Windowfarms Finland
Overview
‘Window Farms’ are vertical, hydroponic, modular, “low-energy high-yield” window gardens built using low-impact or recycled local materials. The Windowfarms Project and research was initiated by New York-based Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray in 2009, as part of their shared collaborative work exploring collaborative distributed ‘R&D-I-Y’ (Research & Development -It-Yourself) solutions for environmental issues. Since then it has developed into a non-profit organisation that has encouraged an open design community which has grown to more than 13,000 members around the world, and attracted US-based Entrepreneur Magazine to state they are one of the top ventures to watch in 2010. From November 2009 to March 2010, Mikko Laajola, Andrew Gryf Paterson and Niko Punin produced and developed a grand 81 bottle installation in Kiasma takaikkuna for 5 weeks, preluding and part of Pixelache Helsinki Festival 2010. They created a ‘fork’ in the v.1 open design which included LED grow-light technology and freestanding infrastructure, and gathered a group of over 25 people to help construct and dismantle the installation. The plants were curated by Sinikka Pippo, Ossi Kakko, Signe Pucena, with this art-science collaboration facilitated by Ulla Taipale. Later, when dismantled at the end of March, one third of the materials went to HUB Helsinki, to continue windowfarming in a semi-public location in the city. This recycle and upgrade of the design was installed at Hub Helsinki until December 2010, and is currently in discussion to be rebuilt. Seperately, furniture designer Esa Vesmanen created a self-contained shelf-like fork of the Windowfarms v.2 design, presenting it in Puun Syy! exhibition at The Cooperative of Artisans, Designers and Artists' Copper Smithy space in Fiskars. Join the Windowfarms Finland group on our.windowfarms.org! We welcome further self-organising activity in Finland, and can be contacted via windowfarmsfinland ät gmail.com.
Events in 2010
30th October 2010 The Making of Windowfarms Finland video published Edited by Niko Punin and Mikko Laajola, featuring music produced by Dreadlock Tales, the video-clip shows and describes the process of making the Window Farm installation in Kiasma from January to March earlier this year. It is currently published with Finnish and English subtitles, with a creative commons license. 4th September 2010 at RIXC Mediaspace, Riga Sestdiena/Saturday 4.9. klo 20-21 Windowfarms FI Presentation by Mikko Laajola and Niko Punin (Part of RIXC's 'Garaa pupa' contribution to Baltaa Nakts) 23rd - 25th August 2010 at Hub Helsinki Maanantai/Monday 23.8. klo 18-20 Windowfarms USA Presentation by Britta Riley & Ted Ullrich Tiistai/Tuesday 24.8. klo 18-20 Windowfarms Finland-USA Workshop Part 1: Tieto-talkoot Keskiviikko/Wednesday 25.8. klo 18-20 Windowfarms Finland-USA Workshop Part 2: Installation Hub Helsinki event page on Facebook.
Documentations
All photos are gathered on Windowfarms Finland Picasa page 20th February - 28th March 2010 at Kiasma, Helsinki // Press release images from Kiasma installation // The Making of Windowfarms Finland 15th January - 19th February 2010 // Preparing seeds in Kaisaniemi Botanic Gardens + Gathering and processing bottles Download a 2-page 'Windowfarms Finland Overview' PDF made for Kiasma installationin english | suomeksi.
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Support
Windowfarms Finland development has been supported in 2010 by an Art and Culture Production grant from Kultur Kontakt Nord, and AVEK (The Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture). Inkind support is given by the University of Helsinki Botanical Gardens to incubate the seeds, nurturing their growth until their transfer to the Windowfarms installation in Kiasma takaikkuna. Special thanks to the staff of Kiasma Theatre. Partial material support from Edison Opto and Puutarhurin Verstas..
Photo collage credits: Wojtek Mejor (left), Ulla Taipale (centre), Andrew Gryf Paterson (top-right), Antti Ahonen (bottom-right)