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Joost Bakker’s home in Melbourne, called Future Food System, was built on a zero-waste principle of urban living.

Carbon-neutral and zero-waste construction projects are not a new phenomenon, and people all over the world have been coming up with innovative new ideas for building eco-friendly homes

In most cases, those homes are in rural areas where owners have the opportunity to take advantage of what nature has to offer.

But it’s great news to hear of people finding urban solutions, considering that’s where the majority of the global population lives.

Joost Bakker has managed to achieve just that in Melbourne, Australia, where he has created a living space in Federation Square, a prime real estate area.

Called Future Food System, the home was built on a zero-waste principle.

What’s fascinating about this story is the extent to which the project was managed, which was reported in The Design Files.

“Even the timber is naturally felled: wood panels in the corridor were made from a 130 year old cypress tree in Ballarat that was struck by lightning! Every angle of this house’s structure has been thought through, and every possible function of the home mitigates waste, re-directing by-products into useful outcomes."

While the location made this quite an expensive project, the ideas and methods are simple enough for people to use in any kind of urban setting. 


Chris is one of GreenCitizen’s writers who has been a long-time advocate of individual responsibility when it comes to the environment. He shares GreenCitizen's passion for making the world a better place every day of the year.

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