Bike trailer unit to promote urban agriculture

Overview

We have designed a bike trailer which showcases examples of vertical growing

solutions ideal for people in the city and has a small stove for demonstration cooking.

The produce used for the cooking demonstrations will be sourced from local community
growing projects, thus promoting local projects. We aim to show that urban agriculture is an
area of production that could be much further utilised whilst showing people new and
exciting ways of cooking with produce that is seasonally available.

The unit is a mobile, educational resource able to reach the public in city centres,
communities, schools and projects and act as an interactive intervention.

The project aims to help people to look closely at what they eat, better understand where
their food comes from, inspire communities to grow food and encourage people to get
involved.
Ultimately we will reach out to people about the importance of local food growing,
help them to recognise the implications for the wider global food issue and be a catalyst for
community involvement in their food and where it comes from.

Permaculture Approach

This project uses permaculture techniques, incorporating the ethics and principles typical of
such an approach into our design. Put simply, we are mindful of sustainable, green, people
issues when carrying out our projects, and use the natural world as inspiration to inform our
designs. The materials used in the building of the unit are locally sourced, recycled and
reclaimed.

Motivation

Much of our ideas have been motivated by observing key points about our city. Firstly
that there is a lack of good local food. The implications of this reach far and wide -
from peoples unhealthy eating habits to a severe lack of understanding about where food
comes from and the wider consequences of unsustainable global food economies.
We observed recreational consumer habits - ‘shopping’ for material goods has seemed
to surpass necessity and become a leisurely pass-time. We felt it important to create a
mobile unit that could be planted in retail centres in order to inspire
mindfulness about such habits.
We also observed peoples innate connection with nature - despite the above
observations it seems people from all walks of life enjoy the parks and green spaces in
and around the city. Inspiring people to grow food doesn’t have to be an inaccessible
challenge, but instead just an informed extension of peoples natural inclination to
interact with the natural world.
We also recognised that there are many individuals and existing projects in and around
the city that share our sentiment, and in both similar and different ways are working
towards the same goal, our mission is to collaborate with as many
of these as possible. The mobile garden cafe can help promote each individual project
and be used as a communicative tool between them.

Key uses

• To promote growing food as individuals and communities

• To promote local sustainability and the importance of local food and through which
highlight global food isses.
• To inspire exciting ways of cooking these foods.
• To promote vertical gardening techniques.
• To promote low-impact/green design.
• To act as an outreach tool for like-minded projects.
• To act as a bridge between individuals and projects in the city.
• To become a space for people to enjoy good food, relax, be inspired by a unique and low-
carbon design, and get involved.
• To be a financially sustainable project, providing income for those involved, including food
Producers.
• To reach communities across Newcastle and in the city centre.
• To encourage people to question their consumer habits.
• To champion permaculture ethics, principles and design techniques.