Greenhouse by Joost Makes Sydney Debut

Recycling the success of his Melbourne and Perth Greenhouse projects, designer Joost Bakker is shipping his environmentally friendly house to Sydney’s Circular Quay foreshore, with construction to commence on 17 January, 2011. The Greenhouse project is a self-sustaining, pop-up house, café and function centre, built to operate for its two month exhibition in Sydney’s Circular Quay. Joost plans to take this innovative exhibition to Milan for the International Furniture Fair, followed by design festivals in Berlin, London and Istanbul. Joost and his team have designed and built the installation from broken down shipping containers and packing crates, with all of its furniture, light fittings, glasses and even staff uniforms made from recycled and recyclable materials. The exhibition is designed to inspire and generate awareness amongst builders, designers, restaurateurs and the public about recycling materials and sustainable building practices. The entire Greenhouse will arrive in three 12 metre containers, which carry the building structure, stairs for the rooftop access, kitchen, bathroom, bar and staff change rooms. A small rooftop garden will feature a mixture of growing herbs and vegetables, backed up by locally sourced produce. It will be prepared by Perth Greenhouse chef Matt Stone – Gourmet travellers best New talent 2010 and his team, for sale to the public by the cafe. A Jaro in vessel compost machine and a worm farm on the roof will ensure all food scraps are composted, while the building’s power will be sourced from its own cooking oil through a Bio-Pro generator – converting the oil into diesel. The water collected from the roof of the Greenhouse will be used for watering the garden. The bathrooms feature the revolutionary Caroma Profile 5 Toilet Suite with Integrated Hand Basin. The suite features a clever dual flush button and spout design, which saves water that is normally used from a separate hand basin. Clean water from the spout, firstly used for hand-washing, fills the cistern, ready for the next toilet flush, while integrated Smartflush® technology ensures ultra low water usage. The Caroma H2Zero Cube Urinal is also used in the Greenhouse. The vitreous china urinal incorporates unique cartridge technology that operates with no water. The walls of the building are made of straw bales, which are safe and long lasting if kept dry, while featuring a high insulation rating.