More Design Opportunities Visualised: DCC 2008 scenarios

Image: Thumbnails of several water based scenarios prepared by the DCC2008 class at NID. They are shown below individually at the links listed here below.

Image: Six pages from a 20 page manual prepared by the Desert Rajasthan team as part of their group assignment The group work Design Opportunity Manuals are now available at this site. You can download the PDF files at the links below:
Desert Rajasthan Manual: 20 page pdf 6.1 mb size.
Kerala Rainforest Manual: 26 pages pdf 4.8 mb size.
Northeast Hills Manual: 12 pages pdf 3.5 mb size

More Design Opportunities: DCC 2008
Here is the second batch of scenarios that emerged from the students of the five regional groups, all working on water based design opportunities for the five assigned geographic regions of India, namely, Northeast Hills, Kerala Rainforest, Himalayan Foothills, Desert Rajasthan and Coastal Maharashtra. They are listed below and hyperlinked to the image and email text that was provided by each of the students selected here.

The five groups are represented here below by another eighteen members:
6. Pragya Singh : Design Opportunities Water (Team – Northeast Hills)
7. Abu Basim : Design Opportunities Water (Team – Northeast Hills)
8. Rohit Goyal : Design Opportunities Water (Team – Northeast Hills)
9. Kabini Amin : Design Opportunities Water (Team – Kerala Rainforest)
10. Abhijit K R: Design Opportunities Water (Team – Kerala Rainforest)
11. Aakash G V: Design Opportunities Water (Team – Kerala Rainforest)
12. DIPTI KHOSLA: Design Opportunities Water (Team - HIMALAYAN FOOTHILLS)
13. Prachi Choudhari: Design Opportunities Water (Team - HIMALAYAN FOOTHILLS)
14. Amol Singh Tomar: Design Opportunities Water (Team - HIMALAYAN FOOTHILLS)
15. Anoushka Garg : Design Opportunities Water (Team – Desert Rajasthan)
16. Akanksha : Design Opportunities Water (Team – Desert Rajasthan)
17. Lavanya Naidu : Design Opportunities Water (Team – Desert Rajasthan)
18. Avirup Basu : Design Opportunities Water (Team – Desert Rajasthan)
19. Gaurang Nagre : Design Opportunities Water (Team – Desert Rajasthan)
20. Jyotika Deep Singh : Design Opportunities Water (Team – Desert Rajasthan)
21. Surabhi Gangrade : Design Opportunities Water (Team - Coastal Maharashtra)
22. Kavya Agarwal : Design Opportunities Water (Team - Coastal Maharashtra)
23. Nandini Krishnamurthy : Design Opportunities Water (Team - Coastal Maharashtra)

<Items 1 to 5 can be accessed from this link here.

DIPTI KHOSLA: Design Opportunities Water (Team - HIMALAYAN FOOTHILLS)

DIPTI KHOSLA: Design Opportunities Water (Team - HIMALAYAN FOOTHILLS)

Where I see myself in the next fifteen years working in the Himalayan Foothills:

As I’m aware about the problems in the Himalayan regions quite thoroughly now... I realised that fifteen years from now the people in the upper regions of the country including the Himalayas shall suffer from serious floods as global warming at that time shall be at its peak... and its results shall be evident. In such a situation I wanted to come up with something that can serve as a quick solution to save them from drowning... and also when they are in a relatively drier region they should have a shelter over their heads to save them from the weather conditions considering their houses would have all been wrecked.

So, I thought about a bamboo boat that can be dismantled to make a shelter/roof.

YEAR 1: Having some idea in my mind about the form should help me put it down on paper some how.... but I shall still need a bamboo expert and an engineer, preferably a friend of mine (this is because he/she shall not charge me or charge nominal. it will be more interest based rather than money based) who is well versed with boats to tell me about d construction of a boat. We shall work together on making the boat. The finance for all this shall be funded by me. I wish to see how the idea works and help the people in the Himalayas. This shall not be a way to earn from them.

YEAR 2: Then I shall shortlist about 4-5 cities/villages in these regions and head towards it along with my engineer friend and shall interact with d locals there. We intend to educate them about the growing possibilities of more and more flash floods and also educate them regarding water conservation which shall be greatly in need during floods. We work with them and understand their approach towards making boats and dealing with bamboo. We enhance our own skills by learning from them and attempt at coming up with a good, workable design for " dismantlable bamboo boats ". We make several protypes and test them till we decide finally on one.

YEAR 3-4 : The locals learn our design and test it for themselves. They keep it as it helps them in the time of need and is made from bamboo, which is easily available around them. I'm sure the boats shall not be very difficult to make and they would need only basic tools to make them hence it shall be easy for the locals to multiply them and spread it in their neighbouring regions. Once my engineer friend and I see that the design is being put to good use... we leave from the himalayas to our own cities.

YEAR 5-15 : As the technique of making a boat-cum-shelter spreads across the Himalayas, I keep in touch with the villagers and get to know about some more of their problems so that I could once again try my level best along with other professionals to be able to bring design to their aid.

DIPTI KHOSLA: (Team - HIMALAYAN FOOTHILLS)

Prachi Choudhari: Design Opportunities Water (Team - HIMALAYAN FOOTHILLS)

Prachi Choudhari: Design Opportunities Water (Team - HIMALAYAN FOOTHILLS)

The Himalayan Foothills

Design opportunities 15 years from now

As the global warming problem is predicted to be the biggest problem in the coming years. All the advancements, science and technology will work to solve the problem; the best of technology will be used to solve the weather and global warming problem. Like years ago when the world wars were happening then, all the technology and science was directed to advance and work for that,

Hence according to the present situation and statistics global warming is going to be one of the biggest problems in the coming years.

The effect of global warming on the Himalayas currently is melting of the snow, leading to flooding this may just increase to a major extent in the coming years

If current warming rates are maintained, Himalayan glaciers could decay at very rapid rates, shrinking from the present 500,000 square kilometers to 100,000 square kilometers by 2030s," according to a draft technical summary.

In its report, the international panel predicted that as these glaciers melt, they would increase the likelihood of flooding over the next three decades and then, as they recede, dry up the rivers that they feed. "In the course of the century," it warned darkly, "water supply stored in glaciers and snow cover are projected to decline, reducing water availability in regions supplied by melt water from major mountain ranges, where more than one-sixth of the world population currently lives."

So the major problem in the coming 15 years in the Himalayan foothills is flooding due to melting of glaciers.

Flooding would create problems for farming and availability of drinking water.

According to the technological advancements today we have seen making of artificial glaciers. This, done at a very large scale could be very beneficial to the entire place that is the foothills and the increasing decline of the glaciers.

The melting glaciers could be collected in tanks and could be restored during winter months or it could be artificially frozen.

These tanks and artificial glaciers would be places on the mountains and hilly areas so even the water running down could be collected and hence saved from getting contaminated while running down,

Separate pipes could be provided which provide good clean water for drinking purposes to the settlement areas,

As floods will still be a problem like the existing rain water harvesting plants a flood water harvesting plant can be placed at each house this will solve the problem of floods to some extent if this these plants are covering a large area and water purified from that could be then stored and used later for some selected purposes like irrigation,

Bigger versions of these could be placed near farms

For the flood water collection, as the floods pose as a big threat to the farms and as most of the farming in the Himalayas is step/ terrace farming a tank or a water collector leading to a tank nearby, this could stop excess water running down the farm and ruining the crops.

This water could be re used for the farm in times of summer.

I, after 15 years working on this issue will try and influence the organizations and the parts of the government who work in relation to this issue by my ideas,

I will talk and research with experts about the ideas and will further build on them

And to influence the people to implement the various water conservation techniques and I would make effective posters to convey the message to the public

One main thing I would really want to do 15 years from now is to communicate to the public through posters brochures etc to make them aware about the situation, the gravity of the problem, and available solutions.

Prachi Choudhari: (Team - HIMALAYAN FOOTHILLS)

Amol Singh Tomar: Design Opportunities Water (Team - HIMALAYAN FOOTHILLS)

Amol Singh Tomar: Design Opportunities Water (Team - HIMALAYAN FOOTHILLS)

Himalayan range, a paradise to rest of the world but surely not for the people living there, especially the rural women who have to walk for more than 10 kms every day to fetch water. In my dreams, the Himalayas in coming 15 years will have a network of “cable buckets” transporting water from the river flowing below to either the peaks or to the sub stations finally reaching the peak. The river flowing below is generally the source of water and the women have to travel for kilometers to fetch water. There will be stations situated at the base, which will be collecting water from the river and sending it up through the cable system. The empty buckets would be coming down through an adjoining cable system.

The water sent from the transmitting stations is received on receiving stations situated either on a low peak or somewhere in between according to population distribution. People might have to pay for each bucket, if it is required to be purified at the transmitting level or if the cable system is operating through power. The buckets are designed so that they are easy to carry to their near by home on their heads by using leather straps and giving a cavity to fit the bucket properly on once back. Receiving stations would be build according to the population distribution example one for three or four near by villages.

In this way the problem of water transportation will be solved The Himalayan rural women then will then be able to make themselves and their surrounding socially and culturally strong. It might have disadvantages like it spoiling the natural beauty of Himalayas.

Amol Singh Tomar: (Team - HIMALAYAN FOOTHILLS)

Kaveri Gopalakrishnan : Design Opportunity - Water (Team - Himalayayan Foothills)

Image: Kaveri Gopalakrishnan : Design Opportunity - Water (Team - Himalayayan Foothills)

Q:15 years hence, what do I see myself doing in the Himalayas with water (reference to previous understanding) ?

Two things close to my heart-art,and children.
Children come up with the best ideas-fresh and from the heart.
The 60s,among many things,were an era of sunny optimism and endless possibilities,besides being one of great unrest and dramatic change.

An eco-friendly art school-cum-ashram, Ketu (shooting star-symbol of creativity on a journey) which aims to tackle issues of waste, energy efficiency and sustainable development in the himalayas.

Since water is a primary issue, being life source, I intend to create a place where individuals can make conscious attempts to make intelligent choices for life, whether young or old. Love for the land and ideologies like 'art for arts sake' will inspire.

Ketu is registered with Eco-schools.org (Britain) and Greenpeace, for guidance in its research center and eco farms (careful use of water and recycling systems) where locals can relearn from their environment. Funds are hence derived, while volunteers trained by myself (or from sister ngos) teach primary children and interested locals of other age groups. Insights from outside sources are turned into working models-work with ngos, stories published In journals, installations,perhaps have the childrens work spread online. Education starts at home, with parents being taught the right way to live.

The ashrams will spread, and the Himalayas themselves become a land of great change. An ambitious project, but one that can work.

Kaveri Gopalakrishnan (Tram - Himalayayan Foothills)

3. Himalayan Foothills: Design opportunities for Water

3. Himalayan Foothills: Design opportunities for Water
The Himalayas team explored all the ideas that had come up during the earlier phases of their design opportunity search and they decided as a group to focus their efforts on the building of a specific business opportunity with an integrated set of water based uses on which they could focus. They too had narrowed their field quite dramatically when the chose to focus on the building of one hotel chain to deal with the climate and terrain potential of the Himalayan foothills which was their field of play. They proposed a new hotel chain which would work on the development of ecological uses of water in a sustainable manner and for this objective they proposed many specific strategies and product solutions that could be developed and applied in the chain of hotels that they propose to build and operate as a sustainable business venture in the future.