Jiao Xue

REDEFINING AND REAPPLICATION OF THE VERTICAL GARDEN IN PERSONAL HOUSEHOLD CONTEXT by Jiao Xue Honours Geography and Environment Management, 2013 This Major Research Project Presented to Ryerson University In partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Master of Digital Media

In the Yeasts School of Graduate Studies Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2015 © Jiao Xue, 2015

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Author’s Declaration for Electronic Submission of a MRP I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this MRP. This is a true copy of the MRP, including any required final revisions. I authorize Ryerson University to lend this MRP to other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I further authorize Ryerson University to reproduce this MRP by photocopying or by other means, in total or in part, at the request of other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research. I understand that my MRP may be made electronically available to the public. Signed Jiao Xue

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Abstract This Master's Thesis Project researches the social and environmental influences, as well as cost of a typical vertical garden in the context and environment of a regular household. In specific the project examines the feasibility of installing a vertical garden in a condo home that has limited space. Various relevant products and researches have been investigated. It is concluded that there has not yet been a commercial vertical garden that met all the criteria and solve the problems for the user group. As a response, the personal Vertical Garden project aims at bringing the green wall to regular household with easy and simplified installation, modularity and mobility, as well as fully integrated digital system control. The end result includes a MVP automatic systems that contain physical components combining together with digital interfaces. The product has been conceptualized, installed and operated at the Ryerson University. It provides a design possibility and building foundation for later projects that want to tackle the similar problems. The development of the Personal Vertical Garden is still in progress and updates are provided.

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Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Steve Daniels for his immense support and guidance throughout the process. This Master’s Thesis Project would not have been this completed and well-developed without Professor Steve Daniels’ professional input, advise and emotional encouragement. I would also like to thank my second reader, Professor Michael Carter, Program coordinator, Sonya Taccone, and the Ryerson Digital Media Experience Lab for their infinite support and constant checkup along the project development. Last, I want to express my gratitude for my colleagues from the Masters of Digital Media program, who kept me motivated and on track at all times.

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Table of Contents Author’s Declaration for Electronic Submission of a MRP ............................................... ii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iv Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Background ..................................................................................................................... 1 Future of Vertical Garden................................................................................................ 3 Limitations and Problems ................................................................................................... 3 Vertical Garden ............................................................................................................... 3 Related Work - Home Gardening System ....................................................................... 4 Product Design .................................................................................................................... 7 Product Description ........................................................................................................ 7 Different Technologies, Same Affordance ...................................................................... 8 Design Thinking.............................................................................................................. 9 Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 11 Physical - living wall System........................................................................................ 11 Digital - Data Visualization .......................................................................................... 12 1.

Local Communications (Plants to Plants) ......................................................... 14

2.

Regional Communications (Plants to Users) .................................................... 14

3.

Global Communications (Plants to Worldwide Web) ....................................... 14

Product Development........................................................................................................ 15 Physical Interface .......................................................................................................... 15 Making the shell and water system ........................................................................... 15 Setting up Electronics ............................................................................................... 17 Digital Interface ............................................................................................................ 19 Discussion of Results ........................................................................................................ 20 Cost ............................................................................................................................... 21 Future Development...................................................................................................... 22 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 23 References ......................................................................................................................... 24

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Figure 1 Vertical Garden Examples.. .............................................................................................. 2 Figure 2 London's First Living Wall (Battenbough, 2009) ............................................................. 4 Figure 3 PVG prototype. ................................................................................................................. 8 Figure 4 PVG Ecosystem .............................................................................................................. 10 Figure 5 physical unit breakdown - power, ground and water flow ............................................. 11 Figure 6 FLow chart for digital interface ...................................................................................... 13 Figure 7 bottom part - 3D design and MVP ................................................................................. 16 Figure 8 Unit stopper prototype .................................................................................................... 16 Figure 9 MVP - electronic circuitry setup .................................................................................... 18 Figure 10 Working prototype ........................................................................................................ 20 Table 1 Home automation system classification ............................................................................. 5 Table 2 Technique requirements and Material list ........................................................................ 20 Table 3 Cost Chart ........................................................................................................................ 21

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Introduction The term Vertical Garden is used to describe vegetated architecture wall surface. It is a medium that foster vertical plant growth that completely or partially cover the surface. The benefit of green wall includes improved indoor air quality, health and well-being of the residence, esthetic stimulation and reduction of Urban Heat (OTTELÉ, M, 2011). As the digital invasion penetrates into people’s daily life, environmental health has become a critical concern for now day’s shrinking living space and heavy urbanization (Dunnett, 2004). To explore the potential of vertical garden implementation in personal homes a working prototype has been developed. The garden is made up of multiple small individual unit each equipped with monitor and irrigation system. It also talks to the web, allowing the user to observe and control the vegetation. This project provides benefits to apartment dwellers and people who have limited physical space time and efforts. Contrary to shared apartment gardens in public space, which tend to have greater number of herb/shrub mixing together with large tree (Jaganmohan, 2012), this project is beneficial for indoor, low light house plants.

Background The first vertical garden used was in Babylon, 600 BC, known as the Hanging Garden (Shiah, 2011). The first vertical garden in Canada was introduced at the Canada Life Centre’s Environment room I 1994. It is a standing 2 metres high by 5 metres wide L-shaped wall covered in plants and natural organisms (Ledger, 1999). Nowadays, the concept of vertical gardens in one’s home provides a pathway to addressing increased urban population densification, raised awareness of environment sustainability and heavy automobile pollution, the concept of vertical

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garden provides a sounding solution. There have been numerous new gardens flourishing since 2009 in the metropolitan.

Figure 1 (from left to right) interior vertical garden in Canada life, environment room. Exterior vertical garden by Patrick Blanc, Sydney Australia. Conceptual green building project for Barrangaroo, Sydney.

Despite its recent surge in popularity, green walls have only been mainly used in large scale commercial buildings. The cost of design, construction and maintenance are factors that hinder the development of vertical garden into different architectural types and expanding into multiple user segments. Home gardening is still at a lagging stage within the rapid development of digital media. There are numerous products targeting various aspects of home gardening. These products can be divided into three types: sensors that monitors various aspects of the plants, regulated water and light system that sustain the plants, and a combination of the previous two. One common pattern that make these products fell short is their inability to be a user friendly and independent system. They are either add-ons to the pot, lack certain functionalities or difficult to use and maintain. In the end, these products only eases part of the pains from the user. An automatic system should mimic the nature’s botanic system, which sustains itself. By connecting the plants digitally to the consumers, the consumer will also become part of the regulatory cycle.

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Future of Vertical Garden Abel in his article (2010) provides few examples on innovative vertical garden in highrise architecture with emphasis on office towers. The term to describe the green walls used in public architectural realms is “green skyscrapers” (Yeang 2002), which promotes “vertical urban design” (Yeang 2002). One problem mentioned regarding vertical garden, is that it is constrained by the vertical dimension and by their limited plot sizes and regulatory envelopes of the large complex (Abel 2010). One alternative is to build gardens in a regular format but on a bridge that links two buildings, as a mean of new tower type and sustainability option (Wood 2003). Steven Hol’s Linked Hybrid building constructed in Beijing 2009 provides a great example. Several high-rise buildings are joined by public “skyways” that are multifunctional and filled with green vegetation. The plants that are either on the walls or in the bridges provide service to both the outside environment and the people indoor, maintaining the public spaces sustainable and healthy. In the case of the Personal Vertical Garden (PVG), the concept is an expansion from the “skyways”.

Limitations and Problems Vertical Garden Examining from the urban planning perspective, Ebenezer Howard’s original concept of the Garden City has influenced the modern urban city to a de-centralized layout (Howard 1898, 1902). In the case of Australia, where low-density settlement patterns were applied subject to droughts, shrinking farmlands and bushfires, most planning authority emphasis urban consolidation and densification (Abel, 2010). However, this makes vertical garden on multiple functional complexes not applicable. Most of the metropolises with great populations are facing

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crucial environmental concerns: the habitable area is finite, active land is relatively limited; high automobile pollution and high energy waste to maintain scattered single-family dwellings (Handy, 2002). This is an example where general vertical garden will have a hard time getting actual implementation. In addition, single focus on urban greenification only in high-rise condominiums would exclude the single-family dwelling community. As a result, there will have much more difficulties in actually solving the problems. Abel did not address any potential solutions to the problem mentioned before for Australia. It focuses solely on reforming the community’s housing structure. The problem still remains controversial. The expertise and amount of experience needed to successfully maintain a large scale green wall is tremendous. Even with professional knowledge, vertical garden can still be challenging. Figure 2 on the left reveals the condition of London, Britain’s first living wall in 2009. The vegetation is browning and lifeless. Large space of building façade was shown without any sign of plant growth. Battenbough indicates that the major reasons for failures of vertical garden are lack of “specific expertise” and significant adaptation for climate (Battenbough, 2009). Figure 2 London's First Living Wall (Battenbough, 2009)

Related Work - Home Gardening System On another hand, Existing products relevant to home garden automation are usually addons that help reduce the complexity and frustration when maintaining a plant. They are seen mostly in three categories. First of all, sensors and data visualization. These products use various sensors to monitor the different aspects of one or more plants, and then display these

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measurements online in visual diagrams and numbers. The purpose of the sensor system is only to provide insights to the users. it does not have any physical functionality to directly or indirectly affect the wellbeing of the plants. Secondly, category two is self-sustain small-scale plant pot. It provides a water regulatory system as a fundamental feature. Some units may also include scheduled light source, multiple plants slots or even stand or fixtures for the water system. The positive aspect of these products is almost zero amount of care requirement. User do not need to worry about watering the plant except refill the tank once every few weeks. The products’ negative aspect is the lack of flexibility to adjust its setting on lighting and irrigation adjustment according to the environment and climate. Last category is the combination of category one and two, moreover a complete system that are made up of multiple sensors and self-sustaining plant pot. These systems are similar to farming land, just smaller and more compatible; however, it comes with the sacrifice of light-weight and space-saving. As a result, there is yet a small, modular and light system that cumulates, monitors and raises multiple plants together. The following chart lists the three categories, their corresponding products and their feedback. Product Type

Examples

Positive

Negative

Sensors only

•   Flower power •   Edyn •   Sparkfun Botanical Kit

•   Real time data feedback •   IOT – online interface

•   Cannot water nor provide light •   Only one per pant

Support system only

•   Click & Grow •   Lilo •   Plantui 6

•   Can water and irradiate plants •   Self-regulated

•   Fixated, no custom modification •   Usually requires special seeds/plant

•   Click & Grow Smart farm

•   Combination of categories 1 & 2

Both sensors and supporting systems

Table 1 Home automation system classification.

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•   Bulky and expensive •   Space consuming

In conclusion, the two major problems this project will tackle is the cost and efforts needed to make and maintain a vertical garden, and limitations of automatic gardening system. Seeing from multiple prototypical projects, major objectives of the PVG were integrating food production and power generation. Air purification, on the other hand, are often hard to track the difference.

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Product Design Product Description This project nourishes the urban vegetation from a different perspective. On top of letting the architecture and city planners decide where and how to implement the vertical garden from a macro perspective, it gives the the people who habitat the urban city the autonomy to plant green walls in their private space. Instead of targeting air pollutions and condominiums densification in metropolis, the environmental condition of individual household is now being handled by the PVG. It is made available for urban dwellers who wish to use green vegetation to provide healthy living condition. The PVG emphasis on the affordance and user experience. One of its objective is to have the same affordance as a vertical garden, nevertheless easier and less expensive to manage. It is a combination of all three types of home gardening systems. First of all, it provides sensors that monitor each individual plant’s moisture level. On top of it there are temperature, light and humidity sensors to get overall environmental conditions. Second, a water system is embedded. The PVG sustains all of the plants with one pump, one water reservoir and multiple valves. Last, the whole system is modular, meaning it can be as small as couple flower pots to as large as covering one whole wall. In addition, the PVG allows reorganization and recombination of the plants species and layout. Figure 3 below is a rendered prototype of the product. It shows a user interacting with the digital interface to check out the status of the garden in front of the wall. As shown in the figure, all of the sensor values are displaying on the phone page. A graph is showing the historical reading of each sensors at a time. The use does not need to get in touch with the physical system directly. All of the interactions will be done online.

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Figure 3 PVG prototype.

Different Technologies, Same Affordance Typical vertical gardens are divided into two major categories: green facades and living wall systems. Green facades are those made by climbing plants without any subjection system. The plant species are usually climbers develop directly into the building wall (Perez, 2011). They use either the façade material or modular trellises as a support to grow vertically. The traditional green façade system usually results in damage to the façade materials and high maintenance cost. Recent new technologies have been developed to reduce the damage. Living walls are made of panels or geotextile felts (Perez, 2011), which are fixed to the wall structure with small holes opening for the plants. In this case, the green wall is able to sustain upholstering plants, shrubs, perennial flowers and more. One example would be the green wall system by Marie Clarke (Sheweka, 2012). The two systems differ greatly in methodologies, selection of plants and

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building materials but they both serve a common purpose: covering the concrete walls with organic flora (Ottele, 2011). The PVG will not adapt any techniques used by the typical commercial vertical garden. It evolves on the practice of home window gardening where small pots of plants were hanging on the side of the window or wall. Unlike one or more panels of geotextile felts, the PVG is made up of multiple hexagon or bee-hive shaped plant pot. Each of the pot is connectable with no particular order or pattern. In other words, the users can arrange the layout / pattern of PVG according to their likes. In conclusion, the only materials that are connecting all of the plants are electricity and water hoses.

Design Thinking This project focuses on a simplistic while conventional physical design and an intuitive digital control system. Figure 4 below illustrates a visual prototype of both systems. the bee hiveshaped construction is the actual product – the vertical garden. Each hexagon is a single smart garden that supports its own ecosystem with separated fertilizers and irrigation system. By connecting multiple units together, a holistic green wall is created. The design of the plants makes the system possible either free standing or been mounted on a wall. Compare to a typical vertical garden, it still comprises the same amount of green vegetation and aesthetic appearance. This physical design gives the user the ability to customize their vertical gardens, and is more intuitive to install and maintain by simply sliding one side of a unit into the other. The next figure illustrated a basic ecosystem / user story board of PVG. Within the physical garden (Figure4), there is local serial communication between each the green unit (plant) and the blue unit (water reservoir). All of the green units send the moisture information

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corrected from the sensor to the blue unit. If one plant is blow on water, the pump will be activated and push water throughout the whole system. From the blue unit to the digital interface, a blue signal bridges another connection. The blue unit is responsible for sending all of the sensor data to an online database using a network device. The objective of digital interface is to display the sensor data in an understandable format using avatars, colour codes and icons. This is the first layer of data visualization. The graph below is the second layer where historical data of the plants is displayed. Following along the dotted line, the variations in the graph indicates the plant’s health condition overtime and is crucial for the scheduling of water pump. In the next stage, the objective of PVG is to establish connections between users, reinforcing the idea of sustainability motivation. The ultimate goal of the project is to integrating the two components together in order to bring a seamless user experience. Although the user segment is mainly for urban apartment dwellers who suffer from space issue, the design of he PVG is suitable for all users.

Figure 4 PVG Ecosystem

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Methodology Physical - living wall System The physical part of the product is made up of hexagon-shaped pots. Each of the hexagons is a single garden that supports its own ecosystem with separated fertilizers and irrigation system. By connecting multiple systems together on a wall, a green wall is created. This vertical garden adapts different method from traditional vertical garden that is more similar to the product development of IOT smart garden, nevertheless it still comprises the same amount of green vegetation. Each of the plant (in other word the individual unit) offers the flexibility and modularity to be custom-grid into custom arrangement and layout.

Figure 5 physical unit breakdown - power, ground and water flow

The Figure above (Figure 5) above is a basic design for each of the single unit that construct together to make up the whole system. the unit has two major components: top part (soil and plant) and bottom part (sensor and water tube). Shown in the left side of figure 5, the bottom part comprises the “smart” physical gadgets that will take and execute commands from the user, and offer suggestions based on the system status. The two parts are made separated and

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then attached together. The only devices that will running through both parts are the moisture sensors (light blue folk shape) and water hose. The sensor registers information regarding the plants and the soil, and then send them to the microcontroller in the bottom part; Figure 5 illustrates several features that can be provided by the two components. the sensory features monitor the plant health by registering the resistance level within the soil. The control system will have build-in water pump that will operate both automatically or under user’s command. Each unit has its own sensor and control. Condition of one unit is ineffective and triggers no action of its adjacent neighbours. The right side of figure 5 illustrate the circuitry and water flow of multiple units combining together. Each side of each unit has power and ground connection, and the water line is evenly distributed at three corners out of the six corners of one hexagon. The reason for the design is to give user the flexibility to arrange the modular system however they prefer. This design also eases the product maintenance. When one unit needs fixation or plant need to be replaced, the user can just dis-assemble the particular unit from other units instead of dealing one complete system of sensors, circuit and water tubes.

Digital - Data Visualization The vertical garden contains two fundamental digital interfaces for the users to monitor the system status and send command. In the main interface, the whole system’s data is represented using the same hexagon shape with additions of likable expressions. This categorization allows the user to quickly develop understandings of every single plant’s condition. By tabbing on each hexagon, the single unit interface will provide in-depth

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information regarding the plant, including differentiations over a time period. user can also send command to water the plants or set up watering time. The figure at the end of the paragraph (Figure 6) is a flow chart for the two pages of the digital interfaces. The main page is breaking down into four components: user information and control panel, environment sensor reading (humidity, temperature and light), the multiple soil moisture readings and a twitter iframe. The moist important component would be the moisture section where it’s not displaying data, but hexagons. Three colour codes and emotional icons are assigned for each hexagon to visually represent the status of the plant. Green and simile face: meaning healthy and good moisture level, Yellow and plain face: relatively dry moisture level and water is acquired, Red and sad face: the plant is in an alarming states, very little of no moisture can be read. There is a chance of sensor failure. On the right side of Figure 5, the interface allows the user to switch views by clicking on a button. The hexagons visualization will then by replaced by the graphs of moisture readings over a time period. This feature can give the user in depth data of the plant condition. This way the customer can get both intuitive and indepth data visualizations.

Figure 6 FLow chart for digital interface

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In order to summarize the product flow of the PVG, three steps are listed below. From local to global, the data is transferred from one level to another. 1.   Local Communications (Plants to Plants) Each plant has its own sensors, water pipe and valve. They each monitor their own health and make decisions accordingly. When one needs water, Next level of water pump will be activated, but water will only be allowed to soak in to the soil when its local valve will open. 2.   Regional Communications (Plants to Users) For every vertical garden, there is a master controller, called the water reservoir. The reservoir has an aquatic pump that will operate when one of the child plant is running low on moisture. All of the plants send their “health report” to the reservoir, and the reservoir sends the report to the user by wifi, Bluetooth, Ethernet or wired connection. The data is then displayed either on a web browser or phone app. 3.   Global Communications (Plants to Worldwide Web) While the user gets real-time update from the plants, the historic data are also cumulated. When database is filled, on top of giving a temporary feedback on the garden’s current status, a line graph is available for viewing. User can also export the data with different visual representations to share online. Moreover, the digital interface can also be accessed by the public. owners can share, compare, communicate their plants directly to each other. The objective of the open network is to initiate and promote positive flow between the community.

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Product Development The following chart listed the hardware and materials needed to make the PVG working. While the top parts can be made with various materials and does not require machine work, the lower part requires multiple technologies and design precision. Function / parts

Techniques

Hardware

Top part (plant)

Crafted Handmade 3D print Laser Cut Sensors & Arduino nano

Foam board plastic Plastic filaments Birchwood DHT 222 Moisture sensors Photo resistor 9 V aquarium water pump 3D printed parts 5/8” clear plastic tube

Bottom part (shape) Data reading Water (pump) Water (connection)

Water pump and Arduino uno Hose embedded in the bottom unit

Table 2 Technique requirements and Material list

Physical Interface Making the shell and water system The overall shape of each unit is in hexagon. In order for each hexagon to connect, all six side are designed in saw tooth. The particular jagged edge makes one unit attaching to another unit simple and straightforward. The top and the bottom parts are all hollow. The top part follows regular flower pot design but with a narrow opening. This ensure that the soil, water and plant will not slip out of the pot since they are placed vertically. The bottom part is hollow as well. It is where electronics and water hoses are placed. Figure 7 has the 3D design and a photo of the finished MVP for the bottom parts. On the left side of figure 7, the green components indicate the parts that are been 3D printed, blue component is the solenoid valve and the grey shell is made of 8 layers of birch wood. The water connectors (green) each has two openings. Each opening makes a connection to 15

another unit. The photo on the right side gives an idea of how the units connected together. The water flow though from one of the three connectors, then goes to the central “transfer hub”, lastly diffused to the other two connectors and other units.

Figure 7 bottom part - 3D design and MVP

For each of the connector, there is also a stopper that is made in rubber for the end unit. It has the size of the inner connector but with a trapezoidal part smaller than the connector’s opening. A sprint is attached at the end of the stopper to push it against the opening of the connector. The stopper has openings that locate a bit higher than lower from the connector’s opening. With Figure 8 Unit stopper prototype

the sprint force, the stopper seals the connector’s opening and stop water from coming out. When another unit is attached, the stoppers from both units push away each other, thus water can flow through the openings of both the stopper and the connect, and water connection between unit is built. Figure 8 visually illustrate the concept of how the stopper works.

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Setting up Electronics The physical computing feature of PVG can be categorized into two major types: data collection and water system. The units also have two categories: Water reservoir and plant pot. there is only one water reservoir, but there can be as many plant as one hundred and two due to the programming language protocol. The water revoir unit has different set up as other units. The top part will contain a water tank. An aquarium water pump is placed in the tank with a plastic tube directly connecting to the bottom “transfer hub”. The water reservoir uses Arduino UNO as the micro-controller. The sensors attached to the water reservoir are a DHT 22 humidity and temperature sensor and a photo resistor. The major responsibility of this unit is to using the UNO collecting all the data from other units, and decide whether if the data collected will trigger the pump. If so, the UNO will turn on the pump and let the water flow through the system. For data transfer to the user’s interface, the system uses an Ethernet shield, but in theory, WIFI and radio transmission are also possible. This project uses Ethernet mainly because of its reliability and consistency. The “plant” unit are the other hand, uses Arduino Nano as its microcontroller. The only sensor used for each of the unit is a moisture sensor. The sensor is directly plugged into the soil in the top part. Collecting real time data at a constant rate. As mentioned earlier, these data will be transmitted to the Arduino UNO in the unique water reservoir unit. When the water enters each of the plant unit, it will get stopped by a solenoid valve connected to the “transfer hub”. Only when the Arduino Nano thinks the plants need more moisture will open the valve and let the water going through to the soil. The programming language used to transfer data between the local system is called I2C protocol. It determines one or more master units and various slave units. The slave units do not

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send data to the master unit voluntarily. Each bit of data from each slave unit is request by the master separately, and once at a time. In this case, the water reservoir is the master unit. It sends request for the particular plant’s soil moisture at a time. For instance, the water reservoir asks plant unit 1 to send its info. The plant unit 1 is activated and push its latest data over. Then the water reservoir moves to plant unit 2 and so on. Figure 9 below has the circuitry of a single plant unit and the composition of the units connecting together, transferring data. The water reservoir (master unit) is the top unit in the photo on the right.

Figure 9 MVP - electronic circuitry setup

Each of the hexagon has four wires per side, one power line, one ground line, one data line (4) and one SCL line (5). The order for three of the six sides are 5PG4, and the other three sides 4GP5. This orientation of wiring ensures that three sides of one unit can connect to the opposite ordered three sides of another unit. In addition, there are holes on every side of the hexagon to let the wire through. Moreover, copper tape was applied on top of the wire for better conductivity.

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Digital Interface The goal of the digital interface is to facilitate usability and efficiency of the product. One challenge presented in the development of digital interface is its importance and necessity for the user. The physical component of PVG belongs to category two of smart home gardening. Most automated gardening systems within category two do not contain digital interface. There is a tendency that the use will not use the digital interface or reduce the frequency over time due to diminished interest in the interaction (Shen, 2011). The prototype for the digital interface follows the UX and UI design principles. One important factor to keep in mind is that the interface is seen cross boundaries and cultures as the final objective of the project is encouraging online global communication between users. Using the Hofstede’s dimensions of culture theory as reference, the general design of the interface’s MVP will mainly be focusing on using neutral charts and diagram, simple and reduced number of icons, more texts to represent the reading statistics. Adaptation of the design can greatly reduce uncertainty and increase clarity (Marcus, 2000). The minimal viable product (MVP) for the digital interface can be seen at (kyloxue.com/Vgarden/). The outcome are three graphs each showing real time reading of the moistures, humidity and temperature. This simplistic design ensures the accessibility of multiple user groups with different background, interests and age group. As a MVP, the main purpose is to provide an intuitive user workflow. The simplified interface design will maximize the user experience flow when they are interacting with the physical interface. The data or line graph will reflect instant changes that’s been done to the physical system. When hovering over the line, a number will appear to indicate the accurate reading at that particular time. On top of the graphs, there is a twitter API using first person

perspective to send reports of the plants on a constant time interval. The personal representation is a pre test case for online user communications and involvement.

Discussion of Results The inspiration for this research was with the goal of incorporating new digital technologies into the urban sustainable trend within several years. This concept was iterated and refined continuously throughout the development process. From brainstorm ideation sketches to actual implementation, the system will have more iteration and changes in the future. The current situation for the Personal Vertical Garden is approximately 65% complete of the original proposal. Accomplishment include completion of physical structure, powering and local communication, sensor reading, Internet connection, design of irrigation system, online graph and proof of concept. Future agenda will be looking into development for the rest of the online platform, water leakage prevention and enhancement on local unit connection.

Figure 10 Working prototype

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The figure above (Figure 10) is a photo shoot of the final product. The system (on the right) is powered up and uses an Ethernet shield to push real time data to the webpage showing in the laptop. The pump is functional but no water has been added to the tank mainly because of leakages between unit connectors. The next primary objective of the PVG is to optimize the existing irrigation between unit and explore more potential solutions. The reason for the failure of current system is the incorrect use of materials. 3D printed rubber or silicone stoppers will be implemented to test the feasibility. Cost The cost of the project is hard to estimate. The methodologies for building the shell and connectors are much more expensive than traditional manufacturing. The cost for each parts and materials are listed below. The laser cut and 3D prints are estimations from commercial manufacture, not the real cost for this project. The real cost is zero since the University of Ryerson had allocated resources for this project. As seen in table 3 (below), the middle section where technologies such as 3D print and Laser cut have taken place, can fluctuate the final cost greatly. Keeping the cost of the PVG as a objective and selling point. The cost efficiency will be revisited in the late developmental stage. Components and Parts Solenoid pump x 1 Plastic Water tube (1m) Cooper tape Wires Solenoid Valves x 4 Plants x 4

Cost ($) $8 $10 $12 $10 $2 x 4 $3 x 4

Resources Home hardware’s EBay (online) School Resources Home depot

3D printed connector x 15 + 3 3D printed stoppers x 25 Laser cutting Shell x 5

$300 $80 $156

School Resources (Estimation from HotPop and Materialize)

Arduino Uno x 1 Arduino Nano compatible x 4

$34 $7 x 4

Fasttech (online)

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Breadboards x 5

$2 x 5

Software development (approx. 20 hours)

Depend

Table 3 Cost chart

Future Development The purpose of vertical garden is to maximize the vegetated space of a household at minimum effort and cost. although it has currently only been conceptualized as an environmental solution to address heavy urbanization, the future of vertical gardens will explore more into the modern communication pattern, using digital interface and physical medium to socially connect the users both domestically and globally. In the study “A Smart System for Garden Watering using Wireless Sensor Networks”, Angelopoulos stated the importance of network enabled home gardening system. As water supplies become scarce and polluted, “There is a dire need to irrigate more efficiently in order to optimize water use… soil water monitoring combined with Wireless Sensor Networks make such systems applicable not only to agriculture and industry, but to homes as well” (Angelopoulos, 2011). while providing a healthy environment, the personal vertical garden will look forward to implement more interpersonal features in future development. the digital aspect of it does more than taking command, react and sending feedback, but bring personalities to the plants, building connections between the vegetation and the users, and eventually, serving educational and entertainment to the household. the garden will then become an interactive social space for people to come together communicate, learn, play and relax.

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Conclusion The major objective of the development of Personal Vertical Garden is to seek the possibility and feasibility of in-house vertical garden within limited household space. The secondary objective is to redefining the characteristics of green walls by integrating the concept, technologies and application of Internet of Things. The end result has accomplished majority of the objectives. Challenges remained including water leakages and major digital interface. Personal vertical garden has a lot of potential, as well as many limitations. Some elements were not involved, such as product mobility, unified aesthetics design and user test. With the development process on going, planning for project pivot will take place. The priority would be the implementation of unit water connection using stoppers, UI design for crossplatform digital interface. Last, user testing, seeing how the project would make an addition or difference in people’s home and life. The PVG represents the one of the many methods toward environmental concerns in the urban area. It deals with the micro level of sustainability by engaging in the often neglected place of vertical garden: the interior of an apartment space. Digital media has afforded the global communication and in-time interaction. The implementation of the self automation and digital interaction into green wall and green façade will open the possibility for more digital innovations targeting a sustainable future.

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