A Garden That Recharges Your Cell Phone

The elevated garden in Queens, New York this summer won't just provide organic veggies to the neighborhood — it'll also let you recharge your cell phone. New York-based WORK Architecture Co. won a contest to come up with a temporary use of the courtyard at the P.S. 1 Community Art Center, with a plan to bolt together cardboard tubes in a honeycomb pattern that goes up to 30 feet above the ground. The tubes will go in clusters: Six tubes of the same plant will be arranged around one empty tube. And the columns holding up the whole thing will use solar-power to do things like emit cricket sounds, or charge that cell phone. More images below the fold. More »