3d rendering of plant pods

Peer Comments

Richard
http://richardtrajcevski.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/silver-fern-water-recycling-disk-rack.html#comment-form

Oun
http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6561537982608082039&postID=6036589028779704071&isPopup=true

Rachael
http://rachaelsigley.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/final-design-poster.html#comment-form

Roman
http://romanradoczy.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/poster-bioinspired.html

Christine
http://mad-attic.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/rationale.html#comment-form

CAD Drawing

User guide

Product poster

The brief for this project was to develop a bio-inspired domestic storage system. Our team decided to focus on the storage of plants.  As part of our research we took surveys and gathered information on trends, biomorphic and bio-mimicked products, as well as existing storage solutions.

Once we collected our data, I decided to focus on two main problems people in apartments were having, 1: lack of balcony space to have a lot of pot plants, and 2: neglect to water the plants. To solve the problem of having little space on the balcony I designed a stackable modular pot plant stand. With this system users are able to build up their gardens with either a herb garden or small flowering plants. The parts are able to rotate so that if you have one plant that it starting to grow tall you can rotate it so that it does not interfere with the other pots. Or perhaps you would like to put it in a corner, so the user can manouver it to fit into the corner. The stem of the design is bio-inspired by a tree, and how a branches come from the trunk like the pods, the stem of the design is weighted down by the pot that it’s in just like a tree is rooted into the ground for stability.

Some of the interviews I conducted were from people who lived busy lifestyles and always forgot to water their plants. To overcome this I thought I’d look at how plants store water and nutrients. The cactus is well known for being able to survive in arid conditions and have roots that seek water supply. The self watering system in this design is inspired by this. The water in the reservoir wont drown the plant but will keep the soil at the bottom moist enough for the plant to stay hydrated.

the design is made entirely up of polyproplene. This plastic is durable and easily mass manufactured due to the injection moulding process. Having the product all one material also means that at the end of life there is no need to dismantle and sort into different parts, and can be melted back down to make something else new and wonderful!

video review: An Inconvenient Truth

An inconvenient truth talks about the effects of climate change and CO2 emissions effects on our environment. In this movie, Al Gore, is trying to spread the word on what human technology and industrialisation has done to our water supply, deforestation, soil erosion and extinction of wildlife. He also talks about the domino effect the melting glaciers have on the wildlife and the weather. There are steps we can take to reduce our carbon footprint and bring the emissions down to below what they were in the 70’s.

There are many sceptics out there who don’t believe that global warming is a problem and that looking back on the history of the earth glaciers have melted and reformed again. Have they not realised that since the beginning of industrialisation our output of co2 and other gases has increased speeding up the process that is meant to happen naturally. And with all that we are taking from the earth, what we are mining, the oil being pumped from the ground, the lakes we’ve drained for our agriculture, the forests we’ve cleared for urbanisation, we are not replenishing, which will in turn diminish if we don’t act soon enough.

Global warming is not only about the earth getting warmer. It is about how every living creature on this earth is being affected. For example, when the oceans get warmer the storms become stronger and more frequent, not only that but there are storms that are forming in areas that never have experienced hurricanes before like off the coast of Brazil. The coral reefs are dying which are homes to many marine and plant life. In the movie, Al talks about the migration of pine beetles and in the winter they are killed off but with winter getting warmer they are eating away at the trees and the pine forests are dying, which also means there are even less trees to filter the co2 gases. Not only that, but if the waters rise many coastal cities will become submerged and millions, maybe billions of people will be displaced.

There are steps we can take to reduce our carbon footprint. Al Gore showed a graph of the predicted gas emissions in the next 50 years if we keep going the way we are. The figures grew exponentially from present day to 50 years in the future. He outlined that if we all, as a global community used energy efficient appliances, reduced the amount of fossil fuels we use currently and use renewable energy we can reduce the predicted figured by a few percent each time. If we not only use less but we replenish our resources we will reduce it even more.  

As industrial designer students, I believe we should all watch this and learn about how each action has a consequence, whether it be good or bad. As designers, we can look to change the world with how we design by using sustainable materials, thinking about the end of the products life and how it will can be disposed or reused. We can look to changing the ways we do things to be more sustainable. Or by designing homes or appliances that will help people be kinder to the environment, or by making it easier for people to do the right thing.

Storage concepts

Below are some concepts for our bio-inspired storage systems. Our group is working on a range of ways to store plants. We conducted interviews and looked at what the trends are for pot plants in medium to high density housing. Most people said that they would like to have more plants on their balcony/courtyard, people with kids didn't keep potted plants indoors in case their pets or children ruined them, some people didnt keep plants indoors for fear of water leakage. 

Here is a coffee table based on the principle of the natural occuring water table. It is a glass case terrarium that has a lid that lifts up so you can water it. The water seeps through to the layers of soil, sand, charcoal and mineral rocks to filter the grey water being used. The water is then collected into a tray underneath which can be pulled out and the water can be used again.

the above concept is a floating shelf system that uses the same principle as the terrarium coffee table.

here is a planter that was inspired by the shape of a turtle shell. the planter boxes are arranged so that they sit off the ground and more plants can be potted. this also has a clever irrigation system inside that lets the water run from the top and trickles down to the lower planter boxes and excess water is collected and can be reused.

above is a planter system inspired by the heliconia flower. Its flowers come off a single stem so nutrients are provided to the ends from the roots.