Design+Innovation: Family Panels

As part of the Design and Innovation class I am taking this year, we are designing a vertical gardening unit for a transitional housing complex in Newport News, called Menchville House. Menchville House provides temporary housing for women and their children. We were each tasked with researching precedents and examples of agriculture and shelter before we started on our own designs.

Examples of Vertical Gardens

None of our schemes would be this grand or elaborate, but the organization and structures helped give us inspiration for our much much smaller designs. We took design precedents from all over the world. We looked at hydroponics, vertical gardens, examples of combined agriculture and architecture, as well ass mobile gardens. We did not ultimately include the shelter portion in our designs, since shelter is already provided by Menchville House.

Problems

The greatest problem at Menchville House that we attempted to address was the lack of fresh fruits and vegetables for the families there. This was a result of a combination of things, from the lack of knowledge in how to cook things, as well as convenience of boxed recipes.

After speaking to the executive director of Menchville House, Ms. Silvia, we saw that some added value of the project would be to provide a source of income to the women, by being able to sell their produce to local farmer's markets. Menchville House intends to help the women be able to sustain themselves after their stay and foster a culture of self-sufficiency.

Another goal was to get the children engaged. This could be done by growing colorful foods, like eggplant, bell peppers, and tomatoes. Allowing the kids to grow their own vegetables and fruits would allow them to become personally invested in the gardens, as well as providing an opportunity for outdoor interaction for the families.

Design Precedent

I had two main sources of inspiration for my design. First was the Vertical Garden Wall in Alingsas, Sweden. The simple pocket system was something I felt could be easily replicated, and in practice, it was a very attractive solution that allowed variety and control of the entire system. My second source of inspiration was already a commercial product that included the vertical wall system, that could be scaled down to accommodate various gardening solutions. It is called the Florafelt system, and utilizes 100% recycled PET plastic (from plastic bottles) to make the felt pockets for the plants.

Vertical Garden Wall installation at Alingsas, Sweden

Florafelt Gardening System with built-in irrigation 

Solution

I named my design Family Panels in reference to the women and children who would be using it. It is a wall based system that would provide color, produce, and hopefully profit. Each family will have its own panel, which is completely customizable . Each panel will have a large topmost pocket for the mother and several pockets below for the children. Both the panels and pockets can come in a variety of colors.

The recycled plastic bottle felt is something that is already produced in large quantities, and therefore readily available. The other advantages of the material are its moisture-wicking properties, the ability of roots to grow into the material, its economy, and light weight.

SketchUp model of my design. The south side of the building is 23 feet, so it
can easily hold panels for each of Menchville's families. The frame is made of wood, and takes up very little space. 

The panels will be sewn together by each family's mother, to foster home economics skills, and to give a sense of ownership. The colors for the panels and the pockets on each panel will be chosen by both the mothers and the children. The dimensions for the panels and pockets will be simple for easy construction, being 1 foot wide and 8 feet tall. The pockets for the mothers would be 8 inches by 8 inches, and the children' pockets would be 6 inches by 6 inches. The frame will be made of wood and the panels can hang off of the frame on hooks.

Front elevation of the Family Panels

Mother and Child Pocket Details

The next phase of the design is when we bring our designs together as a group. Thanks for reading!