Moving over to Vertigrow.org

We are happy to announce the launch of our new and improved website www.vertigrow.org. From now on, please refer to our main website for updates and news! (there is another "blog" section in our main website).

Thank you blogspot for being such a good temporary host :)

ITL Opening!

The Idea Translations Lab (the class where VertiGrow got its start!) had it's grand opening this weekend...read an article about it here!

Harvard Magazine feature on Ellie and VertiGrow

Harvard Magazine has written a spotlight on Ellie and the pilot study she led in Kibera this past summer for VertiGrow!

Elizabeth Gudrais Harvard '01 actually followed Ellie's work in Kenya for a few days this summer, and this is the result :)

http://harvardmagazine.com/extras/elizabeth-nowak-nairobi-kenya


~Tina

World Food Program + Youtube Partnership

Please check out World Food Program's new "a billion for a billion" program in partnership with YouTube to fight world hunger, a cause so near and dear to the VertiGrow team's heart.


$5 dollars nourishes a baby for a year.
$50 dollars provides a daily meal to a school child for one year.
$170 feeds a hungry adult for one year.

https://www.wfp.org/donate/1billion

~Tina

Medicine in Need

Ellie and I have been meeting with some senior staff at Medicine in Need, a Cambridge-based nonprofit that also grew out of the Idea Translation Lab at Harvard, to plan out the next prototyping and business plan stage of VertiGrow.

A second iteration of our preliminary prototype has been developed--built entirely by MEND's CEO Andrew! The second iteration features a new water storage compartment and improved water releasing control, marking a key step in our goal of creating built-in water conservation.

Next week we will be revamping our business model based on a lot of new and exciting ideas we've generated together with MEND, including the marketing and development of VertiGrow as a "hip, green" room decor for developed countries while maintaining its crucial functionality for food growth in developing countries. Stay tuned!

~Tina

Civil Eats

Do-it-yourself farming in urban areas!

http://civileats.com/2009/09/30/a-new-kind-of-garden/

plastic water bottle vertical garden in Kenya

afrigadget recently featured this invention they found in the backyard of Dominic Wanjihia. It's simple, but effective, and uses recycled plastic bottles.

Check it out here!

Clearing the slums

BBC recently reported that the Kenyan government is moving residents out of Kibera into local government housing. I remember seeing the buildings there in August (uninhabited), and asked a few people about why they were unused. Responses were centered around mistrust of the government and inequity in the moving process. The article is pretty helpful for understanding. Check it out!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8258417.stm

World Food Program's blog feature on VertiGrow: Part II

The second part to the World Food Program blog feature on VertiGrow has been published! Read about Ellie's experience in Kibera this past summer here:


Stay tuned for more updates from VertiGrow this semester as we dive into Phase II of product design and development.

~Tina

New editorial from NY Times on Vertical Farming

One of our advisers was kind enough to point out this editorial while we were on the plane home from France! It reinforces all the points we've been trying to emphasize with the project, but frames it in a more global perspective. Vertical farming is going to be an important technology for all of us, not just those living in slums or shanty towns. Check it out!

Click here to read the article.

1. First VertiGrow pilot group! You can see the first VertiGrow model on the left. It's changed a bit since then :)
2. Look at all that roof space!

Progress in Paris!

Ellie and I were at Le Laboratoire until after midnight last night and we got a lot done! We began to lay out our business plan and we got a substantial amount of work done on our first provisional patent for vertical gardening technology! In addition, we filed as an LLC which means that we'll be an official company very soon! We're incredibly excited about the progress that we're making.

Yesterday, Ellie and I were able to see on of Patrick Blanc's Vertical Gardens. It was really amazing and incredibly inspiring. Check out his work here: http://www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com/

More updates later!

VertiGrow in Paris!

Ellie and I are currently in Paris with the Summer 2009 Idea Translation Lab workshop at Le Laboratoire (www.lelaboratoire.org). We just gave our presentation on VertiGrow to a group of fellow students, graphic designers, and product designers. This afternoon we're meeting with the graphic designers to to figure out our visual materials for the November 8th Idea Translation Lab launch at Harvard!

Also be sure to check out our new website: www.vertigrow.org !

The Evolution of VertiGrow

...a video montage to catch you up on our work this week!

~enjoy~

Food shortages in Kenya

I saw this article in the Daily Nation today, and thought it was pretty relevant to our work. It's discussing food security in the nation as a whole (especially the big agricultural regions), but the rising costs of food pertain to everyone, including people in Kibera.

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/637224/-/ulmj6i/-/

Go team.

We organized a meeting with a group of community women yesterday, and the discussion flowed so well it was almost too easy. We introduced the project, they talked about it for a while, and then divided themselves into two teams and wanted to know when they could start.

I was not expecting that at all. We were prepared to survey a population of people, ask them some baseline questions, and start to formulate an idea of how this could get off the ground. But then, here it was, already being launched and it didn't take that much time or energy. The energy is already there, I guess we just tapped into it in the right way.

So now we have two teams of women, both of which have experience running community gardens, and they have asked to take control of and test our pilot prototypes. I'm getting all the materials together this weekend, and we will start setting them up on Monday!

When to drop the H-Bomb:

when trying to get through a box full of pvc pipes through Kenyan customs. VertiGrow was held up all this time because Kenya thinks I am sketchy, and that I should be taxed for it.

I argued with three or four different customs officials until they led me to the boss man. Sat down at his desk. He asked for my passport. It was conveniently with the security guard downstairs. I slid him the Harvard ID. Magic.

VertiGrow is sitting safely in my room. I had an amazing day in Kibera with a few community partners, who started conversations with residents, shared the idea, and opened the opportunity for people to ask questions and give feedback. It's nice to finally start laying the groundwork for the project! The video is so that you can see what we're up to, instead of reading what I write about it!

Community Input

VertiGrow still hasn't arrived in Nairobi, but that didn't stop us from starting our research! I spent a few hours at the clinic with Faith, asking people a range questions including what they eat on a daily basis, what they wish they could eat, how much money they spend on food, how much money they make selling food they grow (with the sack garden project), and then asking some more open ended questions based on our VertiGrow model (what do they think of it, what materials do they have access to that could be used to build it, what could make it better, what makes it good?)

Our research is by no means complete, but definitely a good jumping off point! We had a variety of responses which will lead VertiGrow in new and exciting directions, and many which confirmed what our impressions were going in, namely that people do not eat much, or have much money to spend on food. It's pretty cool that almost all people reported eating vegetables on a daily basis, which means we can focus more on access to growing, rather than trying to raise awareness on nutritional needs. We also followed the pediatric patients into the weighing station to link household data on nutrition, farming, and VertiGrow to the height/age data of a child in the house.

~Ellie

VertiGrow Prototype on it's way to Nairobi (we hope!).

Here are some pictures Ellie sent us of our prototype. We have affectionately named her "VertiGrow" (go figure). At the moment, VertiGrow is stuck somewhere between London and Nairobi and Ellie tells me that the people at Virgin America airlines keep passing her off to other people! It's these sort of issues that you can never, ever predict. Regardless, we have photographic proof that VertiGrow does exist - now "she" just needs to get to Nairobi so that Ellie can introduce her to the community!

Deconstructed VertiGrow. Here you see the pipes cut lengthwise. These will be the troughs that will hold the soil and the plants.

Trough layers 1 and 2. We are looking at stacking the layers like a ladder to maximize the utility of the vertical space for growing plants.

Here you see how Ellie has constructed VertiGrow to stand at a 90 degree angle. This serves several purposes; first of all, VertiGrow can stand on it's own without falling over (as you see illustrated above), secondly, the angle allows VertiGrow to be placed around the corner of a house - using minimal space and not leaning on the housing structure for support - genius!

We've got our fingers crossed that VertiGrow will be making its appearance in Nairobi soon! The clinic and Ellie are waiting!

-Windsor

Growing Up

This was my first day in Kibera. I met my translator and community partner, Faith, and she showed me the way to Tabitha Health Clinic where I will be doing most of my work.

There is no room for roads on the interior of Kibera, so we made our way by foot, which for me was rather unfortunate given the situation with my lost bags. I was wearing flip flops and a pair of jeans, which are now covered in human excrement, and I sadly don’t have a change of clothes. Good thing I’m not sharing a room with anyone!

Along the way I saw a few homes with sack gardens (pictured above), which is the inspiration from which our project stems. We are trying to develop a more efficient and effective way of gardening in the vertical space that exists within Kibera and other slum settings, given the limited amount of horizontal space!

Tabitha clinic is an absolutely beautiful facility, with a kind and welcoming staff. Tomorrow I will set up VertiGrow (so long as my bags show up!) and have a chance to ask patients about their nutrition, micro-agriculture, and ideas on how to improve our prototype.

Greetings from Kenya!

Hujambo!

I am in Nairobi, gearing up for our VertiGrow pilot! I made it here after a rather unfortunate chain of events involving a missed plane, and now some missing luggage. VertiGrow is MIA! Hopefully it will be delivered tomorrow morning (fingers crossed).

I am excited to meet with the directors of Carolina for Kibera and get started on the project. Stay tuned for more updates over the next two weeks.

~Ellie

2009 Summer Prototyping Update

The VertiGrow team has been working hard on completing the first prototypes that we will test in partnership with Carolina for Kibera in August, as well as on developing a comprehensive health, nutrition and user survey to gather as much information as possible from the community we hope to serve.

Our team member, Ellie, will be traveling to the Kibera slum of Kenya this Saturday to launch our very first in-field pilot study. She will be bringing the first prototype to gather feedback and to introduce the VertiGrow project to the Kibera communities. Carolina for Kibera has graciously welcomed our project into their health clinic, which serves thousands of patients everyday. We will be working with the health clinic staff to implement the surveys as well as to promote the idea and use of VertiGrow to the Kibera families.

Please check back for more pictures and updates as we begin our exciting summer pilot!

Furthermore, the VertiGrow team will be attending the week long prototyping workshop at Le Laboratoire in Paris, France at the end of August, hosted by Professor David Edwards at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, where we will finalize our business models, improve our prototype designs and integrate all the community feedback we will have gathered from Kibera.

~Tina

VertiGrow Team Presentation Photos - December 2008

Windsor giving the VertiGrow presentation to a panel of VCs, members of the Harvard Initiative for Global Health, Harvard professors, classmates, and other members of the Harvard community.

The entire team during the Q&A session.

These are photos taken at the final presentations for Engineering Sciences 147 - The Idea Translation Lab. ES-147 was the class where Windsor Hanger, Elizabeth Nowak, Tina Tan, Abraham Alvarez and Troy Murrell met and came up with the idea for VertiGrow. The course is taught by Professor David Edwards in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. All photographs courtesy of Aviva Presser.