Re-Designing Sanitation
Weʼve come a long way in the design phase of Project Sammaan! We started out by identifying innovation opportunities and then crafted a list of aspirations to design for. These included basic objectives such as reducing zones of filth and enforcing rules of use, but also factored in larger goals like shifting the user’s perception of the facility to something positive.This led to two weeks of comprehensive brainstorming sessions with experts from Biome Environmental Solutions, Sushant School of Art & Architecture, and our partners Studio Miscellanea and Anagram Architects.
Brainstorming session in our Gurgaon office.
These sessions at our Gurgaon studio generated over 170 ideas for features within the facilities. Each of these was then detailed and rated on various parameters, with the focus always remaining user-centered.This master list of features and principles will serve as the home base for spinning off briefs all design work streams (architectural, product/component, branding/communication, etc).
We prepared user-experience blueprints (UX BPs, for short) accounting for every different possible user as they navigate and use the facility. These UX BPs were part of Sketch Design Phase 1 and led to the development of floor plans for two design concepts.This very intense exercise was based on design goals identified early in the process as well as practical constraints like site sizes.We made 3D models exploring different forms once the floor plans were finalized iteratively, and rendered in one exhaustive burst, with walkthroughs created. Check out Design One’s walkthrough and Design Two’s.
Top-down render of Design 1.
Top-down render of Design 2.
The next step is for the team to travel to Bhubaneswar and Cuttack get feedback on the plans and models from end-users. (We prepared a toolkit during Sketch Design 1 to capture this information.) We’ll also solicit input from government bureaucrats and engineers whilst there.Our week-long trip will be extremely busy but will be instrumental in shaping the future direction of Project Sammaan.