About this project
Plant-In City: Architecture and Technology for Plants.
$26,985
355
Plant-in City is an art installation that takes terrariums to the 21st Century.
The Vision
We are creating a large-scale interactive art installation, a "Green City," where plants populate stackable structures inside a
gallery space in Manhattan. Our goal is to raise funds to buy materials and develop technology needed to complete this project.
In our installation we envision a dense, lush skyline, where
water flows from one terrarium to another. Visitors to the space enter an
immersive environment. Sounds of plants echo in their ears. Vibrant rays of
light articulate every nuance of beauty that the eye can see.
We're creating a space where a community who loves
architecture, technology and plants can meet. Our mission is to integrate these
disciplines into a new paradigm that changes the way we live and interact with
nature. We believe that interacting with plants will improve our lives.
Plant-in City - Illustration of the first "Green City"
How it Works
Plant-in City taps into the natural systems that foster plant life to give the plants themselves a voice. This revolutionary planter system contains built-in sensors that are activated by sun exposure, changes in soil moisture, humidity, temperature, and other natural cycles. Once activated, these sensors translate the environmental data into sounds or visuals, creating an imaginary vibrant wilderness.
Plant-in City - Concept Illustration - FRAME with embedded sensors
The Hardware: A system of stacked or interconnected planter frames equipped with an embedded microcomputer (Arduino) and a series of sensors that detect changes in light, soil moisture, temperature, etc. We currently have three types of frames in our system:
- Soil FRAME: the base planter unit that contains soil plants and sensors.
- Light FRAME: a unit with embedded LED lighting and provides a uniform and pleasant light.
- Water FRAME: consists of a water tank, solenoid valve and copper tubing irrigation system that provides a natural rain effect when watering plants.
12" x 48" - Light FRAME - Soil FRAME - Irrigation FRAME ($3500 Pledge)
The Technology
Our innovative design utilizes hardware and software solutions to provide plants with most of the care they need to thrive.
iPhone and Arduino: the technology powering Plant-in City.
The Software: The Arduino connects the frames to the web linking the sensors and control systems for water and light. These enable you to remotely connect to the Plant-in City using a mobile web app to check the plants’ vital signs and control lights or other systems and even water them.
Demonstration of our water FRAME irrigation system being controlled by the iPhone.
Open Source
We plan to release our source code to the public as we develop our hardware and software designs. We are also looking into the release of hardware design blueprints so that we can invite third parties to develop their own hardware add-ons for the Plant-in City system.
Our Kickstarter Plan
Using the funds we raise through this Kickstarter, we will create our first large scale Plant-in City installation in a New York gallery (location TBC). With the amount we have budgeted we can buy materials, electronics and plants to build it.
We have prototypes for the majority of these components and interactions. However, a significant amount of work still needs to be done in order to build all the new frames and develop the interactive experiences further.
After we are done with this production and development stage, all of the FRAMES we build as a result of this campaign will come together to create an immersive architecture full of plants, sounds, lights and data.
Pledge Rewards
$15 Pledge: Set of hand built cedar blocks (15 units ea. aprox.)
$25 Pledge: Set of hand built cedar magnets (5 units ea. aprox.).
$75 Pledge: LED Light Fixture.
$250 Pledge: 12" light cube FRAME.
$500 Pledge: 12" light cube FRAME with custom landscape.
$800 Pledge: Three Day, Two Stay in NYC. Vacation with Plant-in City
$1500 Pledge: Cedar LED Chandelier
$1,000 Pledge: 12" x 24" x 18" light FRAME with custom landscape.
$3,500 Pledge: 12" x 48" x 18" soil, light and water FRAMES with custom landscape.
$7,500 Pledge: Customized Plant-in City architectural installation commission for your location of choice. 7-10 units per installation based on FRAME types selected.
Note: Currently, we are not selling the Plant-in City until our R&D phase is complete. However, if you donate $250 or more to our campaign, we will build a working prototype FRAME for you. This FRAME will also be included in the Plant-in City installation at the end of our campaign. Donate and become a vital building block in our Plant-in City installation!
About Us
We are a group of New York City-based architects, designers, and developers with a vision. We want to establish a new design practice focused on supporting our relationship with plants through flexible, open-source architecture, media, and technology solutions.
We are a joint collaboration between *HB* Collaborative and Med44 of New York City.
*HB* Collaborative is four-year-old design/build studio based in New York City. We work on retail, restaurant, interior, and furniture design as well as on design for art installations.
Med44 is an award-winning ten-year-old media architecture studio focused on art installations, the blending of physical and digital experiences, as well as commercial interaction design for web, mobile, and environments.
Special Thanks To:
Sasu Ripatti (aka Vladislav Delay) for allowing us to use the song "Narri" in our video.
MAKE magazine & Luke Iseman for their excellent Arduino gardening tutorials which helped us accelerate this project.
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Funding period
- (41 days)