Black Gold An Indoor Permaculture Louis Radtke
How It Started... The Brief wanted us to design a product in relation to one of the United Nations Sustainable development Goals.
SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and production.
“UK households throw away 40% of bagged salad every year amounting to 37,000 tonnes of food waste” (Rodionova, 2017)
Initial Research and Positioning Household Usage and Wastage Study
Consumed
General Waste
Composted
Recycled
To begin my research, I wanted to see first hand how we use and waste food. To do this I studied my own family’s usage and wastage. Although roughly equal parts were composted, recycled and put in the general waste, composting had the most room for development. In my household, we compost quite a lot because we grow some vegetables, but for other households there maybe no incentive to compost.
Initial Target Audience
Small Kitchen 1
Small Kitchen 2
Students in shared house
Social housing complex
Before I started to design my product, I needed to outline a target audience. At this stage, I had my mind set on making the product as democratic as possible. With this in mind, I wanted to aim my product at poorer members of society. If my product is cheap to produce and buy, then everyone can use it. I realised later on however, that trying to design for everyone is a big mistake.
Initial Concept
I will try to create a system that makes use of our food waste. The user will be able to grow more food from their food scraps.
Initial Prototypes and Tests: V1 & V2 Prototype V1
Prototype V2 < Prototype v1 was based on combining the wormery with a hydroponics system. It would use excess liquid known as leachate to provide nutrients to the hydroponics system. Unfortunately, the leachate can be toxic, so this was a flawed concept. > Prototype v2 was based on research I did on a Reddit forum. The forum recommended that I add the worm castings directly to potting soil, and use grow lights to help the plants grow. I used both of these prototypes to prove that my concept would work. I used the wormery section of prototype V1 to start my own wormery. This way I could analyse how it works for myself, rather than just working from information from the internet. I used prototype v2 to grow some plants, with the addition of worm castings and grow lights.
V3 & V4 Design
Change in Target Audience and Design Direction New target audience -
New design direction -
Small house but stylish - want to show their character.
First house or new to housing market.
Terracotta plant pots.
Lucas Couto Terracotta Appliances.
Age 20 - 30. Busy but settling down.
Environmentally conscious.
Terracotta tray table.
Terracotta Slow Cooker.
V5 Design Development
This design would be based on a more traditional tray orientated wormery design.
Leg Developments - Sketches and CAD
Designing the legs was a lot more difficult than I anticipated. This was because it was hard to find a balance between achieving the right aesthetic, with DFD in mind, and at the right cost. I came up with many designs, but interestingly, the final design I settled on strongly resembles my initial design.
When designing the legs, I found it difficult to strike a balance between keeping to the design language, and designing for disassembly.
Lighting Structure Developments: Sketches and CAD The design of the lighting structure echoed that of the legs. These two components sandwich the terracotta.
The design of the lighting structure echoed the design of the legs. The legs and the lighting structure being made of a different material to the terracotta trays, mean that they have an important visual role to play in both balancing out the design and adding contrast. Originally, I planned on having the lighting structure attached to the legs, however, later on in my development I realised that this would add a significant compromise to the utility of the system, as you could only grow plants to a restricted height. By making the lighting structure removable, the user can propagate their seedlings in a controlled environment (when they’re most vulnerable to weather conditions), and if they want to grow bigger plants, they can remove the lighting structure and move the system outdoors, where the plants can grow as tall as necessary.
Legs and Lighting Structure Manufacturing and Materials
Main structure (top and pillars): 1.6 mm Aluminium - press formed. Powder coated in either RAL 6034 (green/blue), or RAL 9010 (pure white).
Rim, tray and legs: 1.6 mm Aluminium - press formed. Powder coated in either RAL 6034 (green/ blue), or RAL 9010 (pure white).
Fixings: 3.5 x 7mm torx pan head screws.
Fixings: 3.5 x 7mm torx pan head screws.
Lights: 3 x 3000 lumen warm white LED’s.
Black Gold Setup Instructions
1. Line the bottom of the tray with newspaper.
2. Add coco coir block (Included with purchase) to tray. Use water to expand coir block.
3. Add worms and food waste to coir. Bury the worms underneath the coir.
4. Cover the coir and food waste with a layer of newspaper.
5. Moisten the newspaper with a small amount of water.
How The System Works Grow Lights
If the system is moved outside, this section can be removed, and taller plants such a tomatoes can be grown.
Food Growth
When one of the food waste trays has been fully turned to worm castings, it can be swapped to the growth section, mixed with compost and used to grow fresh food.
Planter Drainage
Because the plants need water, they will need a small amount of drainage. The water collected here can be reused to water the plants again.
Food Waste
When this section is full it is swapped with the tray below.
Worm Castings
This tray is only used when the tray above is full. The worms will eat all the food waste, and then move up towards the fresh food waste.
Leachate Drainage
Waste liquid that doesn’t pass through the worms. This can be collected and used for non edible plants such as flowers.