The purpose of La Valise, a French collective of architects, is to bring together communities through their work and to provide spaces in which people can interact with one another and their surroundings.
They designed TERRAform, a concept of raised beds that was first born as an idea in 2004 and was in the making until now. The main scope of TERRAform is to help people who are marginalized because of health issues, to interact with gardens and gardening.
They started working on this project in close collaboration with people in wheelchairs, to make sure their project serves their needs.
Made from recycled and cleaned polyethylene and built to fit wheelchair dimensions, the raised bed design comes to life in the form of a table-like garden, that allows easy access to the soil and plants.
The TERRAforms are in beta testing mode around France in a limited number of 100 pieces, but La Valise plans to create more if they serve the community well.
They are also working to make the purchase of the raised beds accessible to everyone and to ship them worldwide as soon as possible.
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I am a Diversional Therapist working with people living with Dementia. I am attempting to design and build a wheelchair accessible garden area. We are a rural community so most of our residents are gardeners. During my research came across the Terraform Wheelchair Accessible Garden Kit you have in this article. What an amazing design. I am hoping you can help. Do you have or can you get these? I am looking to purchase the pod component only if possible.
Thanks
Wendy
Hi Wendy,
You can order just the pod directly from TERRAform in France. To my knowledge, they aren’t available within the US. The pods themselves are reasonable, but it’s the shipping that’s costly.
We installed two raised gardens using the pods this spring at the elder care community where I’m the Grounds Supervisor, and we’re planning two more for Spring 2022. They were well-received by our residents.