70s: Self-sufficient & Green

By Jo Phillips

Welcome to the Nineteen Seventies, an era when love for pet rocks was excessive, water beds were the rage and a budding passion for “Self- sufficiency” flourished.

Our generation has an erroneous belief ‘Green living’ and Self-sufficiency has to be expensive, tiresome or, dare I say, boring. With the help of unique craftsmen and garden festival motivators, you too can begin your own journey of simplistic green living.

London’s streets are occasionally sadly strewn with debris, but this unfortunate occurrence inspired Polish Designer, Alicja Patanowska’s indoor plantations. With ‘Plantation’ the RCA graduate translates both the finesse of designing an innovative product from abandoned drinking glasses and the delicate growing process of a plant, through the visibility of its stem and root. The porcelain objects rest inside varying shapes of discarded glass vessels, which, when turned upside down can be used as a mini greenhouse, perfect during seed germination.
Alijca patanowska

Another innovation in Self-sufficiency is the Eco Pod, bringing the allure of author Frances Burnett’s secret garden into the home. The easy to energise healthy eco composition contains a self-watering system, allowing plants to grow with ease, whilst its alabaster pod mimics seventies minimalistic style.
Available here

eco pod

 

At the helm of celebrating guerrilla gardeners, green community projects and large-scale installations, all in the name of a greener London, is Chelsea Fringe at Nine Elms on the South Bank. Running throughout May and June the international garden festival, now in its fourth year, draws inspiration from Southbank’s horticultural and industrial heritage. Chelsea Fringe events across Nine Elms will cover all conceivable topics under the umbrella of landscape, gardens and environment; it also looks at rejoicing in the area’s successful efforts in reclaiming private industrial land for public use, linking public squares, outdoor recreational facilities and more.

Horticultural Spa & Apothecary Experience
Horticultural Spa & Apothecary Experience

The festival features a ‘Horticultural Spa and Apothecary Experience’, part interactive greenhouse part pneumatic bubble. The futuristic tea ceremony invites communities in the very core if a natural high and once inside, they are served tea through clouds of fragrant medicinal fog consumed through breathing and absorbed into the skin.

…Can we get any more seventies?

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