Inspired by current urban bike sharing programs, the hydroponic Bike Share Farm is a mobile solar-powered vertical urban farm that sits atop two connected bicycles.  Changing bikes at each new stop is easy with this shared community farm on wheels whose mobility enables multiple users to become city farmers.

A pair of bicycles supports the farm’s steel framework which houses an array of solar panels that generate energy for the system’s irrigation pump.

Across the structure’s metal base, a series of interconnected tubes house the hydroponic vessels that cultivate the plants.

The Seoul, Korea branch of the Beijing-based The People’s Industrial Design Office designed the mobile bike farm for simplicity and ease of use: it’s light enough for two people to lift and simple to control and steer.

“We imagine people would ride to a Bike Share Farm location, hook on their bikes and take it to a convenient location,” People’s Industrial Design Office co-founder James Shen told Dezeen.“This would allow large numbers of Bike Share Farms to spread throughout the city.”

The design was conceived as part of a 72-hour hackathon to address the lack of available urban farming space in highly populated cities like Seoul. Organized by Art Center Nabi, the project theme addressed the ‘prototyping of sharing eco city with technology’ and invited professionals to generate ideas on urban and ecological issues.

“Urban gardens are now common in many cities but few have access to them,” explained Shen. “The Bike Share Farm marries the bike share model with urban farming. A vertical and mobile farm addresses the land constraints found in dense cities like Seoul and Beijing.”

Seoul, like many densely populated urban centers, is a large vertical megacity with minimal garden space. The designers believe that mobile farms are one way to make urban farming accessible for many people–kind of like bringing the community garden to the gardener.

Photos via The People’s Industrial Design Office.