Growroom: A flat-pack allotment

Everybody deserves access to green space, but in our ever-growing cities it competes against a feverish appetite for luxury flats. And while architects drawings always feature greenery, it’s unusual for it to survive the journey from plan to plants.

Trust the Scandinavians to come up with a flat-pack solution. The Growroom is a self-assembly spherical garden that takes the benefits of green space beyond the recreational. Described by its designers as an urban farm pavilion, the Growroom explores how cities can feed themselves through food-producing architecture.

From Taipei to Helsinki and from Rio de Janeiro to San Francisco, the original version of The Growroom sparked interest and people asked to buy or exhibit The Growroom. Since then, The Growroom has been released as an open source design with people encourage to to build their own locally.

You can download the plans here. Adventurous do-it-yourselfers are advised to use the CNC cutting machine at their local maker space to fabricate the design’s panels rather than face many hours using a jigsaw. Intrepid hobbyists, cottage industrialists and DIY enthusiasts have access to an increasing number of so-called maker spaces around the country. These are workshops that offer open access to equipment for working in wood, metal & plastics, screen printing, photographic developing, ceramics, electronics, computing, CNC machining, laser cutting and 3D printing.

Flat-pack allotments like the Growroom can help reduce food miles. This is just as well, as it is estimated by Edinburgh University that we waste 20 per cent of the food we buy - either by throwing it away or consuming calories we don't need.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KuHU2X7gQ0

Ethical insurance

The ETA has been voted the most ethical insurance company in Britain for the second year running by the Good Shopping Guide.

Beating household-name insurance companies such as John Lewis and the Co-op, the ETA earned an ethical company index score of 89.

The ETA was established in 1990 as an ethical provider of green, reliable travel services. Twenty six years on, we continue to offer cycle insurance, travel insurance and breakdown cover while putting concern for the environment at the heart of all we do.

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