Vertical Gardening, Aquaponics and the Sentient Cities Project

Window farm take 2 by SparkCBC, on Flickr

Saturday, 19 November: 1pm – 6pm
Vertical Garden Workshop

It seems we live in a time where great crises and inspiring change are happening at the same time, every day, even if we don’t always hear about the inspiring stuff in the mainstream media. The Sentient Cities project takes a radical approach to animating, inspiring and involving urban populations in the shift to a more satisfying and sustainable future. In this workshop we’ll explore one thread of this preposterously ambitious project by taking a look at how vertical gardening and innovative food production relate to the challenges and possibilities which exist today. We’ll make a no-soil vertical garden (a “WindowFarm”) and have a look at how anyone in Newcastle could make one using locally sourced materials. Cheap, creative solutions is our focus.

Limited spaces available, please register with Ben Holden at ben.p.holden@googlemail.com. The registration fee is £10, which includes most materials necessary to build a simple window garden system for you to take home.

Tuesday, 22 November: 5pm – 6pm
Introduction to Aquaponics

Aquaponics is perhaps one of the most effect and inspiring ways of producing food. Not only are they flexible, low cost, and relatively easy to make, they are also learning environments which provide living examples of some Nature’s basic operating principles. Set within the Vertical Garden built on Saturday, this presentation will explain how it works and why it is so inspiring, free of charge. The session is also an invitation for community groups and individuals to consider setting up an Aquaponics greenhouse with the help of Aquaponics UK – one of the leading organisations in this field and supporters of the Sentient Cities project.

For more information about the Sentient Cities project, check out www.sentientcities.org, follow their Facebook Page or contact Ben Holden at ben.p.holden@googlemail.com

Saturday November 19th and Monday November 22nd
at Culture Lab OnSite
5 Forth Street
NE13PJ Newcastle upon Tyne

Ben Holden is a Digital Media Master of Research student at Culture Lab. Seeding the City is supported by Brightblue Studio, a hybrid architecture studio and glass workshop in North Shields specialising in sustainable design.