ABOUT

Growing Out of Thin Air
Air Orchard for UTEC / FCB

In 2013 and 2014, FCB Mayo in Lima, Peru, scored a wave of international media attention (and Isaac Award wins) for its Water Billboard and Air Purifying Billboard projects, created to promote Barranco's University of Technology and Engineering by highlighting staff scientists' groundbreaking work. Yet the innovations had only begun.

This year, the two parties took their partnership a step further by creating the Air Orchard, another billboard on which staffers grew organic, pollution-free lettuce in an urban area that contains some of the industrial world's foulest air. By primarily watering this hydroponics, 100 percent toxin-free lettuce with moisture taken from the atmosphere itself, the agency once again helped UTEC demonstrate its capacity for practical, real-world innovation to prospective students. The larger point, which FCB's work showcased for both applicants and the general public, is that engineering creates solutions to everyday problems.