Babylon is a sophomore year project focusing on a hanging garden system for plant enthusiasts.
Big problem in a small world
For those with a small kitchen space, the desire to grow their own cooking herbs is impeded by available space and subsequent accessibility.
Materials
Babylon is a two halved shell created with rotational molding using recycled HDPE to achieve the sculptural shape. To hang it comes with para-cord, a super durable attachment rope.
Solution
Babylon takes advantage of 3D space that goes unused even in small apartments: Ceilings, walls, and airspace.
How did we get here?
The process of discovering Babylon
How might we help apartment dwelling urbanites successfully grow herb gardens within limited spaces?
Lindsey’s Set up
-D.I.Y. Set- up instead of purchasing indoor gardening products because it is visually appealing as well as functional, and because products on the market are too expensive for what they are when you can just make something cute yourself.
Biggest pain point with current set-up
-Water frequently spills out when watering plants
-Tricky to access plant
-No drainage (although herbs rarely have root rot problems)
User interviews and observations
An Artistic Archetype
All interviews were conducted with individuals who considered themselves artists, or avid creators and lived in cramped spaces, as well as self-identified as “plant Parents”
Plant management and form language
Inspirations
Ross Lovegrove Water bottle
While not eco-friendly it mimics what product is being housed. Seamless.
Kokedama
Hanging gardens
Control the roots and you control the plant. Beautiful, calming, and culturally unique.
Brancusi's
Bird in space
Elegant and iconic sculpture. An excellent example of form exploration.
Bonsai
Sculptural gardening
Constant control yielding
complex beauty. A truly masterful craft that tames nature's wildness.
Sleek, Intelligent
Competitors
Modular and integrated
Ikea's Bittergurka
Adeeing Pocket
Maximizes space
Tiered Fiber Pot
Basic Classic
Aerogarden
Luxury, Intelligent, Spatially inefficient
Key Research
Capillary action
Plants eat and drink from their roots using a process called capillary action. In Layman's terms, water can flow in narrow spaces (like a straw) without the assistance external forces.
Delicious Artistry
Herbs
Most herbs reach an average height of 12- 15 inches and require daily watering. They thrive best in nutrient rich, loamy soils.
Ideation
After synthesizing the insights gained from research on user and plant needs, I jumped into exploring different forms and solutions.
The initial round of ideations and prototypes related to difficulty of access. Lindsey, our top user, loved her DIY set up because of it's modularity and artistic traits. As I Ideated I moved further towards sculptural forms with modular aspects to incorporate more "Lindsey". I chose the top ideas and mocked them up to examine functionality.
Prototyping
Initial Prototype 1
Can a magnetic strip be powerful enough to hold plants and gardening support Items?
Initial Prototype 2
Interior space does not support multiple plants on each face. Also, It is hard to interact with plants without some protrusion
Initial Prototype 3
Taking the planters outside of the connecting shape leaves room for an interior water source. How to refill and interact with this water source?
Initial Prototype 4
Can the planter be it's own light source as it is an indoor garden? How does the garden attach to spaces? Will this over complicate the product?
Final Direction
With a hollow center plants can "sip" directly from a water source. Each planter is modular so user can detach from the sculptural form. The capillary drinking tubes act as a stand for the planters when user handles them individually
Use Case
Marketing Strategy
User finds out about Babylon through affiliated marketing techniques and receives a customized special product.
Functional Art
Babylon is for the creatives, the nurturing, and the sustainable people of a modern world. This project is all about sculptural practicality and mixing artistic sensuality with useful product design. Cook in your kitchen, with herbs you grew yourself, and celebrate that activity even when you are not actively engaging with it.
COLORWAYS
COLORWAYS
The end…
Or is it?
This was one of the very first projects I ever developed and while it is cute it could use some more massaging. One way I have begun to re-develop this project is to shift the planter’s purpose away from herb + food + kitchen focused plants and to gear the hanging garden towards propagation vessels.
For one, when interviewing my users, all had a collection of various glassware filled with plants they were attempting to root out and secondly there is a market opportunity for a propagation garden as not specifically designed for this purpose currently exist outside of re-rooting kits on Amazon.
There is also an opportunity for the form of this product to mature since I have developed since originally designing this piece.
