Students from the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam designed “brick biotopes,” made from plaster and sand, which serve dual functions:
1) as bricks, and 2) as a home for house sparrows, which often nest in cracks.
During the past 20 or so years, sparrow populations have declined in many European urban environments. The hand-crafted bricks’ design allows plants and wildlife to “co-exist with architecture.”
This video shows how they’re made.
Source: design-milk.com
Apparently, a rusty, old bicycle works well as a “trellis” — hung on the side of houseboat in Bolinas (Marin County), California.
(photo by James Gaither, J.G. in S.F., on Flickr)
Source: Flickr / jim-sf
Old and/or bent bicycle wheels can make great trellises for plants.
(via The Kirksville Permaculture Education Center; spotted on Pinterest here)
If you like this upcycling example, check out other bike-related posts here and garden-related items here.
Source: kvpermaculture.org
“Half pots,” designed by Gerard Moline (who was involved with the design of this previously mentioned item), can perch on edges of stairs, tables, and other surfaces.
Source: gerardmoline.com
Wearable planter clothing, designed by Egle Cekanaviciute. (via Design For Mankind)
Perhaps not as practical to wear as this planter-jacket, but still an intriguing idea.
More wearable gardens in earlier Gardens in Unexpected Places posts here.
Source: designformankind.com
“In collaboration with shoe designer Masaya Kushino, Sputniko! is currently developing the work “Healing Fukushima (Nanohana Heels)”, a pair of shoes that plant rapeseeds (Nanohana) into soil through mechanical high-heels.
Using the heels, rapeseeds are automatically planted as the user walks. The piece is currently in its work-in-progress phase, and is exhibited from March 11th to April 16th, 2012 at Omotesando Gyre’s Hyper Archipelago exhibition, along with works from exhibitors such as architects Arata Isozaki and Ryuji Fujimura. The final music and video for the project are planned to be released in Summer 2012.
“Experiments by Belarusian scientists have shown that rapeseed blossoms absorb radioactive substances such as Caesium-137 and Strontium-90 from soil. These radionuclides are stored in the blossoms’ stalks and seed coats, but not in the seeds themselves- which is fortunate because the seeds can be turned into Canola oil, the most popular source for biodiesel. This discovery led, in the 2000s, to the planting of rapeseeds by the Ukraine and Belarus governments in over 50,000 hectares of Chernobyl-affected land, in a move to revive the area’s agriculture industry which had been wiped out by the 1986 nuclear accident….”
More here.
I would so love to write a profile of Sputniko.
(via Design Fiction: Sputniko, “Healing Fukushima Nanohana Heels” | Beyond The Beyond | Wired.com)
Source: Wired
In his “Paradise Parking” photo series, Paris-based photographer Peter Lippmann captures scenes where nature’s taking over abandoned cars. Lovely, really.
(spotted on Colossal)
Source: peterlippmann.com
Source: the-sketching-backpacker
Barreau&Charbonnet’s Volet Végétal is a drawbridge-like urban gardening system that lets apartment-dwelling greenthumbs extend their window plots in a striking and mess-free manner.
Bonus: The entire framed piece can be removed and placed upright on a floor (e.g., in the event of bad weather).
(via Volet Végétal: Ingenious suspended window plots from France | MNN - Mother Nature Network)
Source: mnn.com
File under “things I love”: flower nails.
(Made in Germany, and available here. Via nailed it | Design*Sponge.)
Source: designsponge.com
