Raindrop

During international garden fair GAFA 2017 in Cologne an all-new version of the Raindrop rain barrel was unveiled. The award-wining design, based on the graduation work of Dutch designer Bas van der Veer, has been completely redesigned from the ground up with some major technical improvements, new surface finishes and contemporary colors. At this point in time, our freshwater reserves are in danger due to our industry that pollutes the water with hormones, pesticides and other chemicals. Our drinking water is becoming harder to acquire and more difficult to purify. Because global warming is kicking in, causing worldwide drought, it is time to be more economical with our fresh drinking water and to gain more conscience about how we deal with our water. A lot of people know about our problems with water, but don’t know how to contribute to a better management of our drinking water. The challenge in this design project then was to design a product that makes it extremely easy and fun to save water and to make it tangible and accessible for everyone. The result of this design process is a rain barrel called ‘Raindrop’. In this barrel a watering can is integrated that is automatically filled every time it rains, because it is located right underneath the drainage tube. When this watering can is completely filled with rainwater, the surplus will automatically fill the reservoir of the rain barrel, so you could refill the watering can after using it. So, ‘Raindrop’ provides a full watering can whenever you need it, which makes watering the garden even easier than when you would have to fill the watering can yourself with tap water first. Apart from that, the user will now use ‘free’ water for irrigating the garden, which would otherwise have gone down the drain. By doing so, the user contributes to a better management of our fresh drinking water without any inconvenience. Raindrop has been available for sale from 2011 to 2015, but was then taken out of production due to strategic choices of producer and distributor Elho. Responding to overwhelming demand, Studio Bas van der Veer has redesigned the rain barrel in close collaboration with producer Elho in order to make the design available once more. The new Raindrop will be available in selected garden centres, DIY shops, design shops and online channels from January 2018 and the consumer price in Euros will be 249,95.