[W]ork to create small-is-beautiful alternatives.
— Alan Jacobs (via robertogreco)
![unconsumption:
In Baltimore, the fire-damaged, 30,000-square-foot historic American Brewery building sat empty for 30 years until a $24+ million renovation turned it into offices for Humanim, a non-profit social service agency.
At the core of the building rises a multistory, 10,000-bushel grain silo constructed of stacked 2-by-6-foot yellow pine boards. This unique structure was maintained, given flooring, and opened up to make impromptu seating areas. Snaking through the building are what appear to be vestigial air ducts; periodic Plexiglas panels placed on them allow glimpses of an automated system of belts and scoops once used to convey grain to the upper floors. And on the first floor, a massive steel tank likely used to heat a mix of malted barley and water called “wort” has been carved up to serve as a curvilinear work area [pictured above]. Where large beer tanks were removed in the renovation, their diameters and positions are memorialized with gray circles of carpeting.
The building, built in 1887, is on the National Register of Historic Places; following its reopening in 2009, additional redevelopment has taken place in the surrounding neighborhood.
Restoration architects: Cho Benn Holback + Associates. Photos, by Paul Burk, and building information via Urbanite Baltimore.
See also: Earlier Unconsumption posts on adaptive reuse here.](http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ly42efjmme1qzv12bo1_250.jpg)
axial symphony/design systems
Shenzhen, China
via: todayyouinspiredme
cabbagerose:
want.
![gardensinunexpectedplaces:
Via contained:
Localize It: PodPonics Grows High-Tech Organic Produce In Shipping Containers — Fast Company
As fuel prices go up, the cost of shipping produce thousands of miles away rises accordingly. In the past few years, a number of companies have attempted to capitalize on the increasing hunger for locally produced food — we’ve seen rooftop farming startup BrightFarms and Brooklyn hydroponic farming startup Gotham Greens, just to a name a couple.
[Atlanta-based] PodPonics started in 2010 when founder Matt Liotta — a serial entrepreneur who has launched Internet, software, and telecom startups — noticed that demand significantly outstripped supply in the local food business. “[My work] in Internet, telecom, and agriculture is all pretty similar in that the goal was to find a mature industry and come up with a disruptive technology,” he says. “If you wanted to produce fresh produce at the point of consumption in a way that was economically viable, what would you have to invent to do it?”
Liotta decided to use recycled shipping containers as “grow pods,” which are outfitted with organic hydroponic nutrient solutions; computer-controlled environmental systems to regulate temperature, humidity, pH levels, and CO2; and lights that emit specific spectrums at different points in the day. The system provides the exact amount of water, lights, and nutrients that a crop requires—so there is no wasted energy (though the pods are still hooked up to the power grid). In a 320 square foot area, PodPonics can produce an acre’s worth of produce. The pods can be stacked on top of each other for more efficient use of space.
Full story: Fast Company. Photo via PodPonics.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lpe586aScJ1qdzdaso1_r1_250.jpg)
