The Future Home: Innovative Design for Human and Plant Cohabitation: Two Terrarium Projects and lighting

Statement

We are a design lab based in Joshua Tree, California. Our purpose is to:
1) Look at plants as technology but from a human and creative perspective
2) Pursue the potential many plant species have for removing toxins and adding moisture to the breathing zones in our homes, offices, clinical spaces, and commercial spaces.
3) Encourage the co-habitation of plants and humans.
4) Increase the appeal of incorporating plants into our living spaces by applying good, sustainable design principles to existing methods of keeping houseplants.
5) Personalize the breathing zones of individuals based on their environmental health concerns such as benzene or formaldehyde exposure.
6) Re-imagine the kitchen’s tea cupboard and spice rack as a living resource.
7) Re-imagine the bathroom’s medicine cabinet as a living resource offering safer, lasting, fresher, and more holistic alternatives to many of the commercial items that are conventionally stocked in medicine cabinets at home.
8) Critically engage the ways in which plants can be used for aesthetic purposes in interior design.

In this pursuit we are currently developing the following design lines:
“Sustainable Air Filtration”
“Sustainable Humidity Maintenance”
“Living Medical Resource”
“Living Kitchen Resource”
“Built-In and Mobile Terrarium Installations”
“Interior Desert-scaping”

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Two Terrarium Projects and lighting

Terrarium #2:

Yesterday we built an opened terrarium out of an old refrigerator drawer. In this terrarium we put one inch of gravel in the bottom (split layer: on the bottom 1/2 inch of small gravel and on top 1/2 inch of large gravel). Then there is 2 inches of coconut substrate, 4 inches of composted topsoil, then a layer of moss. In the terrarium we planted:
1) rubber plant
2) 2 tulip bulbs
3) Gerber daisy
Finally, we watered it and misted the plants but it is better to water the plants before the moss layer.

A note on the moss layer:
The moss takes the best if you water the bottom of the moss and the topsoil thoroughly before placing the moss on the topsoil.

Terrarium #3:

Today we bought two metal hanging planters to make an open terrarium, maybe it will be converted to a closed terrarium soon. The bottom layer is rocks, about one inch thick, then an inch of coconut substrate. In this design we added a sprinkled layer of charcoal and 3 inches of soil. We put water into this one before the moss as we have learned we should always do. In the terrarium we planted:
1) 2 spider plant cuttings
2) peace Lilly
3) Mum flower plant
4) 4 tulip bubs
Once we hung it up we attached a 14 watt fluorescent bulb (equivalent to a 60 watt incandescent bub) that hangs about 8" above the plants.

Project 2: lights

The easiest and cheapest way to get lamp cords is by taking them out of trashed lamps, but we didn't have enough time for this so we bought an AC lamp cord and a light bulb connector and assembled them. To connect the two you:
1) put the bottom fitting on the cord with the cardboard
2) tie a underwriter's knot with the cord (make it small enough to fit in the casing)
3) connect the ribbed cord (the neutral cord) to the silver screw
4) connect the smooth cord to the bass screw
5) fit the top to the cap

Just having the bulb attached to a cord makes for versatile lighting solutions and allows many options for the terrarium container.