A user-friendly latrine compost for Harvest Moon
Project scope: January 2021 - July 2021
Project context: Master’s degree project at KTH
Client: Harvest Moon
Supervisor: Above and KTH
Team: E. Danielsson, C. Lekström
This project was carried out at KTH as a master’s degree project in industrial design engineering in collaboration with Harvest Moon, a company focused on the development of innovative, sustainable, and refined dry toilet systems. The goal was to develop a user-friendly concept for fecal management, preferably a compost unit, based on extensive background research.
Research and Design
The process was initiated by extensive background research and interviews with researchers and experts, followed by human-centered and collaborative methods to study how latrine from dry toilets is managed by the users today. Finally, prototyping by 3D printing, laser cutting, woodworking as well as CAD modeling was used to finalize the design.
Modularity to enable sustainability
The Harvest Moon is a modular, user-friendly latrine compost that follows municipal regulations. The unit is constructed by aluminum profiles in which the cladding is inserted. Thanks to its modularity it allows for different unit sizes, color customization, as well as simplified packaging, and then recycling at the product’s end-of-life.
How can we make composting simple and safe?
To make the process of decomposition efficient and thereby safe, since harmful viruses, bacteria, and pharmaceuticals degrade during the process of composting, the compost has an inner mesh that enables aeration through the center of the composting mass. The mesh is also equipped with three sensors that monitor moisture and temperature, to assure that the environment in the composting mass is optimal and thereby simplify the handling for the user. Finally, the lid is provided with two gas struts together with a push-latch mechanism that enables a simple opening since the user only has to push the lid for it to open smoothly.
