“As I am interested in waste, I opened a restaurant. » Born north of Amsterdam from a line of five generations of tulip producers, Joost Bakker chose Australia to put his projects into practice. The most successful is the Greenhouse by Joost, a house that houses, feeds and heats its residents while recycling all their waste. Cameras followed its construction in Melbourne for a year and its opening to the public in spring 2021.
In order to convince as many people as possible, Joost (pronounced “iiost”) Bakker has, in fact, joined forces with two chefs, Matt Stone and Jo Barrett, who participated in the development of the concept before returning to their profession first and prepare meals – only with Greenhouse products – for fourteen guests each evening: cannelloni stuffed with smoked trout, fried locusts on salad, sorghum pancake, salted and grated egg yolk… The menu and presentation have nothing to envy of those of the best restaurants.
But before getting there, new problems had to be resolved. Starting with the foundations, inconceivable in concrete when we know that the production of one kilogram of concrete generates one kilogram of CO2. The structure is therefore placed on a few slabs and the house weighted down by the earth dumped on the (flat) roofs where herbs, vegetables and fruits grow. The garden is planted at the same time as the compressed straw panel walls and accommodates the locust area and the beehives. For each phase, Joost Bakker explains how another solution was found, with the help of biologists and Jeremy McLeod, architect.
“Closed circles”
Small sketched and animated diagrams explain the different “closed circles”. For example, fish droppings are fed to earthworms, which are then fed to fish. The house produces rainbow trout and crayfish aquaponically in several small ponds. And the wall of mushrooms at the entrance “feeds” on wet cardboard, boiled old jeans and soil.
In terms of form, talk like “planting vegetables connects you to the world” can be annoying, as can excessive enthusiasm – “what wonderful parsnips! » Basically, Joost Bakker demonstrates that it is possible. Use of biochar, a powerful carbon sink (recommended at COP26); aquaponics (a million small ponds can feed the population of Melbourne).
Its experiments should inspire individuals, industrialists and politicians. Meanwhile, the Greenhouse was only allowed to stay in Melbourne’s Federation Square until the end of April 2022. So the experiment continues today, 50 kilometers further west, in Monbulk, where Joost Bakker is starting a new project.