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.
The Plug-In Ecology cabin sphere
prototype uses a robotic milled
rotegrity ball for the under-grid
structure made of reclaimed flat
packed materials. A fully operable
sub irrigation system and a shaped
foam panels serve as sleeves for the
potting elements and agronomy
tissue culture for micropropagation. A
digital monitoring platform relays
information about specific plant
health to the web. Our vision for
future iterations of the pod is to
naturally grow structures over time,
within a new form of mediated
arboreal culture, to integrate the
biological and mechanical elements
more closely, to transform the object
into one that grows and changes
symbiotically. The Plug-In Ecology
project sets out a direction for
healthy biological exchanges with
urban inhabitants, and to
contribution to the life of urban
ecosystems that mediate between
autonomy and community.
