Eleanor McNeill is a designer/maker living and creating on the Coal Coast, Australia. Ocean-obsessed environmentalist with a love for making thoughtful, handmade objects.
I acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as traditional custodians of the land on which I practice, and pay my respect to Elders past, present and emerging.
Graduate Project. Winner of the Big Idea Award, UNSW AD Annual 2015.
Every year, 20% of all the food purchased in Australia is wasted.
Imagine the benefits that minimising that food waste could bring. ShelfLife presents a new and more sustainable approach to food in the domestic space. This innovative system is designed to foster sustainable kitchen habits and enable optimal storage of fresh produce. By doing so, ShelfLife increases the longevity of food and decreases wastage.
ShelfLife’s storage frame promotes the use of a smaller refrigerator to encourage a consideration of necessary food quantities and reduce energy consumption. As the frame is designed to fit in the space allocated for a large-sized fridge, it is easy for individuals to transition to using the ShelfLife system. A key feature of the system is the information and guidance provided through practical illustrations on the tea towels and cooking utensils. These ensure that all of ShelfLife’s components are being utilised to their greatest effect.
Additionally, ShelfLife employs evaporative cooling through it’s ‘cool-puts’. Water is gravity fed into the pots, removing latent heat and keeping the items contained within cool.
Ultimately, ShelfLife is a holistic storage system, which uses alternative storage techniques and education to reduce household’s food waste and carbon footprint.
Research and iterative design really informed this concept. On my exchange to the University of Leeds, England, I attended a talk all about food waste in supermarkets. This inspired me to delve into food waste and how the problem could be tackled starting in the domestic space. Looking into food waste and the reasons it occurs informed many of the design decisions. Design thinking lead to empathic design which put the information in the hands of the user as they work in the kitchen - the scene of the crime! Research into alternative refrigeration techniques lead to the drip water cool pot system.
