Grow Pittsburgh, a nonprofit urban agricultural organization, is dedicated to bringing the benefits of local gardening to the residents of the Greater Pittsburgh area. Recently the organization has expanded their scope from developing community gardens to teaching about growing food and healthy eating in classrooms of local elementary schools like Dilworth Traditional Academy. With this design-fabrication project, greenhouses were developed for schools like Dilworth Academy to extend the growing season of the produce, and thus learning, into the winter months.

 

With this final system, alternating-faced modular units were utilized to span the length of an existing planter bed in the assigned teaching garden. Each unit, assembled using a restricted material palette including conduit, greenhouse plastic, and an assortment of bolts and screws, provides individual access into the bed with the use of a folding door system. The units are joined by pin connections over the assigned bed in the fall and can be easily disassembled and stored when not in use during the spring and summer months using a fabricated storage unit.