ArCCAT Student Representatives + Square Mile Farms: How to farm vegetables from hydroponic wall installed at Marylebone Campus

In 2022, the students in the School of Architecture + Cities received the funding from the Green Fund Scheme to install the hydroponic (green) wall at Marylebone Campus. The University of Westminster’s Centre for Education and Teaching Innovation (CETI) set up the Green Fund Award together with the Sustainability Team to support the students’ sustainability related projects.

The hydroponic wall demonstrates a sustainable method of growing plants without soil, by using water through which nutrients are pumped. This method produces crops quicker and uses 90% less water than soil-based growing methods, as well as requiring no pesticides. The ability to grow plants indoors also allows ‘farmers’ to control temperatures and lighting schedules to improve plant production.

This year, the ArCCAT student reps have been trained by Dhiresh Tailor, Farm Operations Manager at Square Mile Farms, to look after the hydroponic wall, including how to carefully monitor the nutrient solution, and adjust iron and PH levels weekly.

University of Westminster News

The ArCCAT student reps who took part in this initiative are Anna Prideaux, Architecture and Environmental Design BSc Honours; Julie Beech, Interior Architecture BA Honours; Antoni Canyelles, Architecture BA Honours; Maja Kurantowicz, Architecture MA; and Marie Laura Polselli, Interior Architecture MA student.

To find out more about this event please visit here.

ArCCAT Climate Action Week: Material ReUse Station Competition winner announced!

Following the completion of the week-long design Student Competition on the ‘Material ReUse Station’ as part of the Climate Action Week (24-29 October) Group 5: The Slice was announced the winner!

Congratulations to Julie Beech (BA Interor Architecture), Adam El Hafedi (BA Architecture), Zuzanna Jodlowska (BSc Architectural Technology) and Ruhan Zaman (BSc Architecture and Environmental Design)

The video made by the winning team can be viewed here.  

Congratulations to the winners and all who participated. Big thank you to all the judges and course leaders Diony Kipraiou, Paolo Zaide, Stefania Boccaletti and Tabatha Mills who organised this cross-UG-course competition, first such initiative in the School.  

The next step will be collaboration with David Scott and the Fabrication Lab to work on building a prototype.