Nature and Biodiversity

Say hello to the Growroom, your new indoor garden

Trollies are seen outside an IKEA Group store in Roissy-en-France, France, February 29, 2016. REUTERS/Jacky Naegelen/File Photo - RTSNI0W

Furniture giant IKEA have designed a flat-pack garden. Image: REUTERS/Jacky Naegelen

Leanna Garfield
Innovation Reporter, Tech Insider

Space10, Ikea's innovation lab, has designed a piece of living furniture that can feed quite a few people, from the looks of it.

Called the Growroom, it's a flat-pack spherical garden that grows plants, veggies, and herbs.

"Standing tall as a spherical garden, it empowers people to grow their own food much more locally in a beautiful and sustainable way," its designers write on Medium.

Though Space10 launched the Growroom in late 2016, the designers just made the plans open-source. You can download the instruction manual on Space10's site.

Measuring about nine feet tall, the Growroom lets you grow plants indoors.

Image: Alona Vibe

You can also sit inside and admire the crops.

Image: Alona Vibe

Though the Growroom pictured below features mostly plants, the structure can grow anything, including fruit, herbs, and vegetables.

Image: Alona Vibe

Made of 17 sheets of plywood, you can build the structure with a rubber hammer, 500 stainless steel screws, and a milling machine.

Image: Niklas Adrian Vindelev

The instruction manual only has 17 steps.

Image: Niklas Adrian Vindelev

The pieces attach together like most Ikea furniture. They can be hammered together with nails.

Image: Niklas Adrian Vindelev

The first Growroom was built in 2016, and exhibited at the Chart Art Fair in Copenhagen pictured below. The latest version doesn't include any metal parts.

Image: R Hjortshoj

Shipping Growrooms in flat-pack boxes over large distances to Ikea's stores would've conflicted with the goal of the project, which is to promote local agriculture, according to the designers.

Image: Alona Vibe

"Local food represents a serious alternative to the global food model. It reduces food miles, our pressure on the environment, and educates our children of where food actually comes from," Space10 writes.

Image: Alona Vibe
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