Honorable Mention

Having noticed that:

• personal food culture returned recently to be part of individual hobbies;
• that peoples are realising the physical and psychological benefits of growind their own food
• that more and more people are looking for food use plants to be used directly in their kitchen…

It become vital to find a solution for people not able to grow plants due to their agricultural limited knowledge or for the ones not having time to keep up with all the needs of a plant.

That’s why we decided to combine the two macro scenario of the hydroponic technology combined to the well known internet of things.

The first one helps with the technical growth of the planet, making it grow quicker and with less usage of raw materials, specifically with no soil, using only water with dissolved minerals salts.

This helps Vertical and the user because the product needs only a refill of water once in a while. Plus it needs only a short amount of heat and light that turns into short use of energy.

The other one is IOT known as Internet of Things. This helps us build a relationship between product and user by connecting Vertical with the user’s mobile devices increasing information sharing. It supports the user with: remembering to fill the tank of water for the hydroponic system, knowing when the plant is ready to use and setting the lighting cycle to better match with personal rhythms.

VERTICAL design aim to minimise user efforts in the growth process allowing the user to enjoy most of the rewarding phases.

The system consist of 4 product:

• The lingotto: the organic substrate where the seeds can germinate.
• The greenhouse: the main product.
• The maintainer: a little greenhouse to be located in the kitchen to keep the plant alive during the consumption time.
• The application: which is supposed to lead the user to the process of growth. From the setup of the greenhouse, passing through the choice of Lingotto with the user’s favorite seeds and the management of the plant during the growth and maintenance phase, to the disposal of the organic substate with the seeds.

Use plant to give life!