This article was taken from the August 2014 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by <span class="s1">subscribing online.
Financial services adviser Siemen Cox drove by Rotterdam's abandoned Tropicana water park last March and was struck by an idea. "The Sun was glistening on the glass roof, and I thought, this is like a giant greenhouse in an urban environment." A few days later, the 39-year-old was given access to the 10,500m<sup>2</sup> closed-down park and began transforming its interior. Its new purpose? An urban mushroom farm.
Since last spring, Cox has been culturing oyster mushrooms in the Tropicana's cool, damp basement (inset, left), growing the fungi using coffee waste. And in the climate-controlled changing rooms, 15kg of mushrooms are grown each week. After a successful
€20,000 campaign on Dutch crowdfunding platform CrowdAboutNow, Cox is now looking to scale up to around 150kg per week. He hopes Rotterdam's growing urban farming movement will turn the greenhouse into a research hot spot, but the park's owners are considering turning it into an entertainment complex. "This is a unique facility in the middle of a city," argues Cox. "It's best to utilise it uniquely."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
