Knock knock whats there

Knock Knock

what’s there?

This booklet, as well as, its components are designed by System Design students of Product Design (UG) 2014 for National Institute of Design.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, digital, mechanical photocopy recording or otherwise, without the written permission from the Institute.

All illustrations, models and photographs in this document are copyright Š 2017 NID and by author/representative people/ organization.

All rights reserved

Knock Knock

what’s there?

by Binayak Mondal, Indrayudh Sengupta, Mridu Jhangiani, Subhrajit Ghosal

INTRODUCTION Cities today are a mess of concrete and bricks. Building facades rarely do much to reveal the functioning and activities that go on within, at best one can distinguish a residential home from a shopping mall.

Consequently, when one goes through the city, rushing towards their destination, one barely registers the different buildings and structures they pass by.

The fault cannot be said to lie with anyone in particular. On one hand the sheer number of built structures in an Indian city makes it hard to keep track of them and on the other, the intimidating facades of some buildings don’t invite curiosity. Children especially don’t grow up being aware of the different public buildings in their vicinity.

City children’s extent of understanding of their city in detail is limited to their neighbourhood. Comparing this to children in the village who are relatively active members of the village community, participating in their parents businesses, one realises that the level of autonomy in rural children is much greater than that of city children.

In this book, we have tried to explore how children from different backgrounds perceive buildings of various kinds. We have put together a collection of vastly different kinds of buildings on which we asked children to draw whatever came to their mind- what is the purpose of the building, what kind of people would you find in it, what can you add to the building, what could be around the building. In the following pages you will find a compilation of the results. For the sake of comparison, we chose to keep the building choices constant across the different groups of children. We hope this book serves as an inspiration for all and ignites your imagination as to what buildings and in turn future cities keeping children in mind could look like.

Contemporary farm house

by Diwan Ballu Bhai Municipal School Students Age group - 7-9 years

by Riverside School Age group - 7-11 years

by resident kids of National Institute of Design, Paldi Campus Age group - 7-13 years

by students from Apang Manav Mandal Age group - 9-13 years

by kids at Parimal Garden Age group - 7-13 years

Aboriginal houses - Australia

by Riverside School Age group - 7-11 years

by Diwan Ballu Bhai Municipal School Students Age group - 7-9 years

by students from Apang Manav Mandal Age group - 9-13 years

by resident kids of National Institute of Design, Paldi Campus Age group - 7-13 years

by kids at Parimal Garden Age group - 7-13 years

Heydar Aliyev Centre - Baku

by Riverside School Age group - 7-11 years

by resident kids of National Institute of Design, Paldi Campus Age group - 7-13 years

by Diwan Ballu Bhai Municipal School Students Age group - 7-9 years

by students from Apang Manav Mandal Age group - 9-13 years

by kids at Parimal Garden Age group - 7-13 years

Writers building - Kolkata

by Diwan Ballu Bhai Municipal School Students Age group - 7-9 years

by resident kids of National Institute of Design, Paldi Campus Age group - 7-13 years

by students from Apang Manav Mandal Age group - 9-13 years

by Riverside School Age group - 7-11 years

by kids at Parimal Garden Age group - 7-13 years

High-Rise Building - California

by resident kids of National Institute of Design, Paldi Campus Age group - 7-13 years

by students from Apang Manav Mandal Age group - 9-13 years

by Diwan Ballu Bhai Municipal School Students Age group - 7-9 years

by Riverside School Age group - 7-11 years

by kids at Parimal Garden Age group - 7-13 years

Industrial Building- San Francisco

by Riverside School Age group - 7-11 years

by students from Apang Manav Mandal Age group - 9-13 years

by resident kids of National Institute of Design, Paldi Campus Age group - 7-13 years

by Diwan Ballu Bhai Municipal School Students Age group - 7-9 years

by kids at Parimal Garden Age group - 7-13 years

We are a team of Product Design students who worked on the topic ‘Cities for Children’ as part of a Systems Design project at NID. Our project required us to work with children extensively. The variety of responses we got from conducting this activity with the various sets of children convinced us that it was necessary to share this with others. We hope that this was good refresher of the whimsies of childhood we often forget as we grow up and start thinking pragmatically.

Tapping into the natural creativity of children gives fruitful insights on their environment as perceived by them.

These insights, when tapped into, can provide inspiration to rethink the spaces and policies of the city.

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