A year-long thesis project for my undergraduate degree in product design. This hydroponic garden is intended for small spaces and doubles as a Murphy-style dining table. The grow lights can similarly be repositioned to act as mood lighting, with control over intensity and color temperature. The Hydroponic Dining Assembly aims to reduce food waste and shift consumer attitudes by creating awareness and intention around food production. Simply put, growing your own food illustrates how resource-intensive it can be.
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The challenge
Globally, over a third of food produced is never eaten, wasting the resources used to produce it and creating a myriad of environmental impacts. A majority of this waste happens at the consumer level in the commercial and residential sectors. Food waste is a highly consequential and universal problem. How can an everyday object meaningfully shift consumer attitudes around food to create real impact at scale?
Research & analysis
Food waste is a market failure that results in the throwing away of more than US$1 trillion worth of food every year. It is also an environmental failure: food waste generates an estimated 8–10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions (including from both loss and waste), and it takes up the equivalent of nearly 30 per cent of the world’s agricultural land. The conversion of natural ecosystems for agriculture has been the leading cause of habitat loss. Just as urgently, food waste is failing people: even as food is being thrown away at scale, up to 783 million people are affected by hunger each year, and 150 million children under the age of five suffer stunted growth and development due to a chronic lack of essential nutrients in their diets.
United Nations Environment Programme, 2024
Concept & strategy
Given the ability to grow food within their homes, consumers will reduce their personal food waste and offset their demand for conventionally/commercially grown produce. Growing, harvesting, and preparing ones own meals fosters a closer connection with our food, effectively de-commodifying it, increasing its perceived/intrinsic value, and reducing the likelihood we waste it. The resulting shift in individual attitudes towards food and food production is vital in reducing waste at the consumer level.
Design & development
As a year long thesis, seniors were expected to exercise the range of their research, problem solving, and industrial design skillsets. The first semester included problem identification and definition, user and demographic research, ideation and concept development, and schematic design, culminating in a set of research prototypes. The second semester covered design development, user testing, and product fabrication.
Processes used include CNC milling, laser cutting, 3D printing, woodworking, and metal working.
The solution
This compact table and smart hydroponic system brings the garden to urban environments. Largely constructed from flat sections of hardwood and plywood, this table uses bolt and threaded insert connections that allow the table to be disassembled and moved. The stainless steel hydroponic enclosure takes inspiration from a culinary material palette, durable, food safe, and easy to clean. Stone handles and counterweights indicate points of interaction and movement, such as drawer pulls or locks, through their analogous materiality. In the base of the table sits the water reservoir, pump, and electronics. Smart IOT components enable the pump and grow lights to operated remotely, ensure plants stay healthy when you're gone.
Product Design
Creative Technologies
Design Drawing
Parametric Design
Design Research
Product Design
Creative Technologies
Design Drawing
Parametric Design
Design Research
UI Design
UX Research
Illustration
Branding
Web design
UI Design
UX Research
Illustration
Branding
Web design
