Sensory Enhancing Systems

A system is currently being designed which will allow the children to interact with the water collected through the morning dew. This design will stimulate their senses and change constantly to prevent against repetitive behavior.

Water will move through a system designed to enhance the youth’s daily use of their senses. Current sensory design techniques involve the sound of running water, various shapes, colors, textures, and other environmental points of interaction.

Preliminary Ideas

The design team hopes to incorporate living walls (vertical towers of plants) with a small-scale drip irrigation system utilizing the water from the dew collector. The living wall will consist of plants and crops with a wide array of colors, textures, and smells. Along with the plants, the living wall will consist of flowing waterfalls, activated by the children, and sections which portray the root structure of the plants. The goal of the system is to both educate children about the foods they eat and how they grow, as well as to provide the children with oppurtunities to interact with it.

Another form of interaction will be through bubble columns. The children will be able to operate pumps that will send bubbles through water stored in clear, vertical columns. These interactions will develop sensory perception, and allow the youth to see tangible cause and effect relationships.

Running water and changing bubble patterns would keep their attention and provide entertainment for youth who spend all of their lives confined entirely to this site. This is especially critical because the remote location of the site – a reclaimed bauxite strip mine – does not allow for much contact with the educational and sensory resources available at other Mustard Seed sites.