InsideOut subverts the traditional relationship between “served” and “servant spaces”. This experimental prototype of urban farming combines a closed loop of hydroponic greenhouses, aquaponic aquariums, and test kitchen laboratories for the purpose of exploration, education, and entertainment. Formally, InsideOut is expressed through the intersection of light filled, glass shells, and more monolithic appearing rectangular bars. Throughout these intersections, greenhouses and aquariums are suspended, allowing the users to move around, under, and-in the case of the greenhouses-within these unique environments. A field of pipes which support the growth of hydroponic vegetation are arrayed throughout the entire building, obscuring and revealing each threshold. The total artificiality of this lush environment questions the idea of natural vs. unnatural, as rather than a canopy of branches and root systems, the users are enveloped by pipes and water circulation systems. The pattern which runs across the facade further pushes this natural mimicry, with the varying opacities of grit across the glazed shells controlling the amount of light which reaches the interior. Because of this projects scale, the role of InsideOut is intended to be prototypical, and to provide a controlled environment where pushing the limits of these urban agricultural systems can be explored.
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