Final modelling for the CNC router and booklet - Rob, w/ Simon

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In order to route the tabletop area we had to model each individual item as accurately as possible.

there was stil a lot of hand sanding to make things fit perfect though. 

The Balcony Problem - Rob

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Simon, Jess and I returned to Hanson Court for a site visit to measure out the balcony space on a typical room.

Unfortunately what we found was the council balconies were constructed so the metal railing and the outside wall were not flush; the railing was wider than the wall. Meaning, in order for our brackets to sit over the rail, they wouldn't sit flat against the wall.

After talking with Jono about this, Simon and I decided to go with a more generalised approach, making a bracket large enough to fit and then making adaptors/wedges to sit behind the wall if necessary.

 

Process photos from Rob's phone

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Old Rimu flooring from the building recyclers.

Denailing. A LOT.

Boards being planed and thickened.

Looking at bracketing systems that are already on the market.

Boards after being cleaned up.

Luke sanding the top of the CNC routed top.

Jess doing biscuit joins. 

Luke. Dremmeling out some of the finger holes.

Building the frame for the mock-up balcony.

Group Presentation to Council - Simon/Rob

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Final Concept.

This concept combines the idea's of furniture, balconies and gardening to create a unique personal gardening unit for balconies. 

The concept is a table that mounts onto an outdoor balcony. It houses two planter boxes, one deeper than the other, and with one that hangs over the edge of the baclony. The table acts as a food preperation area, with a slight gradient that goes down to a trapdoor to a compost bin. This bin allows waste to be re used on the plants in the garden, with compost and water fertiliser being collected in it.

 

Research

 Problem:

We found that the problem was that the people of these flats had no personal garden spaces. To combat this we thought a balcony garden would be the best idea. Using hydroponics they could grow their own garden right on the balcony.

Hydroponics:

Growing plants in a water holdings with no or little soil.

Marijuana-wick-grow-systems

 

Positives of Hydroponics:

  • No soil is needed for hydroponics
  • The water stays in the system and can be reused - thus, lower water costs
  • It is possible to control the nutrition levels in their entirety - thus, lower nutrition costs
  • No nutrition pollution is released into the environment because of the controlled system
  • Stable and high yields
  • Pests and diseases are easier to get rid of than in soil because of the container's mobility
  • It is easier to harvest
  • No pesticide damage

Negatives

  • Expenses
  • Not easy to use
  • Different nutrient strengths for different plants
  • Electricity
  • Needs pumps
  • Difficult to learn
  • High maintenance

While hydroponics has many advantages for an avid gardener, we found with our research that this would not be suitable for tenants of these flats. So we re thought our ideas and looked at the features of what we wanted to include in the hydroponics garden, to see what we could carry over to our new design.

Originally we wanted a workbench area attached to the garden to make it an all in one experience and acitivity. We would still use this idea, and have planter boxes that look much the same as the original concept, but without the hydroponic kit.

A compost bin would be added to this workbench area and would be an important feature as it would encourage recycling and be reusable on their garden.