03 March 2013

Aquaponics at Mediamatic

Yesterday I went to discover an exhibition at Mediamatic, I was attracted by the fact that the website stated they were builing an Aquaponics culture. In short, it is a sustainable set-up where you can grow fish and small lobsters in water, and plants on the other layers, without any waste. The fish excrement is used as nutrients for the plants and the plants in turn filter the water.

I have to say it seemed to me like a very complex setup, for which you still need electricity to pump the water (so not entirely sustainable) and the vegetables were not yet impressive. However the idea is interesting and there were these magnificent mushrooms growing in the humid air. They're edible, and apparently the people working there help themselves when they want a snack.
Mediamatic is a great place because it is always in transformation and the projects get you thinking. Yesterday there was not yet much to see, but soon this huge warehouse will be full of projects: t-shirt design station, a restaurant (serving those veggies), a distillery making jenever from waste and the 'Tosti factory' where the whole process of producing a Tosti (toasted ham and cheese sandwich) will be explored from beginning to end. A field has been prepared (in this old shipyard) to grow grain for the bread, a cow will be kept for cheese as well as 2 pigs. The whole process will take 7 months. I think this is a wonderful way of creating awareness about where our food comes from and what it takes to prepare it from scratch.

All this was very kindly explained by an intern working there who took the time to show us around. I look forward to going back there to see more when the projects will be more advanced.

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