Mushroom walls and waste stoves: inside the autonomous house of tomorrow
“The most destructive thing we humans do,” says Joost Bakker, “is eating.”
In terms of phrases that grab your attention, the introduction to Joost's new Australian documentary Greenhouse delivers. Again, Bakker - multidisciplinary designer, advocate for wastelessness and the film's eponymous protagonist - has long been a provocateur.
As a florist, he turned heads by combining life plant with found electric tweezers and steel frames to create surprisingly butch floral arrangements. He used hay bales to build restaurants with rooftop gardens in the middle of Australian capitals (as well as inspired spin-offs further afield). He scavenged bones from fine Melbourne restaurants, boiled them and served them in a soup kitchen.
In 2020, the designer's two decades of experience in Dutch-born, Australian-raised -concept sustainability projects came to a head when he set out to build Future Food System. Erected in one of Melbourne's busiest areas, the three-story off-grid house and city farm produced all their electricity and food. Even cooking gas was generated from human and food waste (Google "biodigester toilet"). Ambitious? Sure, but that's how he likes it.
“The most destructive thing we humans do,” says Joost Bakker, “is eating.”
In terms of phrases that grab your attention, the introduction to Joost's new Australian documentary Greenhouse delivers. Again, Bakker - multidisciplinary designer, advocate for wastelessness and the film's eponymous protagonist - has long been a provocateur.
As a florist, he turned heads by combining life plant with found electric tweezers and steel frames to create surprisingly butch floral arrangements. He used hay bales to build restaurants with rooftop gardens in the middle of Australian capitals (as well as inspired spin-offs further afield). He scavenged bones from fine Melbourne restaurants, boiled them and served them in a soup kitchen.
In 2020, the designer's two decades of experience in Dutch-born, Australian-raised -concept sustainability projects came to a head when he set out to build Future Food System. Erected in one of Melbourne's busiest areas, the three-story off-grid house and city farm produced all their electricity and food. Even cooking gas was generated from human and food waste (Google "biodigester toilet"). Ambitious? Sure, but that's how he likes it.
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