PROJECT TITLE: Flower Pot Stand
PROJECT STATEMENT OF PURPOSE (150-250 words):
This was a service project for Fuzhu Garden Tower 5’s Garden where we liaised with Mr. Yu, a retired teacher to create a final project that would help them resolve some issues they notified. In the beginning, we interviewed the community partners and found that the main issue from them was trash, misusage/lack of usage of the garden, and lack of decorations. This led us to explore options of improving the garden internally through our product and externally through the design. This was followed by our proposals which spanned from lanterns to nets to exhibition structure. We also explored bioplastics and various types of plastics, experimenting with heat, size, and stability, where we found #2 and #5 plastic most useful. This led us to utilize this sturdy plastic in our design ideas which had to do with making an addition to the grape trellis structure as architecture. Hence, leading to our final project of a flower pot stand on the grape trellis to make the garden communal, provide functions within the garden, foster community input, and make the garden more aesthetically pleasing to create a psychological idea that they don’t want to throw trash away in an attempt to resolve trash littering issues.
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
Thesis: If we can create a structure that creates communal interaction and make the garden something that the community wants to protect, the issue of trash littering will be resolved.
The research that we did to arrive at this idea was mainly from past presentations, namely from this link Presentation and Proposed Solutions
From the initial presentation we received a lot of feedback on how we should go about the issue of resolving trash littering. Rather than create trash we were to create something that would want to make people to protect and cherish the garden, hence a more artistic product.
After this we would design various prototypes and engage with the community on their thoughts to gather feedback for our intended design.
For our division of work, Huaze and Angela completed most of the handwork from the tile pieces as my left hand was injured and I couldn’t use any strength with the hand otherwise the injury would be greater. I focused on doing background support by preparing the pieces by shredding. I also completed the video and documentation of the project whenever we went as a three-person group. Angela worked a lot on the designing aspect with Rhino and Huaze was more of the communicator of our group due to her skills in Chinese.
CONCLUSIONS:
The work aligns with our initial idea to create something that can help foster community and resolve the issue of trash throwing. Our project results align with this goal as we hope to make it a community garden with pots that are bought and we also think that a community garden/community in general will prevent trash littering from occurring. This project makes me feel proud from the overall practicality and usefulness. In particular, I feel that the overall design is great as it incorporates plant growing, something that was missing from the garden. In the process we encountered a lot of difficulties such as having to change ideas in the middle. In addition, I faced problems with injury which stalled team progress and had Huaze and Angela work more Despite this, we were resilient and able to complete the job on time. Because of these failures, we learned how to communicate with each other and resolve issues as a team. If we look at our accomplishments, the biggest takeaway was adaptability and serving the community. It was great to serve a community that provided a lot of support. In addition it was also great to adapt to their needs and put their needs on top of our own ideas. Having completed the project, the only things that I would change is the gluing of the tile pieces as it was slightly too messy at some points with larger holes between tiles. I would improve this by being more tedious. I think that the most important part of creating a project like this would be patience and commitment.
Presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zZ0486eclfkmul8yVpBSHTApLzxesd5qF8v_N_qzBmk/edit?usp=sharing
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