Hello people, I'm quite new on here. I'm a design student currently working on a project to design a turtle enclosure that doubles up as a table to better utilize floor spacing. Constant feedback from my lecturers is that my designs are "too big", despite me going through my research on turtle tank sizing requirements, leading my designs to be downsizing repeatedly to the point where it's only 60 gallons worth of water. I'm still receiving the same feedback and I'm really oppressed by their comments on how the OWNER is more important than the ANIMAL, and that my persona would be unwilling to sacrifice their own home space.
I pose a few questions to the community relevant to their feedback, hoping to present this as persona feedback:
1. Is it preferable to prepare a setup for a fully grown turtle right from the beginning, or to keep increasing the enclosure's size as the turtle grows?
2. How much floor space does your set up take? (e.g 1m x 0.6m, 40in x 20in, etc.), and is 1m x 0.6m of floor space too much to dedicate to one turtle?
3. If an enclosure's specifications do not meet the requirements of the turtle, would you purchase the product?
4. Would water currents be a good idea within an enclosure to simulate a "larger tank"? Why or why not?
5. What kind of house do you live in, and is the enclosure within the living room?
Please, if you are from Singapore, do mention it. Any feedback from a HDB within Singapore is extremely valuable as that is one of the size factors I can't out-argue with them about.
All four questions relate to my lecturers' feedbacks, being:
"How long would this tank size last for a turtle?"
"No one would buy anything this large" despite me pointing out turtle requirements and existing table sizes
"Maybe you could use water currents to simulate a larger tank, kind of like a treadmill so they still get the exercise of swimming a longer distance without needing more space" this sounds a little questionable, however I've found mixed results searching on this topic, and would like to hear your feedback on this as well.
To anyone who is doing me the incredible favour of answering these questions, I sincerely thank you.