Designwala recently organized a panel about local people regulating local spaces. The panel was timely given the political unrest in the Middle East and Africa with people standing up to reclaim their rights. The video for the panel will be posted shortly. Our three panelists Jyoti Hosagrahar, Lina Srivastava and John Geraci come from different backgrounds but there was a common thread of ideas that tied everything back to local people and community driven design and activism.

While all the discussion from this monday is still brewing in my head, I came across the slideshow for the redevelopment of the Sabarmati riverfront in Ahmedabad. Urban planner Bimal Patel’s office HCP Design and Project Management has been working on the project for close to 15 years. The long time that the project has taken is primarily because of the various scales of complexities that was involved in the project. One being the resettlement and rehabilitation of the close to 10,000 families living along the riverbank.

Image from HCP site 2007

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) set up the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Corportation (SRFDCL) in May 1997 with a mission to revive the city center by reconnecting it to the river. The first phase of the project included a 9 km stretch of the riverfront. In 2003, the project was extended to cover a 20 km stretch.

Bimal Patel’s article in the WSJ about the project talks about a communication strategy that was put in place to communicate the projects vision and its benefits to the public. The primary communication strategy being circulating project reports. One has to take this with a pinch of salt since hiding details in small print is an established methodology to hide the finer details of the project from people. There is also a component of presentation which is a great way of getting the public’s attention and have them react to what is being designed in their city. Through these presentations the designers were able to communicate to the residents how world over waterfronts have been transformed into communal spaces for city residents. All cities are not the same, other governments are probably not uprooting thousands of slum dwellers from their houses either. There is a lot behind the scenes which still needs addressing.The question about rehabilitation looms large as there is no strategy in place for resettlement. Other issues involve environmental problems related to reclaiming land. The project is supposed to be self financing which means that a lot will depend on the sale of the proclaimed land to build a walkway, promenades, gardens, amusement park and water sports and slum rehabilitation.

Recently HCP put on an exhibition of the renderings showing what Ahmedabad’s riverfront would look like after redevelopment. A lot of questions about floods, slums, finances and implementation and traffic etc were addressed using diagrams and drawings. An interactive feature to get feedback on the project would have been really helpful as well. Giving the local people information is important but equally important is the getting their feedback on it.
The exhibition of the renderings of the riverfront were showcased in an art gallery in Ahmedabad in December last year for two weeks. The art gallery is not home to people used to going to community board meetings. Invitations were send across to wide variety of people to come out to see the images. The images were made realistic along with everything that an indian street cannot be seen without, the cows, dung, dogs and the messiness that forms India. The reaction to the renderings from the people who came to see them was positive. We don’t have the statistics on how many people came to see the images.

Working on such projects involve wide range of partners that include NGO’s, the local government, ministers, politicians etc who are are involved from the get go. However it is important to get the local people involved not just to look at the end product but to be a part of the process so that they can proactively get involved in the design discussions and not just the informal approval process. It is one thing to keep the people informed and its quite another to get them involved. Both need to go hand in hand so that the amount of skepticism and suspicion is reduced and people feel like they are part of a project versus mere spectators in a myriad web of bureaucratic policies and decisions.

The project was meant to finish end of December 2010. As everything in India, this is taking its time and we hope its worth the time it has taken. Ahmedabad is home to two premier design institutes – National Institute of Design and Center for Environmental Planning and Technology as well as the world famous business school Indian Institute of Management. It will be a pity if a project from a city with these institutes solely focuses on commercial interests that go with waterfront development without addressing the basic welfare needs for the displaced as well as the value of the waterfront for all city dwellers from all walks of life.

A lot of affordable housing work in developing nations like India is handled by the government. Government of India is not exactly known for its taste in architecture and design. An interesting story that I read in the Knowledge Wharton blog goes like this – the Tamil Nadu government built low income housing for milkmen who were squatters and without housing. Once the houses were ready and the milkmen moved in, they came to a realization that the buffaloes gave a lot more milk when they were housed in the quarters and were cosy and comfortable which meant that the milkmen went back to being homeless and the buffaloes lived in the low income housing. Not the scenario the government had envisioned while cutting the ribbon on this not so cheap housing project.

The government is trying to build upon public private partnerships by getting partners to deliver affordable housing units after repeated failure to understand this sector. Some huge Indian corporations like TATA are getting into the mix and proposing affordable housing as well. Inspite of all these initiatives, there is still no talk of design and the needs of the community that these houses are being built for.

Here is where the Micro Home Solutions comes in. mHS is a for profit social enterprise that wants to use an interdisciplinary approach to create affordable housing for the 62 million people in India who either live in slums or are without homes. It was started by a husband wife duo – Rakhi Mehra and Marco Ferrario in August 2009. Their organization links together architecture, finance and community to create a housing approach for the urban poor. The two projects they are working on as per a recent article on mHS in fastcompany is a sanitary shelter for India’s homeless and poor and an inter-disciplinary collaborative approach that would allow slum dwellers to organize and plan their homes.

Recently, the Bhartiya Samruddhi Finance Limited (BSFL), the flagship company of the BASIX group entered into a strategic partnership with micro Home Solutions. BASIX will act as the microcredit arm for the mHS wherein it will be providing financial and technical assistance to compliment its housing loan products for the low income/informal sector households. The housing and urban development corporation (HUDCO) had disbursed millions of dollars in loans to the poor of the country. This initiative was fraught with corruption and inefficiencies. Microfinance institutions have an advantage in this area because they know their customers and how much credit risk they are. This alliance shows how mHS is leveraging partnerships to deliver the most efficient product and services to the low-income households.

Affordability should not compromise design. The low income housing being developed for the poor comprises their sense of community, space and social life. A lot of such housing is given out to rent by its owners and the inhabitants go back to living in slums. The housing solutions that mHS provides are affordable, viable and scalable and their portfolio is diversified according to the need to family. As stated in their website – they want to bring about basic changes like better lighting, ventilation and efficient use of space. Their aim is to bring design where it is needed most : to India’s low income urban communities. The idea is to work on strategic ways to allocate resources and bring about better living conditions. The solution is not just one pit stop where the government gives out lower income housing to the poor for cheap but creates a tiered system of affordable self selection options from rentals to dormitories to buying a house. Multiple housing options with and strategic partnerships with housing boards, developers and associations can bring about a flexible plan that will benefit everyone and save government funds as well as bring about a slum free future for India.

mHS blog

VAANI is an organisation that works to empower the deaf child. Its role is to act as a catalyst. Rather than delivering services, VAANI supports the development of accessible sustainable services for deaf children and their families whilst working closely with the overall development strategies of the country. VAANI works with local organisations to build on existing good practices to develop a resource base and understand what works for deaf children and their families in India.

In conversation with the Founder Director of VAANI - Brinda Crishna

RR:  So what’s the story of VAANI? How did it begin?

BC: VAANI was started by me after I had done a study which showed that although services for deaf had existed for over 150 years, it only catered to children who had already grown up and there was no understanding of childhood deafness or the role that parents played in the healthy development of their children. There was no communication as parents did not know how to communicate and children did not know how to express themselves.

RR: Who are the stakeholders of VAANI?  And who are the partners at grass root levels?

BC:  The beneficiaries are families of deaf children, deaf children themselves; community workers and other professionals including teachers. As far as the partners go – small NGOs who work at field level, possibly in community development projects or community based rehab projects.

RR: So VAANI’s services aren’t location specific. It is made available anyone who needs them? Vaani uses existing infrastructures to provide services? VAANI has designed a programme/services that can be emulated by smaller communities/NGO’s etc

BC: Yes and builds the capacity of the local NGO to carry on even after we are not there. The logic behind our model of work is that it addresses the issue of providing quality services to the thousands of deaf children who have yet not been reached, is cost effective, remains an active learning situation for both parties as VAANI and its partner NGO, build on each others strengths and ensures ownership and sustainability of the work. We have developed a whole lot of needs based training material and training curriculum to meet local needs. All our stuff is available in the vernacular.

RR: So does VAANI ever approach a group/NGO/community? Or do they come to you? As in – does VAANI identify a community that needs an intervention or does another smaller NGO approach you first for the liaison?

BC: It works both ways. The thing is that we are careful to choose our partners as there are a lot of organisations that work in the field who still believe in very traditional means of teaching or developing communication in the deaf child. What makes us unique is that we are the only organization in India that focuses on childhood deafness and believes that parents and children must learn to communicate in whatever means works for them; and that parents have the right to make decisions about the future of their children.

RR : But isn’t that the case with all parents? They have the right to make decisions about the future of their children? How is this any different?

BC: When a child has a disability then you allow the professionals to take over because you don’t know what to do. Most professionals in the deaf sector in India still suggest therapy and speech as the primary mode of communication for deaf children, but the reality is that communication is about connecting and understanding. Speaking requires very high quality hearing aids, which has to be given at the right time. Most children are diagnosed very late because deafness is an invisible disability and by the time parents realise their child is deaf, many of the language learning years have passed.

Fundamental to VAANI’s vision for deaf children and their families is the principle of informed choice. We believe that deaf children need to develop fluent language skills in order to understand and influence the world around them, by whatever means is the most appropriate for the individual. Deaf children do not gain access to language in the same way as hearing children. It is therefore very important to ensure that the means are available for deaf children to learn to communicate and that families receive clear and balanced information to help them make choices that are best for their child.

RR: (feeling rather foolish about the previous question) Right. Which is why the parents need to be educated about the possibilities like sign language etc. Why is it hard to identify deafness in a child? Are there non-medical methods that Vaani has developed to help identify child deafness?

BC: Because they look normal and many can hear a little or some sounds. It’s also because in India most parents don’t have long discussions with their children. Parenting revolves around nurturing, and often the child get by initially by using basic gestures. Yes there are definitely non-technical methods; VAANI has not developed them but we do use them to train community workers especially in urban slums and rural India.

RR: Since its inception 5 years ago, how far has VAANI come?

BC : Well, VAANI has worked in Karnataka, Gujarat, West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Maharashtra. In these states we have provided services to over 1000 deaf children and families, conducted training courses and sensitisation meetings for teachers, Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) workers and families. Along with this we have conducted seminars on emotional and social needs of deaf children and their families.We are partnering with the government to provide training to teachers so that they can improve the quality of education of the government run deaf schools and are supporting an NGO to set up an early intervention programme for young deaf children.

RR : Thank You, Mrs. Crishna for taking the time to engage with me. It was a pleasure talking to you. I wish you all the very best with VAANI and its endeavours.

For more information you can visit – www.vaani.in

India’s headcount of approximately 1.17 billion people consists of more than one-sixth of the world’s population. In a country as large as this, it is rather alarming that there is no Indian policy document, which examines waste as part of a cycle of production-consumption-recovery or perceives the issue of waste through a prism of overall sustainability. In fact, government interventions have been fragmented and are often contradictory and fail to even to manage waste in a cyclic process. Waste management still is an undeviating system of collection, disposal and creating health and environmental hazards. Waste management thus poses as a fertile ground and stimulus for design innovation in this country.

One example of such sustainable design is Thunk In India. Thunk as an organisation was formed in January 2009. Thunk began as a creative venture, and is an extension of Suren Vikhash’s graduation project at Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore India. Thunk is a brainchild of social entrepreneurship and design facilitation. The primal node that the project centered around was to try and reduce the outrageous amounts of waste generated everyday in Bangalore. One way that was identified to tackle this issue was to `re-use’ a product, thereby increasing its life. By looking at different ways to manage waste at source and by understanding how the existing system works, Team Thunk has understood how intervention at various points with small changes can result in big differences. They have, thus decided to make the so-called ‘useless’ waste ‘useful’, providing value for these otherwise discarded materials.

Thunk’s vision is to innovate with everyday waste materials, whether the materials are from household waste, industrial waste or natural waste. A lot of these waste materials have a long life span, but only a small percentage of its life span is utilized before it is discarded and reaches the dump yards. They use this so called waste, as new rich raw materials to innovate with (processing innovations, weave exploration and product innovation). This not only utilizes the waste materials and increases their life span but also reduces new natural resources from being used up. They re-use and thereby “up-cycle”, following a cradle to cradle design approach (i.e. waste from one process is used as “food” for another; waste = food).

Another one of their interventions has been targeted at empowering the livelihoods of under privileged communities. Under privileged communities including slum families and self help groups. HIV patients and tribes have been involved in various aspects of Thunk’s Up-cycling process. People from these communities form an integral part of the team. They are equal contributors and co creators of all Thunk products.

Rag pickers play a crucial role in the waste management system. They are the ones who initiate the process by primary waste collection. If it were not for them, the process would not start. Despite their valuable contribution towards the process of waste management, they are looked down at. Through this project, Team Thunk hopes to empower the livelihoods of these people and also bring them recognition for their valuable contribution.  Thunk operates on fair trade principles. Thunk currently designs 2 kinds of product ranges – Lifestyle accessories and Home décor and Furniture. Through their products and designs, they cater to audiences who are looking for green, eco friendly alternative products. They aim to provide alternatives for one to go green. The general notion is that eco friendly and organic products are either too expensive or not attractive. Thus leaving one to feel like there is a compromise one has to make in order to become eco-friendly. Thunk focuses on creating attractive, well-designed and cost effective products that would break the above notion and provide an alternative for people to wish to adopt a more conscious lifestyle.

Thunk In India has the following operational procedures and activities in place (In Bangalore):

·       Weaving setup in a village near Pollachi, Tamil Nadu

·       Tailoring setup in Bangalore

·       Furniture setup in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

·       Design Exploration and Development Hub set up in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

·       Marketing and supply of our products to various Outlets and Client based projects

All Thunk products are available in India and are currently retailed in Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi, Goa, Maharashtra and West Bengal. To know more, you can visit – www.thunkinindia.com

Shweta Mudgal is an architect previously working with L&T in Mumbai and SOM in New York City on the Mumbai International Airport. Shweta acquired her BArch in Mumbai and her MArch from Southern California University of Architecture (SciArc).

For the second part of the Designwala feature – ‘Designers as Changemakers‘, Shweta talks about architecture as a profession in India, primarily in Mumbai where she grew up and went to architecture school. Among other things, Shweta brings up the roles that the Indian architects are playing which are primarily elitest. She talks about the divide between urban development projects that aim at creating a better city for all its inhabitants and the commercial architecture specifically aimed at the upper middle class and the rich. She outlines reasons regarding why the architects are building what they are building and how this could change in the future.