Eco factor: Prefab room provides food and energy, improves quality of modern apartment living
Not everyone can afford a lush green garden, but that doesn’t take away the desire from owing one. For those of you who wish to live amongst plants even in apartments and condominiums, the Wellington, New Zealand design team brings a solution. The Plant Room is a prefabricated room that clips-on to a variety of existing apartment types, improving the quality of living, reducing energy and water use.
Developed last year for the Sustainable Habitat Challenge, the Plant Room concept offers features like a worm farm, a rainwater tank, an outdoor space and an enclosed room. It also provides a healthy growing space for herbs, fruit and vegetables throughput the year.
Designed to shades the apartment to avoid summer overheating and collects hot air to circulate warmth in the winter, the Plant Room can also provide hot water for one occupant. The design team is building two prototypes, one to use as a travelling exhibit, clipped on the end of a shipping container, and the other as a real prototype to test.
Via: Treehugger
