While the Greenhouse grew from an empty site in Federation Square, Annemarie Kiely, Earl Carter and Studio Pip and Co. nailed down Joost, made sense of the Greenhouse project and all the ideas flying in his world.

As the structure had not been built before, the best one could describe and illustrate the project is by illustrating the materials, methods and contributors to the project – the recycling guy, the compost man, the builders, the raw ingredients, the food, straw bails, steel, the furniture, the fittings…

The publication is designed to have many uses. Of the six four page sections, the outer four page sections are two sided posters, the two inner sections remaining house all the written information. This outcome allows Joost, or the user, to use the posters for publicity and promotional purposes, while leaving the written information intact.

The publication was pulled together (the concept, layout design, additional writing, and proofing) in a little over two weeks, the photography and writing component over eight weeks. The straw bail on the front cover was a last minute inspiration. The cover offers the opportunity to set the tone of the publication – the straw bail was the perfect image, as it is a key building material that maintains the temperature within the Greenhouse itself. It is also an unconventional, simple and evolutionary building product.

Joost was attracted to using newsprint technology as a printed product – it a process that can come together rapidly, it is inexpensive and the end product can be recycled, or composted easily. Newsprinters based in Shepparton was then introduced and brought their knowledge and experience to the piece. Newsprinters specified a unique news printer paper made from 77% recycled paper, – Nornews 45gsm, by Norske Skog manufactured in Albury, NSW. All that was left was to upload artwork, a high resolution PDF document, to Newsprinters internet server, then overnight proofing, plates, printing and delivery back to Melbourne within 18 hours, ready for the when the doors opened to the public.

The Greenhouse paper is available from the Greenhouse and selected sites in Melbourne. If you take a copy, remember after use  to put it back into the system – pass it onto friend, or go out of your way to have it recycled or composted.

Thanks to all the contributors, visit Earl Carter, Studio Pip and Co, and Newsprinters here.

Please note that there is a little more to do to complete the site and the Greenhouse will be open from 4pm from 31 October to 02 November and then normal hours as advertised. Andrew from Studio Pip and Co. sent us these images his iphone of the night.

The crew make finishing touches

Crew tee by Joost available from the Greenhouse

Strawberry wall

Inside the Greenhouse featuring views of Flinders Street and artwork by artist David Bromley.

Work with industry experts | Great Conditions | An even better opportunity!

Bar Staff | Floor Staff | Chefs | Experience Essential

Contact Mark on 0409920985 or greenhouse@bttb.com.au

bttb are renowned for their forward thinking designs and have worked closely with Joost Bakker on projects at major events such as the Melbourne Cup Carnival.  Joost’s designs and ideas reflect bttb’s own approach to the environment. After visiting Joost’s home in Monbulk, Corina Baldwin and Joost discussed the idea of a temporary space showcasing his sustainable building techniques. From this discussion, Greenhouse was born.

bigger than ten bears
Corina Baldwin, Director
+61 3 9429 9277
cbaldwin@bttb.com.au
www.bttb.com.au

View map here

Melways references (2007 edition)
Page 1B, reference P11
Map 593

The Greenhouse, a self-sustaining event venue will rise from the ground of Federation Square at the end of October and for three months only will dish up degustation fare - in part dug from the garden of its own roof-top space - in a structure designed entirely from detritus. Tiny ‘taste-tubes’ (science laboratory ware is just some of the discard to double as dishes) will be served by vintage-dressed waiters wheeling ‘de-registered’ shopping trolleys around furniture made from found ‘stuff’.

Think local, act local is the imperative of this ‘waste of a space’ project that is the brain-child of one man who, having made a life’s work of trash, will show how simply it turns into treasure….with minimal cost to pocket and no cost to the planet.

Repulsed by the practices of a planet that keeps making stuff without any thought to the impact of creating more stuff, celebrated flower artist and waste wizard Joost (a man whose creativity warrants no more than a single moniker) was pushed by event entrepreneur, Corina Baldwin of ‘bigger than ten bears’, his co-collaborator on some of Melbourne’s most memorable events, to take up the opportunity of a three month tenure at Federation Square.

Extrapolating the experiment of his own home, an extra-ordinary pot-plant veiled structure made from straw bales and furnished entirely from and with other’s waste, Joost decided to take the opportunity to project its possibilities into a more commercial structure in a dense city environment. Conceiving a building made from straw bales - one of the world’s biggest and most problematic waste products - set into a 100% recyclable steel framework (uncoiled and cut on site), he envisaged a ‘Greenhouse’ that whilst serving as a platform for Spring to Summer exhibition that would serve to instruct a city on how simple and straightforward sustainability practice can be if each individual gives a thought to the life-cycle of the things they consume.

Enlisting the material donation and promise of voluntary labour from all manner of like-minded industry and individuals, Joost took his Waste of a Space idea – with its floors of deconstructed shipping crates, feature wall of wild strawberries planted in old plastic palettes, tables fabricated from redundant fire hydrants, chairs of re-structured street signs and shade-cloths woven from tiles discarded by the Melbourne Cricket Club – to officials at Melbourne City Council and expected the bureaucracy to baulk at the precedent.

“Who’s going to rubber-stamp a roof-top garden in Fed Square complete with compositing vats, a burgeoning vegie patch, rows of bay trees in recycled CHEP bins and buzzing-alive bee-hives?” But the director of design and urban environment at the City of Melbourne, Professor Rob Adams instantly saw in The Greenhouse a small salve to the heat island effect and an accessible, artful opportunity to make the public think about how technology, processes and materials are impacting on the planet and how they might make a difference. So the red-tape was cut through and planning is now underway for its imminent launch.

Lauren Roe
Consultant, We Are Hunter
lauren@wearehunter.com
+61 3 9662 1657

0418 737 500

bigger than ten bears
Corina Baldwin, Director
0418 866 958
+61 3 9429 9277
cbaldwin@bttb.com.au

Seamstress Restaurant & Bar
113 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
+61 3 9663 6363

Vue de Monde
Normanby Chambers
430 Little Collins Street, Melbourne
+61 3 9691 3888
vuedemonde@vuedemonde.com.au
www.vuedemonde.com.au

Lexon Constructions P/L
+ 61 3 9818 3098
jonathon@lexon.com.au
www.lexon.com.au

Greenhouse by Joost
The Amphitheatre at Federation Square (Flinders Street), Melbourne
Open Now! – 29 January 2009

Public entry - Between 7am and 4pm daily
For entry between 4pm and 10pm become a member at the door or contact one of our many supporters to obtain a ticket
For further information contact bttb
Tel: +61 3 9429 9277

Opening Hours:
The Greenhouse by Joost is open daily as an exhibtion and education centre. During this time visitors can get a taste of sustainability practice in world-class design and enjoy produce grown on the rooftop of the Greenhouse and sourced from organic and local suppliers.