Finalist 2020

The Farm

The Farm serves a whole new market segment for design conscious gardeners.

The Farm is the multi-tray worm farm, re-imagined from the ground up to improve worm well-being and productivity. Designed and made in Melbourne, the Farm is perfectly suited for smaller households with limited space who want to reduce their food waste impact.

The Farm serves a whole new market segment for design conscious gardeners. Through it we are furthering our mission to encourage every Australian to reduce their food waste to landfill, whilst inspiring them to nurture their gardens and grow their own food, and ultimately, by creating greener and healthier urban ecosystems, nurturing the planet itself.

Design Excellence

The Farm breaks with tradition – opting for simplified curved lines, a compact footprint and coloured components, more reminiscent of high-end garden tools than the cheaper design language common in this market. The organic playful shape suggests that the Farm is alive, literally and figuratively.

Natural wooden legs reinforce the biological reference, while a deeper emotional connection is formed when new owners customise their Farm during purchase. Functional elements (the lid and worm saver tray) are colour coded and there’s no easier way to know when worm tea is ready than by seeing it collected in the visible external tray!

Design Impact

We make the Farm in Melbourne, near our distribution centre, supporting local manufacturing and lowering its carbon footprint. We’re closing the loop on plastic waste by utilising locally-sourced recycled plastic, to produce a product that itself recycles another waste stream.

Once nestled in its new home the Farm gets to work converting 2L of food scraps a week into rich liquid and solid nutrients. Designed to turn heads it also sparks conversation, inspiring visitors to join the war on waste themselves – greatly expanding the market for worm farming from ‘greenies and gardeners’ to a whole new conscious urban customer

Design Transformation

We have had overwhelmingly positive feedback from our urban worm farmers since launch. As worm farmers ourselves we are constantly testing the operating condition ranges and capabilities of the Farms in real-world usage.

Ergonomic considerations include the height extension afforded by the Farm\’s optional legs, convenient worm-saver tray, and auto-flow tube which feeds directly to a watering can if desired. Worms are easily saved by sliding the tray out and replacing them up top. Feeding the worms is made easier via a clip on the lid. Trays have \’spider-less\’ handles and are easy to rotate when harvesting time comes.

Design Innovation

Whilst the Farm lends from the decades-old tradition of multi-tray farms that allow convenient harvesting of castings while minimising disruption to the worm colony – every feature has been reconsidered from the ground up. World firsts include our sliding worm-saver tray, component colour choices, FSC-certified wooden legs and worm-tea tube.

We know of no other product of its type that sources its pre-consumer recycled plastic from multiple local sources in Melbourne. Certainly no other worm farm combines all of these innovations into a product good looking enough to invite into your home, not just your garden.

Other Key Features

The Farm was designed with simplicity in mind, to ensure that we could keep production in Australia and still compete against cheaper imported products. By pairing back the design to its essence we were able to meet the market at a price point that, while the premium for an entry-level farm, was not too high.

We then provide a range of optional extras that provide a unique chance for personalisation whilst only adding additional cost if the customer values those additions. This means less waste also compared to all-in-one bundled products, another sustainability win!

Product Design 2020 Finalists

Britax Safe-n-Sound B-First

Britax Safe-n-Sound

SmartSnugg

Design + Industry / Procept / Codeacious

Snap Lighting

Q6 IP Pty Ltd

TOO D Magnetic Art

TOO Designs

Seer Sense

Seer Medical

HalleyAssist AI powered remote health monitoring

HalleyAssist / Swinburne University of Technology / Baptcare / National Ageing Research Institute

Pure Excellence

DAF Trucks Australia / DAF Trucks Netherlands / PACCAR Australia / PACCAR INC.

The Reef Express Bath Toy Set

Happy Planet Toys / Outerspace Design

Blackmagic ATEM Mini

Blackmagic Design

The TOM Organic Period Cup

TOM Organic / Ideation Design

Solpod

Solpod / Studio Periscope / Tensys Engineers / MEL Consulting / Clean Technology Partners

Flask Lighting System

Edward Linacre / Viktor Legin