A t the University of Guelph (UofG), in Guelph, Ont., students and faculty know that if they need a moment of peace and serenity they can climb the stairs to a sunny corner of a hallway and visit Archie. Located at the Student Wellness Centre, Archie is not a therapist, yoga instructor or tenured professor. Archie can make you feel wrapped up in contentment nonetheless. Archie is…just that, an arch. A structure of wood beams and shelves holding a multitude of plants, while dappling the sunlight streaming through large windows. Although inanimate, Archie serves up serenity while sparking collaboration. THE SEED OF AN IDEA The idea for Archie began in 2017. John Phillips, PhD, senior design engineer of the Interdisciplinary Design Lab at UofG, saw a news article about a spherical garden, built by IKEA’s innovation hub, called the growroom. Designed to be built with a rubber mallet and simple plywood, the sphere held many plants within deep shelves. The goal was to encourage people to develop their own local urban growing projects as part of a movement toward sustainability, food security and self-sufficiency. “We immediately saw that and thought, ‘Hey, that would be an interesting thing to do as a practical design project with art students,’” Phillips said. “It was a very interesting design. It was all slot joinery, hammered together, and so we had gotten some funding to build one.” Under Phillips’s guidance, students built their own version of the spherical growroom and exhibited it at various events in Toronto, Ont., including the Royal Winter Fair and Canada Blooms. The question then became what to do next with this structure. GROWROOM V2.0 “Someone got a hold of the wellness centre on campus. It has physiotherapy and a rehabilitation centre. It's right next to the gym, and they had a nice open atrium area,” Phillips said. “Somebody contacted me and said, ‘Hey, we saw that spherical garden — is there
MAY 2025 | 17
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker