Eco Island
Siemens Design Challenge
2020 2nd Place Winner - Siemens Design Awards
Eco island is a smart kitchen island system that maximizes resources in the rising energy crisis. Featuring an automatic herb garden, a biogas stove, and an anaerobic compost system, this circular system uses the waste from one part as a resource for another.
Team: Melanie Coulter, Kareen Yeung, Alice Xu
Role: Research + Ideation, CAD combination + Refinement, Rendering
Food waste can be mitigated through purposeful design of using wasted resources to create a more sustainable kitchen
While Homebiogas (a current product that re-uses waste to create gas) is a great solution, it is not suitable for an urban living environment. There is an opportunity to integrate it into a kitchen system that fits into an apartment and doesn't require the user to travel outside. It can also be more user friendly in terms of operation.
Form Development
Throughout the challenge the team came up with ideas in the form of sketches and cad models. Through them we figured out how to contain the system within the space of a kitchen island and how to place all the interaction points in a way that is intuitive to the user
The result is a modern kitchen island that flows from left to right, making it a streamlined experience
Planting system
Our circular growth model gives homeowners the ability to grow food using fertilizer made from food scraps and greywater. There are nine individual units for nine different trays of plants that have their own water reservoir, tap, drainage, and LED light
Plant Control
The plant system contains a touch pad that can be used to control it. Passively, a status screen shows the time left to maturity of certain plants. When first planting, a user can select a type of herb they want to grow from a pre-programed database of plants. During the planting process or during growth, the user can adjust light and water settings
Water system
Store greywaer for the herb garden with a specialized button that diverts water into the greywater tank
Gas System
When prepping ingredients for a meal, the user can push food scraps into a special chute located to the left of the working area. After the scraps go through the anaerobic digestion process in the tank, the Biogas turns on.
Control panel
The stove and composter system is analyzed and reported to the user in a simple interface that is located at the top of the island.
Biogas Stove
The biogas burner can be utilized for up to 2 hours a day. The lights on the burner help indicate how much cooking time is left. Once the daily amount is used, the user can switch to the regular stove, which is a power saving induction stove.
Configurations
In order to optimize the design for smaller kitchens, Eco Island has been designed in a modular manner for multiple configurations that can fit in a variety of kitchen layouts
