HUNGRY ECOCITIES : Paths to progress Experiments
+ PROJECT
Open Source Harvesting Community
Georg Kettele & Logiqs
SUMMARY
Can we bring industrial-scale food production technology into the hands of communities? This project explores how vertical farming can become both optimized AND accessible.
About the Project: “Hungry Ecocities – openSource Harvesting Community” by artist Georg Kettele in collaboration with Loqiqs BV presents two breakthrough innovations:
🕷️ The Spider – A mobile monitoring platform that tracks industrial CEM units in real-time without disturbing sealed growing environments, maximizing efficiency through continuous observation.
📦 openCEM – A revolutionary 1m² vertical farming system anyone can build using standard Eurobox containers, off-the-shelf components, and 3D-printed parts. Modular by design, it separates water, light, and air systems into independent units—swap parts without rebooting the entire system.
Key Features: ✅ Modular architecture – easy repairs, no specialized expertise needed ✅ Built from accessible, food-safe materials ✅ Growing recipes shared via web servers – community-driven improvement ✅ Precision control of water, nutrients, CO2, airflow, and light ✅ Zero pesticides, minimal water waste, zero food miles
The Vision: By 2050, imagine floating vertical farms operating CO2-neutral in our oceans while urban spaces transform into hyper-local food sources—allowing farmland to return to nature, restoring ecosystems and capturing carbon.
“The selected artist was very passionate about innovations in the food system and had done some experiments on his own before the selection process to find out if he could make improvements to the food system.”
Gert-Jan van Staalduinen – Logiqs
SUMMARY
● Hungry EcoCities Takes the Stage at GreenTech Amsterdam: Showcasing Innovations in Urban Farming and AI
STARTS.EU, 09/05/2025
+ ARTIST
Georg Kettele
Austria
I started my own studio in 2003 when I began studying architecture.
The main focus of my work is on given, real, or virtual spaces, scale, and the transient moment of the here and now. Ongoing research into technology and development is a core part of my process, constantly allowing for experimentation within new fields, changing perspectives on, and approaches to, what already exists. Each project starts as a tabula rasa; the given is seen as a challenge, while limits represent an opportunity. The variety of tasks undertaken keeps me fit in terms of the creative process, while exchange with external partners serves as a source of inspiration.
+ SME
LOGIQS
Mobile growing systems
Maasdijk, NETHERLANDS
Logiqs is an expert in mobile growing systems. These are systems where the production of plants is done on benches that move between one, or more growing departments and a working department in a greenhouse or a vertical farm.
In these two environments, the conditions in which the plants are grown can be fully controlled. To accelerate access to honest food we want to contribute to a fairer food production system.
A system that brings the most healthy vegetables and fruits to consumers without damaging the planet and its inhabitants.
The HungryEcoCities project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement 101069990.