Community Garden Management Board

INTRODUCTION

Our micro-challenge involved prototyping a panel for organizing and managing tasks during a day of work in the communal garden. This initiative emerged from our previous intervention, in which we attempted to access several communal gardens. The final design is yet to be defined, as we aim to co-create this prototype with the community. However, we have developed a proposal to present at their upcoming monthly assembly.

• CONTEXT
  During our first visit to Espai Germanetes, we found the garden empty but managed to get in touch via email. Returning during a work session, we met Ignasi, who introduced us to the garden’s community activities and infrastructure. We learned about challenges like excessive heat from a white wall, water recovery tracking, and sensor data visualization. We helped with gardening tasks alongside a welcoming community, including Ibolya, who surprised us by being able to speak German. The experience was heartwarming, and though we were offered the keys to the shed, we decided to wait a bit with that. The gardening work proved to be a great boost for our mental health.

• COMMUNITY GARDEN MANAGEMENT BOARD
  We designed a panel is to visually organize various tasks within a communal garden. Tasks are displayed using an acrylic card system, allowing users to write and erase different assignments as needed. The panels are modular, featuring a simple interlocking mechanism that enables them to be connected in parallel.
  
  Our goal is not to solve any community issues, as we believe they already work effectively, and it would not be ethical to alter the workflow of such a well-established group. Instead, with this project, we aim to add value to the space, enhancing its functionality and engagement. This we want to achieve by visualizing the current state of different tasks within the garden so all it's members can easily understand what tasks need to be done at any moment.

DAY 1

BRAINSTORMING
We conducted a brainstorming session with our professors. Our initial idea was based on addressing some issues we had observed within the community. However, we received insightful feedback suggesting that rather than focusing on solving problems, we should aim to enhance the value of actions and the space itself.

PROPOSAL & FEEDBACK

At the end of the day, we developed a proposal for the community space. Coincidentally, a meeting was taking place in the garden that same day, so we decided to visit and gather feedback. Unfortunately, we were informed that we would have to wait until February 15th to present our proposal. As a result, in the following days, we continued refining our idea without the valuable input we had hoped to receive from the community.

DAY 2

DRAFT
We started the day with some drafts about what could become our idea. We defined the panel's dimension and shape and decided to create a modular panel system to be able accommodate for the more or less specific amount of tasks the community needs.

A single panel is designed to be modular, allowing up to six tasks to be displayed vertically.

Additionally, we developed an hourglass-inspired sliding mechanism to highlight recurring tasks within the communal garden where a task that needs to be done on a regular basis would slide down slowly, visually indicating how soon it needs to be done again.
On the same day, we designed more details about the card system to enable interactive and visual task organization within a communal garden. We designed the board in a way that we could either hang one big card or two half-sized ones next to each other. We want to experiment with different

\\ card system figma draft
https://www.figma.com/design/EqGiV3a1QUTkRaRnTTOw3z/systems-cards?node-id=0-1&t=DNdskcqHoOy2Wfcd-1

• A single-card system (15cm x 10cm), divided into two sections: one side specifies the task and features a top-down garden map, while the other is left blank for users to annotate with plant names and illustrations corresponding to the task location. A marker or sticker is used for spatial reference.
• A dual-card system (7cm x 10cm), where one card contains the task description and garden map, while the other remains blank for plant identification and illustration. The garden map is used to pinpoint locations via markers or stickers.
• A multi-card system (7cm x 10cm), featuring two types of cards: one indicating the task and garden layout, and the other dedicated to a single plant’s name and drawing. Multiple cards can be stacked, each representing different plants, fostering interactivity and enhancing workflow visualization. The garden map remains a reference tool for spatial orientation.

FAST PROTOYPING
As a first step, we conducted tests to determine the panel’s dimensions and proportions. Using a laser cutter, we experimented with wood and cardboard prototypes.

The cardboard prototype confirmed that a single board could accommodate five vertically arranged cards with proper spacing and proportions. Meanwhile, the plywood prototype demonstrated the feasibility of using the hooks to hang the cards, but also that we would definitely need a thicker material.

DAY 3

PROTOTYPING

We created a 3D model to facilitate the CNC milling of the wooden board and the laser cutting of the acrylic cards

As a second design layer, we developed the sliding mechanism using custom pieces fabricated with 3D printing & lasercutting.

WOOD PANEL cnc mill

At the FabLab Barcelona we have a ShopBot MTC which made easy work of our 14mm plywood plate. First, with a 3mm Millbit we drilled all the holes where we would later place the hooks for the cards, then we exchanged it for an 8mm Millbit to cut out the shape of the wood.

After that we had to remove the bridges and sand down the edges using hand tools. To make the panels "modular", we used a drill press to drill 2 holes on each side of the panels so we connect them using simple dowels.

SYSTEMS CARDS laser cut

With the Rayjet400 we have at the FabLab, it was a very straightforward job to lasercut the 3mm scrap piece of white acrylic that we found.

SLIDING MECHANISM 3d print & lasercutting

To realize the slider, we originally wanted to design a gravity-driven gearclock that would unwind in certain specified time, like a day or a week to represent how often a task needs to be executed.

Due to time restraints, we went for a simple frictionbreak: the idea is to use a screw that tightens a clamp around the axle of a spool. This should have made the spool unwind more slowly, but unfortunately it is very difficult to tighten the screw just right, so it's currently far from the precision we actually want to achieve. At some point we will have to return to the gear train.

If you're interested in our project, we suggest you to have a look in our github repository, below you can find the link. Thank you!!!

There you can find:

• 2d files for Laser cut & CNC mill
• 3d files for 3d print

NEXT INTERVENTION

For the next intervention, we plan to present our idea at the Espai de Germanetes during their monthly assembly. Through their feedback, we aim to co-create a visual task organization panel that enhances the value of the space. This could also facilitate greater interaction between long-time members and newcomers.