2.7 Landing on the Grow Kit

“Less is often more but, slower is very often better” Carl Honore, Author of In Praise of Slow

A Serendipitous Epiphany: In “deviating” my topic of being sustainable to the topic of slowing down and being more intentional, it has brought me to the realisation that I have subconsciously been choosing this topic since Year 2.

At the start of Y2, I chose the path of Social Acceleration for my essay writing component.

The case study was about Fast Food and how it had negatively impacted the health of many. Now my research for my dissertation and my studio work has brought me back to Slow Design which is linked to the Slow Food movement that highlighted the protest of Carlo Petrini against the fast-food movement in 1986.

Another “coincidence” was how my topic in my group project in Year 1 was about Bjork’s album “Biophilia”. How serendipitous indeed.

Studio Presentation

Okay to use existing solutions and improve on them
Focus on one thing, a single demographic, a single thing to improve
Instead of making an existing solution more “aesthetic”, make it properly better for the right demographic, meaningful
Target audience is very important
Try to make it as “real world” as possible

Personal Comments

Try to make it more unique
How to put botany in the office space/ home. Hence, you need to know their space.
1. How potted plants can be designed into that space as it is the more stressed place
2. Making their grey boring space to incorporate plants
3. opportunity to design things that will help office workers to slow down during their working hours
4. User journey → from office to home and home to office, will the paper marche be made at home and then brought over to the office?

That way, you can incorporate both slow living and biophilia

homework:

to be in touch with industries, alumni, collaborators to ensure there's enough resources
review target audience, begin manifestos for the design outcome
primer, bridge the dissertation to the studio, showcase what is being done in studio
- look at overall research statement
- show deliverables (but in terms of “Branding” or “Idea”

What if I can teach people how to slow down through growing a plant?

Comparative Study of different grow kits:

After seeing a lot of different grow kits, they seem to be targeted at people who already know how to grow plants as the instructions are very sparse. With very little guide for the user to understand how to care for a plant and to restore his Biophilic relationship.