VERANDA: Vertical Garden, Rain Harvesting and Aquaponics

VERANDA is cultivation system that can accommodate Vertical garden, Rain harvesting and Aquaponics in one integrated design. It is aimed to transform slums into more hospitable place. It is also expected to meet the needs of water supply and healthy food as well as income-generation activities for slum dwellers.

VERANDA concept is aimed to transform slums into more hospitable place for urban communities and less hazardous on an environmental level. It is expected to be better organized slums with the function as ”Veranda of the City”

It is integrated concept of Vertical garden, Rain harvesting and Aquaponics in urban slum areas as an alternative to meet the needs of water supply and healthy food in cost-efficient manners.

Vertical garden is an excellent opportunity of growing food in areas where space is limited, particularly in densely populated urban areas. It allows the residents to plant vegetables, fruits and herbs. This can support nutrition of slum residents. To ensure enough water supply, rain harvesting system will be integrated into the vertical garden. 

Rainwater is collected when it falls on the earth, stored and utilized at a later point. It can be purified to make it into drinking water, used for daily applications and even utilized in large scale industries. In short, Rainwater harvesting is a process or technique of collecting, filtering, storing and using rainwater for irrigation and for various other purposes.

Aquaponics is the idea of producing vegetables and fish in the same closed system. It combines aquaculture, or fish farming, with hydroponics, a way to grow plants without soil. It is such a way to increase world food supplies and reduce climate change, groundwater pollution and overfishing.

VERANDA design concept  is expected to be efficient cultivation system that can accommodate Vertical garden, Rain harvesting and Aquaponics in one integrated design.

It is also expected to be income-generation activities for slum dwellers by selling the harvest and exploring inspiration to design vertical garden in certain theme such as Pizza garden, Salad garden, Soup garden, Rainbow garden in order to attract people to come and buy the harvest.

In Indonesia, there are 3,201 slum areas with total size of 34,374 hectares.The draft of Jakarta’s 2010-2030 master plan and government interventions over the years indicate a preference for public housing projects and demolishing slums.

However, this policy is not fully beneficial to the poor. These people are pushed further away from their workplaces and centers of economic activity. New expenses in the form of higher transportation costs and rental payments also add burdens that may be too much to bear.

VERANDA offers the solution to transform slums into more hospitable place as well as income-generation activities for slum dwellers.

As people continue to migrate away from rural areas and into cities, cities that are growing to devour the land around it, the numbers of people living in slums, shanty towns and informal settlements are skyrocketing. Currently, there are 200,000 of these communities across the world and that number is growing exponentially.

Despite there has been efforts to relocate slum-dwellers to more decent homes, but the existence of slums can not be simply eliminated. So, the alternate solution that we can do is empowering slum-dwellers and turning slums around the world into more hospitable and better organized.

1. Creating productive public space and improving urban aesthetic in Jakarta and Bogor slums as pilot projects in order to make better organized slums and more hospitable for the residents.

2. Empowering slum-dwellers, especially women and youths in Veranda Project to engage in garden-installations, community and peer- mobilization and supply-chain solutions .

3. Creating thematic slums in order to attract people to come and generate business as well as exploring the potentiality of slum tourism

Track number of projects, Installation of Veranda – integrated Vertical garden, Rain harvesting and Aquaponis - Veranda Project in Jakarta and Bogor slums

Track number of Participants List - Participation of women and youths in Veranda Project

Track number of visitors and improved monthly income - People visiting pilot project of thematic slums in Jakarta and Bogor and generate income for residents

Vertical garden, Rain harvesting and Aquaponics are not new concept, but in simple terms being unique just means doing something differently. We are exploring inspiration to design vertical garden in certain theme such as Pizza garden, Salad garden, Soup garden, Rainbow garden and many more in order to create thematic slums to attract people to come and generate other business for slum-dwellers. 

Good design is the one that communicates its function and behavior in such a clear and subtle way. Numerous studies have linked the presence of plants to improved human health and mental well being.

VERANDA is developed based on exploration of human-centered environments for their capacity to transform spaces. Vertical garden is expected to provide aesthetic variation in an environment in which people carry out their daily activities. This specific benefit is an improvement to the quality of the human experience in the built environment.

- ONLINE: Develop website for certain thematic slums, so people can access the information as well as promoting the project around the world.

- OFFLINE: Working together with local government/NGOs to disseminate the information and giving presentation to targeted communities about the program

- SOLVE Community

- Revenue from selling the harvest and other alternate business generated from this program

- Local Government and Private Donations (i.e Corporate Social Responsibility/ CSR program of private companies)

- Support from any International Organizations/International Grants

- The limiting factor of vertical garden is light. Since we can not amplify the sun, the plants have to share the existing light and they just grow more slowly.

- The limiting factors of rain harvesting: Unpredictable rainfall, Initial high cost, Regular maintenance, Certain roof types may seep chemicals or animal droppings and Storage limits

- The limiting factors of aquaponics: Limited size in slums, Healthy location, Time Consuming and also Initial high cost

The fundamental thing that connects three of us to collaborate is the passion about design, landscape/gardening and social activities to do something for marginalized communities. Therefore, we take the initiative to take a part in this challenge and join SOLVE community.

We believe that SOLVE  is a great platform since it is supported by professional and reliable team members as the bridge to connect our idea with the respective partners. It is a great opportunity to collaborate with SOLVE Community in order to build regional/international links and establish networks around the world.