welcome. I won’t be making it to London this year unless I get a sponsor (interested?) but I know the Farm Kitchen will be one of the show’s highlights. Keep us posted!
— September 1, 2013 @ 13:47
Yep, I would say it has taken off and is firmly rooted now. Good luck with the worms!
— September 21, 2013 @ 10:00
Hi Robin, great article about a great design festival. We were lucky enough to work alongside Mette and Bulbo, developing a bespoke hydroponics system for the “Vertical Veg Patch.” It was fantastic to see so many innovative and thoughtful designs coming out of the farm kitchen, as well as so many people interested in the prospect of cultivating their own food from the comfort of their homes. We’ll be posting an article on the event very soon over at our website http://www.greenshorticulture.co.uk . Hope you enjoyed the event as much as we did!
— October 18, 2013 @ 03:35
Lucky you! the Farm Kitchen was brilliant and I really liked your Vertical Veg Patch. Keep us posted on your news!
— October 18, 2013 @ 17:31
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