A prososal for Madagascar

TSARA École

DESIGN AS A TOOL FOR CHANGING

This is the Madagascar you think...

This is the Madagascar you should know...

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INDEX ABSTRACT RESEARCH CASE STUDIES

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TSARA École

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BIBIOGRAPHY

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A Malagasy boy with his shirt written Peace in Mandarin

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ABSTRACT This September changed my life completely.

After the course at NABA finished, I have this chance to participate the project TSARA invited by Giulio Vinaccia. The aim of this project is to help the people in Madagascar to have a better living with design thinking.

My parents always tell me “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach him how to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime”, therefore we need to teach them how to fish!

After 3 weeks there, I keep asking myself, what else can I do for them? The “TSARA” project might be able to help their income, but how can we change their life? So I have this idea of making it my thesis topic, design is a tool of changing and I’ll design a social system and the situation will be changed little by little, it will be the matter of time.

I was blind, even thought we all know there are problems all over the world. I thought

that there’s nothing I can do about it, but it’s not the truth. One demonstration in Taiwan opened my eyes, the Sunflower movement.

After seeing all the people fighting for our right against the law, I saw a lot of things. For exsample, I used to take democracy and freedom as granted, but now I realized that it’s just a fragile and breakable bubble.

And in the meantime, my idea of “home” changed as well.

The existence of country and home should always be together, what is needed to be protect is not just our own country, but also the human right all around the world. This world has so many issues that worth all the attention and I want to make this world more beautiful by using what I’ve learned from the past three years.

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RESEARCH

MADAGASCAR

the forgotten land

background story

Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar.

In 2012, the population of Madagascar was estimated at just over 22 million, 90 percent of whom live on less than two dollars per day.

Malagasy and French are both official languages of the state, but only 15% of Malagasy speak French beacause of education. 40% people are illiterate.

The majority of the population adheres to traditional beliefs, Christianity, or an amalgamation of both.

Ecotourism and agriculture, paired with greater investments in education, health and private enterprise, are key elements of Madagascar’s development strategy.

Under Ravalomanana these investments produced substantial economic growth but the benefits were not evenly spread throughout the population, producing tensions over the increasing cost of living and declining living standards among the poor and some segments of the middle class.

As of 2014, the economy has been weakened by the recently concluded political crisis and quality of life remains low for the majority of the Malagasy population. ach of the many ethnic sub-groups in Madagascar adhere to their own set of beliefs, practices and ways of life that have historically contributed

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to their unique identities.

However, there are a number of core cultural features that are common throughout the island, creating a strongly unified Malagasy cultural identity. In addition to a common language and shared traditional religious beliefs around a creator god and veneration of the ancestors, the traditional Malagasy worldview is shaped by values that emphasize fihavanana (solidarity), vintana (destiny), tody (karma), and hasina, a sacred life force that traditional communities believe imbues and thereby legitimates authority figures within the community or family.

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major problems

Where can we start?

We have to know which is the situation that we are facing, but it’s always hard if you want to start from a chaos.

There are many issues in Madagascar like disease, under age prostitution and politic problem...etc.

I think we have to start everything from the education, there’s no mandatory education in Madagascar now, but there are a lot of abandon old schools in town, I asked the local people why do they stopped the education, they just say it’s all about the government. If the government is not working well on this part, we have to do something about it. Therefore I present you TSARA ECOLE, a new form of school design for Madagascar.

People need education in order to grow the self awareness and time after time they can also provide a positive influence to the people around them. All this needs time involvement, but it’s all going to be worth it.

The idea of a school is not only for young child, ones we build up the envirnment, it can also gives adults a chance of learning new skills and find their own value.

A person must live with hope.

And that’s what we will build for them.

TSARA ECOLE is not only a school, but also a hope for them to have a different life.

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What Malagasy people say?

Martin Age: around 25 Tour guide of the queen’s palace

“The thing that breaks my heart is that our Malagasy don’t even know our own culture due to the lack of education!”

interviews

“Madagascar is a country with rich resource, but it doesn’t benefit us, the people.”

We met Martin during our visit to the queen’s palace in Tana.

He was one of the only two person who speak English.We can see that he’s passionate at his job and he introduce us the amzing culture and history of Madagascar.

Q: What’s the biggest problem now in this country?

A: There are too MANY! I don’t even know where to srat! Oh actually I know, we have to start from education so everyone will have the power of changing!

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“It’s sad for me to see my country like this, we need to start up everything from education!”

“In fact, we are rich, we just don’t know how to make it work.”

Q: What’s the biggest problem now in Madagascar?

A: Politic and economy! It’s the same since we started the country! Our problem is not only about politic. Also there’s another problem is that we don’t know where to place ourselves. To change that we need to know our own value!

RANAIVOSON DIAMONDRA Age: 23 Assistant of Alice Croche Mid-Class

Q: How do you think about the Tsara project?

A: It’s very interesting! We learn to reach some different possibility of material and to produce different products.

Also it’s really nice to see how other people work because even thought we are all from here, but we never know how other people works. By the help of Tsara we can work in the same place and learn from each other!

Q: What do you want to do in your future?

A: I want to stay here! I know everyone wants to go away, but I’d like to have a herb farm and produce bio-products.

Actually in Madagascar every food is biological. And maybe afterwards I can cooperate with some organizations like UN/ Green peace/UNIDO...etc. I believe people which are outside of this country will also be interested of our products.

And I want to study another degree about social communication. That can also help me in the future. I want to make some changes in my country, we have to be patient.

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What they have already

craftmanship

1. Artisan Weaving: In Madagascar there are a lot of products made by weaving technique, such as hand bags, accessory and hats. People use different materials, in Tamata they mainly use three kinds of nature materials which are raffia, ravinala and jonc.

But in the capital city called Antananarivo you can see more people using plastic stripes.

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Artificial

Nature

Plastic Stripe

Jonc

Ravinala

Raffia

Materials for weaving

2. Artisan Crochet: Also by using the raffia, they made beautiful crochet with different color. In this case it takes more time than weaving and also the result is softer therefore crochet is better for decorations or for bags.

3. Artisan Metal work: The technology that they have to produce furniture is really limited. Also due to the lack of professional machines, this makes the production of metal really difficult.

CASE STUDIES

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Innovating Water

social design

The project Innovating Water won the IE&D Business Plan Competition 2013 as a cross-disciplinary collaboration between Imperial College London and Royal College of Art. They work closely with international and Kenyan NGOs to develop and deliver this project.

Basically they want to slove the water problem in Kisumu, Kenya. So they install solar pannels on the roof top of 3 schools to generate energy to clean the water. They are also educating the peolple through this project. For me the most beautiful thing about social design is that you never know that will be complete in the end and it’s always amazing.

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02

Forms of Freedom

social design

The Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2014 The exhibition at the Nordic Pavilion has been titled FORMS OF FREEDOM: African Independence and Nordic Models. The exhibition explores and documents how modern Nordic architecture was an integral part of Nordic aid to East Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. The resulting architecture is of a scope and quality that has not previously been comprehensively studied or exhibited.

The liberation of Tanzania, Kenya, and Zambia in the 1960s coincided with the founding of development aid in the Nordic countries, where there was widespread belief that the social democratic model could be exported, translated, and used for economic growth and welfare. The leaders of the new African states, for their part, wanted partners without a murky colonial past and looked to emulate the progressive results achieved by the Nordic welfare states after WWII. The Nordic social democracies and the new African states established solid bonds built on a mutual belief in progress.

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social design

The White building Based on creativity and work, The White Building aims at helping prisoners to find their own personal interests and strengths, while developing concrete skills matching the professional world’s expectations. The ultimate goal being is a successful, lasting return to society.

Indeed, one of the biggest problem of nowadays penitentiary system is recidivism. Therefore, ElĂŠonore and Laura started to research the experience of ex prisoners through various testimonies before concentrating on the steps from detention to freedom.

Ex-detainees often complain of the lack of stimulation to face the hostility of the outside world in a personal, self fulfilling manner. This can result from the fact that through their re-insertion, inmates are kept together with people in a similar situation and that in the longer term, they tend to go back to their previous surrounding and habits without having been stimulated by other possibilities.

In order to reach those objectives, ElĂŠonore and Laura have decided to focus on the work skills of the prisoners, with the help of a creative process.

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04

Autonomy in the making

social design

Street Assembly Line Autonomy and creativity are two concepts – closely related but rarely connected – that can help shape life, and improve our social lives. The capacity of individuals to create is a starting point for finding solutions and bringing ideas to life. Street vendors are common in developing countries. They master a skill or a material, while designers from the creative industry generate ideas. This project is aimed at developing a platform where these two worlds connect, to work together as one, generating products and value by using rooted knowledge and skills in a different combination. A Street Creative Platform is proposed as a bridge to bring together ‘ideas’ and ‘making’ into an assembly line that will show the possibilities of working together. It is intended to (r)evolve the social structure to build a grassroots creative platform.

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MEET THE WICKER

social design

Industrial design meets handicraft in this ‘woven’ furniture from Latvia. Jasmina Grase went back to her roots and gave traditional basket weaving a modern boost in close collaboration with local craftsmen. By applying this age-old technique to an industrially produced metal frame, Jasmina wants to strengthen the connection between crafts and industry. Her stool, cabinet and coffee table each show a different quality of the material. The gradient within the weave represents the ageing of the plant: young and thin stripes fading into old and thick wicker lines. The project is accompanied by a documentary that illustrates the beauty of the whole process.

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social design

SMATI TURTLE The Smati Turtle 1 is an “African concept car” created by Dutch artist/researcher team Melle Smets and Joost van Onna, who worked with the artisinal car-makers of Suame Magazine, Ghana, to create a killer junker for the African market. Suame Magazine is a neighborhood full of people who take apart scrap cars and rebuild them for local markets, removing the difficult-to-maintain electronics, expanding the cargo areas.

The Turtle 1 took three months to create, and had its testdrive inaugurated by the Ashanti king.

Our research will explore the benefits and problems of nowadays mobility in West Africa and Europe. This exploration is not about inventing the car of the future but a reflection on contemporary society.

The dream car will be built according to the motto “Let’s make things simple” and satisfied the following criteria: 1. It is built in Suame Magazine, from locally crafted, refurbished and used parts from different brands of (discarded) cars; 2. It is robust and easy to assemble, re-assemble and repair; 3. It is a prototype of a car potentially fit for the African market; 4. It provides the driver and passengers with a superb experience of the landscape when driven;

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5. It is built in a time frame of 12 weeks.

Source of inspiration is the Buafo (literal translation: carrying help), a pickup truck prototype developed in the 1970s as part of an effort by the government to create a home-grown car industry.

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social design

TSARA It’s the project which leads me to what I’m doing right now.

This project is a collaboration between UNIDO and Giulio Vinaccia. We go there to design new products for them from the techniques that they have and develop a line of selling and producing.

Madagascar was once a French colony 50 years ago, but in terms of economy they’re still limited by those French company who’s exporting Malagasy craft to Europe and didn’t pay fairly to people who produce the products. Our main job is to let the people have fair payment by producing the products that we designed.

On the beginning of December there will be our exhibition in the queen’s palace in the capital city.

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Queen’s Palace in Antananarivo, where the exhibition took place on 05 Dec 2014.

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The Tsara exhibition. It was a great success that even thought all the products are still in prototype, but we got a lot of orders from our supporters.

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YUAN AI WORKSHOP There is a small elementary school in the east coast of Taiwan. Most of the students here are from aboriginal family.

Due to the history of Taiwan, some of the parents can’t find themselves a job. The principal of this school came out with a brilliant solution.

The workers in Yaun Ai workshop are the parents of those kids in elementary school. Dads go there making wood craftsmanship and moms do weaving instead.

With this solution, families can have stable income and stay together, also the aboriginal culture can be perceived.

Aboriginal people are born to be artists, anything can be transformed into beautiful objects after their unique design process. The best thing about this project is that it also consider about the pride issue that those dads are having.

“Parents are also teachers in your children’s eye”, I really hope to see more projects like that in my country, this project went out really great and I found in similar with my project.

Therefore I put it in the very last minute.

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TSARA École

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What’s TSARA ÉCOLE?

create work opportunity

provide education

help from the world

01 international awarness

Malagasy self-awareness

TSARA means beautiful and nice in Malagasy, École is school in French. Combining the two official language of Madagascar to show that this project is a proposal especially for this country.

It’s a school system that let parents can go to school together with their children. Parents can learn skills and kids are there for the education that they deserve to have. (There isn’t public education in Madagascar yet) There are several stages for this system, the short-term aim is to provide education to kids and to create family income. And the long-term aim is to let the Malagasy people to understand their own value and bring hope to people around them.

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Who ‘s the project for?

language

math/science

children hygiene

history

TSARA École bio-farm

adult artisan craftmanship

students

We all know what Médecins Sans Frontières is, those volunteer doctors has made this world a better place. Why can’t we also have a system for volunteer designers?

The school will prepare accommodation and living essentials for our volunteer designers from all over the world. Before they come, they will need to register on our website. We select the best match for our artisans in order to reach the best value for the designers to come all the way here in Madagascar. And we will ensure the safety of our volunteers.

maintainers

teacher (artisan)

teacher

long-term

TSARA École short-term designer

staff

TSARA ÉCOLE TEAM

engineer

doctor

What’s in TSARA ÉCOLE?

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TSARA ÉCOLE is a system that combines the physical school with on-line resources, physical school location is in the capital city of Madagascar-Antananarivo (or we also call it Tana).

In the school we have the following elements: 1. Classroom: The classroom for adults have a border from the one for children. So they won’t disturb each other.

2. Show room: Display the works that TSARA ÉCOLE has produced before, along with the introduction of the school as a brand for the visitors to have a better idea of what our doing and understand the story behind.

3. Accommodation for volunteers: Simple and clean is the main concern for our volunteers. Our accommodation can make sure that they don’t need to worry about that in they staying and they will also have a good time.

4. Farm: In the school we also provide lessons for adult about agriculture. With all the knowledge they got from the school they can spread it to their neighborhood. Within time we can see the progress of food quality in Madagascar.

5. Office: The TSARA ÉCOLE team’s office is right located in the school so we can be able to provide the most direct help when ever we are needed. We want the whole team be replace by Malagasy in the end, by that time, we can say that “we made it”

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office farm

classroom

accommodation show room

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How TSARA ÉCOLE works? two months

one week

preparation

introduction

1. Recruitment for the TSARA ÉCOLE team, including the local translator, project manager... etc.

Use the opportunity of “TSARA” exhibition and introduce this new project to other potential supports.

(Companies, Hotels, Stores, NGOs, Embassy)

2. Visit the locals, introduce the idea and get feedbacks from them.

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Time to tell the world what we are doing. With the short film of the construction process, we can make our website and also post it on some crows founding websites to get the international social awareness.

Then we can invite volunteers to come to Madagascar.

advertise three months

two months

installation

get started

1. After the donation reach the goal. We get started to build up the school with local help. Also collaborate with other hygiene system that has been used in Africa.

Give the participate adult the knowledge of their local artisan.

The training least for two months.

2. Recruit our first students and artisan teachers.

(40 children 20 adult) 3. Film the process.

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three months

one week

international

presentation

Adult: Here comes our design volunteers from aboard, together they create new design products. They will stay for 3-6 months depends on their contract.

Adult: Each one has to present at least one product that come out with the help of our designers.

We will choose the best ones to produce our new collection.

Children: Basically children have same teachers all along, but occasionally they have visitors such as doctors, engineers to teach them something new and different.

Children: Exam week, to understand if the education is given in the way that helps them the most.

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graduation 1.Modify the selected product.

2.Upload prototypes on-line.

3.Invite local factory and artisan workshops to come and suggest to them possible employees.

end=new start 1.We can provide our students who have the ability to produce by themselves at home a certificate. With the certification, they can keep producing the products that they already know and take orders from school.

They can also start up some new ideas with the help of school.

2.New students coming in. With the profit we got from the last semester, our aim is to let the system run without donations.

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DETAILS... preparation

advertise

1.Get advices from the NGOs in Madagascar. (Learning know-how)

1.Use crow-founding to understand the market before production.( Upload prototypes first and see how most of the clients like)

2.Find the leader of the community.

Every Malagasy living community has a leader. Talk to the leader is really important to gain the trust and be accepted by those people we want to work with.

2.The Showroom is also the model for children who is willing to participate after they finish their education. So the cycle will continue rolling.

3.Everyone has the power to change the world, we want our students to influence their friends and family.

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course

international

1.The course for adults also include basic education for those parents who couldn’t go to school when they were young, but we also have to consider about their pride issue, therefore we would change the name...etc.

1.Designers who want to participate must sign a contract for 3-6 months . We would suggest them to stay for a longer period and truly involve to the Malagasy life style.

2.Besides the craftmanship, students will also learn how to make everyday objects like candals and soaps which help their life directly.

Also we can sell it to local markets and change the fact that most objects they are using right now are made in China. They will also have to learn book keeping and managing finances.

2.Designers must write their diary and upload on our website. We need international awareness all over the world.

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Why do we need this?

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This project is designed especially for Madagascar, a country that’s forgotten for people in other countries. In the circumstance without public education or any art or design school.

But we should all have the same human right to go to school and have our own dreams for the future.

TSARA ÉCOLE is here to combine both. The final goal of TSARA ÉCOLE is to let the whole idea run by local Malagasy people.

Once they start to understand their own value and be proud of who they are, it will be the end of our mission because they already have the capability to make their country better and better.

How the system benefits everyone?

designer •Have a chance to see what’s happening in the other side of the world.

•Contribute their creativity in meaningful use.

•Going to a third world with a NGO that guarantees your safety and health = one great chance in the life time.

•Beautiful experience to share with people and put in their resume.

costumer

student

•Enhance brand enterprise •For children: image by using our products.

Education opportunity •Targeting Hotels, survivor •For adult: shops and restaurants in 1.Learn a new skill to survive Madagascar. for life and provide education for their children.

•With same cost for better 2.Be a part of the system quality of products. that connect to the world, a chance to get more knowl•Free advertisement in edge from international friends.

TSARA ÉCOLE website.

3.Build their self-confidence and understand their own value.

Why is it different?

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There are a lot of nice projects that has been done by NGOs such as UN, Green Peace and Red Cross. However, after my study at NABA I tend to solve problems in a designer’s thinking.

In Madagascar there are too many problems that no one can make it right in a short time.

Therefore we need to be really patient about it. Believe that things will be change some day.

And we have the power to change the world, all of us!

go to school together

corse designed for Madagascar

Two different courses for Madagascar is not like other both parents and children. countries in Africa and TSARA ÉCOLE is a project designed So the family can go to the especially for this country. school together learning Base on the craftsmanship knowledge that they need. and resource they have, but not to harm the environment.

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international volunteer designers

Designer is not like other jobs, we tend to spend more time to search for what we really want for life and get inspired.

After my visit in Madagascar I’m inspired and I want to share it with other designers.

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What would I do?

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In my opinion, a product won’t work by itself, there’s always a system. I would like to present the system of the school first. Madagascar is not a place like Milan that we have all the new technology to build whatever we want. Therefore I won’t consider CNC or 3D printing in this project for now.

After my visit I understand what is the limit for them and I came out with the idea of making origami shape in raffia.

It’s just like combine my own background with this project.

This new way of weaving is different from what they used to do, but it’s actually easier and less time consuming. That’s why I want to make this in Madagascar.

With the same idea we can make a lot of products in the same collection. I’m presenting a chair set and two lamp for example.

raffia x origami raffia x origami

Origami Chair

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Origami Lamp Collection

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Special Thanks To...

Giulio Vinaccia, Designer and Coordinator of Tsara Lorence Answermet, UNIDO representative of Madagascar Arian Brajkovic, Designer of Tsara Gabriele Balcewicz Lemanski, Photographer Karl, leader of the group at 67 ha proudly stands with one of the chairs the workshop MaĂŻtĂŠ Niel, National Production Coordinator and also everyone I met in Madagascar. You changed my world, thank you very much.

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Bibiography http://www.thewhitebuilding.eu/index.html http://www.archdaily.com/516338/forms-of-freedom-african-independence-and-nordic-models-the-nordic-pavilion-at-the-venice-biennale-2014/ http://irene-shih-tumm.squarespace.com/ http://www.irene-yh-shih.com/index/#/innovating-water/ http://www.meetthewicker.com/ htt p : / / w w w. d e s i g n a ca d e my. n l / E V E N TS / G ra d u at i o n 1 4 / P ro j e c t . a s px ? P ro j e c t I d = 8 5 5 h t t p : / /e d i t i o n . my j o y o n l i n e . c o m / p a g e s / n e w s / 2 0 1 3 0 8 / 1 1 1 8 2 4 . p h p http://www.designboom.com/design/tsara-collection-giulio-vinnacia-madagascar-12-25-2014/

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JUI TING HSI Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti – Milano Three-year BA Degree Program in DESIGN 2013/14 4951DE prof. KORONIS NIKOLAS 91