Greenhouse by Joost - Sydney's Hippest Hang

Ok - she says hyperventilating - I may have found my eco version of Colin Firth....

This extraordinary structure is GREENHOUSE SYDNEY by Joost Bakker, a Dutch-born Melbourne architect who specialises in sustainable construction.

  

Here's what Joost (pronounced Yoast) has to say about his pop-up restaurant/bar near Quay restaurant at Circular Quay which is made from 3 shipping containers-

 "Some people in the building industry regard it as possibly the greenest building on Earth,” says architect Joost Bakker. “Because it’s been considered on so many levels, it probably is.
The venue is constructed from 100 per cent recycled or sustainable materials. A rooftop garden grows vegetables and herbs that are served in the restaurant downstairs. Only local or sustainable produce go into the food and drinks menus and the venue is rubbish-bin free – only waste that can be composted is allowed onto the site."

Australian artist David Bromley has painted a mural on one side of the restaurant's exterior.

The other exterior walls are covered with racks of potted strawberries.

As well as supplying the restaurant with fresh fruit, the plants act as cooling and heating insulation.

The structure is light and airy and when you're inside you feel as though you're floating on the harbour.

  

The walls are covered in black painted environmental slogans.

They've also beeen coated with a bio-char so carbon is absorbed and held within the walls of the structure.

Water, beer and wine come in an assortment of jars. Don't drink the flower arrangement by mistake.

The restaurant is open all day but the roof-top bar only starts heaving at 5pm.

 Joost designed and made the chairs from aluminium irrigation pipes and the seats are made from leather off-cuts from a Victorian tannery. They are remarkably comfortable.

The floors are are made from old conveyer belts...

quite ingenious really...

plantation timber utensils and hemp napkins... 

Matt Stone -winner of the 2011 Gourmet Traveller Award for Best New Talent - heads the kitchen. His short and pared down menu is served on plywood boards.

 I had half a dozen Sydney rock oysters at $3 a pop - briny and creamy...

.. and a charcuterie plate with house-made tomato bread.

Get in quick. Greenhouse by Joost  is only in Sydney for a few more weeks before it's packed up to begin its European tour to Milan, Berlin, Budapest and London.