No Lot is Vacant, a roof top public installation produced for EDIT 2017 encouraged a new way of thinking about how we nourish urban lands. The 2000 sq ft garden featured site-foraged plants spontaneously growing in the vacant lot of the EDIT building collected by Ecoman, and organic herbs and vegetables grown nearby on a vacant lot activated by Bowery Project, a team of young urban farmers. The space was pollinated by the abstracted steel petals of designer Andrew Jones’ The Battery Chair for Maglin. The rooftop border was a 20M long skyline viewing bar designed with site-salvaged rail timbers. In collaboration with building owner Great Gulf, a patch of commercial lawn was left unmown and unirrigated through the summer to reveal the latent beauty and diversity of a vibrant urban-hardy meadow.

EDIT: Expo of design, innovation and technology was a ten-day symposium produced by Design Exchange in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The event, attracting 35,000 people to the former Unilever soap factory in Toronto’s Port Lands, challenged visitors to consider how to make the world a better place. 

Special thanks to:  Shana Levy, Nina Boccia (DX), Elizabeth Pagliacolo and DX/EDIT(Joe Sellors and Ian McLaren), Jonas Spring and Ecoman (Gabriele Franke and Daniel Vandervoort with Andrew Abraham and Dave Vasey), Michela Sutter, Deena Del Zotto, Rachel Kimel and Bowery Project volunteers, Andrew Jones and Maglin Site Furniture.