Around the world, designers, architects, the hospitality sector and homeowners are finding ways to bring the outside, indoors. The La Grangette is an innovative way to do this, and as you would expect from something that has been touched by the creative hands at Pininfarina, it combines looks with high-level performance.
There is something very special about eating home-grown produce. Historically, this experience has been the domain of people with a decent amount of outdoor space, but now, some clever minds have created something that will extend the experience to all.
Fans of taste, technology and aesthetics will adore the La Grangette indoor vegetable garden, which introduces an innovative hydroponic farming experience coupled with artificial intelligence (AI) into the home. La Grangette is a new and interactive way for people, including those without outdoor space to experience the pleasure of growing fresh produce within their homes.
Pininfarina is best known for its legendary work in the automotive sector. However, over the years the company has broadened its creative reach to encompass, architecture, the hospitality industry, boating and products for the office and home.
The initial idea for La Grangette came from a French family business of the same name based in Avignon. The design aspect comes courtesy of Pininfarina. Between the two, they’ve created an indoor garden using the latest technology that can cultivate various plants, healthy salads, herbs and thanks to the addition of A.I and an App, much more.
“La Grangette is inspired by my childhood family home and by the vegetable garden where my grandfather lovingly grew all kinds of vegetables in the countryside of the South of France. We wanted to propose the same kind of experience, adapting it to the contemporary urban lifestyle: people today have less time and space but want to consume fresh, healthy products. So we came up with the idea of an indoor vegetable garden which, thanks to hydroponics techniques and the support of the most advanced technology, offers genuine, nutrient-rich products, grown to perfection, to be eaten when they are perfectly ripe,” says Thibaut Pradier, creator of La Grangette.
The smart technology used by La Grangette allows it to grow plants for food use without wastage. It does this by recreating the optimal conditions for each of them to reach full maturity. Another major selling point with La Grangette is that it consumes 90% less water than conventional agriculture and doesn’t involve herbicides or pesticides, creating fewer CO2 emissions during the plant’s life cycle.
“Our collaboration with La Grangette has been exceptional, giving Pininfarina the opportunity to demonstrate its unique capabilities to help create and bring to market ground-breaking product and service experiences. It is an embodiment of our core beliefs and values: from approaching technology as permeating the very fabric of the products we design, bringing together the tangible and the intangible into one inseparable whole, to focusing not only on the beauty of an object but also on the delight of interacting with it, or designing and developing products in more sustainable ways and promoting more sustainable ways of living,” says Xavier Blanc Baudriller, Head of Experience and Product Design at Pininfarina.
As mentioned, La Grangette utilises advanced A.I during the growing process. The self-sustainability experience is made even simpler thanks to intuitive guides that take users through the growth cycle. It will show the most favourable seeding position for healthy growth and let you know when the optimum time to harvest has come, along with helping users to discover new plants, scents, and flavours.
All of this is assisted via a mobile App, which is an important part of the La Grangette experience. According to Pininfarina, the App is designed to augment the sensory experience of the product and the plants growing inside it. To be frank, we have no idea what this means. What we do know is that the App provides content and access to its functions; in addition to this, it is said to be able to help users plan a healthy diet.
One thing that cannot be looked past is the beautiful styling of La Grangette. As with anything that Pininfarina has touched, it has clean lines, which will make it an instant statement piece inside the home.
La Grangette is available in various colour schemes which will make it easy to match to one’s existing decor. Pre-orders are now being taken for La Grangette, with delivery in the summer of 2022. Prices start from 24,000 Euro. For information: www.lagrangette.com.
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