INDN 212: Vertical Garden Design Presentation Slides

These were the final presentation slides for our group project Urb-Garden, a project based around bringing herb gardening into the home in a sculptural, aesthetic way. The primary focus of the project was centred on making something that would alleviate back pain in avid urban gardeners. The design was developed extensively over a 3-week period, whereupon we began the production phase, which lasted 3 weeks. The final design is something we're really proud of, as it fulfils the function we set out to devise, as well as being a very aesthetic piece that speaks of simplicity, but upon closer inspection, reveals a far more extensive development in production and assembly techniques.

The final piece consisted of three iterations that fit together in a puzzle-like fashion. Designed as modular pieces, the design would allow users to choose as many as they felt were necessary. The base and attached pots were made in fibrous concrete, to ensure the best strength to weight ratio, while the stems were made of steam-bent laminated strips of Ash, an extremely strong and beautiful yet labour-intensive solution. We then had aluminium pots spun by a professional metal spinner that would fit into the concrete pots.

We wanted to create a highlight on the design itself, so we spray painted the very edges of the metal pots red, a colour we also duplicated in the felt we used on the base of the concrete. This colour is both striking as well as beautifully contrasting with the green of the plants, an effect we chose intentionally.

What we ended up creating was a piece that was quite dynamic and had a good flow of usage, as well as a really quirky motion that made the whole feel quite lively. This, combined with the red accents, made the Urb-Garden a really satisfying design.

The last element that we wanted to include in the presentation was the idea of there potentially being a "collection" of different types of Urb-Gardens. This particular variant that we designed was all about being free-standing as well as providingeasy access. We had ideas for alternate variants that could be plays on the original, with one idea being a smaller version that could sit on a table or bench if the user had limited floor space. Alternatively, if the user wanted a more permanent installation, we devised a wall-hanging variant, whereby if the user had a more permanent residence, they could make a more permanent change.