Malmö University: Product Design
Group work within the program
2020
Purpose
The purpose of the project was to develop a product that would increase the possibilities to grow plants at home. Our surveys showed that more people cultivated for their own pleasure or for decorative reasons rather than for purely practical reasons.
The project’s target group was primarily households with 1-2 rooms because that is the most common type of living in Sweden’s three largest cities.
The result was thus a product that is primarily aimed at a specific housing situation rather than a specific person or interest group.
Digital mockup showing the slim version of the product leaning against a wall in a user's home.
Problem solving
The problem to solve was to facilitate cultivation in a smaller apartment. The idea was to design it for the indoors without the need for a balcony or similar. Growing indoors also enables the possibility of growing all year round.
We focused on creating a product that can maximize the growing space but minimizing the amount of occupied floor area to better fit in a smaller apartment.
Illustration of the steps from installation to first harvest.
Product
The resulting product can most simply be described as a room divider that can either stand by itself or lean against a wall. The product is intended to be adapted by the user to suit their conditions. The product can be altered between a wide or narrow shape and have an independent or inclined placement. It can also act either alone or by connecting several units.
The width can be alternated between 42 or 82 cm with one and the same type of boards, the total height of the poles is 180 cm. The intended accessories are pots, shelves and plant lights. The pots are designed to minimize overwatering and work together with the shelves.
My contribution
The project was a group work of four people for the entirety of the duration. Everyone in the group conducted the early exploratory stages of the work together and major choices were decided by all four of us. My main tasks, with full responsibility, were to work on the details of the shape - detailed appearance as well as how the product would fit together and function after we had decided the rough silhouette of the product together.
This meant solutions and measurements for the design of the product’s technical solutions such as the suspension of boards and modules, 3D-modeling of some of the product’s individual parts as well as rendering and visualization.
(The development of the dimensions took place with simple means but at full scale. Due to Covid-19, a full-scale model was never built).
Holding brackets for mounting the board in a secure lean-to against a wall.
Created and rendered in Fusion360.
Created and rendered in Fusion360.
Simulation of size and interaction. Model in wood and cardboard with added graphics.
A collection of the individual parts that make upp the product. Everything is meant to be modular and can be offered either as a base kit, expansion package or individual parts.