Activities like home gardening have held the attention of millennials and older generations alike for years, but with quarantine, they’ve risen exponentially in popularity. Taking care of houseplants not only amplifies the mood and intimacy of your home but also fills up your space in a way that other interior design options cannot replicate. Houseplants are so popular, sales are supposed to increase to $49.3 billion by 2023. Speaking to this, mostly thanks to social media, a quarter of that spending is attributed to houseplant owners between the ages of 18 and 34. Botanist, a gardening assistive device, was designed to make taking care of a plant more manageable for everyone. Sejin Park, based out of Seoul, designed Botanist because he saw the millennial generation’s love for houseplant culture and their preferred mode of communication: technology.
Millennials seem to take some heat from older generations for how often we’re on our phones and how disconnected from the world we are because of it. In order to make some sense of that tension, Park bridged a connection between the natural and mobile worlds. Botanist consists of three divided parts: touchscreen, connector, and the probe stick. The probe stick scans and analyzes your houseplant’s soil in order to communicate what the plant might need, which is displayed on Botanist’s screen. Through a speaker and touchscreen, the user is informed of the houseplants’ soil, pH, light, temperature, and humidity levels on easy-to-read, circular, gauges. The touchscreen then provides additional information, relaying how the user can maintain the plant’s health levels or cater to them. The connecter is what allows the information gathered from the probe stick to travel to the touchscreen. On its touchscreen, Botanist also lets users file their houseplants so that they’re easy to find and take care of.
The device pairs with your phone so that you can receive the latest information from your houseplant no matter how far from home you may be. Taking inspiration from devices like speakers, reusable water bottles, and other sustainable products, Park was sure to design this assistive device so that its purpose to maintain health and plant life reflected not only how its materials were sourced, but also so that its structure and look fit in amongst your houseplants. Your plants will practically take care of themselves.
Designer: Sejin Park
