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.

Surabhi Gangrade: Design Opportunities Water (Team - Coastal Maharashtra)

Surabhi Gangrade: Design Opportunities Water (Team - Coastal Maharashtra)

Scenario 15 years from now…water crisis

During the acute water crisis in the western coast of India,

SURABHI ENTERPRISES takes an initiative with government aid to help harvest rain water for the villages in the valleys of the Western ghats, for a self-sustaining, regular and multi-functional supply of water for drinking, irrigation, normal supply, as well as electricity.

The company uses its initial capital to construct the proposed structure and is then paid by the government for the design solution and opportunity generation in t he villages.

The workforce employed as well as the industries involved are expenditure.

Scope of expansion is large and the generation of opportunities helps out the booming population in the villages.

My presentation is of the system and the field technicalities coexisting in one model.

I have emerged as an entrepreneur that’s not exactly all for profits but also wants to help out for the country’s water requirements. I do understand that the matter of profit here is mostly dependent on the government, but it is a useful venture for the country.

I tried to make it simple as well as visually appealing, for the easy understanding of the design concept and business model.

Surabhi Gangrade: (Team - Coastal Maharashtra)

Kavya Agarwal : Design Opportunities Water (Team - Coastal Maharashtra)

Kavya Agarwal : Design Opportunities Water (Team - Coastal Maharashtra)

A decade and a half...if nursery rhymes could change to words of wisdom...if little mouths would no longer do small talk...as Flynn takes effect...little minds are quick on their feet.... they will be our tomorrow.... a responsible tomorrow....

“Water for Tomorrow” is my social service cum ‘awareness manufacturing’ company, which aims at creating awareness through books, movies, fun facts, games, stickers, and other products for the urban class and reinvesting its profits in uplifting the unfortunate ones.

As most of the resources are exploited by the urban population, this organisation aims to increase awareness in them.

The books produced by us are simple but are backed by strong psychological theories of learning . The leering and habits one forms as a child stay with him forever, hence our products are aimed at young children.

To start with, this company already has a mascot called “Aqui”. This animated freshwater drop is the champion for saving water. A small story book “Aqui and the running water tap” has already hit the shelves.

Our company looks forward on having government aid, so that we can provide customers with cheaper products. Who knows we could come up with an awareness economy in a decade and a half!!!!

Kavya Agarwal : (Team - Coastal Maharashtra)

Nandini Krishnamurthy : Design Opportunities Water (Team - Coastal Maharashtra)

Nandini Krishnamurthy : Design Opportunities Water (Team - Coastal Maharashtra)

THE FUTURE WATER SCENARIO
The word 'coast' conjures an image of an amplitude of water spreading across miles, magical, which when touched for quenching needs, then vanishes, existing as the 'living mirage' of reality. The coastal waters of Maharashtra too, are abundant and salty, far from being 'short and sweet', and this very fact blindfolds the common minds with the availability of huge expanse of drinking water. Till today masses are unaware of the depletion of the limited drinking water, which sounds ironical when the context is referred to Coastal Maharashtra, but alas, the fact is turning true. But, I guess, by 15 years, Design would establish itself in the main market and help the people realize the true picture of water conditions in Coastal Maharashtra. It would spread the fact that rainwater (due to heavy rainfall) could help replenishing the groundwater and could be of more help to our sustenance.

Bringing changes in the architectural features, with the motive to save water, would not really harm the existing scenario of urbanization, rather it would make a huge difference in nourishing the natural resources and simultaneously, save space and energy wastage. This idea could be further progressed by getting the sloping roofs together to collect the rain water to a certain extent. Looking into the details, the roofs sloped inwards tapering to form an enclosed structure with the upper open base. The basic layer of the roofs are made up of concrete for strength and shelter. To prevent the contamination of the collected water, the concrete layer could possibly be over layered by an inexpensive water proof layer for anti leakage and conservation. A mesh-like structure could be placed over the structure to cover the opening and hence avoiding the macro impurities. The pipes taking away the water could contain filter simultaneously filtering the water for general use.

Taking the rising population and urbanisation into account in the next 15 years, I guess, this concept would aid the situation and would keep up the high demands for water if established in large scale. The basic advantages would include factors like less expenditure in establishment, serves the general comfort of shelter and heat (would by then be battling the global warming). There would always be a hope of achieving the best out of the current issue, and I think, 15 yrs, are enough to implement this dream, only IF awareness hypnotises the minds for the good and I also think that its time to get to work for it...

Nandini Krishna Murthy : (Team - Coastal Maharashtra)

Mitsu Shah : Design Opportunity - Water (Team - Coastal Maharashtra)

Image: Mitsu Shah : Design Opportunity - Water (Team - Coastal Maharashtra)

Tourism is an increasing occupation and along with it, there is also an increasing demand of hotels.

Keeping the magnificent backdrop of Konkan in mind, I would like to set up an eco-friendly hotel-cum-rejuvenation centre-cum-camping area.

The centre aims at spreading awareness and promotes conservation of our natural resources.

It targets a very large mass (tourists and locals).

It would be located a couple of hours away from the main cities like Mumbai and Pune, hence making it accessible to the hush-push city-ites who are always in a hurry and run on a very tight schedule.

Since it is the coastal region, the main attractions will be:-

Beaches, diving (sighting of the rare coral which is a great impetus for tourists, both local and foreigners), nature cure, ayurvedic massages, yoga, nature trails, bird watching etc.

The centre will have its own farms where organic vegetables, fruits and herbs will be grown. Its gardens will be full of tropical flowers and healing plants.

It will use alternate energy resources like solar and hydro. It will have an eco-friendly lighting system, compost waste food and bio-degradable cleaning agents.

The garbage will be split up into bio-degradable and non-biodegradable. The bio-degradable can be collected in paper/cloth bags and be taken to the compost pits every day. The non-biodegradable can be sent to the treatment plants.

The centre will also have rain-water harvesting systems that will help in retaining ground water and conserving water from the primary source itself.

Its rooms and bathrooms will have a sensor system, which will help to conserve water and electricity.

To spread awareness amongst the guests, guided tours will be arranged throughout the centre area.

There will be green-room information packs in every room.

Posters and tags will be put up throughout the premises.

Further on, the centre staff will also be made aware of the situation and be educated to the aim of the centre.

Mitsu Shah (Team - Coastal Maharashtra)

5. Coastal Maharashtra: Design opportunities for Water

5. Coastal Maharashtra: Design opportunities for Water
The Maharastra group prepared an illustrated book of many pages, each richly illustrated and containing texts that explained the concepts. These were organized into groups of concepts that were arranged by the strategy that the group chose to focus on and they converted the whole document into a digital file that was presented as a slide presentation to the class using a digital slide projector. The images were impressive due to the scale but the sequential nature of the mode of presentation removed the possibility of the creation of an overview that the other presentations could give, and this is a trade off that technology tools make us take during such presentations.

Design Opportunity Mapping: Coastal Maharashtra India

Image: Terrain model to capture and present Design Opportunity Mapping for effective water conservation and management in Coastal Maharashtra, India by the DCC team.

The Coastal Maharashtra team used a terrain model to locate all the design opportunities that they had arrived at as a group using the small A5 size format that was provided to them. Each member of the team presented their ideas to the class and this was preceded by an overview of their categorisation of these opportunities. Then teachers too gave their comments and the critique from the class suggested ways forward from here.

This method of working has been found effective in getting a deeper understanding of the macro and micro issues and opportunities for design as part of this course at NID. Each group spends time brainstorming, researching and exploring collectively as well as individually before the findings that may be intermediate in nature to the rest of the class. Each group shows interesting insights that are discivered along the journey and these form a cumulative learning for the whole class since all five groups look at diffetent regions or areas of focus within one macro problem area at a time.

Design Opportunity Mapping: Northeast India

Design Opportunity Mapping: Water in Northeast India and Coastal Maharashtra
Image: Northeast group presenting the lists of design opportunities for water

The NER group made a presentation yesterday and their list was broad but lacked visuals This meant that while the possibilities at a general level were listed they missed the representation of the particular form that they saw for each opportunity in their minds eye. In design this is a very important difference and that is why in design there are many answers and not just one way to do things since each designer and their client situation would have different specific constraints and aspirations while deciding the features and the form in which a specific item in their list would be transformed and delivered in the real world.

Even the larger posters done by the groups showed a symbolic treatment while the need when unfolding a design opportunity would be to get as specific as possible so that particular attributes in the possibilities and the limitations are addressed in each representation. There are therefore many possible interpretations possible for each expression and the designer must then make a judgment call while making the thumbnail expression that would capture the image in the minds eye. In order for the students to experience this process we evolved a format on which they could capture these thumbnail sketches along with a very brief caption and key words working as a team that would cooperate in building a large number of design opportunities and these would be categorized and presented to the class for each region that has been selected, namely, Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Himalayas and the Northeast, all villages here so that the macro variables are drawn from this regional constraint by each group.

Image: Coastal Maharashtra group mappong design opportunities for water
The format is yet to be tested and we will know later in the day how the students have been able to use the constraints offered by the format and how they were able to interpret that assignment that has been set for each team. After this presentation we will explore the nature of various design disciplines through a field interaction assignment and also the Business model assignment using local street food vendor models as their source of inspiration. The teams would return to the village economy with the insights gained from these two assignments and continue to work in teams with the assignments that follow.