Informal Urban Practices
TransFarmer
The new project In our new set of informal urban practice, we decide to gather a few projects
and display them together as a small exhibition. What is different from the conventional exhibition is that people are free to take away the exhibits if they like.
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Design by Pang & Harris We encourage planting by allowing people to see the possibility of bringing that idea home and reproduce it easily. We encourage planting by demonstrating the fun it could bring. And we certainly encourage planting by addressing the importance and needs of plants in our living. The green bricks are made out of waste cardboard boxes as structure (found on the side of the road), and scrap fabrics as soil medium (found in the fashion design department). Using recycled materials is also part of our project philosophy. Our intention is to raise environmental awareness, so it is important that we adopt methods of Eco-design.
Coke bottle, Converse’s canvas shoes, Smith’s chips package etc. We make use of all the contemporary waste that youngsters produced. This enables us to also target the younger population.
Green Brick Brick Green These bricks are prototypes of Green Brick concept. It These bricks are prototypes of the the Green Brick concept. It demondemonThese bricks are prototypes of the Green Brick concept. It demonstrates the possibility to bricks that could hold and grow strates the possibility to manufacture manufacture bricks that could hold and grow strates the possibility to manufacture bricks that could hold and grow plants in it. Imagine, if 5% of the bricks used to build your wall are plants in it. Imagine, if 5% of the bricks used to build your wall are plants in it. Imagine, if 5% of the bricks used to build your wall are green bricks with living plants, wouldn’t your wall look great? And green bricks with living plants, wouldn’t your wall look great? And green bricks with living plants, wouldn’t your wall look great? And mind you, green walls are perfect insulation! mind you, green walls perfect insulation! mind you, green walls areare perfect insulation! Take one brick and Take one brick home home and try try to to make make some some yourself, yourself, pile pile itit up up against against your your wall wall and and Take oneA brick and let tryyour to make yourself, pile will it uphave against your wall and wala! green home wall! (Do kidssome help you out, they fun!)
Share Your Knowledge Share Your Knowledge Share Your Knowledge This project is by 22 person, and our knowledge and experience are limited, so need your help to the project This project is run run person, our knowledge and experience are limited, so we we need help to keep keep the project Thisgoing! project is run by 2by person, andand our knowledge andbelow experience are limited, so we need youryour help to keep thewe project Please share with us knowledge on topic. If information you provide is will going! Please share with us your your knowledge on the the below topic. If the the information you provide is valuable, valuable, we will going! Please share with us your knowledge on the below topic. If the information you provide is valuable, we will include them in the next batch of green bricks to be shared to the public! include them in the batch of green bricks to shared be shared to the public! include them in the nextnext batch of that green bricks to be toour the public! •• Good things about plants we did not include in green bricks that you think are worth sharing? Good things about plants that we did not include in our green bricks that you think are worth sharing? • Good things about plants(best that be we eco-friendly) did not include inyou our would green bricks you think are worth sharing? •• Any tips on plantings that like to that share? Any tips on plantings (best be eco-friendly) that you would like to share? • Any tips on plantings (best be eco-friendly) that you would like to share? •• Any types of plants you think are great and worth planting? Why? Any types of plants you think are great and worth planting? Why? • Any types of to plants you think are greatplants? and worth •• Any idea creatively display/grow (likeplanting? the greenWhy? bricks we did). Any idea to creatively display/grow plants? (like the green bricks we did). • Any idea creatively plants? (like the green bricks we did). •• Tell usto why you lovedisplay/grow plants or planting. Tell us why you love plants or planting. • Tell us why you lovename plants oroccupation planting. you don’t mind, Please include Please include your your name and and occupation if if you don’t mind, Please include thank you! your name and occupation if you don’t mind, thank thank you!you!
wala! A green wall! (Do let your kids help you out, they will have fun!) wala! A green wall! (Do let your kids help you out, they will have fun!)
Each Each brick brick we we display display contents contents different different information. information. Each brick we display contents different information. The The red red ones ones present present you you with with environmental environmental issues issues caused caused by by destruction destruction of of plants plants (forest). (forest). The red ones present you with environmental issues caused by destruction of plants (forest). The blue ones offer you a solution (which is planting) and why we should do it. The blue ones offer you a solution (which is planting) and why we should do it. The blue ones offer you a solution (which is planting) and why we should do it. The The green green ones ones communicate communicate some some useful useful tips tips on on eco-friendly eco-friendly planting planting and and gardening. gardening. The green ones communicate some useful tips on eco-friendly planting and gardening.
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The Green Brick
Reflect on previous projects Out of our 4 previous small projects, 2 were considered successful – the flower’s message and the misplaced plants. What we discovered from our first wave of informal urban practice is that people do get attracted by pretty flower and plants, with a little tactic such as placing plants in awkward places or some unusual packaging can boost up the effect of attraction. People do take notice of the misplaced plants and most of them would stop by to look at the flowers in beer bottles. Even though we used cheap beer bottles as vase, the flowers are still pretty enough to gain attention, the arrangement and position are outstanding enough to gain curiosity, that all the bottles we offered were taken away by the public within 30 minutes. What isn’t presented in the previous projects is the opportunity to gain feedbacks. The public took the objects we offered and our messages were delivered, but we don’t know how passionate people are with our ideas, we need more opinions and knowledge. Also the practices are too small and lasted for a very short time. In short, they are not impactful enough.
The green brick is inspired by the methods used in the flower’s message. We used the same principle: attract people with plants then deliver them a message, but this time it takes a different form. Each of the bricks is attached with a note, containing information on three categories: 1. the environmental crises brought by deforestation, 2. the benefits of plantings and 3. Useful tips on Eco-friendly gardening. In the previous projects, we deliver messages only on the 1st categories, addressing all the depressing issues, but now, we add in 2 new categories, the 2nd one offers a solution and states reasons for doing it, the 3rd one offering ways and methods of actually doing it. This is because it turns out that encouragement is more effective than educating. When it comes to raising environmental awareness, it turns out encouragement is even more important than education.-Eric Eckl, founder of Water Blog “Environmental awareness: encouragement vs education” The most powerful aspect of our project is the ability to let people manipulate. What we are truly sharing is the ideology that is embedded within the objects that are given away. That is why the new project takes form of a brick. The green brick is just an example that we used to demonstrate creative planting. It is easy and fun to make, and it shows potential to form a vertical plant wall.
Feedback Feedback
Adopt A Plant This practice is the continue version of the previous “flower’s message”. As stated in the previous proposal, the “flower’s message” project if successful, will be developed into the next stage to encourage real planting. So instead of using flowers as decoration until it dies, we offer baby plants in newspaper bowls containing soil. This is a gift for those who would like to start planting, a motivation for the beginners. Those who took one home can either replant it in a pot, or can simply drop it into their garden soil (even with the newspaper as it will degrade). Like the Green Brick, each of these plant units is attached with a note containing the same information mentioned previously. The shelving unit for the baby plants takes a “voronoi pattern” ish form. This kind of shelving is not at all innovative, but it is a relevant shape for this project. It is a shape that is very much inspired by nature, the cell structure, the bee hive, venation of a leaf etc. It is a shape that well promotes nature, which is what our projects intend to do.
The Random Vase It says clearly on our display stand: “when you are into planting, everything looks like a vase”. This display aims at demonstrating the fun and creative side of planting. Dealing with plants in the traditional way could be boring; some interesting planting vessel could light up people’s eyes and get them interested. That’s why we use the famous energy drink can, the
The Poster We stick an A1 size poster on the wall along with our projects. The poster contains of 3 parts. The first part introduces our project and ideology, the second part shows a diagram on how to make a Green Brick while the third part is a white space requesting feedbacks from the public. The diagram that illustrates the makings of the Green Brick allows people to bring this idea home and DIY. We also encourage them to let their kids participate in making the bricks and planting, which will not only be educational for the child, but can also strengthen family relationship. We sated specific topics for the feedback area, requesting the sharing of knowledge on plants and gardening as well as ideas of creative planting. The plan was to use useful feedbacks (such as benefits of planting or environmental crises that we don’t know) and incorporate them into the next batch of green bricks which will be given out. This way it becomes a cycle, you take a brick and share some knowledge, then we take that information and put it into the next display, the next person takes a brick containing the information you provide, then he leaves another piece of information… This cycle allows us to harness knowledge, ideas and opinions from the public, and could potentially make it an archive. However, all the feedbacks that we got are mostly telling us how great we are, how awesome our ideas are and how thankful they are for the free plants. The one useful feedback is someone requesting to find us on the internet, so the next thing we did is create a Facebook account!
Informal Urban Practices
TransFarmer
bom was to hide plants anywhere in city and let people notice them when they grow to a certain size. However, the limited soil couldn’t store enough water, causing most of the plants to die. Through our testing, we realise that vine has very survival power and it could growing in water without any soil medium. The fishing lines are used to support the bottles but its main purpose is to direct the veins growth. We tested this idea on the No.2 Yarra River Bridge. We decided to display them during the evening as this is the time where most people would walk pass towards the train station. The responses of people felt good and they are generally interested in what we were doing. However, when we went back on the next day, those bottles were gone. Although this project was not fully successful, people still get some ideas of creative planting and they seemed to like it.
Facebook After displaying for 2 days, we created a facebook account. Uploading photos and writing notes about the projects we’ve done so far. Then we post a notice on the wall where we displayed our projects announcing that we are on facebook. We see opportunity to create a community on the internet that is passionate about the idea of a greener city. We could exchange ideas and knowledge via facebook and plan for new informal urban practice. By then, more people will be taking part with us!
Migrating Vine This is the furthur development of the Green Time Bom. It is made using beer bottles, fishing lines and crawling plants. The idea of the Green Time
Public’s Reacation
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Design by Pang & Harris