HOW TO: EASY HYDROPONICS.
Instruction Manual for the United Nations World Food Program.

How to: Easy Hydroponics (2016) is an instruction manual commissioned by the United Nations World Food Programme to promote hydroponic farming practices within informal settlements in South America.

The manual was conceived as a practical tool to support food production in contexts characterized by limited space, scarce resources, and irregular urban conditions. Structured into three chapters, it provides accessible instructions designed to be understood and applied by a broad range of users without specialized knowledge or equipment.

Hydroponic farming allows food to be grown vertically, maximizing productivity on minimal surfaces. Within dense informal settlements, this approach reveals alternative possibilities for food autonomy and small-scale micro-entrepreneurial activities, particularly in environments where flat ground and arable land are scarce.

Rather than presenting hydroponics as a technical system reserved for experts, the manual translates it into a set of elementary operations that can be replicated, adapted, and modified according to local conditions. The publication was developed to accompany fieldwork activities and to support processes of urban agriculture literacy from the bottom up.

By framing instruction as a primary design tool, How to: Easy Hydroponics anticipates a dimension later formalized within Epistemic Design: knowledge operates not as representation, but as an actionable configuration capable of reorganizing spatial and social relations.

Displace — The project displaces agricultural expertise from institutional and technical domains into informal urban environments. By translating hydroponic systems into accessible instructions, the manual shifts food production from centralized infrastructures to distributed, small-scale practices.

Expose — How to: Easy Hydroponics exposes the spatial and infrastructural constraints that limit food production in informal settlements. By addressing scarcity of land, water, and formal infrastructure, the manual reframes these conditions as operative design parameters rather than insurmountable limitations.

Mediate — The project mediates the transfer of agricultural knowledge into low-threshold instructions. Complex hydroponic techniques are translated into simple procedures that can circulate beyond expert domains and be adapted to diverse urban realities.

Activate — The manual activates food production through enactment. Designed to be used rather than contemplated, it supports immediate implementation in domestic and community-based contexts, enabling autonomous cultivation within existing environments.

How to: Easy Hydroponics positions the manual itself as a spatial device. Through instruction, replication, and adaptation, it transforms knowledge into an operational catalyst for urban and social transformation.