Investigating Hydroponics

After deciding which concept I was going to develop further, I started brainstorming and sketching out potential ideas, with the intention of beginning to prototype the different forms developed. Based on design requirements I'd drawn up, I then decided that incorporating a hydroponic growing system into my design would be beneficial.

Hydroponic's has a number of advantages over a traditional soil-based growing system. Firstly, it is completely soil, and hence mess, free. I knew from growing my own things that it's a messy process, so simplifying it to a 'just add water' set up would be advantageous to my intended user. Also it requires much less maintenance, you can never forget to water it and plants tend to grow better in comparison. By utilising hydroponics, growing your own food could be adapted to fit the lifestyle of the intended user better.

I also found out from research of the existing market that hydroponics is often confined to DIY setups. A lot of the ready to use systems that can be bought were very industrial looking, and functioned only as a practical product, without any aesthetic value. Therefore, the opportunity existed to create a ready to use, aesthetically pleasing hydroponic system, that would appeal to a wider market.

A typical hydroponic system for sale

Furthermore, I felt that trying to incorporate hydroponics would introduce a more technical element to the project and provide some interesting design challenges.

After this decision, I began researching potential systems that I could incorporate into my designs and what requirements they had.