Il Design per i poveri

Che cosa può fare il design per la popolazione più povera? Ecco un gruppo di ricerca che propone le soluzioni per i più sfortunati.

 

http://other90.cooperhewitt.org/

Global Village Shelter

Global Village Shelters, made from biodegradable laminated material, are low-cost temporary emergency shelters that can last up to eighteen months. Prefabricated, shipped flat, and requiring no tools to assemble, they are easy to deploy. The first prototypes were sent to Afghanistan and Grenada, and later used in tsunami-hit countries in Asia; Pakistan’s Azad Kashmir Province, which was devastated by an earthquake, and to Gulfport, Mississippi, after Hurricane Katrina.

1. Designer: Ferrara Design, Inc., with Architecture for Humanity
2. Manufacturer: Weyerhaeuser Company
3. United States, 2004
4. Triple wall-laminated corrugated cardboard treated with fire-resistant and waterproof coating, thermoformed general purpose ABS
5. Dimensions: 92” h x 98.5” w x 98.5” d
6. In use in: Pakistan, Grenada, Afghanistan, United States, southern Asia

Mad Housers Hut

Mad Housers was started by a small group of Georgia Tech architecture students in 1987 with a mission of building free shelter for Atlanta’s homeless. Each hut has a locking door for security, a loft for sleeping and storage, and a wood-burning stove for cooking and heat. The prefabricated huts can be erected in less than half a day. Huts are built in stable sites where a client has camped for some time and is not likely to be torn down, and, in some cases, where the landowners give permission for them to be built. The huts are not intended as permanent housing, but rather as emergency shelters, with the idea that people with a secure and stable place to live are much more capable of finding other resources to help themselves.

1. Designer/manufacturer: Mad Housers volunteers
2. United States, 1987
3. Lumber (1×6 and 2×4 studs), plywood (3/8” and 5/8”), nails (16 penny, 8 penny, finishing, roofing), roll roofing, plastic and/or screen for windows, silver sheet insulation, paint, caulk, metal flashing, stove pipe, cinderblocks, stove, 55-gallon steel drum
4. Dimensions: 10’ h x 6’ w x 8’ d
5. In use in: United States, Canada

 

Big Boda load-carrying bicycle

The Big Boda is able to carry hundreds of pounds of cargo or two additional passengers easily, at a substantially lower cost than other forms of human-powered utility vehicles. It was designed to transport goods to and from market for entrepreneurs and consumers in developing countries. WorldBike originally designed a low-cost frame extension called the Longtail to be compatible with the low-cost Chinese-made single-speeds ubiquitous in East Africa. In 2005, it was redesigned to be more suitable with the Western Kenyan Boda Boda bicycle-taxi operators and for easier manufacturing in small workshops.

1. Designers: WorldBike, Adam French (first phase), Ed Lucero with contributions from Paul Freedman, Matt Snyder, Ross Evans, Moses Odhiambo, and Jacob [last name?] (second phase)
2. Manufacturer: WorldBike and Moses Odhiambo’s workshop
3. Kenya, 2002–05
4. Mild steel, woven papyrus passenger cushion
5. Dimensions: 84” h x 48” w x 24” d
6. In use in: Kenya, Uganda

Pot-in-Pot cooler

The Pot-in-Pot system consists of two pots, a smaller earthenware pot nestled within another pot, with the space in between filled with sand and water. When that water evaporates, it pulls heat from the interior of the smaller pot, in which vegetables and fruits can be kept. In rural Nigeria, many farmers lack transportation, water, and electricity, but one of their biggest problems is the inability to preserve their crops. With the Pot-in-Pot, tomatoes last for twenty-one days, rather than two or three days without this technology. Fresher produce can be sold at the market, generating more income for the farmers.

1. Designer: Mohammed Bah Abba
2. Manufacturer: local potters
3. Nigeria, 1995
4. Earthenware, sand, water
5. Dimensions: 16” to 22” diameter
6. In use in: Cameroon, Tchad, Niger, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Burkina Fas

 

 

Q Drum

Millions around the world, especially in rural Africa, live kilometers from a reliable source of clean water, leaving them vulnerable to cholera, dysentery, and other water-borne diseases. Water in adequate quantities is too heavy to carry. The Q Drum is a durable container designed to roll easily, and can transport seventy-five liters of clean and potable water. Rolling the water in a cylindrical container, rather than lifting and carrying it, eases the burden of bringing water to those who need it.

1. Designer: P. J. and J. P. S. Hendrikse
2. Manufacturer: Kaymac Rotomoulders and Pioneer Plastics
3. South Africa, 1993
4. Linear Low Density Polyethelene (LLDPE)
5. Dimensions: 14” h x 19.5” diameter
6. In use in: Kenya, Namibia, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Angola

 

 

WorldBike prototype

Worldbike exists as a challenge to the bicycle industry, particularly in the world’s bicycling centers of Taiwan, China, and India, to design bicycles for customers in developing countries. The bike weighs about the same as the inexpensive single-speed bicycles sold throughout East Africa, but is engineered to be comfortable, safe, stylish, with a higher carrying capacity.

1. Designer/manufacturer: Paul Freedman, Nate Byerley, Russ Rotondi, and Jeremy Faludi, with Gian Bongiorno and Dave Strain (prototype fabrication assistance)
2. United States, Taiwan, China, or India, 2003
3. Steel (Cro-Moly steel or high-tensile steel)
4. Dimensions: 40” h x 22” w x 78” d
5. In use in: Kenya (field test)

 

Bamboo Treadle Pump

The Bamboo Treadle Pump allows poor farmers to access groundwater during the dry season. The treadles and support structure are made of bamboo or other inexpensive, locally available materials. The pump, which consists of two metal cylinders with pistons that are operated by a natural walking motion on two treadles, can be manufactured locally by metalworking shops. Over 1.7 million have been sold in Bangladesh and elsewhere, generating $1.4 billion in net farmer income in Bangladesh alone.

1. Designer: Gunnar Barnes of Rangpur/Dinajpur Rural Service and International Development Enterprises (IDE) Nepal
2. Manufacturer: Numerous small and medium-sized local workshops
3. Nepal and Bangladesh, 2006
4. Metal, plastic, bamboo
5. Dimensions: 5’h x 2.5’w x 7’d
6. In use in: Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Myanmar, Cambodia, Zambia

 

LifeStraw

About half of the world’s poor suffer from waterborne diseases, and more than 6,000 people, mainly children, die each day by consuming unsafe drinking water. LifeStraw, a personal mobile water-purification tool is designed to turn any surface water into drinking water. It has proven to be effective against waterborne diseases such as typhoid, cholera, dysentery, and diarrhea, and removes particles as small as fifteen microns.

1. Designer: Torben Vestergaard Frandsen
2. Manufacturer: Vestergaard Frandsen S.A.
3. China and Switzerland, 2005 (current version)
4. High impact polystyrene (outer shell), halogen-based resin, anion exchange resin, and patented activated carbon (interior)
5. Dimensions: 10” h x 1” diameter
6. In use in: Ghana, Nigeria, Pakistan, Uganda