Edible House is a competitor in the Fentress Global Challenge: Upcycled Architecture. As part of the ‘West End Harvest Hub’ network, which aims to create a culture of farming within the urban-scape, it encourages the idea of growing one’s own food and to live, learn, and produce fruit and vegetables in the most common and personal zone of all: the home. Edible House offers a direct hands-on opportunity to learn from professionals how to reap the benefits of their crops with scheduled seminars/lectures.

Using hydroponic systems (a method of growing plants in water using mineral nutrient solutions instead of soil), hardy plants such as tomatoes, potatoes and mushrooms can be grown in interior conditions. The production of food throughout the entire year (rather than seasonally) increases using this system. 
The first of the network is situated in the laneway between Nelson and Barclay streets, bordered by Thurlow and Burrard streets, in order to activate the laneways via the City of Vancouver’s Laneway 2.0 proposal. It is made up of four rental units, each one with the responsibility to grow one type of food. This network depends on the activity and diligence of its participants in order to thrive, much like a well-oiled machine. 

With the West End Harvest Hub, residents from these Edible Houses can ‘roll out the green carpet’ every harvest season, allowing people from every part of the city (and beyond) to come into these buildings, experience farming first-hand, and get interested in what city farming has to offer.