Now, you can even bring urban farming indoors with Grobrix’s low maintenance vertical farming system. We speak to founder Mathew Howe to find out more.
No matter where you go in Singapore, chances are you’ll stumble upon an urban farm—stretched across the open deck of a multi-storey carpark in Ang Mo Kio, perched atop the sky garden on level 51 of CapitaSpring, or even scattered around the halls of residence in Nanyang Technological University. Lush and vibrant, these urban farms do more than just spruce up outdoor areas—they also contribute to Singapore’s food security by reducing our reliance on foreign food imports. The next step? To give Singaporeans the ability to grow their own food as well.
Enter Grobrix, a soilless vertical farming solution that aims to bring their take on urban farming into homes and commercial spaces. While they might not be pioneers in this particular industry, what sets Grobrix apart is that their indoor farming solution blends functionality with aesthetics.
Modular, efficient, and sleek, Grobrix’s aeroponic wall system was designed to resemble a living green wall, without compromising on its power and water efficiency, and ease of use. “By making the system look attractive, I hope that people will want to use it in a variety of interesting places,” shares Mathew Howe, Founder, Designer, Farmer, and self-proclaimed Tinkerer at Grobrix, located at The Curie in Singapore Science Park. This approach has proven to be a success. Since Grobrix’s inception in 2020, it’s been adopted for use not only in homes across the country, but also in a variety of spaces, including Oasia Resort Sentosa, Studio M Hotel, Little Farms in Tanglin Mall, and even the LinkedIn Singapore HQ.
But curiously enough, Mathew never intended to start a business out of this, much less grow the brand into what it is today. “It started as a hobby, and then just snowballed,” he says. Now we’re even more intrigued. We sat down with Mathew for a chat about how Grobrix came to be, the technology behind it, and the common misconceptions people have about urban farming solutions.