Metaflora
An innovative plan to eradicate hospital food waste by 2030.
Could we eliminate food waste in hospitals by 2030? In this project, as part of the Challenge Based Innovation A3 (CBIA3) program project, Design Factory Melbourne (DFM) students mapped a plan to do exactly that.
The CBIA3 program is a yearly collaboration between Design Factory Melbourne (DFM) and Ideasquare, CERN Innovation Lab, a Switzerland-based science organisation, along with Design Factory Global Network partner institutions. In the program, students use design innovation to develop solutions that connect technology with societal needs.
The speculative concepts are framed around a United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) and utilise CERN’s latest technologies. The solution, while futuristic, must be backed by empirical data and trends to ensure that it’s implementable.
DFM’s student team explored responsible consumption and production SDG 12, and how it could relate to their local Melbourne, Australia context.
The project
Collaborative
DFM students worked together with CERN IdeaSquare and the Design Factory Global Network.
Future-focussed
The project uses latest technologies and addresses UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Radical
The solution is data-backed and, by design, implementable in the foreseeable future.
The solution
The team’s conceptual solution was to eliminate food waste in hospitals by 2030. Their final concept, Metaphor, was divided into two parts – Metaflora and Metaphora – to ensure the concept catered for both patients who ingest food and those who absorb food. Solution delivered by: Lachlan Mackay (Industrial Design, DFM), Paris Triantis (Interior Architecture, DFM), Justin Yuan (Industrial Design, DFM).
Metaphora
Metaphora accommodates patients who cannot or do not wish to physically ingest food. Its main component is a silicon transdermal patch worn on the patient’s arm, containing biodegradable nano-nutrients.
A nurse can use Metaphora’s second component, a handheld infrared scanner, to scan the patch and determine the patient’s nutrition levels. In this way, the nurse can identify any deficiencies and proceed to provide those required nutrients through the infrared heated activation of the patch’s nanoparticles
Eliminating Hospital Food Waste by 2030
DFM’s Metaflora project is futuristic, but practical – and data-backed. Glimpse the concept and how it might look.
Contributing students
- Lachlan Mackay – Industrial Design, DFM
- Paris Triantis – Interior Architecture, DFM
- Justin Yuan – Industrial Design, DFM
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