Thursday November 05th 2009, 3:51 pm
Filed under: Art,Food
Titled, “Lettuce Field As Big As A Sky-Scraper Building” this agro-art piece by Helmut Dick is indeed the size of the neighboring building. The 10,000 lettuce heads make up 12,000 square meters, making up what appears to be the shadow. The piece was a temporary installation in Berlin-Neuköln in 2001, the largest area in Germany of apartment towers. The installation lasted the life of the lettuce before undergoing a 5 week harvest period where the piece became food that was given to the local inhabitants.
You know urban gardening is becoming popular when websites start popping up that want to match people up based on their gardening compatibility. But this isn’t a dating site, this is about sharing land between those that have it with those who don’t but want a space to grow food. Smart thinking. It’s a great concept and makes perfect sense.
This website is called Urban Garden Share and while it’s based out of Seattle, I can certainly see this taking root elsewhere. There are other programs out there in the nation for people to sign up for plots of land in community gardens but this one is unique in that it’s completely individually organized. It’s all about the hookin’ up.
urbangardenshare.org explains: “There is limited green space for food and flowers in this place we call the urban jungle. Matching homeowners (with garden space) to gardeners (with experience) is the perfect solution for cultivating both food production and community. Condo and apartment dwellers are faced with containers or p-patches as their only prospects for vibrant gardens. Homeowners can be overwhelmed by yet-another-garden-project. Together, we make a great team.”
I dug through some of the listings and it’s rather amusing. It’s kind of like looking for a house really…what are the qualifications that you desire? Would you like a view with your garden? Do you want your garden share to be near public transport? Or do you respond to simply written ads like “My backyard wants a vegetable garden”.
While going through some old photos I came across one of an old abandoned train tunnel in Bavaria that had been partially demolished while another portion left as a piece of history embedded into the hillside, vegetation taking over the stone. There are many things around the world…abandoned tunnels, cellars, bunkers, etc. and what might become of their future? Do they become a forgotten element in time or can they be used again, transferring a piece of history into a new future?
The most recent post over at BLDG BLOG reminded me of the re-purposed single track railway tunnel in the New South Wales Southern Highlands between Mittagong and Bowral, Australia.
Built in 1866, the railway was used as the link between Sydney and Canberra until a new double track tunnel was built in 1919. Unused for three decades, the tunnel opened once again in the 1950′s for a new purpose – to grow mushrooms.
The mushrooms have thrived in the damp and poorly lit environment of the railway underworld. Now, the Li-Sun Mushroom Tunnel leads the way in exotic mushroom development in Australia.
I would love the ability to tour these tunnels but since I can’t, it’ll be really interesting to what Geoff Manaugh has to say about them if he gets the opportunity to visit them while on Cockatoo Island for the Urban Islands design studio.
