Additional information
by Antonio Scarponi (Author)
By following the instructions in this book, you will become the manufacturer of an idea. This book is an instruction manual for a product that only exists if you build it. Here are the instructions. I have designed this device so that you can produce your food, using some inexpensive Ikea boxes and the directions in this book. This system uses hydroponics, a farming technique that can be used to grow plants in water instead of soil. The reason for using hydroponics is very simple: hydroponics allows you to save up to the 90% of the water used in traditional agriculture systems, requires much less space, and provides you with full control of the nutrients needed by the plants at each stage of their growth. Another great thing about hydroponics is that you don't have to worry about watering the plants. The system I have designed combines different hydroponics techniques. These are adapted to make them easy to use at home. This means that you become a farmer, perhaps an urban farmer. However, this book is not a book on urban farming, nor is it a general book about hydroponics. This book is a manual that will show you how to build and run a simple hydroponic system with some inexpensive Ikea boxes. I call this system ELIOOO.
Author Biography
Antonio Scarponi is an Italian architect and designer. He is the founder of the Zurich-based office Conceptual Devices (www.conceptualdevices.com), an interdisciplinary design practice with the mission to develop design strategies with social, economical (and poetic) impact. He studied architecture at Cooper Union, New York and at IUAV, Venice from which he holds a Ph.D. in Urban Design. In the past years, his practice focused on urban agriculture as a system to develop more resilient communities in urban areas. He has been European Commission and United Nations consultant. He took part at the XV Venice Architecture Biennale presented a mobile and off-grid rural pavilion for the reactivation of land confiscated from the mafia in the south of Italy. In 2008 he received the Curry Stone Design Prize.
