The 4th Annual Gladstone Grow Op takes place this weekend. (Don’t miss the opening reception this Friday, April 22!) Among the "must-see home farming prototypes” to take in (according to Canadian Architect) is Cricket Reactor by alumnus Jakob Dzamba (MArch 2011) of Third Millennium Farming.

Writes Christine Leu in Canadian Architect:

Cricket Reactor by Third Millennium Farming is an alternative approach to urban agriculture where city bio-wastes are used to farm algae and fungi, which are in turn fed to insects. In turn, the crickets are processed into an edible flour—a low carbon footprint form of protein.

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The architectural language of the Reactor could be described as “antfarm-Modernist.” A large, clear, central atrium with detachable clear pods at the sides to accommodate a variety of programmes, or in this case, different bio-wastes. The density of the insects per square inch is evocative of urban living, and reminiscent of maximizing return on investment for repeating condominium units in the sky.

On Sunday, Dzamba the Cricket Reactor moves to the AGO for the Terrior Hospitality Symposium, which will include a number of “art installations that look beyond food production and preparation to draw from the wider ecology that informs these systems and open up new ways of thinking about the anthropocene, locality and place.”

Installations at the symposium will include Soil is the Mother by Victoria Taylor (MLA 2008) and Hypha by NomadicVisionStudio (founded by Daniels Faculty masters students Claire Kurtin, Nadia Pulez, and Ramin Yamin).

Related:

• Fungi and mold inspire NomadicVisionStudio's installation at the 4th Annual Gladstone Grow Op: April 21-24
• Daniels alum Jakub Dzamba interviewed on CBC radio stations across Canada
• M.Arch alum Jakub Dzamba featured speaker at upcoming Future Food Salon II