Anna Dragūne is one of the graduates of the new Product Design programme at the Riga School of Design and Art (RSDA). Her qualification project is a set of containers, which are designed for regrowing greens, herbs, and vegetables using their scraps. With this work, Anna hopes to encourage a more circular approach to cooking and, at the same time, educate city dwellers about food production.
According to data from 2022, each resident of the European Union generates 132 kg of food waste per year, 52% or 72 kg of which is generated in households. Food availability and cultivation in cities is also becoming an increasingly important topic towards greener living. To help address these issues, young ceramicist Anna Dragūne has created a set of containers, which allow vegetable scraps from cooking to be used for growing new produce.
The collection includes containers suitable for various vegetables, and their shape is adapted to specific growing needs. Each container consists of two parts — a porcelain funnel for placing vegetable scraps and a glass base for water. Anna says that this set can be used to grow a wide range of vegetables and herbs, from spring onions to avocados.
She reveals that the biggest challenge during the project was to ensure that the porcelain funnels could be fired in a way that would allow them to stand steadily and keep both parts of the vessel together. The glass bases were originally intended to be blown in a professional glass workshop in Līvāni, but this idea could not be realised, so an alternative had to be found — Anna used ready-made glass containers to create the prototype for her collection, processing and adapting them to her needs.
The main target audience for the product is city dwellers — the set of containers allows them to grow their own greens, ensuring both ease of use and an aesthetic addition to the interior. The containers can also serve an educational function, introducing children to the process of growing vegetables. «My goal is to make people’s everyday lives greener. I hope that for many users, growing vegetables and herbs will become a beloved hobby,» says Anna.
About RSDA Product Design programme
This year, 58 product design students graduated from RSDA after completing the new modular programme. Now, each student learns not only how to work with specific materials, as has been the practice previously, but also becomes familiar with various materials and technologies most commonly used in product design, acquiring skills and creating works in nine school workshops: wood, metal, ceramics, glass, composite materials, 3D printing, new materials, jewellery, and fashion accessories sewing classes. «Developing a new product requires knowledge not of one specific material or technology but of a solution to a current situation or problem, where the material is only a means of expression to materialise a specific idea,» emphasises Baiba Lindāne, head of the Product Design programme at RSDA.
The four-year programme is developed to give young students an understanding of the design development and product creation process, as well as work in the industry, including collaboration with clients. During the third year, students develop designs and implement products in collaboration with entrepreneurs, as well as state and municipal institutions. This gives an opportunity not only to create designs for a specific client but also to learn the communication skills needed when working on a project and to learn more about various industries.
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