Meeting with experts, conducting “Potty Lab” exercises, and general field research led to key insights and corresponding decisions across several facility components:

WC
One of our major learnings was, though a lower-height western-style WC might be an ideal choice in terms of comfort, there was a fair bit of resistance as it differed from their preferred habit of squatting.

The reasons weren’t hygiene-related as we had previously believed, but about ingrained behavior and the belief that squatting would help with bowel movements.

From a design perspective, this left us with an interesting dilemma: how could we provide support through a western-style WC and keep it high enough for wheelchair users to side-transfer to while also allowing other users to squat? After some discussions within the team, we realized that the best solution was a ‘low height hybrid WC’.

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The Project Sammaan team was one of several Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grantees invited to participate in their “Reinvent the Toilet Fair” this month at the foundation’s headquarters in Seattle.

Bill Gates speaking at the Reinvent the Toilet Fair.

The fair was all things toilet: from new designs to the loo itself, to waste collection innovations and everything in between. It was amazing to see what individuals and organizations developed under the banner of “Reinventing the Toilet”: from using organisms for waste disposal and generating energy from feces, to communications interventions for shifting attitudes and preferences away from open-defecation.

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We are very happy to announce the results for the Open Innovation Challenge!

Amongst the entries received for the Architectural Design Challenge, there is one that stands out for its extremely sound contextual understanding and the effectiveness with which it translated insights into design directions.

The entry was submitted by RMA Architects and the Project Sammaan team was unanimous in selecting it as the winner. Besides responding to the brief extremely well, the entry provided new directions which could be incorporated in the architectural design’s next iteration.

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Project Sammaan is unique in the world of sanitation innovation. From the vital impact of its initial scope to the sheer magnitude of its eventual scale, we can potentially improve millions of lives.

Community members at a Cuttack slum

This is a huge undertaking for us and with it comes the excitement and anxiety inherent in any new project. The importance of this project has not been lost on any of us and has led to many late nights and weekends spent in the studio.

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Sammaan is the Hindi, Bengali and Odiya term for honor, respect, and dignity. We at Quicksand felt it the perfect name for the sanitation project we are undertaking that seeks to rethink the current model of sanitation facilities in urban slums and design a new structure that instills a sense of pride, dignity and respect.

The project will begin in slum communities in two cities in Eastern India – Bhubaneswar and Cuttack – and hopefully expand across the rest of the country.

Project Sammaan was born out of the research Quicksand undertook as part of the Potty Project, an in-depth design research study focused on understanding three things:

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