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Student Designer
University Product Description and Principal Function(s) VeggiePatch provides edible landscapes for urban spaces. Using recycled materials, irrigation technology and Permaculture principles it allows climate concerned city dwellers to experience the pleasure of cultivating food in space restricted, urban areas. Eliminating food miles, packaging, processing, and waste water used in flood irrigation at the beginning of the food production cycle. And greenhouse gas emissions, need for landfill and food waste transportation at the end, VeggiePatch allows for a plug and play approach to food cultivation and composting. Being adaptable to its surroundings, capable of watering itself, VeggiePatch gives urban residents a hands way to reduce their eco-footprints.Why does the product represent design excellence and why do you believe it deserves an Australian Design Award? VeggiePatch provides edible landscapes for urban spaces. It is a product which can be used by people in built-up environments to reduce their eco-footprints. Incorporating dripper irrigation technology with vermicomposting and recycled materials, the product allows for the user to take a plug and play approach to food cultivation and composting. VeggiePatch is adaptable to its surroundings, can water itself, and gives urban residents to have a hands on approach to living a more sustainable lifestyle.Modularity VeggiePatch is adaptable to small urban spaces as it can literally be bought by the metre, in 30cm increments, off a roll or sheet. Its size and contours are determined by the user’s requirements, with four initial base contours to choose from. Modularity also allows the garden to grow and be added onto over time or transported from one location to another with flat packed components. Vermicomposting VeggiePatch has the capability to vermicompost food waste within each one of its pockets, closing the loop in the food cycle. Food and garden waste in landfill produces methane gas. “Methane is a 23 times more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. Sending green waste to landfill is also a waste of good nutrients that could go on the garden or plants to help them grow.” ACF-Green Home Irrigation VeggiePatch has Irrigation lines molded into the product, reducing need for external components, additional materials and making assembly & recycling easier. In a metre long VeggiePatch with 15 cultivation pockets, watering at standard rate for 10 minutes will use a total of 12.5 litres of water, which is more than sufficient for most vegetables. Use of drip irrigation makes watering streamlined and highly efficient, adjustable drippers mean each container can vary watering. SeedDisks Use of SeedDisks allows users to quickly and easily sew seeds. Their format prevents over planting, eliminates the need for excessive seed packaging, and provides protection and nutrients for seedlings as they grow. Materials Using post-consumer and industrial waste such as ceramic coated cardboard, banana paper and tyre crumb for its construction, Veggiepatch provides recycled materials with new applications providing a chance to be viewed in fresh ways. The materials selected not only support the products functionality, economic viability, but final disassembly and recycling. Banana paper is 300 times stronger than pulped paper, is made from a waste product of the banana industry. It is water resistant, greaseproof, fire resistant and biodegradable. Compression molded tyre crumb and natural rubber composites make the cultivation sheet predominantly made out of waste; use of recycled rubber makes it water-proof and weather resistant, flexible, insulated, non-stick and antibacterial. Functionality driven aesthetics like swales and contours allow the product to increase its water efficiency and rain catchment, while allowing plants to have variation in light and shade. Surface decoration also concentrates water flow channelling it into the plant containers. Basing forms on Eco-design principals, plant and worm requirements, VeggiePatch provides a highly efficient method of urban farming which is simple and closes the food production and waste cycle. |
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