STREETS FOR ALL (THESIS PROJECT) AYUSHI AGARWAL PGDP-BRIDGE-PSD
AYUSHI AGARWAL Thesis Project 2019 (Post Graduate Diploma Programme) Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology Bangalore - 560064 Karnataka
THESIS PROJECT 2019 STREETS NAVIGATING TO THE NEAREST PUBLIC TOILETS STUDENT:
AYUSHI AGARWAL
PROJECT:
Streets for All
SPONSOR:
Self initiated
PROGRAM:
Post Graduate Diploma Programme
AWARD:
Art and Design
GUIDES:
Kamya Ramachandran, Ravi Mani
Copyrights 2018-2019 Student Document Publication (for private circulation only) All Rights Reserved Thesis Project (Post Graduate Diploma Programme) Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology Bangalore - 560064 Karnataka No part of this document will be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanically, including photocopying, scanning, photography and video recording without written permission from the publishers namely Anand Prakash and Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore. Written, edited and designed by Ayushi Agarwal Printed at Printo, Bangalore
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND PLAGIARISM STATEMENT I, AYUSHI AGARWAL, hereby declare that the content of this student documentation and final design/artwork submission is my own original work and has not been plagiarised in full or part from previously published/designed/manufactured material or does not even contain substantial propositions of content which have been accepted for an award of any other degree or diploma of any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in this Thesis project. I also declare that the intellectual content of this Thesis Project is my own original work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project’s design and conception or in style and presentation is acknowledged and that this graduating project (or part of it) will not be submitted as assessed work in any other academic course.
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT I, AYUSHI AGARWAL, hereby grant Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology the right to archive and to make available my Thesis Project in whole or in part in the institute’s databank and website, and for non-commercial use in all forms of media, now and hereafter known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act.
Name: Signature: Date:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my facilitator Ravi Mani and Kamya Ramachandran for the continuous support of my thesis study and related research, for their patience, motivation, and immense knowledge. Besides my facilitators, I would like to thank my previous class PSD facilitators, Ishita shah and Archana Jayakumar for their insightful comments and encouragement, but also for the hard question which incented me to widen my research from various perspectives. To our dean Swati Maskeri for guiding and providing proper formats and information on our thesis project and other advisors who gave their valuable feedbacks and helped me shaped my project. I would also like thank to all those people who been the part of my primary research, without their time and efforts I would not be able to accomplish this project. I would also like to thank my friends for stimulating discussions, reviews and support and also to my family for supporting me spiritually throughout the thesis and my life in general. Last but not the least, to Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology; for invaluable lessons on design imparted over a one-year PG Diploma course.
T A B L E
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INTRODUCTION DESIGN BRIEF
6 JOURNEY MAP
O F 18 ROAD AWAY FROM THE DESTINATION
C O N T E N T S
32 ROAD TOWARDS THE DESTINATION
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REFLECTION ANNEXURE BIBLIOGRAPHY
INTRODUCTION Streets are intended as public spaces serving the needs of different types of users across all levels, and not just vehicles. But what we see in reality are the technical and design flaws, over emphasis on motorised modes of transport, lack of universally accessible roads and public spaces, broken footpaths with no cycle tracks leading to zero infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists. Through our thesis project we are looking at the streets of Bengaluru to understand “whether our streets are for all or not?� Do people feel safe on it? Are they inclusive? Do we have community participation on streets? To understand it better, we need to select an area and a vulnerable group to study about their behaviour, challenges, culture, lifestyle, relationship with space to determine issues that makes them feel vulnerable and to design an intervention for the same.
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DESIGN BRIEF
What do i mean by streets navigating to the nearest public toilets? For my thesis project, I’m looking at the streets in Yelahanka new town, where for my vulnerable group I chose migrant workers who are selling products by either standing, sitting and walking. Those are fruits vendors, pani puri sellers and people selling balloons, brooms etc. I observed their relationship with streets in terms of space, community involvement and safety. To understand what problems they face on streets it was important to do interviews and surveys. I was looking at how do they manage their work in different climates, where do they sit and get shade. As they are migrant people, so what challenges they faced while coming to a new city? How did they come to new city? I also looked at how do they carry out their commercial activities on streets and where do they go for toilet? I looked at to all these aspects but what really caught my attention was that they didn’t knew where are the public toilets? They either used to wait to go back home or go in some restaurants which is not easy to approach as they don’t allow outsiders to use their toilets. So this occurred to me a very serious issue as it can result in serve health problems. Then I looked at the public toilets near the area and found that the public toilet is very near to them which is decent to use but people don’t know about it. There were numerous reasons why people didn’t know. Some of them were, lack of sign boards or broken sign boards, disinterest in using public toilets and the misinterpretation of whether there would be a public toilet or not? Being unware of the service which is solely provided for them can cause serve issues. From my survey I got to
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know that 80% of the people found it difficult to locate public toilets and 50% of the people don’t like to walk for public toilets more than 5 minutes. Next step was to how can I make people know about the nearest public toilets then they can make a choice whether they want to use it or not but at least they should know where is it so that they should not tangle themselves in problems. For making them aware I took the inspiration from the navigation style of migrant people. They travel from different cities without using any google map. They ask people about the place and they tell them some landmarks and that’s how they navigate. People remember places with landmarks and experience that help them to remember a place for a longer period. For e.g. memory of having a best chai on a particular street, or famous stores and shops. So I tried to use the same pattern for making people remember the public toilets for long run. I designed a sign board which is in the form of human structure to depict community participation in helping others to find a way. To make it attractive and interactive, I decided to make that person performs an action of going to the loo. Sign boards consists of the landmark name in English and Kannada to make it inclusive. For e.g. Go straight from royal mart. My motive is just not to make them reach the place but to make them know the streets and remember it for longer period and that’s how they share this information to others. The boards will be placed within 500 meters from the public toilets.
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JOURNEY MAP 1.ACTIVITIES 2. EXPLORATION OF TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES 3. VISITS
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ACTIVITIES 1.WALK IN YELAHANKA 2. WALK IN SANJAYNAGAR 3. EXPLORATION OF FORM 4. REFLECTION 5. JOURNALING
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1. WALK IN YELAHANKA
Our first task was to walk on those streets which were unseen by us. While walking we need to click pictures of what we see without thinking about the beauty, aesthetics or perspective of the picture (at least 25 pictures). Next task was to arrange all the pictures and take out themes from it for e.g. what you see in common, what kind of reflection is coming out from the photos. The purpose of this activity was to capture things that get filtered when you see it with some lens. It builds deeper observations skills.
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2. WALK IN SANJAYNAGAR
Sanjaynagar was the initial site given to us for our study. I made two walks to understand the street character at different time period and people’s relationships with the space. Our motive of going to sanjaynagr was to select a street and one vulnerable group but it changed after doing more research and observations.
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3. EXPLORATION OF FORM
In this activity we need to bring any object and sketch its uses in two ways. My object was a hanky. First my keeping the object in its actual form and second by doing some alterations in object. Then we need to imagine an object 10 times bigger than its actual size. The purpose of this activity was to think different and creative without any filtrations in terms of imagination.
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4. REFLECTIONS
We were introduced to this format of reflections and told to do two reflections each week of case studies. It is the good activity as it allows to analysis any project critically and helped in gathering important insights from each projects and case studies.
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4. JOURNALING
Journaling is the productive way to collect and document the process. It is very liberating in the way that we can express our emotions with our work. I wrote my insights from various case studies, interviews, feedbacks and important sources for information.
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2.EXPLORATION OF
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NAME
WHAT IS IT ABOUT?
INSIGHTS
1. SWOT ANALYSIS
It means analysing situation under four main aspects that are strengths, weakness, opportunity and threats.
It helped in brainstorming all the information and also for framing an area of enquiry for design proposal.
2. SCQ (situation, complication and question)
It means sorting any project or case studies by writing current situation and analysing complication and framing questions.
It helped in writing the design brief where I looked at the present situation and looked at the ways to improve the current situation.
3. SHADOWING AND TRACING
It is tool used for primary research where shadowing means following your group and tracing means analysing the track of the group from one point.
As my vulnerable group was mostly stable or highly temporary, I’m not able to use these tools in my primary research.
TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES NAME
WHAT IS IT ABOUT?
INSIGHTS
4. INTERVIEWING
Interviews are of various types; it could be made up of direct questions or with long questions that requires more information.
It helped in developing the skills of interviewing by doing this activity amongst the group.
5. MIND MAPPING
It is about putting all the key words on the paper and subdivide those key words into much sub key words to give clarity to the project.
It is the most important tool that helped me solving doubts and shaping my project.
6. OBSERVATIONAL SKETCHES
Recording of activities which are useful for the research can be recorded in the form of quick sketches that captures the activity.
It helped me develop my style of recording observations and to capture valuable information in short period.
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3. VISIT TO KOCHI BIENNALE Kochi biennale is an international exhibition of contemporary art held in kochi, Kerala. During the thesis project, we got the chance to visit kochi biennale for 2 days. It was a place where you will get lots of inspiration and different perspectives of art presented by different artists. Art works that i enjoyed the most was the ones who were very interactive. It is very important to interact with the art to understand it better. I took the inspiration from the interactive arts and how they were inclusive where people from different culture could easily understand it. There was this installation that called vanishing water where all age groups of people were painting on the glass surface with water and it vanished within a minute. It was very relaxing and refreshing to have this kind of installation. Another one was the sound installation by Shilpa Gupta who bought silenced poets back to life. For centuries, poets have been jailed or killed for speaking out against injustice but they speak again an eerie sound installation at Kochi biennale. One of the inspiration that I took from there was to make use of senses to make people understand your idea. Overall it was a wonderful opportunity to explore different kinds of art and the place itself.
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“ROAD AWAY FROM THE DESTINATION” 1. SITE SELECTED 2. VULNERABLE GROUP 3. DRAFT DESIGN PROPOSAL 4. SEMINAR 1 FEEDBACK 5.MIND MAPPING 6.SWOT ANALYSIS 7.INTERVIEWS 8. CONCEPTS ITERATIONS 9. REASON FOR THE REJECTION
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1.STREET SELECTED
Initially I selected the street in Sanjaynagar because it was a mixture of residential, commercial and educational units. There was temple, preschool, small retail shops, boutique, clinic. It was a busy road but not as busy as main road. Also I found some interesting spots where people have claimed the space in different manners. Some used the space outside their houses for parking and some for making a small garden. While walking on the street, lots of questions arose in my mind regarding ownership, people’s interest, behaviour and utilisation of space. So it made me curious to work on this street.
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2. VULNERABLE GROUP
Firstly, it was difficult to decide the vulnerable group but after having my second walk it made quite clear to me. I chose migrant workers who are homeless as my vulnerable group because they are often being neglected. Even during my first walk I didn’t pay much attention to them but after going through pictures again and again I realised how do they live? They didn’t have permanent space, it was temporary. They were living there because they were working on the construction site and it was given by the owner. They made their own roof by placing waste woods, aluminium sheets,
and other materials which they have acquired from the waste lying on the side. They hung their clothes on a wire and kept clothes on a chair that was thrown in the garbage. Electricity and water facility was also provided to them even washroom was made accessible to them in the construction site. But the idea of living on the footpath by building a temporary structure made me feel sympathetic towards them. The very first impression of them was that they are homeless as they don’t live in a proper build structure. This made me feel that they are vulnerable as they don’t have proper dedicated space to live.
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3.DRAFT PROJECT PROPOSAL DESIGN BRIEF: Streets are intended as public spaces serving the needs of different types of users across all levels, and not just vehicles. According to the National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP), streets should be designed with an equitable allocation of road space. However, the situation is not ideal, to say the least, on our roads and streets. Issues on streets include technical and design flaws, over emphasis on motorised modes of transport, lack of universally accessible roads, lack of public spaces, and broken footpaths with no cycle tracks leading to zero infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists. One of the streets amongst them are the streets in Sanjaynagr, Bengaluru facing the same crisis. There are numerous vulnerable group of users who are facing problems on the streets. One of them are the homeless people who sleeps on the pavement of streets due to the lack of house that arose out of poverty, urbanization, disability, unemployment, migrants etc. Homelessness is the major issue in India. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights defines ‘homeless’ as those who do not live in a regular residence due to lack of adequate housing, safety, and availability. India defines ‘homeless’ as those who do not live in Census houses (recording information about the members of a given population), but rather stay on pavements, roadsides, railway platforms, staircases, temples, streets, in pipes, or other open spaces. There are 1.77 million homeless people in India, or 0.15% of the country’s total population, according to the 2011 census consisting of single men, women, mothers, the elderly, and the disabled. The numbers are increasing and thus requires our serious attention for it. There are various government policies and non-profit organizations who are helping to relieve the homelessness crisis but this is not enough to solve the entire problem. We as the natives of our country should help our people to provide a space which will offer safety, inclusivity and community participation irrespective of any discrimination on the basis of caste, colour, sex, age etc. living on streets is also hindering the movement of other road users, and thus resulting in narrowing down of roads. As a student of a public space design, I strongly believe in creating designs for needy people using recycled or eco-friendly materials. My motive for choosing this vulnerable group came from the emotional bend towards non privileged people and as working for this group will give me new experience and knowledge. Citations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_India https://wri-india.org/events/streets-all-redesigning-and-reimagining-streets-all RESEARCH QUESTIONS • • •
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Where should I place the house for homeless people? What should be the size of the house? How many people can the house accommodate?
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
How can a safety and privacy be provided to them? How can I make it cost-effective? Can I make an eco-friendly portable house? How to involve them with neighbourhood? How can an employment be created for them? How to create awareness about them? What all government policies are there for homeless people? How many of the policies are actually executed? Are they benefited from the government policies? Why are they not benefited? What are the main reasons causing homelessness? Where do they go for toilets? Are there any serious health issues they are facing? How does the other community interact with homeless people? How do they travel? Where do they eat?
APPROACH/PROCESS: • Primary research: To conduct the primary research various tools like tracing, shadowing, interviewing, observing and sketching were used. Tracing: This tool helped in understanding the movement of the vulnerable group by observing them from a specific point on the street. Shadowing: This helped in understanding the activity and behaviour of the group by following them. Interviewing: This tool allows interaction with the group and understand their needs and difficulties better. Observing: It allows active use of all senses and to get details about the place, activities and problems. Sketching and photographing: This helps in documenting the observations and presenting as a proof. • Secondary research: In the secondary research, we did SWOT analysis on various case studies and wrote down reflections on some public space projects. SWOT ANALYSIS helped in evaluating strengths, weakness, threat and opportunity of our vulnerable group or projects in terms of safety, inclusivity and community participation. It gave us the direction in which we have to go. By doing this, I was able to putt down all my thoughts related to my vulnerable group in very systematic manner. Further combining SWOT analysis of different case studies, helped in sorting and making the areas more
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specific. Those areas where 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Engage and empower stakeholders to align to the needs of vulnerable groups Maintain safe and clean facilities for freedom of movement for non-motorized users. Improve utilization of natural resources and community knowledge. Distinguish areas based on utilities of diverse user groups. Develop inter-generational areas of activity and space to promote play, hobby and recreation. Enable health and well-being for longevity of species and natural resources.
REFLECTION: Reflection made the process easier in terms of increasing observation skills and analysing the project from different angles. It allows to look at both negative and positive sides of the project. Also while doing reflection, I came across to so many new ideas that I must implement in my design project. One of the positive thing that I took was the active community participation in almost every stages of design, whether it is decision making, planning or development because it is ultimately be created for the community and another one was using donated or recycled materials to create a learning space where fees is being charged in the way of educating to children. Reflection also made me understand the factors that result in the growth of the space. Very important amongst them was to fulfil, understand and execute the needs of the community. This will not only help in growth but also in development of the community. LEARNING OUTCOMES: Every project gives a learning experience that results in shaping of ideas and understanding. As an outcome, I expect to execute the design in real world to see how it works and it would be a fulfilling experience if my design idea could give happiness to the homeless people. In terms of skills, I’m learning different tools which are very essential for design process and also developing my exiting skills on mind mapping, sketching, journaling, documentation and on design software. At the end of the project, I would be able to articulate cultural and socioeconomic differences and the significance of these differences for instructional planning, apply various tools for my design research & planning and evaluate the research more critically. Last but not the least, it will also develop an eye to understand human behaviour which is very crucial to observe with sensitivity and should be taken into considerations for developing design ideas. Ayushi Agarwal
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4. SEMINAR 1 FEEDBACK
CHANGES MADE After receiving feedback from the jury, i really need to define home and homelessness for that I read lots of books, watched ted talk videos and read blogs and articles. After doing some secondary research in understanding the deeper meaning of home I realised that under national urban policy, definition of home is defined by its materialistic aspects but the emotive aspects such as emotional and psychological connections, sense of belongings are neglected. Then I came up with my own perspective of home. I looked at streets as home for the people who are working on streets for their livelihood where streets are not just for the mode of transportation but it builds social relationships, attach emotional value, give freedom of movement, allow execution of commercial activities and give sense of belonging. Before deciding and making my vulnerable group precise, I decided to talk to all those people who work on streets. I interviewed people likes fruits and vegetable vendors, dry cleaner, security guard, cleaning and maintenance lady and man selling brooms on streets. After interviewing all these people, I realised that man selling brooms was found to be the most vulnerable as he has to walk a long distance in harsh climate to sell products. But then finding this vulnerable group got really difficult as they were continuously moving. Then i changed my group again to the pani puri sellers as they were easily approachable. Finally, I decided my vulnerable group to be the migrant people carrying out commercial activities by selling products without using any moveable carts. They are mostly standing, sitting and walking. E.g. pani puri bhaiya, people selling balloons, toys on traffic signals, lady selling flowers on pavements. I used various tools and techniques like mind mapping, SWOT analysis, interview to understand and frame a precise area of enquiry so that I can proceed towards concept development. .
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5. MIND MAPPING
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6. SWOT ANALYSIS
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7. INTERVIEWS
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8. CONCEPT ITERATIONS BELT RECORDER: Broom or balloon sellers are spending at least 8 to 12 hrs on street shouting and walking all the day. To grab attention, they use their voice as marketing tool. To enhance and save their energy I thought maybe they can record their voices could play it at high frequency. They can place it on a belt as they are mostly walking all day so it will be comfortable to attach it on a belt.
SEATING AREA: There could be an attached seating on wall, so that if pedestrian is walking, fixed seats won’t disturb the movement then the non-fixed seats. Also if it will be placed on wall people won’t pee.
DESI SKATEBOARD: As these people need to carry lot of items with them so instead of carrying it on shoulders, a cardboard skateboard can be made and on it lightweight box can the attached so to carry items and a rope to move it. Wheels can be taken from garbage or used vehicle for movement.
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VERTICAL CART: Vertical cart for the people selling brooms and balloons. It occupies less space and provides shade and attached seating area. It is very cheap as it can be taken for rent from the booth placed near bus stands.
STREETS NAVIGATING PEOPLE TO THE NEAREST PUBLIC TOILET: One of the reason for unhygeine and dirty streets could be the unawarnes of the nearest pulic toilets expescially for those who are new to the city. So why not the streets only tell people about the public toilets. A blue line drawn on the left side of the road will allow users to navigate to the nearest toilet by telling the distance from where they are now. On roads and streets, there will be an information at every 4m.
SHED: Pani puri sellers are standing all the time and they bear harsh climate. So a semi opened shed with a yellow cloth where they can keep their things from which they feel connected and happy. Its temporary and portable.
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9. REASON FOR THE REJECTION
In my seminar 2, I got feedback that opened my eyes. The context of looking at the street as home was questioned a lot. How can a street become a home for my vulnerable group as they are out there to carry out commercial activities for sur-vival? I was not able to form a bridge between home and my vulnerable group. Problems like lack of shade and seating area was not really a problem. They sit on footpaths without any discomfort and they make their own shade or find one for themselves. Also the problems i was looking at was not making them feel like home. This really struck me out in the pro-cess, as the context was creating a difficulty for me. I decided to go back and look at my process without thinking about the context. I realised that I spotted the issues but those were not related to making them feel like home on streets. So the issue that I went ahead was with the public toilet as it was the necessity for anyone who are working for 8 to 12 hours of the day. Then I made my context around it and followed the same process of doing research and concept itera-tions again. It was very challenging for me as time and completion of the project became the biggest constraint.
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“ROAD TOWARDS THE DESTINATION” 1. SITE SELECTED 2.CONTEXT 3. PRIMARY RESEARCH 4. SECONDARY RESEARCH 5.CONCEPT ITERATIONS 6. PROTOTYPE EXPLORATION 7. FINAL PROTOTYPE 8. PROCESS OF FINAL PROTOTYPE 9. EXHIBITION 32
1. SITE SELECTED
I selected the street in Yelahanka new town because it is closer to my location that made my visits more often to the place as compare to Sanjaynagar. Also on this street there is a public toilet that even I got to know during my research.
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2. CONTEXT
From my previous journey I spotted some of the issues and the selected one was about the public toilets. During my primary research, it came out that many of the vendors and pani puri sellers didn’t know about the location of public toilet. While asking them where do they go, they told me either they wait to go back home or they use restaurants for it but going in a restaurant was not an easy task as they don’t allow outsiders. Some of them knew the location but don’t like to pay for it every day. This was not just the only problem, there was an issue of being dirty, unhygienic and unsafe public toilets. Also the problem of identifying the public toilets as there are no sign boards or a colour code that gives identity to public toilets. There were numerous issues and I explored all of them but i need to select one for my study. I picked up the issue of being unaware of the location of the public toilets and I personally feel that being unaware is very dangerous as it can call various health issues. VULNERABLE GROUP: My vulnerable group are the migrant workers selling product by either standing, sitting and walking without using any moveable cart. Within these I picked up three personas that are: 1. Migrant worker selling balloons, brooms etc. by walking 2. Fruits and vegetable vendors 3. Women bus passengers.
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3. PRIMARY RESEARCH
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SURVEY RESULT
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4. SECONDARY RESEARCH PRIVACY IN PUBLIC TOILETS:
MODERN TECHNOLOGY IN PUBLIC TOILETS:
I read in city metric about the privacy inside the public toilets and the common issues were that the door has wide gap from the ground which hinders the privacy of the person using it. Also in many public toilets there are no gates that encloses the women and men sections, especially for women, they set their clothes, they need to feed babies so without having gate it becomes very uncomfortable to use them.
Technology can be helpful but at the same time it can be dangerous too. Under the article by THE CONVERSATION website, they reflected the issue of how older people perceive self-cleaning toilets as unfamiliar and different to use. So the choice of how much technology is required must be an inclusive decision.
SOCIO ECONOMIC INEQUALITY:
There are so many different kinds of eco-friendly and sustainable toilets which requires less energy and uses human excreta as manure. Some of them are Ecosan toilets, bio-digester toilets, Bamboo toilets etc. But hav-ing these toilets are not enough but maintenance of it is also required to keep them functional which is the huge drawback in our country.
Usually in India, we see toilets separated into two genders but what about the transgender. Where should they go? Unisex toilets can be one of the solution for it but fitting this in India can raise cultural and social issues.
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TYPES OF SUSTAINABLE TOILETS:
PLANTS THAT PURIFIES AIR:
HUMAN URINE AS FERTILIZER:
Plants that requires less sunlight and which purify the air should be placed inside the toilets to give fresh and healthy air to breath. Some of them which are easily available in Bangalore are Peace lily, money plant, rubber plant, Boston fern, lemon balmetc.
From the YouTube videos I got to know that even the human urine is a useful resource for plants. It can be used as fertilizer if mixed in proper ratio with other product. I saw one of the design of the public toilets that converts human urine into water and directly goes to the tree.
OPEN URINATION ON STREETS: People do open urination either due to the lack of public toilets, unaware of where is the public toilet or human behaviour of doing in open. It results in diarrhoea, typhoid, cholera, polio, hepatitis and many more. People don’t realise it as a big issue and it results in serve health problems. Also if the streets are dirty it will attract more people to make it more dirty.
CREATIVE WAYS TO NAVIGATE: Colours are something that will always grab your attention where they are in sky or in ground. I saw many of the ways on lines drawn on streets, inside building that help people navigate towards the destination.
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5. CONCEPT ITERATIONS In this concept, I was looking at the senses like sound, smell, infrastructure, visual, to im-prove the condition of public toilets. I was making a model which was a compilation of many interventions like for sound there could be a music system, for cleanliness there should be a plants, for safety there should be a proper infrastructure and for pay toilet there should be system where free toilet can be used by earing rewards. One of the reason for unhygienic and dirty streets could be the unawareness of the nearest public toilets especially for those who are new to the city. So why not the streets only tell people about the public toilets. A blue line drawn on the left side of the road will allow users to navigate to the nearest toilet by telling the distance from where they are now. On roads and streets, there will be an information at every 4m. Re-designing of the sign boards that have a human element as people connect more with people. Idea was to make people remember the public toilets for long run by telling them landmarks. Also because it has a human element, I tried to insert a message on health which is being conveyed by these sign boards.
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6. PROTOTYPE EXPLORATION
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7. FINAL PROTOTYPE WHAT IS THIS? It is a sign board that consists of the landmark’s name in two different languages, English and Kannada. It performs an action of a person wanted to pee so that it can be understood without even reading the board. Information is written on both the sides of the board so that it is visible by the pedestrians, people working on footpath and the ones who are walking on the streets. HOW IS IT DIFFERENT FROM OTHER SIGN BOARDS? The design of it is unique. It attracts attention as soon as someone looks at it. It makes people laugh due to this action so its interactive while other sign boards are not interactive and they don’t grab attention in comparison to this.
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WHAT IS THE MOTIVE OF THIS SIGN BOARD? Main motive is to make people know about the location of the nearest public toilet but along with it make people experience the street by remembering the landmarks for long term. WHAT ARE THE MATERIALS USED FOR THIS? Metal rod for a stand and aluminium board which is very cheap and can be recycles and reused from the electron-ic market. WHAT ARE THE DIMENSIONS OF IT? Board is 3 feet long and the total height of the pole is 7.8 feet. Height of the pole from the ground to the board is 6feet.
8. PROCESS OF FINAL PROTOTYPE
Marking landmarks
Ideas for making it rigid and fixed to the ground.
Measuring height according to the standards.
Protection from vandalism
Ideation on what and how to write a message on it.
Exploring multiple uses of sign boards.
Designing the symbol
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9. EXHIBITION
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REFLECTION
Journey of the thesis project was like a roller coaster to me. Coping up with difficulties and time manage-ment was one of the challenges. In the beginning of my thesis I made some goals for myself of improving my writing and reading skills, of improving my documentation and articulation skills, of exploring design soft wares like in design and I feel happy about myself that I’m able to accomplish it. During the process I learned a lot from my mistakes and thesis mistakes gave me extra knowledge which was not the part of the project. I improved my working skills by indulging the habit of documenting from the very beginning. This whole journey of one year helped me to get prepare for the next year in college. Also during my pro-ject, I analysed my strengths and weakness and made notes of the areas that I need to work on.
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ANNEXURE DESIGN BRIEF:
(FINAL PROPOSAL)
Streets are intended as public spaces serving the needs of different types of users across all levels, and not just vehicles. According to the National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) issued by Ministry of urban development, government of India (MOUD), streets should be designed with an equitable allocation of road space. However, the situation is not ideal, to say the least, on our roads and streets. Issues on streets include technical and design flaws, over emphasis on motorised modes of transport, lack of universally accessible roads, lack of public spaces, and broken footpaths with no cycle tracks leading to zero infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists (https://wri-india.org/events/streets-all-redesigning-and-reimagining-streets-all). There are numerous vulnerable group of users who are facing problems on the streets. One of the vulnerable group I found were the homeless people who sleeps on the pavement of streets due to the lack of house that arose out of poverty, urbanization, disability, unemployment, migrants etc. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights defines ‘homeless’ as those who do not live in a regular residence due to lack of adequate housing, safety, and availability. India defines ‘homeless’ as those who do not live in Census houses (recording information about the members of a given population), but rather stay on pavements, roadsides, railway platforms, staircases, temples, streets, in pipes, or other open spaces. As per the definition, homelessness is recognized from the materialistic aspect. In a conventional way, home is something that gives shelter and where you can live but it’s much more than this. Some disable people who live in house don’t feel like home because that house is not inclusive of them which lacked emotional and physiological connections. The emotive aspect of the home which has emotions, physical well-being, loving and caring social relations, sense of belonging is often being neglected. My way of understanding a homelessness is not just related with a shelter but mainly with the emotive aspects. To make my area of study more precise I further segregated my area of research. I’m looking at people who are migrant workers with a low income group who sells items like balloons, toys, brooms etc. on traffic signal, streets and road and don’t use any mode of transport for selling items but only to travel from one place to other they use public transport. They spend 9 to 11 hrs of their day on streets with a hope to sell all their items. They may or may not have a fixed place to live. Some of them don’t feel a sense of belonging or welcoming by the community by this I mean when they go on streets asking and calling people to buy their items, some people buy, some ignore or some just shoo them away. Most of time they come with a face of grief as none of their items have been sold. Streets are like a home for them, it is not only a mode of transport but it also helps in building social relations with other community, gives new identity, executing commercial activities, gives freedom of movement, attach emotional value to places and people, and also gives a sense of belonging. But this may not be the case with everyone because every street doesn’t offer the same emotions and freedom. On some streets they struggle a lot for selling items, they don’t find area to sit or relax for short time, no drinking facilities and lack in communication. So as a student of public space design, I would like to focus on area where I can make streets a better home for the migrant workers. Before stepping into the designing of an intervention, it is very crucial to understand what do they need. Some migrant herders don’t like to live permanently or in a shelter, they love to live under sky with no roof and no house. So first step would be to understand their experience of street in terms of safety, inclusivity and community participation. What do they feel about living on streets and on the basis of what do they want? my intervention will shape accordingly.
AREA OF INQUIRY: How to improve the experience of communication and movement by developing social relations, emotional value and infrastructure to carry out commercial activities?
My main focus is to make streets as home for migrant workers for which I’m looking at various key factors. 1. Communication: communication is needed to navigate in new city, to form a business relation with shopkeeper and users and they use their voice as the primary marketing tool to grab attention. So how can I improve the communication ways in which they can grab more attention and execute their commercial activities. 2. Movement: movement is related to mode of transport and walking on streets. These people carry items from a market and travels to different parts of the city in order to sell. For travelling they use public transport carrying heavy weight of items and after that they walk kilometres to sell in harsh weather. So to ease the movement, various ways can be performed in which users can contact with them through some digital medium and can save their time and efforts. 3. Social relations and emotional value: streets allow developing social relations by two-way process. Making good social relations with shopkeeper and users will allow them to grow and develop their business. They will become their regular users and retailers that will allow to develop a trust and thus attach an emotional value to it. 4. Infrastructure: broken pavements, potholes and uneven surface cause hinder in movement. These people need to look in all direction either for calling people, looking at routes or for saving themselves from potholes and traffic. Many times they walk in between the streets so that people living in houses can see them. To make the movement easier it is important that the infrastructure is improved.
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APPROACH/PROCESS • Primary research: Interview: For interviewing I made some list of questions which I have divided it into two parts, basic and specific questions. Basic information
What is your name? Where are you from? What do you do? How long are you working here? Why you chose this place? What is your age? Do you live with your family? How many members are there in your family? Specific questions
What are the reasons for migrating? What mode of transport do you use? Do you get the access of drinking facilities on streets? What are the difficulties you face while doing commercial activities on streets? Do you use any technology?
How to study public life by Jan Gehl and Brigitte Swarre – Research tools Tracing: people’s movement, routes
Shadowing: follow people, note behaviour and trace routes taken. Direct observations: human behaviour and interactions between living being with space Photography: activities on street, people, places, urban life Counting: people, gender, vehicles Mapping: movement of people, landmarks, direction, activities, distribution and utilization of spaces, zoning. Keeping a diary: record problems, activities, thoughts, persona, observations.
•
Secondary research:
Case studies: Designing for urban childhoods
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Improvement to Pedestrian Walkway Facilities to Enhance Pedestrian Safety-Initiatives in India Floating vegetable and flowers market on dal lake, Srinagar Books: Design like you, give a dam, architecture for humanity How to study public life by Jan Gehl and Brigitte Swarre Principles of uncertainty- Maira kalman Streets for All: Advice for Highway and Public Realm Works in Historic Places by Rowan Whimster Urban street design guide
Magazines, weblog, news, digital library:
Arch daily-weblog IPleaders- government schemes for homeless people-blog JSTOR- digital library CANTADORA-digital library
Government policies/NGOs:
SELCO foundation-NGO World resource institute-NGO Sustainable urbanism international-NGO India homeless resource network (National shelter policy)
NULM (National Urban Livelihoods Mission)
MATERIALS/ RESOURCE LIST:
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https://wri-india.org/events/streets-all-redesigning-and-reimagining-streets-all https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/files/meetings/egm-data-dissaggregation/PPT24-Culhane.pdf https://content.historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/streets-for-all/heag149-sfa-national.pdf/ https://www.archdaily.com/ https://selcofoundation.org/ http://www.itdp.in/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/NUTP-2014.pdf https://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-design-guide/ http://lv5.sustainurban.org/ https://blog.ipleaders.in/homeless-india-schemes/
LEARNING OUTCOMES: Every project gives a learning experience that results in shaping of ideas and understanding. As an outcome, I expect to execute the design in real world to see how it works and it would be a fulfilling experience if my design idea could give happiness to the homeless people. Also in terms of skills, I hope I could able to improve my communication skills, observations skills, journaling, presentation of ideas visually, which are very essential for spatial design process. I have also set goals to improve my writing and reading skills by indulging myself more into readings and exploring various books, articles etc. to gain knowledge. At the end of the project, I hope I would be able to articulate cultural and socioeconomic differences and the significance of these differences for instructional planning, apply various tools for my design research & planning and evaluate the research more critically. I also hope I’m able to clear my vision about what I Want to do in this particular field of public space design also to develop an eye to understand human behaviour. Whether it is designing, business or any other field, ultimate product or service is for users. So understanding human behaviour and phycology is very crucial in any field. Ayushi Agarwal
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. https://wri-india.org/events/streets-all-redesigning-and-reimagining-streets-all 2. https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/files/meetings/egm-data-dissaggregation/PPT24-Culhane.pdf 3. https://content.historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/streets-for-all/heag149-sfa-national.pdf/ 4. https://www.archdaily.com/ https://selcofoundation.org/ 5. http://www.itdp.in/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/NUTP-2014.pdf 6. https://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-design-guide/ 7. http://lv5.sustainurban.org/ 8. https://blog.ipleaders.in/homeless-india-schemes/ 9. https://www.citylab.com/design/2012/05/worlds-eco-friendliest-urinal-makes-yellow-green/1916/ 10. http://www.goveganic.net/Fertilizing-with-human-urine 11. https://www.proflowers.com/blog/plants-that-dont-need-sun 12. http://www.yourhome.gov.au/water/wastewater-reuse 13. link: 14. http://www.uttipec.nic.in/upload/hotlinks/2018/07/5b3b4ea2004e6File208.pdf 15. http://www.smartcities.gov.in/upload/uploadfiles/files/IUT-3.pdf 16. https://www.aexcelcorp.com/products/eco-friendly-traffic-paint/biostripe-sustainable-marking-paint-aexcel 17. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jun/02/mapping-beirut-style-how-to-navigate-a-city-without-using-any-street-names 18. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=navigation+ted+talk 19. https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/neighborhood-mapping-brain-maps-connections
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THESIS PROJECT 2019
Examiner 1 (name and signature):
STREETS NAVIGATING TO THE NEAREST PUBLIC TOILETS
Examiner 2 (name and signature):
STUDENT: AYUSHI AGARWAL
Date:
PROJECT:
Streets for All
SPONSOR: Self initiated PROGRAM: Post Graduate Diploma Programme AWARD:
Art and Design
Final Examination Panel COMMENTS:
Examiner 3 (name and signature):
Academic Dean:
