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G2S – Green Gardening SysteDomus AcademyMaster Course in I-Design 2008

Third SeminarDomestic Garden in conjunction with MIT – Mobile Experience Lab

Author: Mauro D'Alessandro

Project Leader:Domenico Pisaturo, Claudio ModeriniAssistant: Sigrid Wiederhecker & Renzo Giusti

Outline: This document has been prepared as Project Report for the Master Course in I-Design according to the general brief with specific reference to the brief of the project leader. This Project Report also includes a digital presentation and a body of work/sketches.

Abstract

G2S i an interactive sysytem for the cultivation of a common garden across the inhabitants of a neighbourhood. the system aims to motivate people to the more conscious use of water and energy in a way that the amount of saved resources can be used to feed the common garden, according to its daily needs. A reward system in terms of harvest is put in place to stimulate the community towards a sustainable lifestyle.

Keywords :

awareness; sustainability; resource optimization; harvest; reward system

Introduction

G2S is a system that is applicable to different models of dwellings: high rise urban infrastructures and horizontal flat neighbourhoods. Basically our interactive system works as a medium between users who share the management of a common garden, which is the shared open space in which the community seed, cultivate and harvest different crops (i.e. food fruits, flowers, etc.). This space is eventually perceived as our domestic garden.

The system is set in a community of users who are concern about their footprint on the environment, and loves the idea of cultivating biological food for a healthy diet. Hence, our project hopes to encourage people to a more sustainable lifestyle, motivating them through a system of credits, based on the individual contribution to the garden maintenance.

Project Description

G2S main objectives:

1.To monitor the daily garden needs identified as water and energy contributions, and communicate them to the user both through a local network and a mobile web service. User can decide to satisfy these needs via contribution of their exceeding daily resources. In this case the system will assign them a correspondent amount of credits to use for the harvest sharing.

Outline: This document has been prepared as Project Report for the Master Course in I-Design according to the general brief with specific reference to the brief of the project leader. This Project Report also includes a digital presentation and a body of work/sketches.

2. To suggests user home activities in terms of water and energy consumption according to their objective. These objectives are defined as mid-long term cultivation planning. The system understands the user’s objectives and suggests different combination of daily activities. These suggested home actions will maintain the overall consumption under a sustainable threshold which allows them to reach an optimum level of contributions, hence achieving their objectives.

Through the system’s interface, the user is able to monitor his resource consumption within the home. Resources are identified as water and energy consumed in daily home activities. Primarily, G2S works on a utility system whereby the user is able to project and set his consumption rates for the month, which is defined in our project as 100%. Within this 100% of resources (Water Bank and Energy Bank), the user will able to make contributions to the garden whenever he feels that he has the capacity to do so.

The system’s interface also allows the user to constantly monitor the status of the garden. Status in terms of health, needs, and harvest periods of the crops. This information could be communicated to the user both through a local network and a mobile web service. Hence, the interface is essentially the triggering point of actions performed on the common garden. Garden needs are defined as water and energy; therefore the user can remotely decide to satisfy these needs via the contributions of their exceeding daily resources. In return, the system will assign them a corresponding amount of credits to use for the harvest sharing.

CONCLUSION

The core value of our project is to create sustainable awareness in people in relation to their physical behaviours in their homes. What G2S is doing is basically give to user a concrete translation of their daily activities into contribution towards a shared cultivation. In return of their good behaviours, they get to enjoy a good harvest of biological food.

The potentiality of our project is primarily focused on the elements surrounding the concept of gardening. Physical daily involvement by the user can be encouraged through the credits system. In this case, G2S can enhance its role of directing people towards a more sustainable civilization. To further stimulate the awareness, knowledge and experience sharing can also be possible though the system. We believe this consciousness of sustainable habits can be embedded deeper in modern lifestyles through involvement of people in collaborative activities like gardening.

Outline: This document has been prepared as Project Report for the Master Course in I-Design according to the general brief with specific reference to the brief of the project leader. This Project Report also includes a digital presentation and a body of work/sketches.

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