Greenhouse by Joost - at Sydney Harbour for 6 weeks

 "I have designed the restaurant in reverse. I’ve started at the end and worked back. My dream has always been to build a restaurant that creates no waste and now I believe I can achieve it!” – Joost

temporary greenhouse, cafe, bar on the harbourside.

This is a good reason for a trip to Sydney if you ask me.... well ... add in a visit to family, friends and such! I love the fact this is temporary set up. It was set up in Federation Square in Melbourne in early 2009 when I was there for a month so I got to see the earlier version Of this brilliant idea!

I think  should let others do the describing.

Joost Bakker’s Greenhouse opened last Friday. Visit the website for all the news...

When I said harbourside I meant it... that wash is fairly close to the open window
... must be very refreshing sitting there looking out!

He thinks of everything!

Joost on the building site

a wall of strawberry pots

The David Bromley painting on the shipping containers





artist at work.

Thanks to the support of Design Files who did the most lovely blog post on their site by writing Joost and the Greenhouse a letter today. It was also great to see you on Friday night for a drink and to enjoy our new space.

“Dear JOOST BAKKER,

How do you do it?

How is it that on December 23rd, the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority offered you, out of the blue, this amazing location at Circular Quay for one of your world-famousGreenhouse temporary restaurants, and less than 2 months later it is HERE for us all to admire?

How is it that local council seem to turn around approval on all your crazy ideas in a timeframe most architects could not even imagine in their wildest dreams?

How is it that you manage to inspire so many brilliant and super high profile local creative people to be involved (David Bromley, David Band, Spacecraft, Queen B Candles, Top chefs Jason Chan and Matt Stone, to name only a few) – with little or no lead time at all?

How is it that you rope in support from so many businesses and project sponsors (Framecad, Little Creatures, Miele and many more) without a corporate logo to be seen?

How is it that you manage to get by on about 2 hrs sleep each night, without a wink of grumpiness, red-eye or evidence of energy depletion?

How is it that you inspired this design blogger to travel to Sydney twice in the past month just to see what you’re up to?

I’ve heard from reliable sources that you have Jedi Powers.  I believe it.  You’re AMAZING.

From Lucy  ”

To read the full post and see all the images – just click here.

THIS TEXT COMES FORM THE GREENHOUSE WEBSITE... ITS A COPY OF THE DESIGN FILES ARTICLE... THESE PHOTS ARE FROM THE WONDERFUL DESIGN FILES AS WELL!

ABOUT JOOST: FROM HIS WEBSITE

Born into a dynasty of Dutch flower growers, Joost is a discipline-crossing creative who constantly draws on his ‘horti-culture’ to make artful commentary on the world’s wasteful ways. Working exclusively with the discard of human activity he has fashioned such extraordinary forms that the word ‘rubbish’ has risen from the scrap heap.Joost has been commissioned to design furniture, vertical gardens and event spaces in his trademark style juxtaposing nature and industry.  In March 2006, Joost set about the construction of a new home for his family, employing a unique building system; a contemporary take on a great sustainable construction method utilising straw bales set into a 100% recyclable steel framework. In 2008, the same building principles were used to construct the first‘Greenhouse by Joost’, an exhibition and event space at Melbourne’s Federation Square which was open from November 2008 to January 2009 and attracted 1,000 visitors per day, global media attention from major publications and over 2.5 million viewers on YouTube. A permanent Greenhouse by Joost is currently located on St George’s Terrace in Perth, Western Australia and in 2010 received the Restaurant of the Year in Perth and attracts 800 to 1,000 visitors per day.

OK.... THis you have to read... from here

I have designed the restaurant in reverse. I’ve started at the end and worked back. My dream has always been to build a restaurant that creates no waste and now I believe I can achieve it!” – Joost

Suppliers will only be able to supply fresh produce in returnable Chep crates. Like in Perth, fresh milk will be delivered from the farm straight to us in returnable stainless steel buckets with which we will make our own butter, yoghurt and mozzarella cheese. In Perth we stone grind almost 1 tonne of wheat every week and I anticipate we will use more here in Sydney.

A local wheat grower will provide us with wheat direct from the farm every week, we cut the thread on the bags in such a way that they can be returned and re-used. We will use our Flour Mill to grind the wheat into fresh flour to make bread, pastries, pasta and wood fired pizza. Oats will also be rolled fresh.

All our waste from the kitchen will be organic. This organic waste will be composted on site using a JoraForm in-vessel composter. This will grind and produce 10 litres of compost for every 100 litres of waste. Our  compost will be required to maintain the roof top garden. In Perth this year we have added almost 6000 litres of compost to our roof top garden (that’s 60,000 litres of waste we have composted!) Our cutlery is made from plantation timber and will be composted in the JoraForm, even the baking paper we source from Finland is unbleached and can be processed through the composter.

The rooftop garden is planted in Chep liquid bins that are traditionally used for transporting olive oil. The rooftop bar serves wine from returnable kegs or barrels. The beer will only be available on tap. I have also been working with Mitch from Hepburn Springs Mineral Water. Greenhouse Sydney will be the first to use carbonated water derived straight from the aquifer into kegs. This pure Australian carbonated water will be used to make our own Tonic, Soda and Cola. The house pours of Gin, Rum, Vodka and Whiskey are also Australian made and owned. Mark Douglass (glass artist) will transform the empty bottles into beer glasses as he does now for Greenhouse Perth.

The staff t-shirts designed in collaboration with Space-craft and Joost, re-printed using natural dyes, are overruns of political and business t-shirts salvaged by the Salvation Army.

The Greenhouse Sydney interior walls will be completely clad in MgO board (magnesium oxide board).  Joost has developed MgO board impregnated with Bio-Char so that The Greenhouse can store carbon within its walls! The Greenhouse steel framed walls are filled with straw and its doors and windows recyclable steel framed.

The toilets are Australian made Caroma Dorf, with the sink above the cistern using water from the hand wash to fill the next flush!  Waterless urinals are used and the kitchen and bathroom floors are lined with natural linoleum.

Joost has designed & made chairs out of old aluminium irrigation pipes.  They are incredibly light & have been named Squirt Chair! The leather used for the seats are off-cuts from a saddle makers in Ballarat (Victoria’s last tannery).  Lights have been made from willow trees and rolls of old fencing wire.