Gdoc sumedhsonare by sumedh sonare

Graduation project Exploratory bamboo products for spaces SPONSOR : CIBART (Center For Indian Bamboo Resource & Technology)

Volume : 1-2 student : Sumedh NAgsen Sonare programme : M.Des (Masters of Design)

guide : Amresh Panigrahi

2016 Faculty of Textile Design, Apparel Design And Lifestyle Accessory Design (LIfestyle accesory Design)

National Institute of Design Gandhinagar

Graduation Documentation Programme in Design, Lifestyle Accessory Design National Institute of Design, Gandhinagar, India.

No part of this document will be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanically, including photocopying, xerography and videography recording without written permission from publisher, Sumedh Sonare, and National Institute of Design. All photographs and illustrations in this document are Copyright ÂŠ 2014- 2015 by respective people/ organisation.

Edited and designed by: Sumedh Sonare (LAD 2012) Email: sumedh_s@nid.edu, sumedhsonare@gmail.com

Processed at: National Institute of Design, Post Graduate Extn. Campus, Gandhinagar, Gujarat-382007 Web Link: www.nid.edu Printed in Ahmedabad

Originality Statement

I hereby declare that this submission is my own work

I hereby grant the National Institute of Design the right

and it contains no full or substantial copy of previously

to archive and to make available my graduation project/

published material, or it does not even contain substantial

thesis/ dissertation in whole or in part in the Instituteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

proportions

Knowledge Management Centre in all forms of media,

of material which have been accepted for the award of

now or hereafter known, subject to the provisions of the

any other degree or diploma of any other educational

institution, except where due acknowledgement is made

of copyright material in my document or I have obtained

in this graduation project. Moreover I also declare that

permission to use copyright material.

none of the concepts are borrowed or copied without due acknowledgement. I further declare that the intellectual content of this

Sumedh Nagsen Sonare

Graduation Project is the product of my own work, except

Signature:

to the extent that assistance from others in the projectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

Date :

design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged. This graduation project (or part of it) was not and will not be submitted as assessed work in any other academic course.

Sumedh Nagsen Sonare Signature:

Contents

National Institute of Design

Graduation Project Doc.

Acknowledgement Project Summary NID & LAD Centre for Indian Bamboo Resource & Technology Project Proposal

Research methodology adopted Secondary Research Studying the community practising craft Studying bamboo as material Bamboo as craft & world view Contemporary uses of bamboo Expert's review Primary Research Learnings at CIBART Facilities & Product development process Analysis

Ideation & Product Development Retrospect Design Critic & Recommendation Credits Bibliography

+System's Understanding +Opportunity Mapping +Specification Sheet for product development

Sumedh Sonare

Expl. Bamboo products for spaces

Acknowledgement

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the following people without whom this project would have been impossible.

Prof. Amresh Panigrahi I would sincerely like to express my gratitude to my guide and Course Co-ordinator of Lifestyle Accessory Design discipline, for his patience and persistence towards me and for bringing his expert guidance and support throughout the project. From inception of the project, towards the completion, his valuable feedback, intuitive insights and encouragement helped me for explore this project and guiding me through his valuable insights.

Ms.Shimul Mehta Vyas

My batchmates Tanaya Agarwal,Krupa Patel, Rakesh Ravindran, Srishti Gupta , Anshula Mittal, Vinay Krishnan, Sukanya Pasi, Deepika Verma, Aditi Sharma, Manoj Kuldeep, Mayank Kaushal, Parivardhan Dangi, Pavan Sankhla, Dhanushree Dhasmana, Sanskruti Thorat and Guneet Bhatia for sharing with me their knowledge and supporting me in all aspects to complete my work. One of the other person I look upto and also whose suggestion and guidence has helped me a lot is Shiho Kito.Without her being around and sharing her experience about things and the unconditionally loving person she is, motivated me a long way to take

A wonderful teacher and mentor and a great support throughout my years in this institution, through whom I learnt various aspects of intuitional and sytematic approaches.

The entire NID community for all the learning, inspiration, personal growth and friendship given to me during the past two and half years.

Mr. Bharat Parekh

NID & LAD workshop team

The Director of operations of the organisation who gave me the opportunity to work with the local tribals and understand their lives and lifestyle as well as provided me with various insights about the livelihood development initiative at the organisation and its working .

The people of CIBART Mr. Ankur Purohit, Mr. Mahesh Kurmi, Mr. Satish Kurmi, Rajendra Sadashiv who gave me and enriched for your hardwork and support throughout the project.

A big thank to Rajeshree Ben, Kutti Bhai,Jignesh and Bharat bhai for their valuable support throughout my years in this institution.I would also like to thank all the staffs at NID, especially the Skill Development Workshop where Karan Bhai, Hiren Bhai and Maulik Bhai helped me a lot. Also I owe a lot of thanks to the other staff members Nitin,Mehul,Parth,Dhruv and Ragvendra Bhai for providing me their valuable help while developing prototypes. I would like to thank my parents, for their unconditional love and support which has been the greatest strength and asset throughout my life. My friends in need,Tanaya Agarwal, Aditya Pratap Singh, Vinay Krishnan,Anshula Mittal, Tanmay Kupekar,Tanmay Awasthi, Vivek Chondagar, Manoj Kuldeep, Parivardhan Dangi,Nidhin Bose, Poornima Marh,Dheeresh Madhav have been a major part of my project for giving me valuable fedback and support that drove me till the end to finish the project.

Project Summery

While selecting my graduation project, I was clear towards the focus of either taking a project in Experience Design or I was seeking to work with the material Bamboo and explore it properties, understand the material and understand it relevance in today's scenario of heavy industrialization.

to me very relevant to the field of social and livelihood development through product development to do the final year project,as the organisation was working with a Tribal Community called "Kotwalia' and developing bamboo products through them.

As I was seeking for project in these two domains, I came across the memory of visiting vishalla, where we had happenened to meet the owner who curated the utensil muesum and also shared his initiative of curating a Chair Museum. He also had happened to propose us to be part of the initiative. Very later, I got in touch with the owner and shared the interest of working with him on curating the museum space and apply my understandings of experience design module. The proposal was accepted and I started working towards it. But as the time progressed,lot of tasks were added within the brief,which wouldn't have been able to work out within the project time duration. Due to the reason, I apologetically withdrew off from the project given the opportunity it was as well as not been able to do justice within the time and framework of academic duration. After ending the previous project, I had happened to attend a seminar on Bamboo. There, I got acquinted with the various tribal development organisations of the state working with bamboo. Over there a particular organisation called CIBART (Centre for India Bamboo Resources and Technology) seemed doing major social livelihood enterprise driven project with a tribal community. The organisation seemed

Soon I got in touch with them and looked at the opportunity to do my project with the material and the aspect of working with the tribal community. They happily welcomed me to do my graduation project with them. The brief was decided by understanding the context of tribals and their livelihood support through bamboo and by doing priliminary research, the direction of focusing on economic development of the tribals was taken into account. The basic outline of the design process was to understand the current livelihood development and organisation model, understand the current techniques, production setup, processes involved , exploring the given material, ideation and conceptualization, mock up models and their prototyping and later documentation of the whole process. This being the first experience working in the bamboo based industry, my involvement with the organisation gave me a great opportunity to understand my role as an observer, thinker and maker, which enriched me as I progressed with the project of this nature. After speaking and discussing the project flow and

intervention done at the organisation, with Mr. Amresh Panigrahi, I realised that the project still had to be more exploratory in order to seek for newer possibilities to work with the material, understanding and thinking about the flow of the product development and production process,due to which the project extended for long. Following the process learnt at NID of research, ideation and form exploration to the sampling and bringing about my own(as well as bringing my own understanding and approach , guided me through my Graduation project .Working with CIBART gave me a chance to understand the design's implication towards a social group as well as the the people in the value chain. Working with CIBART gave me opportunity to engage with the tribal community and understand their lives, livelihood through the material bamboo and how though me planning and hands on learning could I make the smallest change in the lives of the community I was interacting with.

Exploratory Cafeteria products from Bamboo

Place photograph of NID Ahmedabad

National Institute of Design NID offers professional education programmes at Bachelors and Masters level with five faculty streams and 20 diverse design domains.NID has established exchange programmes and ongoing pedagogic relationships with more than 55 overseas institutions. NID has also been playing a signicant role in promoting design. Having entered the 6th decade of design excellence, NID has been active as an autonomous institute under the aegis of the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion,Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India; in education,applied research, service and advanced training in five faculty streams,Industrial Design, Communication Design, Textile, Apparel & Lifestyle Design, IT Integrated (Experiential) Design and Interdisciplinary Design Studies. NID offers a wide spectrum of design domains while encouraging transdisciplinary design projects.NID is a unique institution with many problem-solving capabilities, depths of intellect and a time-tested creative educational culture in promoting design competencies and setting standards of design education. The rigorous development of the designer’s skills and knowledge through a process of ‘hands on-minds on’ is what makes the difference. The overall structure of NID’s programme is a combination of theory, skills, design projects and field experiences supported by cutting edge design studios, skill & innovation labs and the Knowledge Management Centre. Sponsored design projects are brought into the classroom to provide professional experience.Interdisciplinary design studies in Science and Liberal Arts widen the students’ horizons and increase general awareness of contemporary issues.

National Institute of Design

Graduation Project Doc.

Lifestyle Accessory Design The Lifestyle Accessory Design (LAD) postgraduate programme educates and trains professional designers to visualize and create lifestyle accessories and systems using different materials, processes and technologies. It relates to peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s way of living and the products they interact with, which form an important basis of their day to day lives. Focusing on personal and space accessories and products, it offers a strong multi-disciplinary edge wherein the students get an opportunity to work in wide spectrum of domains such as jewellery; watches; bags; luggage; footwear; lighting; furniture, space accessories and interior objects; trend research; and colours, materials and trims for white goods and automobile interiors. The students are encouraged to build emotive connect and conceptual experiences for the consumers through the products they create. The programme draws from indigenous contexts and their socio-cultural values, beliefs, practices, cultural diversity, and knowledge which have contemporary applications in a global context. It delves into perception and trend studies of diverse dynamics that in uence the lifestyles of consumers from various strata of society. The designers from this programme aspire to drive the market by Designing for Changing Needs and Designing for Future Needs, and make â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Designed in Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; a premier global brand.

Initial Brief To look at the aspect of holistic development and propose concept through design thinking that will aid in livelihood generation through Economic Development To look at the present skillset, understand the craftspeople livelihood and deploy design thinking towards bamboo craft which will aid in economic development of the crafts community.

National Institute of Design

Graduation Project Doc.

Refined Brief Design tabletop accessories from bamboo for CIBART's owned restaurant space + showroom which provides a platform for potential consumer to appriciate the material by using the products being part of the space.

Sumedh Sonare

Expl. Bamboo products for spaces

Timeline

Month Primary research

Identifying areas for exploration

Systemâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mapping

Tools/machines Worksetup

Data collection Factory setup Community Techniques

Field Research

Opportunity Mapping

Material exploration

THe events of how the project progressed from initial phases of secondary and primary reseatch till the development of products for the given context and according to the brief. Contextual research

Research about Kotwalia Community

Areas/ Critical connections/ Holistic Development

Research about CIBARTâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s activities Existing product ranges Techniques

Lifestyle

Livelihood

History Craft & Skills

product development with existing products

Exploration based on specific techniques

Understand production process

Surface Development Mock up & Ideations Form Exploration

Feasibility Study

Form Ideation

Product Development

The Centre for Indian Bamboo Resource and Technology (CIBART) is a socially driven NGO that is working with Kotwalia community to provide them with Livelihood opportunities and are working towards overall human development of these primitive tribal groups. The companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unit is located at different places and the one where I would be doing my project is located at Vansda city,under Navsari District in Gujarat.The companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s aim to make the tribal skilled craftspeople earn livelihood and develop entreprenurial skills to understand market with changing times and develop products that can be easily be sold and help and sustain their economic development.The NGO is into skill and buisness development and also is looking at the economic growth of the Kotwalia community. The company also has entered into an agreement with Tribal development department of gujarat under Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana, where the objective is to uplift the social status and condition of the tribal community by providing them infrastructure and livelihood opportunities.

Furniture

Handicrafts

Shades & houses

Chapter

Background Context Bamboo as a material Bamboo & Craft

Project Background Kotwalia Community is a primitive landless tribe living in southern piece of Gujarat . There are vast no. of Kotwalia families dwelling in 19 talukas of six locale of Gujarat. Out of them 75% families are included in bamboo craft.Many of the conventional art things created by Kotwalia people group have ended up repetitive and have less market for it as there is an adjustment in way of life of individuals and approach of substitute items. The Kotwalias generally cut green bamboos from the nearby forests and river banks and weave baskets from this raw material. Since no. of years the forests have receded farther away from the places of habitation of the Kotwalia community .

National Institute of Design

Graduation Project Doc.

Kotwalia community is facing challenges in retaining their

a result, this is leading towards distress migration which is

traditional craft because these people have to travel a long

increasing at continuous basis which is leading towards monetary

distance in search of bamboo into the forest and face several

exploitation of migrants as well as susceptibility to communicable

problems with forest offcials They get low wages due to poor

diseases.

skill levels and cannot earn more than 3000 Rs. as income per

The Kotwalia families continue to live in make shift homes of few

month.

twigs and plastic sheet while working on sugarcane farms in the

Kotwalia tribes are solely dependent on the bamboo industry.

most inhuman conditions where electricity, primary health, food

Labour contractors who are their immediate employers,

grain shop, anganwadi or any such basic infrastructure is not

engaging them to work in sugarcane elds and are the only

available.

source of credit available to these workersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; families. The

Kotwalia tribes only have access to primary education. Their

bamboo craft being seasonal work makes many families

literary rate is about 26%. The basic education among the

migrate from village to village for cutting sugar cane.As

community is very low, with little access to higher education. Their low literacy rate leads to low level of employment. Almost all of them are landless since ages. Historically, this community does not have any productive assets. Its means for livelihood are unskilled labor work in agriculture, especially sugarcane fields.

Sumedh Sonare

Expl. Bamboo products for spaces

There are vast no. of Kotwalia families dwelling in 19 talukas of six locale of Gujarat. Out of them 75% families are included in bamboo craft.Many of the conventional art things created by Kotwalia people group have ended up repetitive and have less market for it as there is an adjustment in way of life of individuals and approach of substitute items. The Kotwalias generally cut green bamboos from the nearby forests and river banks and weave baskets from this raw material. Since no. of years the forests have receded farther away from the places of habitation of the Kotwalia community . Kotwalia tribes are solely dependent on the bamboo industry. Labour contractors who are their immediate employers, engaging them to work in sugarcane fields and are the only source of credit available to these workersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; families. The bamboo craft being seasonal work makes many families

National Institute of Design

Graduation Project Doc.

migrate from village to village for cutting sugar cane. As a result, this is leading towards distress migration which is increasing at continuous basis which is leading towards monetary exploitation of migrants as well as susceptibility to communicable diseases. The Kotwalia families continue to live in make shift homes of few twigs and plastic sheet while working on sugarcane farms in the most inhuman conditions where no facility for drinking water, electricity, primary health, food grain shop, anganwadi or any such basic infrastructure is available. Kotwalia tribes only have access to primary education. Their literary rate is about 26%. The basic education among the community is very low, with little access to higher education.Their low literacy rate leads to low level of employment. Almost all of them are landless since ages. Historically, this community does not have any productive assets. Its means for livelihood are unskilled labor work in agriculture, especially sugarcane fields.

The government has been taking initiatives to try tackling the problem of poverty and livelihood but still these problems persist within the tribal community. There is a huge scope for social development and the govt. of gujarat has highlighted key points under the Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana which would be looked into for the overall human and economic development of Kotwalia community and it is also aimed at doubling of the income of the tribal area and creating conditions for their sustainability. The policy covers all tribal people and all areas with tribal population across the country. It also focuses on achieving defined outcomes in socio economic development of tribal population.It also has focus towards gender responsiveness. The pointers gave defined directions and opprtunities to understand the linkages of the stumbling blocks of development and opportuntities for enhancing the livelihood throigh craft intervention.

Sumedh Sonare

Expl. Bamboo products for spaces

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National Institute of Design

Graduation Project Doc.

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The points highlighted aimed at creating and enabling environment for need based and outcome oriented holistic development of the tribal people.This process is devised to ensure that all the intended benefits of goods and services under various programmes/schemes of Central as well as State Governments actually reach the target groups by convergence of resources through institutional mechanisms.

n ba Ur

To understand the developemental areas highlighted by Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana, the task was to first look at the aspect of how these points were important and which ones were important. Initially, the most imporatant resource to collect the information was obtained through http://vky.tribal.nic.in under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

Qualitative & Sustainable Employment

Preliminary research

Health

ing

fo r

all

for all

The further step was to look at all the defined points from VKY( Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana) and do priliminary brainstorming so as to understand what areas were potential to focus on. By looking at each areas, I could get a glipmse of the possible linkages which could be focused on for better refining the brief. All the areas seemed very potential to be converted into appropriated briefs. While discussing these directions with my guide, it become much clearer so as to scout for in each of the points defined in Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana.

Economic development and education seemed relevant areas as I identified few linkages which I could explore later in primary or field research. In education, I could think of possible connections with tangible intervention with social and livelihood development with the tribals. Economic development seemed to be a large area as the project was taken up to explore the social and livelihood enhancement aspect with kotwalia tribe in perspective. Further I had to formulate the questions which were crucial in order to be answered while engaging with a project of this nature as well as addressing the solutions generated by the end of the project.

Sumedh Sonare

Expl. Bamboo products for spaces

Problem Setting While doing priliminary brainstorming of areas defined under VKY, the questions below were defined so as to create query for my project which I had to answer through my research and further development in the project :

How can I help in the economic development of craftspeople through my study & research in their livelihood generation by connecting the locality to encourage tourism leading to economic development? What are the existing challenges in education of Kotwalia & the other tribal community that can be addressed with Bamboo ? How can the existing problems of human and economic development be addressed through design thinking which can resolve visible problems?

How can the learning experience of higher education be enhanced through bamboo craft intervention? How is the community getting benifitted from the setup and what aspects of economic development can I understand and venture? What are the gender based activities in terms of craft, taking place and how the gender & social issues could be resolved for social development through skill based intervention?

Taking in the context of CIBART's workshop setup and Kotwalia community, I realised that formulating my initial brief towards livelihood development would allow me to understand the critical linkages which I can touch upon as the project would progress.

National Institute of Design

Graduation Project Doc.

Understanding the Brief To look at the aspect of holistic development and propose concept through design thinking that will aid in livelihood generation through Economic Development To look at the present skillset, understand the craftspeople livelihood and deploy design thinking towards bamboo craft which will aid in economic development of the crafts community.

Further, other parameters were also determined for guiding in through the project research.These parameters (objectives, Scope of work,Research focus) gave me the various contextual enquiries which I had to keep in focus as I progressed with the project.

Sumedh Sonare

Expl. Bamboo products for spaces

Objectives

To understand the official setup, craftspeople, existing products and knowledge of the craftspeople and seek for opportunity areas for holistic development and Livelihood Generation and satisfy the overall requirement of the sponsorer and the project. Easily marketable products, from which the craftspeople and derive benefit from it. Understand the relevant sectors and how the material Bamboo, could play an important role in consistent source of income throughout the year. To go more deeper and derive meaningful insights for big impact through small change within the context of Bamboo and craft.

National Institute of Design

Graduation Project Doc.

Research Focus

Scope of work

Opportunity to study the indigenous uses of bamboo and also explore livelihood development opportunities through field research of Kotwalia Community.

Research about the material

Understand the setup, organizational structure, system and industrial tools used for manufacturing process and treating bamboo.

Understanding Work Setup

Learn about bamboo and its various facets and its role in sustainable development to the crafts community.

Relevance of products to be designed

Understand the material and properties to see of what areas could be ventured that may address social problems close to crafts community,

Understand craft/craftspeople/ livelihood

Understanding existing product range

Exploration of the material w.r.t craftsmen skills and expertise Maximum exploration of material and exploiting various industrial tools and technique to create product for local/export consumption

Sumedh Sonare

Expl. Bamboo products for spaces

National Institute of Design

Graduation Project Doc.

Design Methodology The project started with the secondary research about the organisation as well as the crafts community. The project deliverables were eventually supposed to be as tangible output, as the focus was towards livelihood developement and economic development through product based intervention, assessing the existing skill, and machinary available at the organisation. Secondary and primary studies were also done to look at the present contemporary market in the Bamboo product domain at large and understand the relevance of bamboo in today's context. The research focused on understanding the value chain in terms of unit production processes, and acquiring the understandings of quality control as well as looking into methods of standardisation of production stages. To understand the various facets of livelihood development in the tribal industrial craft context, systematic research was done that further

informed towards the product development process. Further, research articles were referred from various experts in the area for gaining more deeper insights to establish the factors which would address the various aspects,which were to be covered during the production and unit processes. Hands on approach was implimented to understand the material and its usage, while doing observational study of how the material was taken from a raw material stage and through production processes and finally leading to manifestation of a tangible product with an intended utility. By understanding the opportunity areas, the brief was generated by looking at the potential of the material as well as the spatial context, which could base the platform for spatial interaction. The explorations were analysed to understand what areas could be made potential to be taken further towards product development direction . While engaging with the material and the tribal

community, various factors were looked at, from the unit processes to the engagement of the tribals with the exploratry prototypes which were being tested and developed. Towards the development of tangible products, lot of production factors which were creating issues, were tackled by consulting to the guide who helped in the resolution of the issues by addressing the various aspects from development of a form language, to the value addition to the material, thus resulting in manipulating the perception of the products.

Sumedh Sonare

Expl. Bamboo products for spaces

Final Deliverables The deliverables were dependant upon the direction being approved by the sponsorer and the feasibility of concept and viability of ideas)

Research documentation Explorations Mockups Prototypes

National Institute of Design

Graduation Project Doc.

After going through the process of defining the context and narrowing down the potential areas as well as defining the initial brief, the next task was to build a platform to create a context for development at the organisation. The platform was supposed to be establised, first through secondary and later primary research into the subject. The secondary research created a query to understand the material and its various attributes and understand its potential towards the academic project.

Sumedh Sonare

Expl. Bamboo products for spaces

Research

National Institute of Design

Graduation Project Doc.

Secondary Research

Primary Research

Studying bamboo as material

Learnings at CIBART

Bamboo as craft & world view

Facilities & Product development process

Contemporary uses of bamboo

Studying the community practising craft

Expert's review

Analysis

Sumedh Sonare

Expl. Bamboo products for spaces

National Institute of Design

Graduation Project Doc.

Secondary Research This part of research involved in understanding about the material Bamboo, its properties and various aspects that convey the material to have wonderous properties.

Sumedh Sonare

Expl. Bamboo products for spaces

National Institute of Design

Graduation Project Doc.

Chapter

Studying Bamboo as a material

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Bamboo Bamboo is considered amongst grass family, which are found in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world. It is also the fastest growing grass in the world. Bamboo belongs to the family of grasses. Grasses are plants, which typically have one seed leaf and continue to grow with narrow leaves from their base. Unlike trees, bamboo had no radial fibres, therefore it splits easily along the length.The only resistance to splitting is at the nodes,because this is where the fibres cross over briefly. The family includes â&#x20AC;&#x153;true grassesâ&#x20AC;?, sedges and rushes. Thin culms with narrow cavities are popularly used as umbrella handles, fishing rods and flutes, while mature culms are widely used in constructing mud huts, mats, baskets and fences. It's the fastest growing plant in the world and can grow 1-to-4 inches in a day and regrows quickly after being cut down, making it the one of the most renewable resources. Bamboo grows in diverse climates from hot tropical regions in Asia, African and Latin America to the icy mountains of Indian Himalayas. Because of its fast growth, good mechanical properties, low price and abundant availability, bamboo is widely recognized as a promising resource for sustainable development.

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Studying Bamboo as a material To understand the grass and its use, it was important to understand the various aspects of the material and why this material is seen differently in today's context.

National Institute of Design

Graduation Project Doc.

Form, Function & Utility

Anatomy

Properties

Types

Use

Analysis

Durability Preservation

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Anatomy

To understand the whole material,it is necessary to look at the constituent parts, and in this case it was important to understand bamboo by looking at the various aspects of the grass and define their characteristic and seek for better understanding of it as a material. As, discussed earlier, Bamboo is a perrenial evergreen that is part of the grass family (a very tall and woody grass ). Similar to grass, bamboo is characterized by a jointed stem called a culm. Typcally the culms are hollow but some species of bamboo have solid culms. Each culm segment begins and ends with a solid joint called a node. Nodes are are characterized by a swelling encircling the ends of the culm segments. The segments between the nodes are called internodes. From the nodes grow leaves and branches. Similar to the culms, the branches are also segmented with nodes and internodes. The infographic on the right was created to basically highlight the various form aspect of the plant to inform about its sturcture and physicality.

National Institute of Design

Graduation Project Doc.

the culm/ internode The tubular forms, prominently visible are most commonly used part of the bamboo plant. The basic structure of each culm is common to all species of bamboo.

bamboo leaf The leaves of the plant produce food through photosynthesis. The green part of the leaf is called the blade.It is attached to a leaf sheath which encloses and protects the new leaf while it is growing.

node the nodes are swollen portion between the internodes. These transverse membranes completely separate each internode. These vessels and fibres that are unconnected in the internodes pass through the transverse wall, cross connecting the wall of the culm.

culm sheath Culm sheaths are tough and fiberous leaf-like structures that encase the growing bamboo internodes. The sheaths are attached on opposite sides of alternate nodes, so they overlap to completely encase and protect the young shoot while it is growing.

rhizome Bamboo culms grow from underground stems called rhizomes of which there are basically two types : Monopodial type & Sympodial type

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Properties

The properties of bamboo can vary much from species to species. In plant form, bamboo is naturally resistant to a wide variety of pests and fungi, which means it can grow without the use of any chemicals or pesticides whatsoever. Bamboo absorbs more carbon dioxide, and releases 35% more oxygen into the atmosphere than an equally sized grove of trees. After harvesting, the roots of the bamboo plant remain in place. This prevents soil erosion, which would otherwise clog rivers, streams, and other important waterways, potentially damaging century-old ecosystems. The properties of bamboo culm changes as it grows , making it more suitable for different applicarions at different ages.Young bamboo shoots are soft,tender and starchy.The shoots are tender when they are young, because bamboo's cells get lignified as it grows, cuases the culm to harden.

0-1 Years

2-3 Years

3-4 Years

5-6 Years

National Institute of Design

Graduation Project Doc.

Young bamboo shoots are softer at this age and have a high percentage of starch content.The shoots are tender when they are young, because bamboo's cells get lignified as it grows, causing the culms to harden.One year old bamboo has fresh green colour,with the culm sheaths intact on the lower half.

Bamboo is flexible and easy to sliver.Starch content is lower than that of young bamboo,making it more resistant to borers. At this ages makes it ideal material to be interlaced into mats and baskets. The starch content can be easily removed through leaching and similar treatments,making sliver based applications ideal for bamboo at this age. Bamboo at this age is also preferred for the pulp and paper industry.

Bamboo reaches its optimal strength at the age of three to four. At this age,its ideal for the use in furniture and construction. For construction purpose,best harvested just after the shoots have emerged.Four year old bamboo is quite hard and resistant to insect attack due to the starch being provided to newer culms and thus older culms receive less starch.

Bamboo culm at this age begin to lose the strength.This continues until the culm dies between the age of six and twelve.

Tensile Strength

Elasticity

Bamboo is able to resist more tension than compression. The fibres of bamboo run axially. In the outer zone are highly elastic vascular bundles that have a high tensile strength. The tensile strength of these fibres is higher than that of steel, but it’s not possible to construct connections that can transfer this tensile strength. Inside the outer skin which has high amount of silica content, parallel elastically fibers with a tensile strength up to 400 N/mm2 can be found. As a comparison, extremely strong wood fibres can resist a tension upto 50N/mm2.

The accumulation of highly strong fibers in the outer parts of the tube wall provides good elastic modulus to the grass.This aspect looks at the tension, shear and bending strength of the material. Smaller bamboo have stronger mechanical properties,whereas larger bamboo can withstand larger forces. The higher the elastic modulus, the higher is the quality of the bamboo. Also as the

Compressive Strength

Fire Resistance

The smaller bamboo possess better material properties due to the fact that bigger tubes have got a minor part of the outer skin, which is very resistant in tension. The portion of lignin inside the culms affects compressive strength, whereas the high portion of cellulose influences the buckling(heat bending) and the tensile strength as it represents the building substance of the bamboo fibers.

The fire resistance of bamboo is very good because of the high content of silicate acid. Filled up with water, it can stand a temperature of 400 degree celsius while the water cooks inside.

Durability Without any protective treatment, most bamboo species have an average natural durability of less than 2 years. Stored under cover, untreated bamboo may last 4-7 years.These variations in bamboo durability strongly depend on the species, the length of the culm, the thickness of the wall, but also, and equally important, the time of harvesting.

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Types

There are more than 90 genera of bamboo can be found growing naturally on all the continents excepts Europe and Antartica. Bamboo grows in diverse climates from the hot tropical regions in Asia, Africa and Latin Americato icy mountains of the Indian Himalaya but is most abundant in Southern Asia. Bamboo culms grow out of horizontal, underground, stems called rhizomes.

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Shoot structure of bamboo The bamboo rhizome is the underground part of a bamboo stem (culm). However, rhizomes are not roots, roots grow under the rhizome and culms erect on top of the rhizome. Axillary buds on the rhizome can produce new rhizomes, or bamboo shoots which grow into culms. Just like the culm, rhizomes have nodes and internodes. There are basically 3 types of bamboo rhizomes :

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Monopodial type (Runner)

Mixpodial type

Sympodial type (Clumper)

Monopodial bamboos or running bamboos,

These bamboos have buds on the stem base of the

Sympodial type bamboos or clumping bamboos

have thin rhizomes which extend horizontally

mother bamboo, which develop into rhizomes and

have buds on the stem base which develop directly

underground for long distances. Degenerated

extends horizontally underground. These buds on

into shoots, and then grow into new stems. In

leaves and roots grow on the nodes of the

rhizome nodes develop into new stems in scattered

the next year, buds on the stem base of new

rhizome, and there is one bud on every node.

state. Meanwhile buds on these new stem bases

stems develop into new shoots and grow into new

Some of the buds grow into new underground

develop into shoots and form a dense bamboo

bamboo stems again, thus the propagation cycle is

rhizomes, some grow into shoots and develop

brush. Such underground rhizomes incorporating

repeated and an underground rhizome system of

into stems. Bamboo stems of monopodial

the features of both monopodial and sympodial

mother bamboo and new stems is formed. Such

species grow in scattered state, and can

types are called mixpodial, or mixed brush.

underground rhizome system does not extend for

spread over a large distance in the immediate

a long distance

surrounding area.

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Form & Function

Bambooâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s circular structure makes it stronger than a similar weight of other woods, and since ages, it has been used as a construction material for houses, flooring and furniture. Bamboo is a very complex material and there are many forces which inform its form including: direction,moisture content,diameter,wall thickness,distance to the node, height, age and species. In terms of diameter and wall thickness, smaller bamboo has stronger mechanical properties (such as ultimate compressive strength) for its size. However, larger bamboo can withstand larger forces. Thicker walls have better mechanical properties. As the distance to the node decreases, the mechanical properties improve. The height along the bamboo (when measured from the ground) affects its properties. Generally, the part of the bamboo nearer the bottom has stronger properties. The stems, or 'culms', can range in height from a few centimetres to 40 metres, with stem diameters ranging from 1 mm to 30 cm. There have been various documented uses of bamboo given its circular form and the strength of the culms, their straightness, smoothness, lightness combined with hardness and greater

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hollowness & also the aspect of its regularity with which bamboo can be split, the different sizes, various lengths and thickness of their joints,which makes the bamboo as a material,suitable for numerous end products and purposes. The bamboo culms have been extensively used in applications such as flooring, ceiling, walls, windows, doors, fences, housing roofs, trusses and rafters; it is also used in construction as structural materials for bridges, water-transportation facilities and skyscraper scaffoldings due to mechnical properties and compressive strength. The physical aspect has also been utilised to develop products ranging from domestic household products such as food containers, skewers, chopsticks, to handicrafts, toys, furniture, flooring, boats, charcoal, musical instruments and weapons. Bamboo fibers are used to make clothing, sheets and towels, and people seeking eco-friendly alternatives to metal and plastic are using bamboo to make machines, bicycles, pumps and other practical, everyday products.

Wall thickness

lumen

node

internode

Types of sections and split

t m en

To p

Se g

m eg

The internode length, diameter and wall thickness of bamboo culm vary in accordance to the culm position. The internode length increases from the bottom to the middle part and decreases toward the top part. The maximum internode length is located in the 1st third of the culm. The culm diameter decreases from the bottom to the top. Bamboo culms taper towards the top with a gradual decrease in diameter. The culm wall thickness significantly decreases with height. Smaller bamboo has stronger mechanical properties (such as ultimate compressive strength) for its size. However, larger bamboo can withstand larger forces. Thicker walls have better mechanical properties generally.

sa lS

Variation in wall thickness

(A) Longitudinal half, (B) Longitudinal quarter, (C) thick split, (D)(E) wide inner split,(G) Fine radial split, (H) fine tangential outer split, (I) fine tangential inner split

Variation in wall thickness in different species as well as from basel portion towards middle segment.

Wall thickness reduction

A variety of sections or splits that are extracted from the culm, each to suit a specific purpose;

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The microscopic characteristic of bamboo culm The structure of a bamboo culm in the transverse direction is characterized by numerous vascular bundles embedded in the parenchymatous ground tissue. The total culm tissue consists of 50% parenchyma, 40% fibers and 10% conducting cells. The parenchyma and conducting cells are more numbers in the inner third of the wall, while the percentage of fiber is higher in the outer part. In the vertical direction, the fiber amount increases from bottom to top with the decreasing parenchyma content.The bamboo fibers are supporting/protective tissue with thicker wall, long and tapered at their ends.

50%

Parenchyma cells

40%

Fibers cells

10%

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Conducting cells

The main chemical constitute of bamboo are cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, which amount to over 90% of the total mass. The minor constituents of bamboo amount to 10%, which are composed of resins, tannins, waxes and inorganic salts. On both sides of bamboo culm wall are covered by a special tissue. The outermost skin of the bamboo culm consists of epidermal cells that are covered with a waxy layer of Silica which has poor affinity towards water and adhesives. Silica content is the highest in the epidermis, with very little in the nodes and is absent in the internodes.

The innermost skin 'Lumen' is the part of culm wall next to culm cavity. It is composed of sclerenchyma cells.The bamboo fibers are Protective tissue with thicker wall, long and tapered at their ends. They contribute 40-50% of the total culm tissue. The fiber length of bamboo varies from 2 to 4 mm. The density of bamboo increases from inner to outer part and from lower to upper part of the culm. Moreover, the density of nodes is higher than that of inter-nodes.

Metaxylem Vessels

Outer Skin

Phloem

Inner Skin

Fiber Strands

Parenchyma cells

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Durability / Preservation

The durability of bamboo in comparison to wood is short if the material is not treated and is exposed to the atmosphere can be lead to fast degradation. It also needs to placed under the cover for the period of 6 to 12 weeks depending on the season to avoid from cracking by exposure to sun. Precaution needs to be taken as bamboo can very much attract fungal growth if coming in exposed to moist weather.It is also found that more than 40 percent of bamboo is being destroyed due to biological agents if stored in untreated conditions. Variation in durability has also been observed along the length of the culm and the thickness of the wall. The lower portion of the culm is considered more durable, while the inner part of the wall deteriorates faster than the outer harder portion. This is probably related to the anatomical and chemical nature of the woody cells. The durability of bamboo can be enhanced by uasge prevention methods with or with the use of chemicals.Traditional methods are water curing and smoke curing. Chemical methods are spraying of the chemicals,soaking bamboo in boiled water for hours till the starch content of the bamboo escapes from the culm.

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Bamboo consists of 50-70s hemicellulose, 30% pentosans, and 20 25% lignin.Ninety percent of the hemicellulose is xylan with a structure intermediate between hardwood and softwood xylans. The lignin present in bamboos is unique, and undergoes changes during the elongation of the culm Bamboo is known to be rich in silica (0.5 to 4%), but the entire silica is located in the epidermis layers, with hardly any silica in the rest of the wall. Bamboos also have minor amounts of resins, waxes and tannins. None of these, however, have enough toxicit to impart any natural durability. On the other hand, the presence of large amounts of starch makes bamboo highly susceptible to attack by staining fungi and powder-post beetles. The natural durability of bamboo is very low and depends on species, climatic conditions and type of use. The natural durability of untreated bamboo poles is low. For most species less than 2 years, and 4-7 years under ideal conditions (without exposure to sun and rain). The preservation of bamboo poles is therefore essential to extend its service life.

Natural durability

Natural durability Under Ideal conditions

years

4-7

years

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Bamboo Shrinkage Properties (cracking / splitting) An important feature of bamboo is the way it reacts to different temperature or humidity changes, as this may result in splits or cracks in the bamboo pole. Bamboo is an anisotropic material, as in that the properties in the longitudinal direction are completely different than those in the transverse direction. The longitudinal direction is made from bamboo cellulose fibres which are strong and stiff. In the transverse direction bamboo consists mainly of lignin which is soft and brittle. Therefore, bamboo is perceieved to be one-sided reinforced composite with relatively little tangential capacity. The shrinkage of the nodes is 4 x higher than the shrinkage of the internodes.This may be because of the large amount of reinforced fibres, which are present in the internodes but less in the nodes. Because of the differences in anatomical structure and density, there is a large variation in tangential shrinkage from the inner (10%) up to the outer part (15%) of the culm wall. Thus, the tangential shrinkage is higher in the outer parts of the wall than in the inner parts, which can lead to cracking.

Equilibrium Moisture Content Bamboo is a hygroscopic material which means that it will absorb or expel moisture from or to its surroundings until an equilibrium is reached. The moisture content thus varies according to the properties of the surrounding air.Water is held in bamboo in two ways; free water which is retained in the cell cavities, and bound water which is retained in the cell walls themselves. The moisture content of the culm wall is higher in the inner portion than in the outer portion. The nodes have lower values than the internodes. These differences can be up to 25%. During drying bamboo loses free water until its moisture content is about 15%. The bamboo will shrink if the remaining water is driven out, but the bamboo can swell again after drying when moisture is recovered from the relative humidity of the surrounding air.

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Bamboo Deterioration Bamboo deterioration is mostly caused by non-biological as well as biological agents during storage or in service. Split bamboo is more rapidly destroyed than round bamboo. The inner part of the culm is severely and easily attacked than the outer one due to its difference in anatomical characteristics,chemical composition.The waxy siliceous coating on the outer surface provide some protection to the outer part. The large amounts of starch present in bamboo makes it highly attractive to mold and fungi, termites and powder-post beetles. They cause much damage during drying, storage, and subsequent use. The intensity of deterioration also depends much on the bamboo species, duration of storage, mode of use and prevailing environmental and storage conditions. Damage in bamboo can be caused by any or a combination of the following agents of deterioration.

Non biological agents

Biological Agents

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Non Biological Agents The large amounts of starch present in bamboo makes it highly attractive to mold and fungi, termites and powder-post beetles. They cause much damage during drying, storage, and subsequent use.Different kind of agents can act against the material and can cause it to deteriorate.The ultraviolet radiation and heat can affect the exterior surface & can cause the surface to change its natural colour. Chemicals like strong acids and alkalies can cause chemical reaction in the tissue structure. External pressure applied on the surface can cause cracking longitudinally.

Biological Agents There are three major groups of fungi that cause biological deterioration Surface Moulds

Staining Fungi

Soft rot fungi

Staining Fungi

Surface Moulds

Soft rot fungi

Many fungi may cause stains on bamboo culms, particularly when the culms are exposed to excessive humidity and lack of sunshine. Fungi of this group also derive their food from simple sugars but they penetrate deep inside the bamboo tissues. The affected materials appear brown, grey to black in colour.

Fungi under this group are normally found on the surface of the affected material and derive their food from simple sugars which occur in freshly cut bamboo. These attack bamboo culms exposed to high humid conditions. Moulds reduce the aesthetic quality of freshly cut bamboo and finished products, while these are in storage, transit or in usage. Materials that are damaged show a change in colour which may be black, greyish black.

This group of fungi utilises lignin and cellulose in the secondary cell walls and produces cavities which are conical or spindle shaped. Affected bamboo becomes soft when wet and shows charred appearance when it is dry.

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Bamboo Insect infestation Untreated bamboo, just like almost any other wood, has a high chance of being attacked by insects. Bamboo insect infestation occurs due to the presence of starch and other carbohydrates. Insects obtain their food supply from the bamboo and degrade it, therefore bamboo should be chemically treated to avoid infestation.

Termites Powdery dust falling out of holes indicates ongoing bamboo insect infestation. The beetle larvae can tunnel through the entire inner tissue leaving behind only a thin surface of the hard cortex which may give a false impression when evaluating the significance of damage for repair work. Termites live in organized colonies having a population of several thousands to a few millions of individuals. They are among the few insects capable of using cellulose as a source of food. Some varieties of termites (subterranean) need high humidity and access to water for survival. Other types (drywood type) survive without ground contact, obtaining moisture from the culm.

Powdery dust falling out of holes indicates ongoing bamboo insect infestation. The beetle larvae can tunnel through the entire inner tissue leaving behind only a thin surface of the hard cortex which may give a false impression when evaluating the significance of damage for repair work.

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Preservation of bamboo Bamboo is subject to attack by microorganisms and insects in almost any construction applications. The decay and biodegradation of bamboo culms during outdoor storage can be checked to a great extent by adopting a good storage yard practices. Culms should be stacked horizontally over raised wall to facilitate water drainage and air circulation.

For reed bamboos, vertical stacking results in a small gain in pulp yield over horizontal stacking because the former suffers less fungal damage. The service life of bamboo is therefore, mainly determined by the rate of attack.There are variety of methods to improve the durability of bamboo on the basis of chemical usage as well as the method of treatment. To get a more clearer understanding of what types of decay can occur when cut for use, further insights were explored through secodary research.

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Prevention of Bamboo Even though, keeping the bamboo culms dry during storage or in service will make it free from fungal attack, protection against borers and termite cannot be ensured.It requires chemical treatment for long term protection.Improper handling or storage of bamboo can cause loss due to physical as well as biological degradation. Rapid moisture loss should be avoided to prevent cracking or splitting. Ground contact during storage is highly hazardous as it promotes immediate fungal decay and possibility of termite attack. In India, the average lifespan of untreated bamboo is less than two years.

Maintenance of bamboo poles In usage, there are a no. of steps and methods which need to be

To avoid bamboo from weathering and to an extent cracking, a

followed so as to avoid the direct contact with soil to prevent

special sealer seems to be applied to the surface.

bamboo from rotting. It is recommended to install the fence at

There are a variety of sealers in the market, but the ones extensively

least 2 cm from the ground.

used in the bamboo industry is Melamyne which comes in two

Due to the anatomical structure of bamboo fibers, which all run in

variants as Gloss and Matt. These are mixed with thinner and can be

the same longitudinal direction, forcing nails into bamboo will lead

applied either by applying in manually on the surface with the help of

to splitting.Dropping bamboo on the ground or hitting it with a

brush or by spraying it with the help of spray gun powered with air

hammer may cause cracks and splits. Therefore, bamboo should

pressure. These essentially blocks the surface against absorption of

be handled and installed with care. To avoid cracking of bamboo

moisture and attack of the borers and termites.

from Sun's exposure, the culm should preferabaly be placed under cover for a period of 6 to 12 weeks depending on the season.

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For the preservation of bamboo as a material, there are various methods which were informed to be utilised for the treatment of the material. The methods were divided in two types -

Short term

Long term protection

Short term protection In terms of protection measures, one of the insights was gained that properly stacked bamboo under a shed would ensure uniform drying and prevent any moisture increase due to rain or water splashes. The short term measures taken by the tribal community was to cut the poles in smaller lengths and dip them into a boiling container so as to remove the starch content. This technique is not much effective in comparison to chemical treatments as there is a great possibility of attack by bores and insects. There are other traditional methods which have been adopted for treating bamboo i.e Smoking, Curing, White washing, Soaking.

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Smoking

Curing

Traditionally, bamboo culms are placed above fireplaces inside the house so that the smoke and heat rises up and both dries and blackens the culms. It is possible that the process produces some toxic agents that provide a degree of protection. Alternatively, the heat generated by the fire could possibly destroy or reduce the starch content of the parenchyma cells by pyrolysis. This is considered an effective treatment against insects and fungi.

Bamboo culms are treated during or immediately after extraction and before stacking in the storage yard. Curing involves harvested culms, with branches and leaves intact, in open air. The leaves continue to transpire causing the starch content of the culms to fail.

White washing

Soaking

Bamboo culms and bamboo mats for housing construction are often painted with slaked lime. This is carried out mainly to enhance the appearance, but there is also an expectation that the process will prolong the life of the bamboo structure by preventing moisture entering the culms. It is possible that the water or moisture absorption is delayed or in some cases prevented which will provide a higher resistance to fungal attack. In Indonesia, bamboo mats are tarred and later sprinkled with a layer of sand. When this is dry, upto 4 coats of whitewash are applied. Plastering is also a common practice using cow dung mixed with either lime or mortar.

In this technique bamboo are submerged in water for about 6 weeks. This method increases the durability of bamboo, according to a local belief, by 10 years. It is believed that since starch is soluble in water, by submerging the starch gets dissolved. Its a safe and effective non-technical approach but it is time consuming as well. Also, to do this a large scale it would be resource consuming as transportation factor will also be accounted. As the water is still trapped in the tissues, there are chances during shrinkage for the cracks to occur. For this reason this method cannot be held for long term protection.

The bamboo poles are made to drop in water bodies for weeks till the starch content gets dissolved

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Long term protection There are various methods through which bamboo as a material can be preserved but mostly through chemically treated methods. These methods ensure longivity of the material when in use as the major task is to remove the starch(cellulose) content from the lumen, in order to prevent it from attack from insects.

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There are various ways for the chemical treatment of bamboo. The most industrially known and viable methods are ;

Vertical soak diffusion

Steeping

Pressure treatment (Modified Boucherie process)

Pour in drum

Vaccum Pressure

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Chemical based processes to treat bamboo Vertical soak diffusion

Pressure treatment (Modified Boucherie process)

Bamboo culms are divided into nodes and internodes and are composed of two types of tissue; parenchyma cells and vascular bundles. The vascular bundles consist of vessels which are thick walled fibres and sieve tubes and it is through these that water movement takes place in the living plant. In Modified Boucherie Technique, (aka. sap displacement technique), pressurised preservative solution is applied on the basal end, which pushes the sap contained in the vascular bundle out and then replaces it with a preservative solution. The hydraulic pressure pushes the chemicals through the wall of fresh bamboo and thereby the sap is drained out and replaced with the chemicals.

Pour in drum This is a simple method for the treatment of bamboo and is easy and feasible in small scale setup. Â Â The nodes are pierced with a iron rod from top, leaving 2 nodes at the bottom unpierced. Â The liquid is poured in to the top of the pole for the time duration of 2-4 hours and left for 1-2 weeks depending on size.The solution is poured from time to time by pumping or using a vessel to get the liquid up to the top and into the pole again.

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Vaccum Pressure

Steeping

This method results in complete penetration of preservative across the wall thickness of bamboo. However, it is more expensive as it requires a boiler and a steaming chamber. The plant can treat bamboo up to 20 feet tall. The tank is filled with bamboos (up to 60-90 poles) and supplied with steam mixed with 25 Boric acid solution and 2 % Borax chemicals in water. The whole process takes up to 3 hours. After the treatment the tank is opened after 2-3 hours so that the temperature inside is cooled down. Then the nitrogenous products, which ooze out of bamboo, are wiped out. The bamboo due to steam absorbs the chemicals and thus become borer or termite proof. The pieces are dried under the sun on the bed of sand.

In this method, the bamboo poles are initially cut into desirable sizes and later dipped and soaked in chemical preservatives without making them float for 10-15 minutes. The nodes can be drilled on the opposite sides near the nodes of the the culm. This method involves keeping the green bamboo completely submerged in the preservative solution. The specimens were kept submerged in water for about a week before treatment. Both round and half-split specimens were treated for a period of up to 50 days.

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Analysis of Bamboo as a material There were various aspects of the material which were studied in depth and which generated a deeper understanding of the grass and the various persectives its been looked at in today's context. Bamboo as a plant and a material was perceived to have a lot of complex aspects while studying its physical,mechanical and structural properties. The micro to macro aspects of Bamboo were realised while reading about the plant and understanding the various subject of its growth pattern, properties and anatomy. The understanding and analysis of the durability and preservation aspect of bamboo created the understanding that even though the material seemed to show a lot of potential in terms of its elasticity ,compressive strength and its comparison to steel, it

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had negative aspects in terms being affected by biological and non biological agents, resulting in negative perception towards Bamboo as a material in the society. The study of preservation methods generated the understandings of steps taken across the various bamboo growing and harvesting regions to conciously look into the longivity of the usage of material in order to position it with already establised natural material, such as wood. The micro aspects generated the understandings of the internal structure of the material which informs its usage as a material and also informed about the various physical aspects which were not been acquinted with before.

After a brief understanding of various properties of the grass, the next stage was to understand its presence in the world, its relevance in the society today, the various industries which are thriving towards development with the material,its perception and its relevance to communities which use it to generate economic and livelihood benefits.

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Bamboo as craft & world view

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Bamboo in the world Bamboo in India Industry Perception of Bamboo Bamboo in Gujarat Bamboo in contemporary design Analysis

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36 Million Hectares 3.2% of world forest area

Areas around the world where bamboo species originate and exist

Bamboo in the world

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Bamboo species are found in diverse climates, from cold mountains to hot tropical regions. Between 1,200 and 1,500 species of bamboo have been found so far and they grow all over the world, depending on what kind of climates the particular species can tolerate. The total bamboo area in the world is approximately 36 million hectares or an average of 3.2% of the total forest area. Bamboo is mostly distributed in the tropics, subtropical and temperate zones of all continents except Europe and North America. There are species of bamboo that can survive winter weather up to -20Â° F and still grow again in the spring during the normal germination periods. Most commonly, bamboo is found in places that qualify as tropical, sub-tropical, or temperate zones. These are places like Southeast Asia, South America, and the Southeast portion of the United States. Some species of bamboo have been known to grow well indoors in less temperate parts of the world.

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1200-1500 Species of bamboo

These 'needs' manifested itself in the form of collecting, hunting and storing and adorning. These needs were the forces that informed these communities to investigate the material and explore it to derive meaningful purposes. Initially being made and sold locally for generating livelihood, these objects held an important status in the societies till the mid of 20th century. As the industrial age progressed with the advancement of technology and mass production of objects started taking place which focused majorly on standardisation, availability of raw materials and incorporating industrial setup at a large scale. The industrial revolution and the spread of western knowhow meant our economies started depending on minerals,metals and economic agricultural commodities like cotton and jute. The spread of technology and formalised knowledge meant a reduction of local knowledge of traditionally used materials including bamboo. Thus the need of the material through the crafting of product started declining in various parts of the words.

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Due to the local availability of the grass amongst the vast communities around the world, the grass was explored majorly as a material for making utilitarian object that served various purposes according to their needs.

But with the changing times with globalised economy, there has been a revival for the demand of the products made from the plant. The traditional knowhows have been coming back and are being appreciated Before the 1990's major thrust was on the development of new materials for industrial as well as for general applications.Being the first choice for the development of synthetic polymers and reinforced composites, low cost petroleum raw materials played an important role. However after the 1990's, adverse environmental impact of synthetic components, depletion of petroleum resources and development of advanced techniques shifted the interest of industries and researchers towards biobased materials. In the need of cost effective engineered materials and environmental conciousness, research continued on the development of natural fiber composites for different applications like packaging material, building material and other various applications of which bamboo has been playing a major part.

Bamboo whisk used as part of Japaese tea ceremony, portreying the material association with Eastern Asian regional cultures

A Hunter's cap made by indigeneous tribal community called Lepcha from India's West Bengal region.

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Bamboo & World Trade The world bamboo market is currently worth USD 7 Billion/year, of which China has USD 5.5 Billion. The largest markets are handicraft (USD 3 Billion), bamboo shoots (USD 1.5 Billion) and traditional furniture (USD 1.1 Billion). Traditional markets cover handicrafts, blinds, bamboo shoots, chopsticks and traditional bamboo furniture, which count for 95% of the market. Emerging bamboo markets are wood substitutes such as flooring, panels and non-traditional furniture. The growth of the global market is expected to grow to USD 15-20 Billion/ year in 2017. Non-traditional markets are expected to claim 45% of the total bamboo market. In 1992, France, Germany and the Netherlands were the major markets for bamboo, collectively accounting for 53% of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s total imports. Traditional markets cover handicrafts, blinds, bamboo shoots, chopsticks and traditional bamboo furniture, which count for 95% of the market to date. New market products include modern/laminated furniture, flooring and panels cover the remainder 5% of the bamboo sector.

America & Europe (Largest western market) America and Europe are the two regions represent the largest Western markets, accounting for up to 80% of the global bamboo trade. Because of the relatively high prices paid for industrial bamboo products and their growing market share, more bamboo producing countries intend to develop modern bamboo industries for products such as panels,paper, fabrics, charcoal and shoots.

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Bamboo poles & strips market The market for bamboo poles and strips for various uses in the USA is estimated at US$15 million (90% from China), 30% of which is used for decorative purposes in gardens and parks; garden wood, fences, gates and gazebos. This product group of garden and parks accessories has bigger potential for USA market than for the EU. The tropical appearance of bamboo products highly appreciated in the USA than in the EU, where bamboo is perceived more as a niche product for specific purposes, for example in zoos and theme parks. Future projections of market prospects for basketware remains positive, as imports should continue to benefit from an increasing conciousness and campaigns for natural materials and handicrafts.

Bamboo composites market Bamboos cut into strips being used for producing the bamboo strip products such as glued laminated bamboo, also called Laminated Bamboo Lumber, is showing postive tangible perception of high strength and stiffness and is used in applications of material for construction and design of thinner structural elements than those made of wood.

A global shortage of certified renewable wood and shortage of all wood kinds in Asia is opening up opportunities for substitute products in the form of bamboo laminated boards. Growth in interest in sources of environmentally friendly energy such as biomass have an effect on wood-based industries and positive potential of bamboo to have an impact.

Numerous studies have documented expansion of household incomes and poverty reduction through increased bamboo production. Overall trends in the export market for Bamboo products appear favourable for the expansion of efficient industrial units into the sector. It is envisioned that Indian industries producing Bamboo products can eventually capture a significant portion of this market owing to the provision of indigenous designs, capitalising on the exoticism associated with tribal crafts and eventually on reputations for best practices and high quality. This is of course contingent on the development of Brand Names, which requires the establishment of a strong industrial structure capable of creating value added products of high quality at competitive prices. In combination with estimates of market size, this provides an initial assessment of the demand side attractiveness of the different markets in terms of market accessibility. Bamboo-based composites will become a highly competitive alternative to wood-based composites and will become an important forest based product in the future.

Statistical data on International Bamboo Imports

These import data suggested that there has been steady rise in the the consumption of bamboo products in western market in various product catagories and is steadily changing the preconceieved notions of bamboo in the past of being associated with rural crafts and being cheap.

Insights were derived from these data that there has been a consistent rise in the market demand for the material and is going to double by year 2017. In the emerging market, furniture and panels made from laminated bamboo board just accounted for 5% of the market,suggesting the greater relevance of products made from traditional handicraft methods.Industrial bamboo products are being paid higher. The research also suggested that the bamboo based composites were competative alternatives towards wood based composites projected for the future.

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Bamboo Industry in India India is the second richest country in bamboo genetic resources after China. These two countries together have more than half the total bamboo resources globally.There are over 136 species of bamboos occurring in India. Fifty-eight species of bamboo belonging to 10 genera are distributed in the northeastern states alone. In India, 13.47 million tons of bamboo is harvested annually of which 11.7 million tons is utilised industrially in paper mills, as scaffolding or fencing, for internal consumption in bamboo-growing households, handicrafts and miscellaneous items like incense-sticks, ladders, icecream sticks, agricultural implements, etc. About 1.9 million tonnes is used by the pulp industries.

To achieve this there is a need for consistent supply of processed bamboo, development of industry, channeling of raw material into manufacturing system and an assurance of steady market . Trade regulations for bamboo are usually the same as those for wood both at international and regional levels.

The vast amount of Bamboo resources, the second largest in the world, indicates the presence of a vast pool of untapped resources, due to regulation barring access to these forests resources.

Bamboo in India remains a material for personal usage in homes; the only products produced industrially are produced by small firms lacking in sufficient capital to pursue value addition or quality enhancement. The association of Bamboo with livelihood promotion remains confined to handicrafts promotion, as a result of which even government programmes fail to appreciate its industrial potential. In addition, archaic and confusing regulatory regimes as well as conflicting legislation prevent Bamboo from reaching its true potential.

Due to the abundance of the natural product, small holders harvest the bamboo from the edges of their farms and their surroundings; there is negligible large-scale commercial cultivation of bamboo in India.

Through more studies it was understood that the resurgence of bamboo was still possible, and this was based on evidence of significant new and contemporary economic opportunities that have emerged over the past decade.

On average, 250 air-dried culms weigh one tonne and the price per tonne of dry bamboo is Rs 1000 (auction rate) (about US$ 22).

The annual market for value added bamboo in India is estimated at approx. 1.0bn USD in 2004 which is expected to grow up to 5.8bn USD by 2015.

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136 Species north east 56 1.0 5.8 bn govt. failing to understand industrial potential consistent supply of processed bamboo contemporary economic opportunities vast pool of untapped resources

Bamboo industry's product diversity

The set of all firms engaged in the addition of value to bamboo through production of igh value products could be defined as bamboo industry in India. The industry in terms of its product diversity can be classified into the following sub-sectors :

Handicrafts

Bamboo Shoots

Construction

Industrial Production

Handicrafts in bamboo sector can be characterised by manual processing of the material after cutting and felling and high value addition to limited quantities of Bamboo.

High value agricultural food crops that can be grown parallel to the culms.

In terms of construction, bamboo is utilised in either for traditional construction or sold through timber marts to constructors.

This involves the mechanised and semi mechanised processing of larger volumes of culms, which offers large opportunities for major growth and pro-poor impacts on rural farming communities. This sector can further be divided into :

Premium Processing

Medium Value Processing

Low value Processing

Unprocessed Culms

Premium processing in the terms of bamboo industry invovles in the development of high value products and requiring facilities for primary and secondary processing as well as high level of finishing. Exp. Bamboo flooring, laminated furniture,

Medium value processing requires less capital intensive processing than above. Exp. Matboards,chopsticks.

This type of processing is done to products invovling limited value addition to bamboo culms. Exp. Charcoal and Paperpulp industries

These unprocessed culms are utilised in traditional applications such as scaffolding and traditional construction as the only utility is to provide structural support.

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Domestic bamboo industry in India Bamboo is one of Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most valuable resources and given the vast

The indian bamboo contemporary market is facing a great challenge

diversity in its applicability and the enormous scope for improvement

with the imports of chinese bamboo products .

in the rural and tribal livelihoods and for the environment, Bamboo is among the most important resources to be leveraged towards the

Community

alleviation of rural poverty, empowerment of women and environ-

While considering that the grass is found throughout the world and

mental rejuvenation.

has been recorded throughout the history of being used for various

The domestic Bamboo industry has been facing a variety of issues in its value chains, including Regulatory and legislative barriers to cultivation and harvesting of Bamboo Challenges in its procurement, Lack of technical know-how among the primary users of Bamboo Lack of market linkages Insufficient market demand

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utilitarian purposes, the advancement of manufacturing processes and the ease of making mass produced object has challenged the livelihoods and material culture of these communities, thus leading to the decline of craft objects made by the skilled ones belonging to the communities who livelihoods depend on the material. The fact that Bamboo species are distributed across the country reflects the enormous potential Bamboo has for the development of a pan-Indian industry based on local sourcing of raw materials, and towards the potential for the Bamboo sector to achieve near- source value addition.

The presence of near-source value addition in modern value chains conveyed that the industrial component of the Bamboo sector has an excellent potential in terms of its pro-poor impact in poverty alleviation. The industrialisation of the Bamboo sector is, thus, an essential task for Bamboo to have any true effect on the lives of the millions who depend upon it.

Bamboo value chain in India There is a variable length and size of the value chain for Indian Bamboo based product industries, occuring primarily due to the different structure of the processing chain for different products. The generalised Indian value chain is elaborated here.

Resposible for growing bamboo or procuring it directly from the forests

Cultivator

Aggregator The Cultivator provides the Bamboo produced to Aggregator Middlemen, who are responsible for the collection of Bamboo and sorting of this Bamboo depending on its grade in terms of quality. In some cases, very basic levels of processing are performed at this stage too.

Manufacturers purchase the Bamboo at up to 400% of the price received by the cultivator. The bamboo they receive is, in general, poorly sorted, unprocessed and variable in quality (leading to wastage rates of up to 50%)

The Aggregator Middlemen provide Bamboo to traders, who are involved in transportation of Bamboo to bazaars in large urban centres, where manufacturers are willing to purchase them.

Traders in unprocessed bamboo

Manufacturers Manufacturers purchase the Bamboo at up to 400% of the price received by the cultivator

Manufacturers are required to look after most aspects of the Processing Chain from Primary Preparation until finishing.

Consumers

Retailers

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Bamboo in Gujarat Gujarat is located in the western part of India, and situated in the arid and semi-arid zones of the country. The forest growth varies from scrubs and thorn forest of north and north-western part of Gujarat to thick forest in south Gujarat. The occurrence of bamboo as an under-storey is a natural component of many of the forests. There are 22 reported species of bamboos reported from the State; the dominant species are Bambusa arundinacea (Katas or Thorny bamboo) and Dendrocalamus strictus (Manvel or Solid bamboo). Dendrocalamus strictus is economically the most important. It is found in the dry deciduous forests over a large part of the State. Bambusa arundinacea is found in mixed moist deciduous forests as well as in the moist dry deciduous forest of the State. The artisans of Gujarat are involved in making bamboo products mainly with these two species.

Dang District Valsad Vansda

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Waghai Vapi

Dendrocalamus Strictus

Bambusa arundinacea

It is a tall, dull green-colored bamboo species, which grows in dense group of bushes consisting of a large number of heavily branched, closely growing culms. It reaches a height of 6-18 m.

Also called as Bambusa bambos or 'Indian thorny' bamboo. It is a tall, bright-green colored spiny bamboo species, which growing in dense group of bushes consisting of a large number of heavily branched, closely growing culms. It reaches a height of 10-35 m and grows naturally in the forests of the dry zones.

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Bamboo communities of Gujarat

A tribal women observed making long strips of longitudinal section for the purpose of weaving ,while visiting one of the tribal villages where these Kotwalia's reside.

In the district of Dangs of Waghai, Ahwa, Saputara and many other villages, several bamboo based cottage industries, cooperative societies, and bamboo products selling co-operative societies exist. These industries are driven by the scheduled tribes of Gujarat state,the Kotwalia' who are also known as 'Vitolia' or 'Vansfodia'(Vans-Bamboo,Fodia those who break the bamboos) which mean the tribal who break the bamboos.As mentioned earlier traditionally they have been occupied in making big baskets Tokras (baskets), containers etc. from bamboo. Usually they prefer to stay near the forest region on the bank of the river or water streams where the bamboos are available in plenty. 92

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These tribes are solely dependant on bamboo industries. The tribes are entirely dependant on their occupation of bamboo works and basket making.They use bamboo to make different types of products and earn their livelihood.Bamboo plays a significant role in providing employment to kotwalia tribe. The bamboo work provides employment to the entire family with the minimum of investment and due to this, an industry is running in the Dang Districts of Gujarat. The bamboo industry is useful in tribal areas because it needs minimum amount of investment and provides comparitively maximum amount of returns.

Forest department does not allow the cutting of bamboo, so the tribal sneak into the forests during night to cut and steal bamboo as there are govt. officials and patrol during day. Either forest dept. provides bamboos to these units or these units import bamboo from North-eastern state. The member/artisans of bamboo working in these units prepare and sell various bamboo items.

Bamboo & Craft The community has been documented to be good in bamboo based craftsmenship. The community is expert in weaving of bamboo mats, baskets and winnowers of different shapes and designs for household use and agri-operations. They also make special type of fishing baskets and traps. It was also found during primary research that the number of people mastering the weaving is decreasing with each passing day as younger generation is not interested to learn the art because returns are low. New avenues have opened for the growth of these tribals, to which the community does not have accesses. From gathering further insights it was found out that there was good demand of naturally degradable, environment friendly ethnic craft based lifestyle products. It was also realised that there were needs to adopt the skill and modify the products according to the present day demand of urban market. These products could be anything from decorative utility products, souvenir & gift packaging, mats & blinds, dining table accessories to light and heavy furniture items.

Price positioning of the products was kept cheaper than that of cane and wooden items. The profit margin for community on these products is as high as 40%. This is higher than any traditional source of livelihood. Different government and non government agencies are currently working towards the upliftment of the tribal craftspeople . At present, the Product Development and Designing Institutes, Agriculture Universities, Research Institutes are working independently in different directions focusing on different aspects of bamboo development. It was also noted that the interlinking the effort of all such institutes and creating a knowledge base in simplified form for the use of the community was required here. To promote the community oriented work on bamboo, there is a need realised for the improvement on all the three levels of backwards linkages, production and forward linkages of these traditional economies consisting of trades. The state government, in its annual budget also has granted tax waivers to bamboo and bamboo articles,

It was also realsied during secordary research that the potential buyers for these articles were either upper and upper middle class in urban areas who were looking for innovative products for houses and farm houses and people living in multistory flats. Big hotels and resorts who sell on rural themes were also realised for assured market. Sumedh Sonare

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Innovators in the

bamboo sector Sandeep is an Indian Furniture Designer, owner of Sangaru Design Studio, a multidisciplinary design consultancy firm, and Sangaru Design Objects Pvt Ltd, a manufacturing company based in Bangalore, India. The studio focuses on the blending of flavour of local people and local material together to creat products with global appeal. The language of sangaru design is organic with geometrical form surfaces and lines achieved through bamboo splits and intergrated by ovelapping. The studio caters to wide range of spaces from home to exhibitions with focus on product catagories like furniture and lighting. His collection 'Truss-me' explores the bamboo's inherent properties of high tensile strength and various mechanical properties to create a structure system that is light, strong and formally pleasing. This system can be used in various applications from furniture, lightweight shelters to modular systems for various needs. Sangaru Design Studio has been actively involved with the crafts sector, working with local people and local materials to create global products.

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http://www.home-review.com/2012/09/my-space-sandeep-sangaru/

A low cost sander machine & sensitive vertical press drill prototype developed from locally available compoenents, have made the purchasing of the tools easy for the community and is not only helping in reducing their drudgery,but also towards enhanced livelihoods.

Innovative tools aiding to tribal livelihood development & enhancement Anant has introduced innovative mechanical tools to help bamboo artisans of Dang districts of Gujarats to improve the quality of their products and reduce the drudgery associated with working with bamboo. The innovator had developed a low cost sander device which is an electrical powered tool that helps reduce the time required to finish bamboo products, typically a painful and time-consuming process. In close collaboration with BAIF Development Research Foundation, Pune, Anant has developed a number of low cost innovative prototypes, including a bamboo axe and a splitter. The bamboo axe helps in cutting bamboo into four or eight uniform splits in one go. This axe prototype is not only cheaper compared to the traditional axe, but also requires less effort.The bamboo splitter and various other tools developed by Anant helping to mechanize the process of splitting bamboo and finishing,

Bamboo containers made from bamboo node and internode section with sanded and refined surface, which has better finish to appeal towards local touristic market ,thus making the tribals to improve the product finish and enhancing their livelihood option.

Nearly 40 artisans in two pilot villages in Gujarat, Ambapara and Dagarpada are producing more than double the quantity of bamboo mugs and have witnessed a 40 per cent increase in income through the sales of these products at a local tourist spot in Gheeradoot.

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Perception of Bamboo as a material In Indian urban markets, products made from bamboo are perceived as cheap, of bad quality,rustic and realated to oriental. There is lowvalue perception of products made from un-constituted bamboo culm also called 'whole-bamboo products'. Also while doing secondary research I came across the perception that bamboo's reputation of being flawed,cheap and rustic could be mainly attributed to its use in outdoor spaces. One of the insights shared the perception of bamboo products are somehow connected to far east and can be leveraged as positive association,since it connects asian craftsmanship. It was also realised that that this positioning could maximise this association against the back drop of growing global interest in alternative therapies, beliefs, religions, natural healthcare traditions Perception of bamboo as a suitable product for use in furniture and flooring but not construction based products was observed in export markets

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Perception of bamboo was observed to be uncompetitive for use in wood panels market, especially in high income economies..

Changing Perception

There is also a growing trend towards social & environmental responsibility. People are gravitating towards fair-trade productsand they are produced with the context of social equity since produced by communities and environment preservation since produced in sustainable manner.

The innovators in the sector are working on manipulation techniques and tools which are changing the way the material is perceived or the way the material's perception could be changed with improvements in processing and finishing. These initiatives were seen to be important in changing the old age perception of bamboo as a material to the proposed 'material for the future'.

These perception can be altered by using good preservation techniques, also by creating awareness about bamboo's properties, limitations and usage options among designers, constructor and fabricators. Manipulating bamboo in different techniques can allow the material to break away from its traditional image,and project the usage of material in a modern context. Manipulation in composite form reducing problems associated with 'natural' bamboo, such as rotting,fungus and humidity related splitting.

Insights

While looking at the domestic bamboo market and especially at the handicrafts market which employed the traditional crafts community, suggested the improvements the craft sector needs to make in order for the industry to progress not only in India but at the global level. The methods to do this is by providing design inputs and provide product development assistance from the beginning of the value chain ensuring the product matches preference of contemporary markets thus changing the perception of the material usage.

Also through reserch it was realised to improve the design and product development in the handicrafts sector methods like to design minimum acceptable benchmark for production of craft products as well as assisting artisan with process standardisation, can be incorporated to drive the change. The innovators in the sector are working on manipulation techniques and tools which are changing the way the material is perceived or the way the material's perception could be changed with improvements in processing and finishing. These initiatives were seen to be important in changing the old age perception of bamboo as a material to the proposed 'material for the future'.

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Bamboo in Contemporary Design With the industrial revolution bringing saturation and monotony with mass produced goods which lacked uniqueness and individuality in the way the products were being produced, there has been a revival of products made from natural materials which are essentially made with hands, and in some cases with the help of industrial tools,but there is still the intervention of human touch. With Bamboo as a natural material in today's context, Bamboo in contemporary market is perceived very positive in terms of being versatile material and having various ways of manipulaing into different contexts. In terms of production,it was realised that its convinient for the indigenious regional communities. In terms of marketing if the products are well made, the notion of being cost effective and aspirations of sustainable lifestyle could be projected in a postive manner. It was also realised that the contemporary design community which may comprise of designers, researchers, institutions and entrepreneurs were attracted by the possibilites of bamboo and showed great interest towards its potential applications. Bamboo has been projected in newer ways by brands, design studio

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and comsumer electrionics companies looking into its innovative applications. Major initiatives in this area use bamboo that has been industrially processed using innovative new technologies. These new technologies and processes reconstitute bamboo culms into standardised baords and panels,which can be used for multiple innovative applications. There has been a major research in terms of making bamboo composites in the area of product manufacturing and architecture. Reconstituting bamboo frees its from its 'low quality image' and stereotypical associations of either being cheap, rustic or asian and helping it gain acceptance into mainstream markets, especially in the west. To understand the contemporary market,further research was done on local artisan, local brands/market and international market to get insights on the current bamboo product market scenario in India.

A great no.of innovative applications with variety of manipulation techniques are changing the perception of bamboo being of 'low quality image' towards being called 'material for the future'

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Contemporary Applications of Bamboo Today's context modern plastic and construction material is displacing bamboo from its historical use and context. From the previous studies into the subject, it showed that the modern bamboo market study showed that there's a new market is emerging in urban areas for handmade utilitarian and decorative objects. In housing sector, an interest is growing for low cost annexes, restaurants, weekend homes, residential homes. There's an emerging interest towards exploring modern market that does not require intensive technology, and which needs more Design skills,New craftsmanship & Institutional support. In this growing market, a transition for traditional bamboo crafts people to the modern bamboo sector can be relatively easy, providing adequate organisation, marketing skills, additional knowledge base, proper policies.

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To understand the contemporary market of bamboo in today's context, the local,domestic as well as International market was researched to get further insights into the subject. Local artisans

Local brands

International Market

The contemporary applications of bamboo with local artisans were studied to understand the traditional economies and their relevance in the contemporary market segment,

Domestic brands which associated them with the bamboo and natural material were studied to undersand the current market of natural material based products and their application.

This catogory focuses on the examples from abroad which are changing the perception of bamboo at global level.

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Local artisans To understand the contemporary craft market, visits to tribal villages were made during primary research to understand the products, their development and their forward linkages in terms of the market these local artisans cater to.

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The initial visits were done at craft clusters Dagadapda and Ambapada, located 20 kms from the organisation near Vansda(location of CIBART). These clusters are bamboo craft making tribal communities 'kotwalia' whose products,setup and market was understood extensivelywhile doing primary research and the market, the clusters are catering to.

Vansda

Ambapada Dagadpada

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Dagadpada Village Bamboo artisan #1

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Raw materials

Setup

Techniques

Products

Market

Locally sourced bamboo poles from forests or from vicinity. The use of un-treated bamboo as raw material was observed.

The setup to develop products is done at the verandah with tools such as; long vice,hacksaw, chisel tool,dau, wooden jig, sandpaper.

Crosscutting and splitting the raw material and create components of functional and aesthetic kind. Dying components as a set and later assembling them with contrasting color harmonies.

Toys in the form of Bamboo whistle made from crosscutting smaller bamboo culms and dying the pieces

The toys of such kind are targetted to local tourist markets near to riverflows and hill station. The local tourist market caters of individuals,couples and families who come to the dang districts of Gujarat due to the its serene setting. These toys are targetted to kids and families visiting the markets, and appeal to kids due to functional value of play associated with the product.

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Bamboo artisans #2

Raw materials

Setup

Raw material procured from either vicinity or nearby forest.Raw material included bamboo poles and rhizomes.

Setup consisting of hacksaw,chisel, kerosene flame gun, container bowl,

Techniques

Products

Market

For surface ornamentation based products, use of wet clay to define a shape on the bamboo surface and heating the outer skin to get a negative impression. Manipulating bamboo rhizome to create organic forms. Crosscutting bamboo and etching with chisel on the surface for functional and decorative utility.

Products ranging from keychains, figurative handicrafts,cups and hair pins.

These products are catering to local market frequented by tourists. The products being easy to make and easy to transport in bulk makes it relevant to touristic market which the products are targetted towards and generate consistent livelihood.

Ambapada Village

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Raw materials

Setup

Techniques

Products

Market

Locally sourced bamboo poles from forests or from vicinity. The use of un-treated bamboo as raw material was observed at the artisan's house

The setup was similar to the previous setup observed at Dagadpada and to develop products use similar tools suchas long vice,hacksaw, chisel tool,dau, wooden jig, sandpaper and fevicol as adhesive.

Fine radial splits to create flat sticks, pasted with fevicol in twisted orientation to define volume. Wide inner splits which are glued together to create a base and stuck to the forms.

Eventually create a container with a dynamic form language and utility of using it as a pen holder.

The pen holders are again targetted towards tourist market and brought by tourists seeking for natural products for office or home space and for functional utility.

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Local Bamboo Shop Located near River Ambika, Gira falls

Spatial setting

Shop & product range

Target customers

Ambika is one of the major rivers in the Indian state of Gujarat. The river has its origins in Saputara Hill ranges in the Nasik district of Maharashtra. The place attracts majority of tourists who want to either enjoy the view of the river,bathe or engage with the market The place was visited with the members of the organisation to observe the local market. The climate was observed to be pleasant and the place where the shop was located frequented by families and tourist of all age groups.

The shop is located in the vicinity of Gira falls, and attracts a lot of crowd due to the presence of a water body. The shop was observed to be shared with a snacks seller and camouflaged the handicrafts shop with the bright snack packs on display. The shop had a clutter of vast range of products with similar colour harmony and excessive decorative details. The products ranged from lamshades,trays,pen holder, novelty products like cart,wall arts, figurative toys, handfan and keychains.

The shop was mainly catering to tourist consumers who come to gira falls to relax with their families and friends and of all age groups.

http://www.gujarattourism.com

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Local Bamboo Shop Located at Saputara ( Hill Station )

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Spatial setting

Shop & product range

Target customers

Saputara is Gujarat's only hill station, and attracts a majority of Gujarat and Maharashtra tourists who transit the place which lies in between the two states. The shop is located near to a river and has a pleasant atmosphere attracting the tourist crowd.

The handicrafts shop is located at Saputara, and attracts a majority of tourist customers who visit the hill station. This shop also displayed a clutter of vast range of products with similar colour harmony and more utilitarian products with less products bearing decorative details. The products ranged from lamshades,trays,pen holder, novelty products like cart,wall arts, serving trays, chinese handfans and kitchenwares.

The shop was mainly catering to tourist consumers who are transiting the place and spend a day or two enjoying and engaging with tourist attractions available at the hill station.

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Analysis of Local Craft Market The contemporary local craft market was assessed to show less potential in terms of growth as the products still beared the old aesthetic treatments which have not evolved with time and market forces. Some products showed potential in terms of the manipulation techniques in terms of aeathetic treatment. The usage of untreated raw material in the making of the products was perceieved to only degrade the perception of the material with time. The usage of excessive decorative details which did not have reference to material properties was observed while doing the study. The markets at both the locations seemed to have show immense potential towards positioning these handicraft products developed locally.

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Local Indian Market

To understand the contemporary market in local conext, few brands were studied to understand their product range, usage of material,marketing channels and their relevance to either craft range or bamboo products.

@home is a retail division of Nilkamal Limited which is the world's largest manufacturer of moulded furniture and India's leading manufacturer of Material Handling Systems. ‘@home’ is spread across the country with 17 large format retail stores with an average size of 16,000 sq.ft. per store. ‘@home’ is positioned as a Home styling expert, and positions itself as an expert in interior styling in terms of home planning, with finest quality furniture, soft furnishings & home accessories to enhance the indoor and outdoor spaces. Professional guidance in buying the right products, loan options, convenient home delivery and installation are other value added services that they offer.

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To help customers make an informed decision whilst buying furniture, @home displays its furniture in ‘actual room settings’ viz. the furniture with furnishings & accessories are displayed in actual room layouts having different themes. Each room showcases a different mood with color coordinated accessories & wall textures to beautifully compliment them. The settings on display are for living, dining & bedroom. Realistic room settings enable the customers to visualize the furniture in their home, making buying decisions easier.

Brand

Target Market

Product Catagories

Materials

Sustainability

The designs at ‘@home’ are contemporary yet practical, mirroring Indian taste & requirements. The brand focuses on providing an engaging environment to make the customers use the products, sense the space and get triggered visually by the realistic setting spaces created as well as sections dedicated to various product range in different catagories. THe brand also promises professional guidance in buying the right products, loan options, convenient home delivery and installation are other value added services that they offer.

@home’s product range are targeted towards various segments of the society at affordable prices. Their target market is middle, upper middle class.

The brand caters to wide range of products for the living, dining, bedroom, kitchen and garden space.

Usage of plastic. wood, steel, bamboo, ceramic etc.

Marketing channels

Experience touchpoints

Market their priroducts through print ads, flyers and their website. Market and sell their products through physical stores spread across India as well as through online portal.

Duration of engagement is great as realistic room layouts having been created with different themes, for customers to engage.

The brand is into material handling and have greater emphasis is laid on productivity, profitability as well as resource conservation and ecological preservation by manufacturing plastic crates for industrial sector & having greater lifecycle. Material handling plays a very crucial role in sustaining efficiency in financial and human resources.`

Various trigger points to engage with the space and spatial elements, with visual and touch being the senses being triggered the most.

Passive & active interaction as each room showcases a different mood with color coordinated accessories & wall textures to compliment the space.

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Visit to the store The store was visited at Oberoi mall in Mumbai. The store had a wide range of products catagories which focused on kitchen ware, decor accessories and home furniture and upholstery. The kitchen accessory section in particular had products focused on either wood or bamboo as a material. The product types observed at the kitchenware section were spatula,cutting boards, trivets,containers and tools such as tong,serving spoon and frying pan spatula. These products were made from high quality laminated bamboo boards which were CNC routed with good detailing aspects. The pricing was apt for the target market the brand was trying to cater to. The market being targetted was thought to be the young to mid working class who are sensitised towards their environment or like natural products to enhance their home spaces.

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The products had a nice sheen due to the matt coated finish,thus looked rich. Products were made from laminated boards and were imported from China. Napkin holders, Coaster and cutting boards were observed to be manufactured from bamboo board.

Simple details with inclusion of secondary materials such as rubber, which added value as well as utility which is not possible with only one material.

The visual language of the products was monolithic also bearing a slight cavity for defined utility purposes.

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Options is a boutique lifesyle store based in Ahmedabad in India and has a wide prouduct range of exclusive products and design brands ranging from apparels, accessories, textiles, furniture, lighting and offers an eclectic range of ethnic and traditional products, designed with usage of contemporary aesthetics. The store was started by Janki Patel,designer along with her husband who has been instrumental in the evolution of furnishings and home stores in the city and changing mindset of the upper middle class and upper class customers based in Ahmedabad. The two-storied standalone store displays its product range in contemporary wooden racks and tables which are well-spaced out to allows one to explore the space well with various triggerpoints. The brand has changed the perception of price conscious consumers of the city who would generally not go for traditional craft based, designer and exclusive product range, to buyers who would not mind paying for quality products produced which are sold at the store.

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Brand

Target Market

Product Catagories

Materials

Sustainability

The brand was started with the idea of providing contemporary home decor options to the people of the city of Ahmedabad. The brand engages the visitors with themed spaces and curated products of contemporary aesthetic language.

Their target is local market and mostly the people of ahmedabad. The brand caters to upper middle and high class.

Exclusive products and design brands ranging from apparels, accessories, textiles, furniture, lighting and also offering an eclectic range of ethnic and traditional products,

Usage of ceramics, glass, metal, textiles and natural materials such as wood,paper pulp,cane and terracotta.

The products are curated from various brands ,suppliers and are being manufactured with the help of local artisans with natural materials and dyes who are spread across the state, thus promoting sustainability from social and ecological perspective.

The brand seems to be catering to customers who have have the taste of tradtional yet contemporary products and spaces.

Marketing channels

Experience touchpoints

The brand promotes itself by publishing and promoting it in popular home decor magazines and through print ads featured in local newspaper and publications.

The physical store present in Ahmedabad has a very serene atmoshere from the entry point to the interiors of the store spread in two stores. The ambience of the space is warm with the surface & aesthetic treatment given to the space with mud plastered walls, water feeder for birds, pebbled grounds and stone slabs laid out at the entry point, which enhances the intensity to engage the space with various trigger points. The space thus has active, passive and interactive interactions with the individuals. The variety of product range and interesting spatial elements raise the intensity perspective from experience touchpoint.

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International bamboo Market The Global Bamboo product market is classified into two major sectorsTraditional Markets, wherein Demand remains strong. This sector includes handicrafts, Bamboo shoots and Chopsticks, wherein margins remain profitable despite slowing growth. On the other hand, certain product lines (e.g. chopsticks) are commoditised and present low growth and low margin opportunities. Emerging products present the most positive outlook for the industry given the enormous growth potential for such product lines, given their recent emergence on the product scene. These include high value timber replacement products, Bamboo flooring and prefabricated construction. The potential for higher value addition, the existence of higher margins and enhanced profitability and the possibility of changing bambooâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s image as a low quality material.

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This catogory focuses on the examples from abroad which are changing the perception of bamboo and products made from natural materials at global level.

Product that merges traditional and industrial techniques. Inspired by a simple woven basket, the designers developed the Gabbia lamp in a bamboo basket-weaving village that specializes in small scale objects.

Commercial Bamboo bicycle made by Danish bicycle design firm Biomega, using natural round bamboo for frame with industrial components raising the value perception of the material and showing its potential in urban contemporary context.

French designer Samy Rio using hollow bamboo culms as alternatives to tubes of plastic, forming sections of products such as the heads of hairdryers and bases for speakers. Portreying material's form usage with technological intervention thus creating a change in the mindset of industries still hooked to unsustainable and non-biodegrable material. Wide outer splits of bamboo used here to create forms with utilitarian value and minimum usage of production processes.

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Bamboo in construction

Bamboo based constructions have been appreciated and implimented into residential,resort and various other applications in terms of architecture and are being successfully used around the globe. There are three main types of bamboo housing: (i) traditional houses, which use bamboo culms as a primary building material; (ii) traditional bahareque bamboo houses, in which a bamboo frame is plastered with cement or clay; and (iii) modern prefabricated houses made of bamboo laminated boards, veneers and panels.

Experts estimate that over one billion people live in traditional bamboo houses. Its compressive strength is roughly twice the compressive strength of concrete and bamboo has roughly the same tensile strength to weight ratio as steel has. The hollow cross section and solid diaphragms at regular intervals contribute to the strength of the bamboo pole. To get insights on the bamboo based construction some examples were looked at.

The Green School in Sibang, Bali, is a Team of Designers, Artists and local artisans who collaboratively design luxury Bamboo homes,

A prototype of bamboo-reinforced concrete developed using a grid of bamboo composite reinforcement that is water resistant, non-swelling, and durable.

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Tri is a themed fine dining restaurant situated in Bali and uses Bamboo as main material to creating spatial elements from false ceiling, nest structure to the floors.The space explores the balinese philosophy of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;tri hita karanaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the harmony between man, nature and divinity which is beautifully created with the material manipulated in different ways.

To understand the international market, some examples were researched on in terms of contemporary bamboo market. Products,spaces and brands with some relevance towards the applications/association with the material,or towards Indian craft sensibilities or were studied to get insights about their brand, their usage of materials, products catagories they are offering, their marketing strategies or the experiencial aspect they are evoking.

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Tikau is a Finnish company, which combines Scandinavian design and Indian handicraft traditions with the vision of employing and empowering the artisans of rural India. The word Tikau comes from Hindi and stands for sustainable and durable. The collection consists of handmade home dĂŠcor and clothing accessories for everyday wear. The luxurious materials are hand processed and designed to be sustainable in terms of the environment, quality and aesthetics. Most of the products are non-dyed or use natural dyes and the use of hand-made processes minimizes energy consumption. Their product range aims not to be fashionable, but to be esthetically sustainable, classical and long lasting. Tikau works together with the artisans and small scale producers in rural India. Locality and sustainability is the starting point in Tikau's product design process: the local skills and raw materials provide the framework for product development. The items in each collection are all handmade and developed in collaboration with the artisans, NGOs and other collaboration partners. The founder of the company, Taina Snellman, is the head of design and works in collaboration with the artisans and other partners, combining Indian traditions with Scandinavian aesthetics. In addition, some designs, which are traditional or designed by the artisans themselves are also selected for the collection.

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Brand

Target Consumers

Product Catagories

Materials

Sustainability

Tikau brand communicates that the item has a "known origin" and that the item is unique. Tikau label also tells about the social and environmental aspects: The collaboration partners approve Tikau's principles; the producers follow the terms of fair trading and are committed to continuously reducing impacts on the environment. The brand stands for product sustainability - in terms of quality, environmental impact and design. The brand focuses on ecological considerations which are at the roots of their design philosophy of the usage of local environmentally-friendly raw materials which include bamboo, organic cotton, non-dyed wool, banana fiber, cashmere and recycled sari fabrics.

The brand targets to the urban scandinavian strata who have higher appreciation for products which are handmade and made from ecologically sustainable sources.

The collection consists of handmade home dĂŠcor and clothing accessories for everyday wear. The materials are hand processed and designed to be sustainable in terms of the environment, quality and aesthetics.

The brand uses ecologically relevant raw materials which include bamboo, organic cotton, non-dyed wool, banana fiber, cashmere and recycled sari fabrics

To promote community trade, Tikau works together with artisans and with several NGO's (non-governmental organizations) and trusts, whose input, consultancy and valuable work with sustainable community development are notable. The commitment to transparency and long-term relationships is shared by all parties

Marketing channels

Experience touchpoints

TIKAU markets its products through their website and social media platform Instagram and Pinterest as the majority of target customers frequent these channels to be updated about their product range.

The presence of a physical store and products on display, lets the visitors interact with the products in a curated space. The engagement duration is more at the physical store as visitors can take time to go through the collection and engage with the space. The various triggers created by the details of products and quiet ambience would let the visitors engage with the products more.

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Interactive lampshade for home space . Their entire lighting range is now converted to energy effcient LED for energy conservation.

IKEA is known globally for its low prices and innovatively designed furniture. The brand has 300 stores in more than 35 countries and more than 130,000 co-workers. The brand offers a wide range of well designed, functional home finishing products at low prices for people with a thin wallet who would be able to create a welcoming home with beautiful,functional and safe products produced in a more sustainable way. It is achieved by combining function, quality, design and value with sustainability in mind. The IKEA Concept exists in every part of our company, from design, sourcing, packing and distributing through to our business model. Their aim is to help more people live a better life at home. The brand focuses on self assembly products aiming towards reduced transport costs thus lower prices. In the store the visitors are encouraged to take their time and get comfortable with their products in realistic room settings.

Usage of bright,bold and subtle colors depeding on the tastes of domestic market as well as local market.

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Realistic displays with curated range of products in the space to engage the customers .

Brand

Target Market

Product Catagories

Materials

Sustainability

The brand is known for its ready to assemble products. The brand's vision is to create a better everyday life for the many people.

The target market for IKEA is very broad. The brand initially started targeting the young middle-class population.

IKEA has a vast range of products mainly towards furniture, modular home systems, lighting and accessories. IKEA products are based on design. Their products are visually appealing, modern, and generally easy to use and put together.

Raw materials are sourced locally. Usage of wood,plastics, ceramic, glass,various kinds of textiles, natural fibers, bamboo and different kinds of metal.

IKEA has been aiming to be more sustainable with the launch of its â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;People & Planet Positiveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Strategy, using organic cotton, reducing carbon footprints and renewable energy. IKEA has been working with natural materials and is looking at possibilities of making products with ecologically sustainable methods and materials. By this methodology they plan to keep their prices low and try to work bes with these resoruces in a sustainable manner.

The brand focus on delivering products which are function oriented, economical, Stylish and affordable & suitable for spaces defined by the consumers. IKEAs foresight to adapt to different cultural needs and expectations has touched all customers globally.

Their target consumers include fresh graduates who may be looking for furniture for rented apartments,small business owners looking for office equipment at affordable rates. IKEA shoppers are price-conscious but ambitious to Do-It-Yourself (DIY).Customers get involved in many ways - assembling flat-pack products In terms of region, IKEA caters to economically developed cities with relatively fast pace of life.

IKEA'S Business idea is to offer a wide range of well designed, functional home furnishing products at a low price. IKEA customers play an important role in what we call our democratic design process: We do our part, you do your part, together we save money.

Marketing channels

Experience touchpoints

For IKEA the best known channel is the IKEA Catalog. Other important channels are IKEA websites, publications, brochures, advertising and PR.

Inside the IKEA store,there are hundreds of display which are engaging the vistors for longer duration. The spaces seems to be passive as well as active for visitor engagement. There are various triggers created by the vast range of curated products for the visitors to interact with. From the significence point of view, the marketing of products being flat pack and modular lets the visitors connect with the product better in terms of imagination and their buying aspects.

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IKEA, Bamboo & India IKEA plans to make India its global sourcing hub for bamboo products as part of its strategy to increase bamboo product portfolio across its stores. Furniture made from bamboo, one of the fastestgrowing plants, accounts for about 1% of Ikea's global sales of EUR 30 billion (about Rs 2,28,600 crore), and is mainly sourced from Indonesia, China and other far east countries. Known for its ready to assemble products, the brand is investigating into bamboo furniture industry and believe that India can be the leading bamboo furniture producer in the world if they get it together as said by Patrik Antony who is the communications manager at Ikea India.

approximately 1% of world commercial-product wood consumption, making it one of the largest users of wood in the retail sector. Ikea will open its first Indian store early next year in Hyderabad. It plans to open 25 stores each large enough to fit about four football fields in the country by 2025. Ikea has mentioned that India would be the first country where it has announced its long term plans even before opening a store, indicating the potential it sees in the market.

Ikea has recently partnered with a bamboo grower in Bangalore and is looking at getting in at least a dozen suppliers from primarily north-eastern states.The firm is in talks with a few state governments to incentivise bamboo cultivation and supply. Ikea is responsible for IKEA curates bamboo products currently available at the stores, which use laminated bamboo boards for producing furniture and kitchenwares and also sell bowls made from coiling techniques

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IKEA & CIBART Centre for Indian Bamboo Resource Technology (CIBART), Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) and TATA Trusts had shown interest in promoting large-scale bamboo cultivation in various regions of India and the organisations are trying to collaborate with IKEA to lend its expertise in implementing a few pilot projects along with CIBART and ATMA as IKEA plans to enter Indian market very soon and are looking at the possibilities of collaborating with local bamboo suppliers of raw materials and products. At a media event a spokeperson from the organisation

shared that the production of bamboo was huge in forests spread around Nandigama, Tiruvur and Mylavaram in Andra Pradesh and by making optimum use of it, farmers could earn good incomes. This was where the help of CIBART and TATA Trusts, which were promoting scientific cultivation of bamboo, was sought for making the maximum use of it in the interest of farmers . The bamboo project would be an integral part of the process of micro-planning being done by TATA Trusts for all-round development of 264 villages. The Mentor at the organisation (CIBART) also had shared this insights of IKEA looking at aspect of collaborating with the organisation and seek for possibilites towards product development with the organisation, as the brand has been sharing their vision of using natural materials and cater to urban market using treated bamboo for the production of furniture and home utility products.

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Analysis of Contemporary Market The understanding from the market showed the potential in all the market. The contemporary crafts market showed potential towards product diversification, improving the quality standards of production and towards creating better livelihoods through design based interventions. The markets having near source value chains showed potential towards improving the existing products to obtain better price margin. The understandings generated from the research of local market suggested the potential of bamboo board based products in the urban market and due to the fact that the material was manipulated to visually look and feel like the conventional wood based product and with the structural and visual aspect of the bamboo,it has been observed favourable towards the positive perception of the material. The other negative aspect was the import of these products from China which

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showed the domestic competition of the chinese products to the handicrafts product in terms of their market and economic aspect. The brand studies of domestic market showed the potential of natural and bio-degradable material based product's relevance in the contemporary market and how the bamboo handicrafts could be positioned towards these boutique store as a marketing channel and helping towards the development of local economy. The study of examples in international market showed the positive perception of bamboo towards product development and the material's relevance in the global contemporary market. The insights further gathered also suggested the potential of having collaborations of international brands and studios with craft communities and its potential towards export as well as for domestic market in the backdrop of global views of having sustainable lifestyle and inclination towards handcrafted objects.

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Contemporary Applications from various manipulation techniques The various ways bamboo is being explored in contemporary context, through the enquiry of manipulation of the material with either traditional tools or technological interventions was observed and catagorised into following manipulation techniques :

Whole bamboo based products

Crossection based products Culm manipulation based products

Internode section based products

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Culm modulation based product forms

Bamboo Sliver based product forms

Longitudinal split based products

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Expert's Review To understand the current market challenges and sensitivities of the bamboo sector and its relevance to local craft communites, the people who have worked extensively in the area and have done significant contribution in this sector, their understandings and point of view in this regard were studied to gather insights.

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M.P.Ranjan An expert in bamboo field and known for his contibution towards bamboo crafts of North East and empowering the bamboo artisans by doing design led intervention with new tools, jigs and techniques, his view on livelihood development were studied to have a broader understanding of the sensitivites towards the subject.

Product Diversification

Traditionally outdated aesthetic

Entrepreneurial attitudes & skills

Diversification of products should either be rooted in traditional wisdom which can be translated into products or quality standards are to maintained in the face of change caused by market pressure.

Excessive preoccupation with decorative details has no reference to material properties or traditional forms and also having not much functional context, which are also responsible for the

Entrepreneurial attitudes & skills need to be developed among local craftsmen.

Strategies to help local craftsmen to select best examples from vast range of traditional products.

Degenration in the aesthetic as well as structural quality standards of these products.

There's also a lack of structural & mechanical properties. Lack of systematic botanical information on the growth and propogation of species suitable for handicrafts.

Traditional methods of preservation may not be applicable to bamboo handicrafts intended for new applications.

Lack of Data

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Product development with functional value Potential product development with functional value while being compatible to level of sophistication of craft community. Possible extension of local products for use outside the region leading to identification of existing products which require promotion.

Form Factor Bamboo crafts are usually bulky and relatively low priced leading to the negative perception of being non-intrusive factors in the urban context.

Certifying products & standardising processes Design minimum acceptable benchmark for production of craft products in order to improve quality control. Assisting artisan with the processes of standardisation.

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Material Standardisation Methods of material standardisation in terms of their quality could be maintained & consistent manufacturing procedures could be explored for efficient use of skills. In this context, manipulation techniques of splitting,sizing and finishing of basic raw material could thus reduce the drudery and increase the earning potential of individual craftsmen.

Research Needs Systematic research and development activities need to be continuously nourished for the growth and prosperity of the craft activity.

Quality Control Quality of production processes can be enhanced by the introduction of simple jigs and fixtures to standardise size and form in production.

Solving transportation problem Product development needed to solve transportation problems.Concepts could be explored in terms of Stackable / Nestle / Dismantle in various product catagories.

Competing Sectors Craftsector is not the only user and has traditionally being used for local construction as fuel wood. Bamboo shoot for providing food. Pattern of consumption changed to include pulpmaking for paper.

Other countries dominate export of craft products where as India has no significant contribution. Realistic pricing of bamboo would ensure profitability in cultivation. Investing in raising plantation in order to stabilise availability for the rural use and proffesional basketmaker who are also the sufferers as there is no way in which the role of bamboo in their lives can be replaced.

Rebecca Reubens Rebecca Reubens in an industrial designer who currently works to mainstream sustainability design with branding, system and product design, through her firm called Rhizome. A large part of her work has been in the area of livelihoods, where she has worked with multi-governmental institutions, governments, NGOs, SMEs and communities in Europe, Asia and Africa. She has also authored a book, Bamboo: From Green Design to Sustainable Design, from which good insights were derived towards livelihood development and altering the perception of the material through design inteventions.

Negative perception in market In urban markets,products made of bamboo perceieved as cheap & of bad quality rustic and related to orient. Important to understand why products made from un-reconstituted bamboo also called 'whole-bamboo culm' also called 'whole-bamboo products' are perceived to have low value. Its equally important to position them to maximize positive perceptions associated with them.

Design for Sustainability Bamboo's reputation of being CHEAP, FLAWED and rustic can be mainly attributed to its use in outdoor spaces. Can change the perceptions by using good preservation techniques, also by creating awareness about bamboo's properties,limitations and usage options among designers,constructors and fabricators.

Even though there is fast interest in designing and developing products and services within emerging markets (design for the base of the pyramid) many initiatives focus on scale of industrial production by multinational corporations are ignoring the skills and resources available locally on a community scale. Indigeneous knowledge as a design input during the innovation process can be looked into. This knowledge is viewed by the designer in the context of sustainability and factored into innovation in collaboration with the craftsperson, thereby maximizing the skills and knowledge each brings in this innovation process.

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Creating surfaces with components

Human-centric' design

Using bamboo in composite form allows it to break away from its traditional image, reducing problems associated with 'natural' bamboo. such as rotting, fungus and humidity related splitting.

Tendency in design world to focus on 'human-centric' design, where the human is often seen only as an end user.

Breaks away from the limitations of the natural bamboo shape. Composites have been crticised as being unsustainable since its difficult to separate the core materials for recycling and disposal. Whole bamboo is round and non-standardised making joinary and fabrication easier. Several different components can be made by splitting or crosscutting the bamboo culm. Thes can be laid out together in various arrangements and in different ways to form a surface. The crossections of bamboo, can be circular if cut straight, or elliptical if cut diagonal.

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'The design' is seen only as serving the consumer and companies that bring products into the market. The other 'human, social, cultural' part of the value chain is often overlooked. Design can and should play an essential role in developing the local skills and resource based products, and in facilitating dialogue among the stakeholder,enabling the development of 'real' sustainable products.

Bamboo and combination material Bamboo is natural and eco-friendly material,miche in segment. When combined with natural material such as shell, bone, natural fibre and teracotta, reinforces the product's image being natural 'handcrafted' and eco-friendly. Traditional economies consist of trades, bamboo craftspeople coexist with weavers, potters leveraging two crafts in a reasonable proximity can lead to unique products. Since both materials are natural, dealing with issue at the end of the product lives- sucha s bio- degradability is quite simple.

Bamboo as a natural material is perceieved being only used for handicrafts. Fit 'Pure' bmboo product into similar aesthetic bracket'-call for cutting technology to reconstitute bamboo. Using 'components' made from industrial materials allow products to have feature and properties that would be compromised if the product had been 100% bamboo.

Buyers have seen its traditional applications like baskets, hightech composite applications as bamboo board,bamboo viscose, now being evaluvated in terms of actual contribution to sustainability, preservation to environment. Usage of recycled or repurposed industrial wasteenhances the sustainabiltiy quotient spreading the culture of sustainability.

Combining bamboo with industrial material suchas glass, metal allow the resulting products to take on a modern/urban contemporary mass market aesthetic than if it were only with bamboo.

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Chapter 3

Primary Research

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Primary Research

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Learnings at CIBART Facilities & Product development process Analysis System's Understanding Opportunity Mapping Specification Sheet for product development

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institutional development support

The Centre for Indian Bamboo Resource and Technology (CIBART) is a socially driven NGo that is working with Kotwalia community to provide them with Livelihood opportunities and are working towards overall human development of these primitive tribal groups.

skills to understand market with changing times and develop products that can be easily be sold to help and sustain their economic development.The NGO is into skill and buisness development and also is looking at the economic growth of the Kotwalia community.

The companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unit is located at two place and the one where I have carried out my project is located at Vansda city,under Navsari District in Gujarat.The companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s aim to make the tribal skilled craftspeople earn livelihood and develop entreprenurial

The company also has entered into an agreement with Tribal development department of gujarat under Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana, where the objective is to uplift the social status and condition of the tribal community by providing them infrastructure and livelihood opportunities.

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The organization is mostly producing and crafting furniture, structures and handicrafts as part of the livelihood development initiative as these are catagorised as high value products in terms of profit making and supporting the artisans.

Furniture products like chairs, dining table and stools are few things which the organization is producing majorly.

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The organization also deploys craftspeople to go to locations to construct gazeebo structures and makes efficiently locked structures for resort and home spaces.

Handicrafts i.e. Baskets, containers and vases are also developed at CIBART as per orders, as the craftspeople are skilled in weaving. The baskets are long lasting due to the usage of treated bamboo.

Development Strategy As the organisation's model focuses on improving the socio-economic conditions and needs of the kotwalia tribes who have been facing major issues from being unemployed,having low literacy rates,work as bonded labours at low wages in sugercane fields, the organisation's activities have made a significant difference in the lives of the tribal by providing them with -

Skill development training

The community employed at the center are trained by mastercraftpeople from Tripura who had spent 6 months with the tribals to make them understand the product development processes to make high value products such as furniture,lighting and miscelleous home utility products. The training involved learning the usage of manual as well as powered tools. The craftspeople also trained the tribals in understanding measurements, make and understand design drawings.

Providing treated material

The community is given training to adopt treatment methods and use treated bamboo for the development of products and structures. The organisation uses Vaccum pressure method and has a industrial scale vaccum chamber for the treatment of large quantities of bamboo poles.

Workshop facilities

The organsation provides workshop facilities,tools and machines to increase the productivity and facilitate in scaling up the process of making products thus increasing the efficiency of unit production.

Monthly Income assurity

The organisation uses E3 strategy which looks in the development of fostering medium enterprises, providing emplyment and ginfing ownership to the prime stakeholders.

Enterprise

Develop enterprise, Small Medium or Large

Employment

Providing the tribes with dignity and security

Entitlement

Give ownership to all the stakeholders

As the organisation is funded by tribal development board from the govt., the organisation provides monthly salaries to the employed tribal craftspeople thus enhancing their livelihood which has resulted in social development of the tribal working within the center.This aspect was also a key point in defining further understanding in refining the brief as to look at the opportunity to do product based intervention while working and spending time with the tribal community and the material. Sumedh Sonare

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Facilities at the organisation

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Bamboo Nursery The workshop houses a bamboo nursery that has four varieties of bamboo planted for analysis of the species in the soil from the understanding of the growth pattern of different species for its potential for harvesting locally. The nursery also acts as a leisure area for the craftspeople to relax and have food under the shade. The nursery also has a no. of bamboo sapling kept for the purpose of being sold locally.

Treatment Plant The workshop houses a treatment plant to treat the raw material for increasing the longevity of the material through vaccum pressure method to

Workshop Space The enclosed workshop space houses machines for bamboo processing,working area, a storage room for storing products and an office for administrative and organisational purposes. The workshop is utilised for both manual as well as machine process with availability of powertools for handy applications.

Workshed Area The workshop houses a treatment plant to treat the raw material for increasing the longevity of the material through vaccum pressure method. The adjecent facility also has bamboo storage space where the material is graded,sorted and organised on shelves. The area is also utlised by the craftspeople for bamboo processing and product development. Being open. the area is windy and is condusive to be utilised by the craftspeople, during summer season of scorching heat.

Storage space The storage area is one portion of the workshop,which is observed to be utilised for storing finished product or made ready in bulk before being transported.

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Workshop Setup The workshop is establised at the Industrial Training Institute called 'Talim' and has two large sheds, under which the production activity takes place. The space is shared with other centers that have training classrooms and workshops for students pursing diploma courses at ITI( Industrial Training Institute)Exp. Vocational Training,Electronic Training Center. The workshop areas are two work sheds, where the material treatment and production processes take place. The workshop has all necessary tools for manipulation of the material. The workshop serves as a work setup for development of bamboo and cane based products as well as depot for stocking and selling of treated bamboo poles.

A schematic aerial view of the workshop Area used by CIBART for livelihood development activities.

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Product Development Process

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Bamboo Processing at CIBART Material Manipulation

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Bamboo Processing Initial treatment of raw bamboo before its ready for use in product development is called bamboo processing which includes cutting ,splitting, external and internal knot removing, stick length setting etc. Processing bamboo is a tedious and manual task. The local ways of processing the material has been the use of a short local machete, called the 'Dau', which is a universal tool for the Kotwalia tribals for process the

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material. At CIBART, the function of the setup is to aid in rapid production of bamboo products while aiming at the scale and quantity without compromising the quality aspect.The organisations incorporates electrical devices that reduces the product development time greatly which would have been a challenge with manual handheld impliments otherwise. The bamboo machines and tools utilised at the center, can do most of the task that increases the productivity and decreases the production time and are used by both the men as well as women. The machines are industry standard and very efficiently lets the craftspeople cut, lathe, remove the knots, drill,grind and sand thus manipulating the material efficiently and thus becoming stages in production.

The workshop space utilises various methods and tools for material processing and minipulation ;

Bamboo Processing Machines

Outer Node removing machine Cross cutting machine

Upright Sensitive Drill Press Machine Bench press Cross cutting machine

Power tools

Grinder tool Handheld power drill

Bamboo Hand Splitter

Hand Impliments

Chiselling tool Dau (traditional tool)

Hammer Knife

Miscelleous tools

Bench Vice Long Vice

Clamps

Pnumatic staple puncher Sander machine

Mitre Saw CNC Router

Manual Bamboo Slicer Hacksaw

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Bamboo Processing Machines The organisation has equipped the workshop with machine specially meant for processing bamboo and its parts. The machines are reducing the drudegery of the craftspeople and making the product development process much faster than traditional methods of manipulation of the material. The machines are mostly utilised for crosscutting, splitting, drilling and planing, as informed by the physical form of bamboo. The workshop machines were observed, while the machines were be used by the tribal craftspeople and notes were made to inform the production tools and processes followed at the workshop.

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Outer Node Removing Machine The Knot removing machine as the name suggests gets utilised for removing the knots as the knot protion is difficult to process using manual impliments.The device is basically is bench exposing a rotating blade connected via a rubberbelt which is attached to a powerful motor that rotates the blade. The craftsperson rests the bamboo pole on the flat bench which is adjecent to the blade and moves the poles in circular motion against the balde so as to grind the portion thus making the knot portion almost even.This method thus is followed by handheld grinding tool as to achieve a greater level of finish.

Round Push Saw The round push saw is a time saving tool which conviniently lets the craftspeople cross cut the length of pole desired by pushing the pole against the saw kept on a hydraulic bench. This blade used for cutting the poles is specially designed to cut the hard exterior fibres of bamboo.

Pneumatic Punch Machine The pneumatic punch machine is used for making photoframes.The device is connected to an air compressor which forces a staple pin to get punched at high pressure on bamboo slats kept at 45 degree angle, resulting in locking of the pieces together. This method is then repeated on all four joints and that creates a frame which can be utilised to showcases photographs .

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Upright Sensitive Drill Press Machine

CNC Router

The upright drill machine is a used for creating cavitiy while making joinaries used for constructing furniture or structures. The drill is observed to be utilised mostly for creating cavity into solid bamboo poles while acting as a female joint to the joinary created for locking two members for structural support.

The CNC routing machine at CIBART utilised bamboo laminated boards as a surface to carve or cut various shapes when clamped on to the platform. At the workshop a lot of products are made with CNC manipulation, from wall clocks, table surfaces, trays or a no. of products.

Sanding Machine The sander machine is used for radii manipulation as wel as treating the edges of product being developed at the workshop. This machine acts as a stable tool for smoothening the edges of objects which otherwises is achieved through grinder powertool. The machine uses electricity to run the powerful motor that rotates the sander belt of the sander machine and upon keeping the object on the surface,removes the material due to friction.

Round Saw Machine The round saw machine manufactured by bosch is hydraulic saw that cuts the bamboo poles in various angles and orientation due to variable adjustment arms and a strong blade specifically designed to cut the strong fibre structure of bamboo in the crosssctional orientation. The machine reduces the efforts of cutting the poles which is a time consuming activity that otherwise puts a lot of stress on holding the bamboo culm and cutting it by using a haxsaw.

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Power tools Power tools are various types of tools and mechanical devices that operate when they are initiated by an external power source. This could generally be electricity, air or pneumatics. Power tools include many types of tools from hand held machine drills to hydraulic presses and pneumatic tools. In the context of CIBART, the power tools used extensively were the Hand Drill and the Angle Grinder. Both the tools were used for various purposes in terms of manipulation of the material.

Hand drill

Hot air gun

The hand held drill tool is utilised in either creating cavity for dovel joinery or for interlocking the joints for better support.

This tool is essentially used for bending bamboo splits. The temprature generated to 600 degrees is eduquate to weaken the fibres thus making the material bend.

Grinding

Manual Bamboo Slicer

One of the handheld tools utilised at the workshop is Grinder that is used for removing knot bulges and making the bamboo poles smooth enough to be used for furnitures and other products. The tools happens to be a very useful impliment for the craftspeople for finishing the bamboo poles as well as cutting the poles as the tools heads could be changed from grinder to cutter.

The bamboo slicer is a device that evenly slices the bamboo splits to create slivers to be used for creating baskets or for making prouducts with slivers. The mechanism involves spliting the bamboo as the first step and making it of a feet length.After splitting and cutting the slat,its fed into the device and while holding the handle which has a blade underneath the moving section, the section is moved back and froth, which evenly splits the slat resulting in multiple splits vended under the device.

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Handheld impliments/tools Hammer

Hacksaw

The hammer is the most rudemnetry tool used for multiple appications while developing the products. In bamboo applications its used for applying pressure to either support in splitting the material or making the joints tighter.

The hexsaw tool is used extensively at CIBART to cut the bamboo poles of desired length. Its interesting to observe the way the tribals use the grip of their hands and feet on a hammer as a platform and cut the pole with hexsaw.

Dau

Glue Container

Dau is a universal tool in the lives of Kotwalia community. The tools is used for multiple purposes while processing and manipulating the material. The tool is used for chopping the bamboo poles initially and later is again utilised for splitting the material as well as creating slivers.

This is make do tool comprising of a knot section of bamboo and bamboo sticks which is used for applying the glue to the joineries as well as for interlocking of joineries in which the bamboo culm is drilled and the sticks are dipped in the knot container filled with adhesive and applied to the required location.

Chisel Tool

Churi (knife)

Chisel tool has been recently introducted to the community as its also utilised for splitting the material as well as mak-

Churi's are impliments like knives but locally developed with bamboo slats and sandwiched with a sharpened saw blade which is used for splitting,cutting,removing and also sharpening the material.

ing the surface even while finishing the products.

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Miscelleneous Tools Clamps

Long Vice

These devices hold two or more surfaces in place but at the workshop context is utilised for various purposes i.e gluing, bendng or radii manipulation of the material. These come in two types either as G or C clamp and used according to the purpose of usage.

The device has a long bar along which a flat element shifts which is fixed to any element that need to be held for the purpose of fixing,gluing or fastening of one member to another.In the workshop's context it is utilised to grip the bamboo poles which are either being glued, stuck or held for the purpose of joining, holding or gluing.

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Material manipulation At the workshop initially, products in furniture range from chairs, benches to tables were being developed. The field study started with understanding their skills and their applications towards the development of products and also get insights about the processes invovled, methods in manipulations and usage of machines and efforts put. To understand the product unit flow, a product development process was documented of a chair going from a raw material stage, treatment to storage to selection and then manipulation with hands and machine.

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Production processes in flow The steps at the organisartion were documented and analysed into a flow, to highlight the unit processes involved from procuring the raw material,developing the product and transportinng it.

Procuring raw material Treatment Processing/ Product Development

Procurement of material Drilling at knots

Treatment in chamber

Bamboo selection

Drying

Storing

Primary & Secondary manipulation

Finishing

Grinding

Transportation

Loading products into lorry

Sanding

Varnishing Dropping them at vendors

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Phase 1 Procuring raw material

The procurement of the material happens from Assam and is brought to the center by a truck and at a time deliver 400-600 poles of majorly Bambusa Bamboo species. There are two species that are transported from assam to Vansda and the other center at Waghai which are Dendrocalamus strictus & bamboosa bamboo. The bamboos are dropped from the truck and piled in front of the center and kept for grading. The first process is grading the bamboo after it is bought from the market / farmer Grading is sorting out bamboo on the basis of characteristics important for structural utilization as under:

• • • • • • •

Diameter and length of culm Taper of culm Straightness of culm Inter nodal length Wall thickness Density and strength Durability and seasoning

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Phase 2 Treatment of the material Drilling at knots

Treatment in chamber

After grading the next stage is treatment of the material where the sorted bamboo poles procured are drilled and then taken through series of steps to treat the material, Once graded and sorted, the poles are treated with chemicals so that they are not attacked by borers and other insects, climate and fungus.

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The bamboo poles after drilled at all the nodes are loaded in the vaccum chamber for essentially removing the starch conent in bamboo. The treatment involves putting high pressurised chemical solution to seep into the material fed in the chamber. The chemical is a boric-borax solution that enters all the pores through capillary action when the liquid is passed through it under vacuum in this treatment plant.

The chemical essentially replaces all the organic matter that is prone to attack and so the bamboo becomes almost like a plastic material by the end of treatment. The treatment takes about 30-45 min and by the end of it the sap is completely replaced by the chemical solution and thus is a step closer towards longibility and durability.

Drying

Storing

After drying the poles for a certain period of time, the poles are graded and stacked according to their usage and The most common way to dry bamboo for commercial purposes is "air drying". Once the bamboo poles are harvested and chemically treated, all poles should be stacked and stored under cover. The bamboo should be only be used atleast after 6 weeks of felling and 15 days of drying after the treatment process.

After the treatment, the next step is to dry the poles under the shed for a period of 15 days, till the solution dries completely and makes the poles usable as a treated material for further applications.

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Phase 3 Processing/ Product Development Bamboo selection

The next phase of product development involves skinning, removing knots / sanding, bending/ straightening with burners as bamboo when heated bends easily as the fibres become ductile and retains shape on cooling!

Primary & Secondary manipulation

Cutting

The storage of bamboo is accessed after the bamboo poles have been dried completely and as per the use, is selected on the basis of -

Purpose of usage

*Construction *furniture *craft baskets

Condition of culm

*Cracks *Crookedness *Decoloration

Wall thickness Length required

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*Solid/hollow *Inner/Outer Diameter *Measured in CM / Mts.

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After the selection of the required bamboo poles, the material is either cut with a hacksaw tool near the storage or carried in the other workshop, where the cutting can heppen either with mitre saw or bench press round saw.

Bamboo Heat bending

The poles either before or after the cutting, are first taken to a shed besides the workshop where the crookedness of bamboo is corrected through the heat bending process. The apparatus used at the organisation included a frame (in this case a chopped tree) which has a drilled cavity and is used to hold the bamboo in place and at the contact point, physical pressure is applied to the pole in order to correct the deviation. In order to straighten the material,

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Primary & Secondary manipulation

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Manual Processing

Primary manipulation is done using manual tool and depending on the situation of usage. There can be parameters defining their usage of such impliments from availability of electricity, machines if occupied or availability of tool, ease and comfort of use.

Machine Processing

The machines ease the processing of the material in the product development phase, thus increasing the productivity and reducing the manufacturing time of the products.

Removing knot swellings

The grinding tool was observed to be used both by the men and the women craftsperson at the organisation. The tool has an abresive surface which rotates and is used on the length of poles to make it uniform. The material is rotated intuitively,so as to remove the swellings and make the surface even for further product development.

The next step is to remove the knot which either can be done using knot removing machine or powered grinding tool. The removal of knots gives the surface a much better and uniform finish which may be difficult to process using manual impliments. The craftsperson rests the bamboo pole on the flat bench which is adjecent to the blade and moves the poles in circular motion against the balde so as to grind the portion thus making the knot portion almost even.This method thus is followed by handheld grinding tool as to achieve a greater level of finish.

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Joinary Construction

Slat making

The next stage is to manipulate the material according to the use and understand the joinery construction which required the use of both primary and secondary manipulation. The product process of developing a chair was documented to understand the flow of production processess and the sensitivities required to work with the material.

Joinary Construction

In the majority of products seen at the organisation, the use of solid bamboo with dovel joinary construction was seen commonly. This required the use of removing some material by diagonally making a champhor to create a male joint and creating a cavity in the other member to create a female joint.

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Cutting

Drilling

Male joint

The joinary process starts by cutting the lengths of solid bamboo required for the specific design and making a pencil marking on the surface which goes diagonally and vertical to create a socket form. The intention of creating a diagonal champhor is to resolve the form when the male joinary in inserted into the female joinary.

Female joint

To cut and make a champhor, hacksaw tool is used on the area being marked. The craftspeople mostly are seen working on the floor as it is convenient for them to do material processing activites. To cut the material, vices or clamps were not seen to be used. Rather the method to hold the material at place was to put the pole on a hammer on the floor by making grip with hands and using the hacksaw diagonally to remove the material just at the points of marking . The protuding joint is later shaved to define a radii in order to ger accomodated into the cavity perfectly.

After making the male joint, the female joint is created by first marking the area where the dovel needs to be inserted. The marking is done by using a pencil and centimeter scale and a 8mm drill bit fixed on the upright sensitive drill press machine.

Joining To permanently fix the dovels and make the structure rigid for its longivity of usage, glue is applied to all the joinaries and at the contact point. The adhesive used at the organisation is Bond-tite due to its local availability,its strength and being economic than other competing brands, thus proving value for money at the organisational context.

Applying glue by using mixing two parts of the adhesive in a knot made as a container using a bamboo stick.

Clamping

To make the joint strong and also look for angular/structual error, long vices are used at the time of gluing the members together. The vices can be adjusted to the length and is used as a frame to put all the joints together to check for orientation correction.

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Inserting Kheela To lock the joints for enhancing the strength, bamboo sticks are utilised . Initially the contact points of joint is drilled, and later the stick which has already being dipped in adhesive solution is inserted into the drilled cavity and is hammer or pushed inside using a flat side of chisel. The protuding part of the stick is then broken at the tip near to the surface using the chisel . This adds to the strength and is now structurally strong for its use in multiple applications.

Heat bending Depending on the type of construction and language for the furniture, heat bending is done to different member either for the pupose of enhancing the ergonomic or for adding element of interest to the minimal language of furniture seen at the organisation. The dovels for back support or the slats of the seating are bent by heat bending either by hot airgun or the burner rod.

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Phase 4 Finishing Grinding

Sanding

Varnishing

The last stage of all the product is to get a certain surface quality, on the basis of which the product would be perceieved, interacted and sold with. The finishing is an essential part after the product takes its shape in the unit processes.

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To enhance the surface of the material,the products are finsihed by using sandpaper of hard and later soft grade. The burn spots and ebrupt edges are made even with the use of sandpaper as well as grinding tool. To correct radii on the surface, chisel tool is utilised. The surface is scraped evenly for post processing.

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Varnishing

The last stage after the product is made,is of finishing. The process is done to combine the protective and decorative function of the unique material. This process ensures the Wood varnishes provide a very good and durable finish that seals in the moisture in your bamboo. The only possible problems you may experience will be cracking or peeling. The finished coat provides the ability to resist a great range of external and internal stresses where physical chemical or biological must stay stable in wider range of temp. conditions. Suitable finishing is done to the material in terms of grinding and sanding to make all the surface even,priorto the application of the coating material. Varnishes are available in oil based and water based finishes, from satin smooth to shiny gloss finishes. Varnishes are applied using air brush which uses an air compressor to create pressure thus creating a jet of spray which spreads evenly on the surface.

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Understandings from material manipulation Through all the stages from getting the material to the finished products, there was a lot of understanding generated towards the various aspects of production processes invovled that led from a raw material to its intended form that served a function. The various stages were found to be essential aspects of utilising the various tools and techniques for the manipulation of the raw material. It also informed about the drudgery the craftspeople generally face outside the organisation who do not have access to the machine and spent a lot of time in processing the material thus not meeting the market demands and expectations, as at the workshop these machines have been aiding in the efficiency towards product development and enhancement of the physical perception of the material. All the various tools possessing different functions, had been observed and understood to generate understanding of their usage and the various context under which they were operated. It also validated the research analysis of the challenges the crafts community has been facing from procurement of the material towards the manipulation and finishing of the products.

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Graduation project Exploratory bamboo products for spaces SPONSOR : CIBART (Center For Indian Bamboo Resource & Technology)

Volume : 2 student : Sumedh NAgsen Sonare programme : M.Des (Masters of Design)

guide : Amresh Panigrahi

2016 Faculty of Textile Design, Apparel Design And Lifestyle Accessory Design (LIfestyle accesory Design)

National Institute of Design Gandhinagar

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Chapter 5

Analysis

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Analysis

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Field Study System's mapping Opportunity mapping Redefined Brief

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Craftspeople and their profiling

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While doing primary study at the organsation and with the tribal community working at the organisation, informal interviews through casual conversions were done to get insights about the craftspeople's lives and specifically their economic status which was the important aspects of the project. The craftspeople who were made comfortable to share insights about their lifestyle and gain trust to do product intervention are profiled here ;

Ramesh Bhai

Prakash Bhai

Amrat Bhai

Ramesh bhai comes from Ganpur village and has been part of organisation for the last five years. He is a master crafsperson, and has been training tribals who come to the organisation since a lot of years and also is asked to give workshops and share the traditional ways of manipulation of the material. He has been doing this since early ages and started picking up the interlacing techniques by observing his father weaving baskets and traditional utility objects. He has a bike for transportation and comes to the workshop with his wife who is a also an artisan at the organisation. His roles at the organisation is to train and supervise the production flow and intervenes when required to check for quality control, product finishing. His economic conditions has improved since the organisation has employed him and gives work and monthly wages.

Prakash bhai has a wife, who comes along with him to the factory and is also an artisan. Has 2 acres of land and does farming. Has a brother who looks after the farms thus having parallel source of income. His skin is light coloured and light coloured eyes suggesting, heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s of a different origin as his father narrated him the story of how they was initially outsider and came to Gujarat for business purpose. He is Kotwalia by tribe, but majority of tribals have dark skin. Some of the tribes have similarities, suggestive of African origin. Prakash is good with his skills and analytical ability and can understand form and proportions well. He is sensitive and humble to take up any tasks at the organisation willingly and had shown extensive interest towards new ways of manipulating and exploring the material.He has a motorcycle for communting to his village 10 kms away. He shared that his economic situation has been better since he has joined the organisation with his wife as both together get 5k thus 10,000 out of which major expenses are on fuel and food.

Amrat bhai is a father of three children and got married at a very early age of 16 when his wife was only thirteen. He is another mastercraftsperson as he works on bamboo structures, large furntitures and also products. Apart from working at the organisation, he is a musician and plays on drum pads during festive occasions and collaborates with other fellow people from the community and gives his parallel livelihood support to take care of his childeren. He comes to the organsiation along with his wife who is also another craftsperson working on mostly furniture and products. He shared that his economic situation is good as he and his wife are generating income along with their childern who are also taking up parallel jobs and also makes money through playing instument, which gets him a good livelihood to secure his family.

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Age Group

Income

Meena Ben Meena ben is a craftspeople coming from Ganpur village and has 4 years of experince working at the organisation as a skilled artisan. She is also a mother of one daughter and one son and supports her family with her husband who is into farming activities. She is enthusiastic towards work and does varieties of task from helping in the treatment procedure of the raw material to processing the material using various tool to develop the products. She has sent her son to study at Eklavya Model residential boarding school 60 kms from the town,which takes care of all the expenses and food requirements of her son as the school is targetting the education of Indian tribals and provides it free of any cost. She shared that her economic situation has been better since being employed at the organisation and hopes that her son takes looks for a better job prospect than working as a skilled labourer.

17-41 28005000

Dhiru Bhai

17-50 28005000

Equal participation of both genders Balanced income adequate to support the family Majority have bank accounts and do savings from wages provided Children sent to school and encouraged to avail better livelihood sources

Dhiru is a supervisor craftsperson at the organisation and looks at the coordination of the production activites with tribals. He below to manpur village, close to the organisation and also comes along with his wife who is also a craftsperson and both together support each other by generating livelihood to take care of their three children. Dhiru has been doing these activities since early age. His family is into basketery weaving and make traditional hand crafted products for the local market. He has two motorcycles and one cycle and along with her wife, get a total monthy wage of 10k which is used majorly saved as being in a village setup, have hardly major expenses apart from food.

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Visit to Saputara The organisation CIBART has rented a space from a women self help group NGO, at Saputara which is located 70 kms from Vansda in Gujarat. The space is utilised as a store to sell bamboo products developed at CIBART and is established,keeping in touristic market as context. While, doing field study, Mr. Bharat Parekh who is the operations director at the organisation, shared about the presence of such a store and shared the possibility to convert it into a cafeteria space. The space was visited later to look at the area and understand the spatial context of the shop with respect to the location it was based on. The objective was to seek for opportunites, if there was possibility to base the product development context within the store at saputara.

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Saputara is located in the state of Gujarat. It lies on the Maharashtra-Gujarat border and is easily accessible by road from cities Mumbai and Ahmedabad.It is a hill station and is located on a plateau in the Dang forest area of Western Ghats (Sahyadri) range at an altitude of about 900 metres. Saputara has been developed as a planned hill resort with amenities like hotels, parks, swimming pools, boat club, theaters, ropeways and a museum which have been positioned to cater to tourists transiting the hill station.

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Field Study The first impression of saputara was very contrasting to the other places seen in Gujarat. Having being visited during monsoons and also being at higher altitude, had a pleasant weather and fresh air. The area was seen surrounded by a great vegitation and the hill station seemed to have a lot of interesting spaces to engage with. It is 172 kilometres from Surat and 250 km from Mumbai. The Maharashtra state border is 4 km from Saputara. Due to this fact that it's Gujarat only hill station and also its connectivity between the two states, the area is frequented by a large no. of tourists who do a stop over at the hill statiob for a few days, spent some time and then move to the other state. There was also a water body which was entered through a mini amusement zone created as a touristic attraction. The lake could be accessed through rented boats and was observed to attracted a lot of visitors. The zone was surrounded with food stalls and novelty items store to cater to the visitors .

Sunset Point

Saputara

Eco Point

Towards Gujarat

Step Garden Sunrise Point Ayurvedic Garden

Hospital

Museum

Rose Garden

Artist Village BAMBOO SHOP Honey Centre

Ropeway Boating

The bamboo shop was located in front of the Boat House and was also observed to have chai and snack stall, operated by a local women employed by the self help group, who also looked after the bamboo shop. The next task was to observe the space and derive meaningful insights to look for potential opportunities at the hill station. Saputara is 46 km from Saptashrungi (a site of Hindu pilgrimage), 172 km from Surat, 80 km from Nashik, 280 km from Mumbai, 112 km from Bilimora 420 km from Ahmedabad, 300 km from Vadodara, 589 km from Bhavnagar, 603 km from Rajkot.

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Towards Nasik / Maharashtra

Outer Side of the Shop

Store Entry Less visibility of the entrance due to the narrow access area door either seen closed or open. Did not have any sign of it being an entry to the shop thus creating spatial ambiguity.

Branding Efforts The flex placed in front of the stall, was inappropriately positioned and did not create a strong recall value for visitors to identify either the stall or the store.

A flex banner placed on the grill depicting name of the organisation in a different identity and bearing images of the products in a chaotic catalog format.The placement on the grill also blocking the view of products kept inside the room.

As the first impression of the space, the shop was no where to be visible and just had a tea stall with tin roof and was supported by metal tubes for support. The space was covered by foliages and to much of a surprise, did not have any traces of bamboo plantation. In terms of the visitors visiting the space, it was mostly observed to be frequented by families,couples and a group of friends who had come in private vehicles or by public transport to the hill station.

Below, the people were observed to be sitting on plastic furniture, where as the the functional bamboo products in terms of furniture were kept on for display in the enclosed space. This aspect was creating a much disturbance in the positioning of the shop in the space.

The space outside was managed by a women who was a resident of Sapurara but was from Maharashtra, and prepared a puffed rice dish called 'Poha' and mint tea for the visitors. The tea was served in either a metal cup or shot plastic containers and the poha was being served on ss plates. The shop did not seem to have a good sign board in place for visitors to identify either the stall or the shop which was behind the stall.

Above, the side view of the shop shows chaos in the space and on the extreme right-hand side is the door, which is the only entrance to the store. The grill besides the door has a flex banner on it, and depicted the products as a catalog of objects which seemed disinteresting to the visitors who were busy in having conversations over tea and poha.

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Interiors of the shop Once the space was accessed from the entry point, the first thing to observe were the series of products which had the same mundane colour harmony from the natural tint of yellow of the bamboo fibres which created a contrast between the chaotic ceiling beam structures with a lot of linear lines intersecting and thus created visual disturbance. The amount of light coming from the windows on the left, was uncontrolled as there was no presence of light diffusing elements. The wooden slats being broken at places, left the space unsecured and potential for thefts.

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Understanding spatial elements The space had a collection of products made mostly from solid bamboo of dendro calamus species. The product catagories noticed were mostly consistling of either Furniture, Lighting and Decor objects. The products were arranged in close proximity to the wall and the table at the center created defined a walkway around the space. The products in the space were kept with the context of a living room space as conveyed from the mentor who

had initially proposed the idea for the space. The wall partition created another space which held a bed made from bamboo. Even though the products were made to target the tourist market, the products kept in the space were morover products being targeted for home utility and home space, the products created questions regarding the sellability factors with the criteria of price postioning, portability and packaging.

Good flow in terms of wayfinding The curation of products could have been better The lighting was not consistent to bring focus onto the products Monotony in terms of the colour due to the natural colour of the material of the products

Visitor Interaction The visitors who came to the store were interacting with the products by touching, picking, sitting and moving the objects around to get a tactile perception of the product ranges. The visitors who came to the store, were of all age groups and were participating equally in terms of interacting with the spatial elements. The spatial interactions of the visitors were mostly observed towards tactile feeling of the surface, holding of the products, checking the product from different angles, lifting to check for the weight and left the space without much enquiry as the space was either not seen to be moderated or managed by the women who ran the chai stall, who was given the task to run the space and do the job of selling and managing the profits shared with her in some percentage. The space lacked information or information system in terms of the propogation of the benefits of using the material thus helping in promotion of the material usage and also the concept of 'Fair Trade' with the association of tribals who helped in the development of the products. The only branding tounhpoint was observed on the tags which either were present or not and created an ambiguity within the interaction of the visitors with the lady who ran the store in terms of the price of the products.

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Understandings of the overall space The other aspect was to understand the curation of products in the space. The space had moreover, three product types; Decor, Furniture and Lighting. The products,mostly being made with solid bamboo had a sense of monotony as it was being interpretted more as cane and showed a very little form aspect of bamboo. The products mostly utilised solid bamboo and if talking about the form aspect and proportion were quite large in scale for the visiting touristic market. The portable product range included wall clocks, water fountain, organisers, and utility racks which seemed apt towards the touristic market, who could easily buy and carry the products with them. The product language was observed to have excessive preoccupation with decorative details which probably did not have any reference to the material properties or traditional forms and could also result in the degeneration in the aesthetic, structural quality standards of these

products. These objects were either rhizome carvings or lathe turned bamboo units stuck on a frame that served as utensil organiser. The other products were laminated surfaces in form of wall clocks and smartphone holder which were relevant to the market requirement but the form language was in stark contrast to the product language of other products. Product range in terms of furniture not addressed well in terms of positioning whether, they are supposed to bought at the store or, if an order was placed, how was the transportation cost being managed by the organisation. The scale of the form of the products was quite large in proportion and thus did not fit in the portability criteria for the tourist market as the visitors who came to the space were mostly coming to the hill station in vehicles which barely had space for extra storage space for such products to be carried. There was chaotic arrangment of objects all over the

place. The decor objects had intentional rustic feel which was questioned, whether it appealed to the touristic market. Products in terms of decor and utility were either lighting or novelty objects. The majority of products have gloss melamyne finish on the surface, making the surface look plastic. Even though the gloss finish sealed the surface against chemical and biological attacks and provided a good finish, it excluded the natural feel and shine of the authentic bamboo material. The prices ranged from 200rs.for a simple phone holder to 20,000 rs for bed/ dressing table and was quite a large proposition towards the market of tourist nature which would have more affinity towards easily purchasable and portable products without burning a hole in the price sensitive Indian tourist market.

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Deriving inferences From observing the space and looking at the store setup at the hill station which attracted a great no. of tourists from all walks of life, it created a interesting perspective towards the understanding of issues from design point of view. The issues ranged from product contextualisation, the visual disharmony in spatial elements, the experiencial aspect and tangibility to start with. The issues were then analysed to create an inference to the important aspects mentioned.

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Spatial issues

Product based issues

Lighting

Interior elements

Experience

The only natural light source were from opening from the front and one from a side which put less emphasis on the products and illuminated the products laterally. The artificial light sources were LED based white flood lights, over-exposing the space from both front and back position in the space thus increasing the stress on eyes to focus on the objects.

The elements of the space w.r.t to the store had a lot of visually disturbing spatial interaction as the supporting beams possessed rods in different angles which intersected with beams at the back. The bamboo products which were part of the space also created a not so interesting visual drama due to the cylinderical form language which was not cohasive with the other spatial elements.

The was absence of cohasivity within the elements and as there was not considerate attention towards the various aspects of putting up a themed concept store, it failed to create a memorable experience.

The wall at the back bearing a semcircular cavity created a stark contrast with the products as well as the spatial elements.

The experiential aspect of the chai stall and seating was mostly limited to the good mint tea and less with the spatial elements, The exclusion of bamboo furniture from the store and usage of plastic seating also was a crucial factor of not providing the experience of the actual usage of furniture in practical context.

Dimensions/ Proportions

Pricing

Tactility

The scale of the product range in furniture was large, which negated the portability factor,thus making the products less-likely to be brought in store and also towards e-commerce due to the rigid and fixed structural construction of the products. The weight was also a negative factor in terms of the furniture as the products were mostly heavy due to the usage of solid bamboo.

The product ranges were priced between 200 Rs. or the smallest product to 20,000 Rs. for the furniture which were key factors for the products to be sold at the store. The ratio of the portable products to the furniture was less which was also a major down point for the purchasing of products at the store.

The products curated at the store were produced well from the craftspeople have good surface transitions at the joineries and structure. The products in terms of usage had a good tactile feel but the gloss melamyne finish rendered the products plastic like finish, thus changing the natural finish perception of the material.

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Contextual Analysis Product contextualisation, the visual disharmony in spatial elements, the experiencial aspect and tangibility were the key issues highlighted from the inferences to start with. The issues were then analysed to create an inference to the important aspects mentioned. It was shared by the Industrial mentor during the time at visiting the store, that the chai stall had the potential to be converted into a cafeteria or a restaurant space which could invite the visitors into it and engage them by serving hot or cold beverages and some local food contextual to the setting at the hill station. This served as a good insight and showed an opportunity to relink the observations for an idea for a potential space which could be perceieved towards a platform for product development initiatives.

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The outer space could serve as an entry point for tourists to engage with products which could be specifically developed with the context and utility for the cafeteria space,around which a product based experience could be created. This way, the visitors would get opportunity to engage and interact with the product and invariably with the material with the embodiment of craft based production, livelihood support, fair trade, ecological relevance & new perspective towards the material . Also serve as a platform to change one of the perceptions related to bamboo crafts as "tired and old fashioned" from the language of products. To understand the links and meaningful connections, an Idea and service map was created to define the parameters more further to map opportunities within the space and the holistic aspects to be worked on.

Design Criterias

Portability Transportability Getting money for the amount of effort put

ture Design Cul

If service is good & fair, people don't mind paying extra for the goodness

Pricing strategy

Fair trade

c Tou

would depend on the value addition and perception of products from concept to product development

parttime job for tourist to involve in cooking & exchange ideas

sp a

Livelihood development

prod u

Restaurant/ Cafeteria

serving

Food

Activities Engagement

Low carbon footprint Ecologically concious behavior

Use of organic materials (raw material)

Narrative

Locally produced farm to table concept Fresh picked

Pr o

esign

Engage local people (housewives)

ivi ty d

hpoint Design

Idea & Service Map

Positive association towards environmental impact Altering Perceptions

Positioning the material towards social and environmental responsibility. Creating awareness about the material & possibilities towards lifestyle needs

t range c u Product Development

Product range's form language would determine the narrative which needs to be communication to the visitors.

Material

Form Language

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Bamboo shop

Tou r ist market Intended market

Intended Customers

Purpose

tourist market

Family (Parents, Children) Couples ( Married, unmarried)

Leisure,Enjoyment

System's map

Friends

Saputara

Product Intervention Requirement Priced competatively Value for money

Utility value Should convey usability

Durable Portable for transportation

Organisation O2O model (online to offline) opportunity to cater to worldwide audience

Opportunity to make portable products for cafeteria space as interactive objects & targetted at tourist market

CIBART

the essence of experiencing the product in their hands is missing in this model

Organisation having tie-ups with e-commerce marketplace possibility of losing value if not positioned well on the platform

Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana Ten point programme

While defining the context of the organization with the community and the market, an ecosystem chart was prepared that highlighted the elements and kept the focus on livelihood development and mapped the known factors as part of it.These were refined in the illustration to highlight the further linkages to the market .

Human develop ment checklist by VKY for kotwalia community Universal electrification Irrigation Sanitation Economic Development Social Development Livelihood development Quality Education All weather roads Urban Development Health

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Organisation working on the economic & livelihood context of Tribal development through capacity development programme throughProving skill development training Treated raw material Processing tools and machine Consistent montly wages Job security

Raw Mater ials

Assam

High quality good tensile strength Increased transporation cost Availability of different sizes

locally available good tensile strength Made up perception of having locally available weak fibre structure Used in making basketry products for local comsumption having inconsistent demand.

Gujarat Opportunity to make secondary livelihood based initiative with clusters using product development intervention implimented at the organisation

Pan India market

mauvas manpu r Fully relient on the organisation for livelihoods Less entreprenership attitude Rely on organisation for resources High value prouducts eg. furniture takes 3-5 days for production Less intervention towards new techniques and diversification of products

tribals employed at organisation are getting benifitted towards livelihood development Access to tool, resources, skill training to make high value products Consistent livelihood support from the organisation

Kotwalia Community

ganpu r

Good skills and manipulation abilities

Dagad pada

Use sustainable resources Sell locally, barely making good livelihood Problem in procuring raw materials Use untreated raw material

Clusters don't have access to tools and marketing knowhows Aiding to negative perception of the material by using untreated bamboo

Ambapada

Refined Brief Design tabletop accessories from bamboo for a restaurant space + showroom which provides a platform for people to appriciate the material by using the products being part of the space.

Project Abstract Easy to manufacture

Restaurant/ Cafeteria market study

Easy to transport, package and carry.

Material (Properties/ manipulation )

Easily marketable, so the people in value chain can get derive benefits from it.

Concept

Project focusing on system thinking within the context of livelihood & economic development.

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Training (According to type of skill of craftspeople, they would be able to develop specific skill areas. To look at the aspect of holistic development and propose concept that will aid in livelihood generation.

Products for experience Spatial interaction Usability of products

Through this, there can be various touchpoints that the brief could direct.

Sensitisation towards material

Spreading awareness about the use of natural material and its possibilities towards lifestyle needs.

Testing & Validation

Change the urban market perception of products made from bamboo from being cheap, of bad quality, rustic and related to oriental origins.

Testing the product development process with focus on the durability and finishing aspect of end product.

Product Interaction

To seek for successful results in developemnt of the products and creating spec. sheets for quality control.

How is the product being percieved by looking and holding the product. What emotional responses are the products evoking through the surface, form and finish treatment intended for the final products available in the (cafeteria)market.

Position them to maximize positive perceptions associated with them. Leveraging the material towards the growing trend towards social and environmental responsibilities.

Alter material perception

Change the perception of bamboo products by the positioning of the material with the positive association towards environmental impact in the back drop of growing global interest in alternative therapies, beliefs religious natural healthcare traditions. Positioning the material towards social and environmental responsibility due to the fact of people getting inclined towards fair-trade products; they are produced with the context of social equality since produced by communities and environmental preservationsince produced in sustainable manner.

Opportunity to understand market

Understand the contemporary product market in tourism sector as well as the opportunities in the domain to make intervention. How are technology for process innovations increasing the efficiency in craft production.

Artisan Engagement

Helping the craftspeople to tell their own stories through the product development and sensitise the people by engaging them with the material and its properties through workshops and making the craftspeople stand with confidence at the makers of craft products. Making the craftspeople aware of fact of people gravitating towards fair-trade products as they are produced with the context of social equality since produced by communities and environmental preservation since produced in sustainable manner.

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Framework for product development for spatial context The streamlining of brief brought a set of other parameters which were supposed to be deeply looked into, as the product exploration stage progressed. In order to define these parameters,it was important to consider the material manipulation,production processes, skills required and the feasiblities aspects, for satisfying the product development requirement later.

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Establishing space context and convey the various stage or parameters for product development Phase 1

Investigation of product development feasibility for spatial context

Phase 2

Develop Scenario on the basis of ideation and feasibility of prototypes

Phase 3

Develop prototypes and seek for value addition

Phase 4

Defining and designing the spatial experiential context

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Analysis To explore further possibilites with the defined forms, it was important to contextualise them according to the their usage in the restaurant/cafeteria space. The restaurant/cafeteria elements having defined utility functions were further catagorised for better understanding of contextualisation of the elements, according to the space.

Restaurant / Cafeteria Space

Tabletop Products

Paper Napkin Holder

Spatial elements

Lighting

Serving Tray

Pendant Light Tabletop

Glasses/ cups Salt/Pepper Shaker Cutlery Holder Cutlery

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Furniture

Seating Table

Object

Paper Napkin Holder

Cutlery Holder

Glasses/ cups

Salt/Pepper Shaker

Cutlery

Serving Tray

Lighting

Furniture

Traditional Function

Holding paper napkins at one place for the purpose of cleaning face or hands

Container for keeping spoon and fork

Containers for hot/ cold liquid based beverages

Traditionally paired set of condiments found on dining tables where European-style food is eaten

Hand impliments used for preparing, serving & eating food

Shallow platform for carrying things.

Light up the surrounding consisting of food,people and space.Create certain mood.

movable objects suitable to create a space for living,working or engaging,such as table and chair

Newer way to engage with paper napkins with intervention of holder

Multi-sensorial engagement with the conceptual cultlery holder

Hollow form of bamboo could be contextualised for the purpose

Longitudinal sections can be utilised to create unique cutlery set

Use form manipulation aspect to create mood lighting to create ambience & engagement

Manipulating material & processes to create collapsable furniture as seating and table for first hand use at the space

Contextual function/ requirement for proposed space

Work with material combination as Bamboo being porous cannot sustain milk based beverages

Used for carrying food or beverages

Using exploratory approach to create concepts with utlity of serving food

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Restaurent Space context After defining the spatial elements as products for cafeteria or restaurant space, it was important to know what these spaces were and what were the key aspects of the space, which needed to be understood for having a better understanding towards context development. It was understood through secondary research that restaurant/cafeteria is a business which prepares and serves food and drinks to customers in exchange for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services, and some only offer take-out and delivery. Restaurants can differ greatly in appearance and their offerings, including a wide variety of cuisines and service models ranging from inexpensive fast food restaurants and cafeterias to mid-priced family restaurants, to high-priced luxury establishments.

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Utensils

Cutlery

Tabletop elements Activities

Cuisine/

Culture Serving

Food/ Beverage

Activities

Ambience

Lighting Interiors Furniture

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Cafeteria / Restaurent Spaces To seek for examples for clarity of restaurant spaces, few examples were taken from secondary research to analyse the space and its context with certain food culture based activities in the space.

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Kettlery

The Project Cafe

Chai Point

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Kettlery Cafeteria The cafe is a premium retailer of various types of Tea which could be experienced through their physical cafe setup along with devices to brew it. The shop also provides food to compliment with tea of the choice and tries to engage the visitors with colonial era inspired decor.

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Brand

Type of restaurant

Target Market

Interiors

Spatial elements

The Kettlery is a specialty retailer of selectively sourced premium loose leaf Black teas, Green teas and brewing accessories and has a physical store cum cafeteria based in ahmedabad and want to redefine tea consumption in the country. The shop is a converted bunglow space into a tea shop and has three levels of space for visitors to engage with.

Its a Tea room setup which curates exclusive lines of tea blends with complementory food to have with tea. The setup also serves italian cuisine & bakery products with tea to complement the tea drinking experience.

The brand targets upper middle class and upper class of people who want to engage in converstion and interaction over various kinds of tea to choose from.

Colonial era inspired wall treatment to space outside with complementing wrought iron furniture to accentuate the space. The enclosed space has white walls and subtle elements to engage with. The table is of square shape and is oriented at 45 degrees in the space to break the monotony with conventional walls and wide beams to create pockets of space.

The tableware and cutleries curated at the shop has a collection of cups,bowl and plates using either transparent glass or plain white ceramics as a material for serving. The furniture inside has a set of contemporary seating made from wood and braided.

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Project Cafe The Project CafĂŠ is a social enterprise providing community space, founded on good food bringing people together. Its a gourmet cafĂŠ doubling up as an art and design objects curated store. The space has a unique blend of the visual, the tactile and the culinary.

Brand

Type of restaurant

Target Market

Interiors

Spatial elements

The cafe is a curated space which engages the visitors with products as spatial elements and food to complement the experience. The cafe is a bunglow converted into an experencial space with a variety of specially created and designed products with an emphasis on contemporary design and quirkiness, and creates interesting engagement with products kept on sale to purhase. The cafe also focuses on breaking monotony from using similar cafeteria elements and has a curation of mixture of elements to create contrast in the space.

The cafe serves, italian,mexican as gourmet food and varieties of hot & cold beverages made with tea, coffee and chocolate. Its a themed space cum cafe which engages the visitors with food and space elements which can be purchased on request.

The brand targets all age groups and classes as the space is designed to be utilised for various activities. The space also caters to students, designers,architect and artists who want like visiting themed spaces.

The interior space has been given a contemporary touch by usage of undulated walls coloured in white and complementing it with interesting ceiling elements bearing different types of ceiling lights to light up the space which can also be bought on request.

The tableware and cutleries curated at the shop has a collection of cups,bowl and plates using off white ceramics as a material for serving. Being a concept cafe, its has a variety of spatial elements consisting of different kinds of furniture, lighting,handicrafts,cutlery and tableware being curated for enhancing the space and kept in the space to engage visually or with touch. The space has a no. of triggers to engage the visitors and thus increases the duration of engagement of the space with the visitors.

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Brand

Type of restaurant/cafe

Target Market

Interiors/exteriors

Spatial elements

objective is to create an aspirational brand for its young consumers for whom tea drinking is a part of their daily routine. Chai Pointâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s multi format business model has been designed to make its product easily accessible to its core target market of young working professionals. The brand focuses on operations, supply chain and consumer experience, The brand has esablished physical cafes at major metropolitan cities and retails from from online and offline purchases.

Its mostly targetted as a takeaway tea and cafe setup serving locally popular food items with tea as the focus of engagement with the space.

Chai Point targets market of young and busy working professionals via its network of stores, automated dispensers on corporate premises and a recently launched delivery business.

The exterior of the outlet has outdoor cafeteria seating with conventional rectangular tables. The outside space also has tall tables for visitors who can grab a bite in the rush while standing and eating on them. The interior spaces have sublte but stark contrast from the usage of white walls,dark mesh false ceilings with industrial contemporary lightings to complement the space.

Being targetted towards busy working class consumers who are always on move, the tableware and containers have been intended to be either served in traditional cutting chai glasses or in paper cups for take-aways.

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The concept mostly targetting the takeways food market,serves food and beverages in paper boxes and cups which could be carried if required.

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Ideation & Product Development

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Bamboo Material Exploration Stick based exploration Sliver based exploration Crosscut unit explorations Bamboo Board based explorations Analysis Composite Surface Development Scenario Development Ideation and concepts Product Development

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Learning while doing.

Bamboo Material

Explorations The material explorations had started simultaneously with the research so as to understand the material, its properties while I was deriving insights about the community and the ways with which the community utilises the material in their lives and lifestyle. The essential aspect was to either explore the material hands on or observe the craftspeople manipulating the material so as to understand the various industrial processes which could later take direction in terms of product development.

Hands on

Observation

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Bamboo Material Exploration Initial Material Explorations The initial explorations were initiated inorder to get an understanding of, in how many ways, the material can be manipulated. The initial explorations were done with simultaneous development of products which were suggested by the mentor at CIBART. The idea of taking up the task of working on the products simultaneously with material exploration was to understand the material at the earliest, so as to find directions which later could take shape in terms of potential design languages for product development. During this process, the engagement and interaction of craftspeople, staff, the machines and the material was observed so as to understand the various aspects of the project and product development criterias. The initial explorations provided a great perspective towards the various prossibilites with the material, and the various ways of manipulation provided much greater insights about the material. The application of the understandings generated at the institute from various modules, informed the development and evolution of the explorations, and building up of the context during this stage.

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focus

Material Exploration Methodology The material was extensively explored at the organisation with the artisans while understanding the various parameters and sensitivites towards the manipulation and was informed by the learning from the institute and various modules. The material was initially observed from artisans methods of manipulation and later was attempted with tools,machines and techniques while keeping those methods as well as the understandings developed at the institute, from various modules in mind. This led to the exploration of various directions for surface and form development/ manipulation, where the intention was to seek for the best methods which could shape into potential product development directions.

Potential Design Directions

Manipulation

Application of understandings from institute

Understanding generated

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Split based explorations Bamboo splits are longitudinal sections of a bamboo pole (culm). Splits are the full thickness of the culm wall and have the green outer layer still attached. The splits are the most easy to process parts of the internode which just requires a tool and force to basically divide the crossesction longitudinally and is easier towards the internode and less towards the nodes. The purposes of creating splits in various width were towards creating seating surfaces, handles, lampshade structures and had various other possibilies,given the varieties of longitudinal physical form structures. At the organisation these splits in various were majorly used for the purposes of interlocking for joinary reinforcement,also as a medium of gluing and when being processed, were a medium of community gathering. Looking at the physical structure of the splits and their aesthetic quality of being visually and physically light,and also having the outer and the inner skin exposed simultaneously, induced a trigger to explore this aspect in a newer manner. The manipulation in these sticks in either rectangular or round form was explored to seek for potential direction without being bounded to just the cafeteria context, thus keeping the explorations open ended. The task was also to seek for understanding of how the split manipulation also brought upon a sense of community feeling and by the understandings of Form and Culture module, how the processing of a material in this manner could be seen from various perspectives.

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Radial Split based exploration At the organisation these sticks or slats were the easiest to process with rudimentry tools. Only in order to provide uniformity, the usage of planers and sander machine was done. The physical form aspect was utilised and explored to seek for potential directions.

Rounded radial split based explorations The splits, after being processed by vertical splitting were rounded in cylinderical form by the removal of material using a knife by the craftspeople. These sticks being abudently available at the organisation, were explored throughly due to its form structure and aesthetic quality.

Round split based explorations The bamboo radial splits in the form of nails are essential part of all furnitureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s or the various bamboo products and structure developed by CIBART. The community indigenously crafts these nails and it serves it purpose, either for filling the holes, left after bamboo treatment or for making the joineries stiff. Splitting the bamboo into sections, equal to the wall thickness of the culm, creates the nails. The vertical sections are essentially rectangular with a slight convex and concave curve from top and bottom. The vertical sections are later chiseled using a knife (tool) crafted from hacksaw blade by sharpening the opposite end of the tool to create a sharp edge and is later fixed on to a bamboo handle and tied to be used as sharpening tool. The vertical sections, which were essentially convex and concave, are rounded using knife in few minutes.

Moreover these can be made in a large nos. within a short span of time by any artisan without major specialization as per the skills. As for the properties, these nails can be bent to required shapes by heat bending to temperatures ranging between 400-600. When heated the fibers start loosing their rigidity and with appropriate pressure, can be bent to required curve and angle to the certain extent. This property makes it moldable to various shapes and thus was potential in terms of exploration.

From form perspective, the nails are cylindrical in structure and look like thin sticks and may have diverse applications if used just as form. The nails are not necessarily absolutely 180 degree linear. The nails show slight bending, as this was an observation. The observation was that during splitting it at exact marking, the fibers splitting showed a slight deviation. Due to this factor, the nails may or may not be absolute linear, which gives the form of the nails an organic visual identity.

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Establishing context The bamboo splits when made rounded cylinderically were used as structural reinforcement material at the organisation as nails. The bamboo nails are essential part of all furnitureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s or the various bamboo products and structure developed by CIBART. The community indigenously crafts these nails and it serves it purpose, either for filling the holes, left after bamboo treatment or for making the joineries stiff. Splitting the bamboo into sections, equal to the wall thickness of the culm, creates the nails. The vertical sections are essentially rectangular with a slight convex and concave curve from top and bottom. The vertical sections are later chiseled using a knife (tool) crafted from hacksaw blade by sharpening the opposite end of the tool to create a sharp edge and is later fixed on to a bamboo handle and tied to be used as sharpening tool. The vertical sections, which were essentially convex and concave, are rounded using knife in few minutes. From form perspective, the nails are cylindrical in structure and look like thin sticks and may have diverse applications if used just as form. The nails are not necessarily absolutely 180 degree linear. The nails show slight bending, as this was an observation.

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The observation was that during splitting it at exact marking, the fibers splitting showed a slight deviation. Due to this factor, the nails may or may not be absolute linear, which gives the form of the nails an organic visual identity. Moreover these can be made in a large nos. within a short span of time by any artisan without major specialization as per the skills. As for the properties, these nails can be bent to required shapes by heat bending to temperatures ranging between 400-600. When heated the fibers start loosing their rigidity and with appropriate pressure, can be bent to required curve and angle to the certain extent. This property makes it moldable to various shapes and thus was potential in terms of exploration.

Process to make bamboo stick/nail

Selecting internode The first step was to take an internodal length by crosscutting both the sides having nodes. The next step was observed to split it vertically using a knife,dau or a splitter device.The device has blades distributed axially at defined angles and is fixed on a stiff metal frame. The material was kept vertically and hit with another piece of bamboo.

Further split into sticks The slats are again taken on the splitter or by using a knife, split into even longitudinal parts.

Splitting the material The vertical impact splits the cylinderical form of the material into slats of rectangular shape, which are then taken for further splitting.

Making sticks The sticks are further processed with the help of knife and the convex and concave radii on both the sides are removed by moving the knife in to-fro motion.

This process was done is groups. The craftspeople would sit with the semi processed sticks in the open and shave the sticks while engaging in social gathering. The rhythmic movement of the shaving,went along well with the engagement of craftspeople in conversations together.

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Initial Exploration While working at the workshop, these nails were found at every part and floor of the workshop, as the nails were made in bulk for interlocking and glue application purposes. Looking at the physical structure of the nails and a portion of outskin,exposing the natural tint of mature bamboo,gave the insight to join and observe the section in series.

Gathering

Joining with glue

The sticks from different culms held together give the insights to the colour variations the outer skin possessed.The observed phenomenon was the variation in colour tones and together there was a harmony. The next stage was to join the pieces together in an intereting linear form and explore the product context with the sticks.

The sticks were later joined together with flex kwik (quick binding) adhesive while keeping the tonal variation of outer skin. While intuitively joining the pieces together, a form was manifesting as the sticks from one side were kept aligned.

The form with the overall gradiation looked interesting and showed potential towards creating interesting forms with utilitarian context.

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Further Explorations The next stage was to explore the bending properties of bamboo, to seek for possibilities lying in any of the context defined in the brief. For this exploration, sticks were obtained and checked for equal length. With a brief experience with bamboo heat bending, it was first realised to dip the bamboo in water so as to make the fibre structure flex when heat would be applied.

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Wetting

Heat Bending

The sticks were dipped in a bamboo culm filled with water and kept for about 5 minutes.

The next step was to clamp the stick and heat the surface to explore the bending property of the material for which a hot air gun was utilised and the stick was clamped to a baby vice. The stick was applied pressure simultanously while applying heat to the outerskin and rapidly moving the hot air gun.The heat from the gun after reaching 600 degrees let the bamboo fibres flex which were held firmly till the temp. on the surface cooled down. This resulted in the bending of the stick from a certain distance and at the point where the stick was clamped. Looking at this phenomenon, it was intuitively realised to create a form by arranging them axially together and then make inferences from.

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Arranging on frame

Completed arrangement

To arrange the sticks axially, it was realised to create a frame on which the sticks could be arranged. The first thought was to paste them like the previous mockup but due to the limited usrface area, it was realised to create a concave radii surface on the sticks could be arranged. To create a frame, a bamboo crosscut ring was incorporated. A chisel tool with radii was used to split the material to give a groove on which the sticks could be arranged. After chiselling the entire piece, the sticks were radially pasted. The resulted form was interesting visually and showed potential towards contextualizing in form of lighting.

With light The form was checked with a torch on top, which distributed the light evenly through the negative spaces and also created a visual interaction between the foreground and the background.

The perceieved form created from the approach looked interesting visually and showed potential towards further development in any of the contextual objects mentioned in the brief.

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Equal splitting

Whole culm bending The next stage of exploration was to see if the heat bending manipulation could be done to a culm without splitting the material and pasting it radially, thus reducing the efforts in the process. To bend the material it was necessary to split the material to a certain length. For this purpose, bamboo culm with a node on one side kept intact, was incorporated. The material was split with marking on the cross-cut surface and split with the splitter tool. A clamp was attached towards the node to control the bending.

Bending The culm was later attached to baby vice and heat bending techniques was applied to the splits. The splits while bending were difficult to manipulate due to the less space between the splits. This resulted in uneven radii across the culm surface.

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Analysis of explorations The previous and the next mockup were kept together to analyze the forms and what direction could be taken further to contextualise it in terms of product development. Both the form visually looked interesting, whereas in terms of feasibility the first exploration was appreciated by the craftsperson Prakash bhai. The aspect that the first exploration seemed to have protential towards radii manipulation showed more potential towards product development. The second exploration looked interesting in terms of good form transition from the node towards the splits, but the fluctuation in bending and restriction towards radii manipulation led to the decision of working with the first exploration further.

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After extablishing the form manipulation parameters, forms were ideated to seek for possibilities towards radii manipulation of the sections in this direction.

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Testing concepts by translating to prototypes

Radii manipulation through heat bending The next prototypes were moreover based on the same techniques used in the previous prototypes, but the intention with this one was to look at the aspect of radii manipulation and the possibilities with the techniques of heat beanding .

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Bending

Marking pattern

With this exploration, long sticks were utilised for purpose of doing radii manipulation

Once a larger radii was achieved through heat bending, the task was to keep the shape consistent.

and to seek for modulation in axial orientation.

For the consistency, the shape was marked on the table with marker as a pattern

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Step to step radii manipulation The sticks were bent and corrected manually with slight pressure and bent to exact shape. The long radii's were easier to manipulate due to even pressure applied while keeping the fingers tangential to the point of contact at the vice.

Preparing Jig To streamline the process of bending and making the radii manipulation consistent, G clamps were used. The clamps were fixed on the table with node pieces for radii manipulation at intended positions. A stick was put through the and heat was applied,but to the contrary, it was difficult to achieve the certain radii as the material tried to come back towards linear orientatiion.

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Radii fluctuations & corrections

Trimming ends

Even thought the radii were consistent, the point of deviation was fluctuating dur to the variation in force applied by hands. The pieces were tried correcting by again marking the surface to heat and improve the angles and orientation.

This ending were uneven which were marked and crosscutted for consistency in the final form.

Glitches While bending the bamboo sticks, sometimes due to the excessive pressure applied, the sticks developed

Chiselling Supporting frame To create the frame, concave radii had to incorprated but now with larger height for extended support. A cross-cut piece with larger length was incorporated and chiselled to attach the sticks to the culm.

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cracks at the point of bending.

The attempt to create percieved form with interesting surface transitioning from the cylinderical form which bulged towards the top, was appreciated by the mentor and prakash bhai who helped in the making of the form happen, as well as the other craftspeople. The craftspeople held it, tried engaging with it and complimented the maker Prakash on his attempt to make the prototype.

Other self initiated applications by craftsperson It had been almost two months since there had been close engagement with the craftspoeple at the organisation, one of which was Prakash Bhai who seemed interested in exploring bamboo in newer ways and help in developing the prototypes with his skills,expertise and understandings. It was Interesting to see a craftsperson being motivated to explore the material which contrasted with the objectives of other artisans, having the motive of working on task basis without questioning methods in terms of production and material manipulation techniques. One such day, a home decor magazine was carried to the workshop to see the response of the craftspeople. As they flipped the pages, they were awe-stuck by the various languages of products which they kept of mentioning to each other, if it could be done in bamboo as well. The magazine was shuffled and seen by Prakash Bhai,who was also awe stuck with the various forms and products shown in the magazine. Few days later, some of the interesting visuals in the magazine were translated through the current technique into utilitarian forms and few interesting explorations.

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This aspect showed the potential for doing motivation based interventions with the craftspeople, where there is space for ideas and concept, not bind by the designer's intuitive understandhing, but are open to the craftsperson's developed sensibilities and thus can result in a positive collaborational effort towards these kinds of prototype and product development. This would also connect to the livelihood aspect and intervention which can take place, even at the cluster level. As these explorations were appreciated by the other artisans as well, it was interesting to notice the enthusiasm of Prakash bhai growing out of his norms of working with the accustomed way of manipulating the material on daily basis. He even had happened to share the interest in making some of the concepts at home and see for the possibilites of selling it locally.

Exploratory works by craftsperson Prakash Bhai,replicating the techniques intuitively for other application while getting triggers from publication materials and seeing possiblities.

Making frame using culm crossection From the understandings of previous explorations, the other trial was to seek for structural support by using parts of bamboo to reconstitute the material in a newer orientation and see how the structural aspect is translating into aesthetic aspect.

Bending

Applying water

To Resolve the radii better, a cross cut pieces was attached to the vice and stick were heat bent by applying tangential pressure. The inner lumen being softer than the outer skin, made the transition of radii from linear orientation towards the deviation better.

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Fixing The task was to fix the modulated sticks to fit into the grooves created on the cross-cut ring as well as the knot piece.

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The vertical form transition was interesting as the slight radii manipulation inwards and the tension provided by insertion of the sticks into the node and the crosscut piece created an interesting sihoutte. The realised drawback was the tension created from the sticks inserted into the crosscut ring, which resulted into a crack.

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Attempting a feasible product prototype After a good amount of exploration with the material, it was time to try making a feasible prototype with a certain application. With the visual language of the prototypes it was suggested by the mentor, to make a tabletop lighting product for either as a souvenir product for visiting guests at the workshop or for the tourist market. It was also important to define the factors with the approach of making a feasible product prototype, so as to understanding the sensitivity and sensibility to create a product prototype yet a feasible finished product and validate the production processes involved in the making. In order to create a tabletop lighting, which could fit the criteria for product development with the understanding developed, and deliver the product at the earliest according to organisational pressure, it was decided to use LED lighting fixture for the exploration.

Feasibility

Tactility

Cost

Detailing of the product was an important factor to show the potential of the tecnnique explored. The detailing could make the judgement of the feasibility of the concept.

The surface finish, the radii on the surface and the overall aesthetic quality through tangible intervention had to satisfy the tactile and aesthetic perception of the product prototype.

Componentisation

Detailing

Detailing of the product was an important factor to show the potential of the tecnnique explored. The detailing could make the judgement of the feasibility of the concept.

One of the criteria was also to check on the aspect of standardisation of components for streamlining the production processes and looking for quality control.

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Product prototype development Lampshade The lampshade was developed as per the technique and specification to check between concept and product development.The lampshade being a component of the product was supposed to be suspended on a stand which was also intended to supply electricity and also to make the LED light integrated into the culm frame, work and stand together as a structured form.

Product development methodology Creating components

Holder Fixing The holder was intended to act as a cap on the lampshade essentially holding the lampshade structure to the stand. The cap was made by gluing knot slice to cross-cut section.

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Assembly test

varnishing components

Assemble/check

Wiring To make the stand, a hollow bamboo culm, which had enough diameter to pass through, had been sorted and sanded on the sander. Another smaller hollow culm was sorted and sanded which could pass the wire to the frame and get attached to the cavity on the stand and the lampshade.

Varnishing

After sorting all the pieces to create the product, the task was to get the pieces varnish,prior to the product was developed. The intention of doing this was to get all parts varnised,in order to seal the surface and prevent the surfaces from fungal or climatic attacks.

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After assembling all the parts, the intended form was given slight inclination at the surface joint of the stand, to correct the centre of gravity.This aspect gave an interesting visual non-conformity to the whole form which could other wise had orientation at a right angle. Being wired from inside, made the whole form look unobtrusive in terms of its function. The visual functional aspect was depicted by the form configuration of the bamboo sticks which created a perceieved form of a lampshade. In terms of feedback from the organisation and craftspeople, the reactions towards the prototype were very positive and made them realise the importance of realisations while working on the design process while creating the prototypes. This was a major positive motivation towards the applications of various understanding and seeing its application being manifested through material interaction. The lampshade was connected and lit in the evening light at the workshop, to test the prototype and see its performance and perception as a actual functional product. The LED light attached at the culm made the whole frame lit from inside. It highlighted the fibres exposed from the inside very well and provided a nice diffused ambient glow due to the usage of a diffused lighting source. The radii manipulation near to the light source, was also highlighted from the light source in a even transition from the point of origin to the tip of the sticks.

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Another manipulation techniques with similar longitudinal splits were tried to seek for product development direction

Radial split based exploration

Lon git ud

Longitudinal Half

Radial split based exploration The other explorations were done in term of using longitudinal thick split, or fine radial splits. The vertical sections are essentially rectangular with a slight convex and concave curve from top and bottom.The wider longitudinal splits 'slats' were observed mostly to be used for making seating surfaces, fencing, furniture component. The longitudinal sections as longitudinal Half & Quarter were either processed by hand or other wise with splitting tool. The sections were mostly processed at once, at the workshop in bulk and stored, and used whenever required for production purposes.

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Wide inner split

ina

ua lq

ter

Establishing Context The different types of longitudinal sections from the crossection surfaces, could be perceived to provide a lot of opportunities in terms of product development. The previous set of explorations provided the base to manipulate the sections and to create perceieved volumes. The next step was to seek for surfaces, which in itself could be pave way to various possibilities in terms for product development in cafeteria context.

Ideations for surface development with an intent to create surfaces which can be checked towards its feasibility to be translated into forms and create a form language for potential product development direction

The following exploration was intended to generate insights about the execution of the concept,production processes invovled,physical properties projected and how the exploration could be taken forward to seek for possibilites further. One such concept was to create a tray sort of form, utilising the natural green epidermal layer of bamboo and the bending properties the material provides.

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The process involved making splits from the same technique used above, but without the shaving of edges. The sections were then taken to planer machine to make the edges falt at right angles.

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Next stage was to bent the sticks to a defined angle and align them all for consistency. Later the sticks were glued and clamped together using a plyboard to press the surface and g-clamps to hold them to firmly join the sticks parallelly in order to create surface.

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Inferences from Prototype The prototype which manifested through processes in the end was quite like the initial concept, but making it to the exact configuration took a lot of time in development. The aspect of doing radii manipulation towards the edges was a tedious task as the radii and the material flex back to a certain angle as the material cooled thus resulting in fluctuation of the angles. This aspect and the aspect of putting a lot of labor and time towards the prototype development, led to the dropping of this direction and other directions were simultaneously explored to seek for feasiblity and consistency to formulate a design language for the product development further.

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Understandings through Stick manipulation The explorations done under stick (longitudinal splits/sections) manipulation was an interesting area to explore that created an understanding towards natural processing of material and, how a part which was being utilised for a certain purpose was being utilised for another direction, keeping the parameters of production in context and that led to the manifestation of interesting prototypes.

The forms were later translated to utilitarian contexts of lighting and tabletop explorations that could have translated to a potential directions, but due to the time being taken to develop the prototypes and the various production aspects and detailing issues, the exploration failed to yeild towards a feasible potential way to develop products.

The explorations also created understanding towards the engagement of craftspeople with the material as the activity was community oriented and which at a time made the tribal crafts people gather together to create the longitudinal sections while talking and manipulating material simultaneously. The activity was perceived to be a meditative and the task to make the sticks rounded using the knife,where the knife moved on the surface of the material in a two and fro motion, was seen to be rhythmic.

Also for the fact that the product development criteria required the products to fulfill the product development criterias to be efficient, production friendly, economic, durable yet marketable, this technique questioned these factors thus creating doubts to be taken forward towards a potential product development direction. While discussing this direction with the guide, it was realised that the technique was already being establised by traditional craftspeople and contemporary market and thus failed to create a newer direction or perspective towards bamboo craft and also as a student from Lifestyle Accessory design discipline, created a dilemma whether to take it forward towards product development or to address the context through other ways of manipulation.

The manipulation aspect of the material with the usage of heat was also an interesting factor to observe. The process of heating the sections, which led to the weakening of the fibre and, modulating it to create elements with orientations i.e. radially as well as parallelly, led to the discovery of creating volumetric perceieved forms.

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SWOT Analysis

Strength

Weakness

Opportunity

Threat

Ability to create volumetric forms.

Time taking production processes.

Good structural supports identified for durability aspect in terms of product development.

Radii manipulation was a tedious task and required time and labor.

Further examine the production processes and innovation of necessary tools to make the processes, production efficient.

Stress on the product during transportation could result in the breakage,as the structure consists of individual seperated stick units thus reducing it durability perception.

Could not satisfy the requirment for creating consistent language for product development.

Possibilities towards lighting for contemporary market.

Sliver based explorations Slivers are thin, narrow sections of bamboo. The organisation

Hand splitting is suitable for small-scale production and there is a wide

also took order of basketry for which, slivers were sliced for the

range of tools available, both traditional and modern. Automated splitting

interlancing and creation of baskets by the tribal craftspeople They

machines are more suitable for large-scale production of slivers.

are the primary materials used for weaving a wide range of products.

At the organisation, the slivers were mostly created by the splitting the

On a small scale they may be used for handicraft items and objects

culm with the traditional tool 'Dau". The slices were created in bulk at

of daily use.

once and manipulated in terms of bulk order.

On a large scale, one of the most useful products they can be woven into are the mats that are used to produce bamboo matboard. Slivers may be produced by hand splitting or mechanical splitting.

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Being looking at various properties and aspects of the parts of bamboo, the slivers of bamboo were examined under sunlight at the workshop. The thin sliver being seen semi transluscent, could let the light pass through it, highlighting the fibres in an intersting manner. While looking at this property, the sliver's fibrous linear texture were being highlightedin a vivid manner, which triggered the exploration towards this optical phenomenon. The surface texture of the sliver relflected light, with a nice sheen mimicking the finish of gold with matt finish. The next set of exploration were done to seek for possibilities with the observed aspects.

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Process Documention of obtaining slivers at CIBART The slivers are obtained by multiple steps of cutting and peeing off the empideramal a taking less mature culm and cutting it to start processing it with a desired lengh. Then next step was to take the internode pieces and split them to initiate sliver making.The following photographs are shown in series to depict the spliting and shaving of the edges.

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The slats were shaved from the edges as well as longitudinally, till a thin layer wasn't obtained.

The layers were shaved till there was a thin layer through which the light could pass.

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Exploration of sliver units to create a surface The initial attempts were to seek for making a surface, so as to create a base for exploring the material further in terms of product development and thus look at the possibilities with the sliver units. The sliver units were initially overlapped linearly and then pasted to seek for a surface which could be translated into forms. After pasting the sliver units together, the next attempt was to see if the units could be formed or moulded on to a form so as to loop the whole pasted set and gain a form that can hold itself and also acquire structural strength. Initially a single sliver unit was looped on a bamboo culm and pasted. The next step was to mould and loop the whole pasted set onto the culm as a support. The attempt did not work out and resulted in splitting of the slivers as the overlapping of individual unit created a shearing tension on each other, thus resulting into splitting of the fibres.

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The overlapped sliver unit as a surface, was examined under a light source to seek for insights. The light source illuminated the fibre structure of vascular bundles in a aesthetically pleasing manner and the thickness of the ply allowed the light to pass through the surface in a diffused ambient manner. This was seen as positive aspect and a good trigger to explore the technique further and seek for further validation in terms of feasibility towards product development.

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The next step after obtaining a surface and its linear interpretation was to manipulate the properties of ply based material and try exploring forms which could hold the fibre structure intact. The initial trial were to explore the material by bending and looping. The slivers being fragile,if bent at very acute angle, developed splits and eventually cracked. This aspect was noted and other ways of exploring the plys were ventured. The slivers were then looped together in different angles to create forms and then check for further possibilities.

The looping created the possibility of being bent,without affecting the fibre structure and splitting or breaking the ply.The loops were intuitively perceieved futher to see how by overlapping the loops ,could aid in creating a structured form which could have a good strength over single ply. A miniature mock was explored which showed further possibilites towards taking the approach forward.

The mock up was then scaled up to see, if the intuitive mock up could get overlapped and have a good transition of ply happening and also checking if the the structural support could be strenghtened.

The scaled up mock up was later checked with a light source to seek for validation, in term of luminosity and the permeability of the surfaces of the ply to let the light pass through. The effect of the light coming through was perceived to be ambient and due to the trial of warm as well as white light, showed potential in terms of taking the concept ahead and see if the overlapping ply structure could be made more stronger and also provide structural support to have a utilitarian perception and potential for taking it as a direction.

The linear sliver unit surface was again explored with structural support to see how the structure holds around a frame. The exploration was done by creating a structure around which the slivers can loop. The structural frame was created by drilling three holes onto a knot cross cut bamboo node piece and creating cavity to insert bamboo sticks. The sliver units were pasted with adhesive one by one by overlapping one unit on top of the other. While, the whole structure together with the pasted sliver units looked interesting, the durability aspect was still in question as the sliver units were acting as a diffuser but structurally were fragile with the given thickness of the units.

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To tackle the durability and structural aspect of the surface, one option was to laminate it with another surface which was transparent and even enough to hold the aesthetic quality and permeability without compromising on the structural aspect of the surface. For the purpose, a limination sheet was purchased from a stationary store and slivers were pasted onto it,one by one to create a surface.

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Understandings through Sliver manipulation The slivers explorations were initially experimental attempts that were explored as the slivers could be stuck, layered and transformed into forms. The forms were later translated to utilitarian contexts of lighting and tabletop explorations that could have translated to a potential directions, but due to the time being taken to develop the prototypes and the various production aspects and detailing issues, the exploration failed to yeild towards a feasible potential directions to develop products. Also for the fact that the explorations in the project's context required the products to fulfill the product development criterias of being efficient, production friendly, economic, durable yet marketable, this technique questioned these factors thus creating doubts to be taken forward towards a potential product development direction. While discussing this direction as well with the guide, it was realised that the technique needed to fit the cafeteria context and also be consistent as form language and also to be taken further in terms of other defined contextual products according to the refined brief. This aspect was thus considered and other parallel explorations were looked at for further enquiry to fit into the defined context.

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SWOT Analysis

Strength

Weakness

Opportunity

Threat

Aesthetically functional forms with light diffusing properties.

Structurally fragile and requires the use of fresh culm which may be suseptable to biological and chemical agents such as fungus and molds.

The laminated surface and the form creation could hace resulted in potential directions, if the sliver units were structurally strong at the thickness level.

The threat aspect was majorly the biological and climatic attack factor to the sliver units as the technique required the usage of fresh culms, of which slivers could have good permeability towards light. Other threat was towards the durability of the structure as the slivers were vulnerable to splitting due to the thickness required.

Highlights the inner fibre structure and explores the flexibility aspect of this manipulation of the material

The usage of plastic with the natural material was a major dilemma in terms of creation of products which would have questioned the ecological relevance aspect.

There was still further possibilites towards making it feasible,but due to time constraint, the direction was dropped.

Crossection based explorations Working with various form aspects of the material, the transverse direction or the crossectional portion of the material seemed unexplored in the context of the organisation and otherwise. Going through the repository of bamboo products I came across while doing secondary & primary research, there was a realisation that there were very less explorations and products explored with it. In order to generate understanding towards this aspect, further field study was carried out to validate this aspect. During the time of field study, there was one observation made while looking at the material wastage being created during product processes. The observation was of the cropping of basel segment as it was not utilised for any production purposes and was later collected to either make nails or majorly burn outside the workshop to dispose or make charcoal out of it. This insight was looked in form of opportunity to see if obtaining crosscut rings during the time of production, could result in holistic usage of the whole part of the bamboo material. Moreover, looking at attempts in this direction at the workshop a cuboidal furniture made from cross cut pieces stuck together on a plyboard with glue and having a lot of negative space.The thought of reducing this random clutter as well as the the distribution of randomised unconcious negative spaces and making a uniform surface was the starting step in the exploration of this direction. The purpose was also to look at a development of composite surface,while understanding and testing the property of the material when joined with pieces cut in transverse direction, and also to seek for possibilities for futher intervantion towards product development. 266

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Negative spacing and random placement on a secondary surface informing towards creating an ordered arrangement and creating composite material towards futher development.

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Initial explorations The first set of exploration were very experimental and crude as the thought of looking at crosscut pieces from a new perspective came accidently after looking at a cuboidal furniture made from cross cut pieces stuck together on a plyboard with glue and having a lot of negative space.The thought of reducing this random clutter as well as the the distribution of randomised unconcious negative spaces and making a uniform surface was the starting step in the exploration of this direction. The purpose was also to look at a development of composite surface,while understanding and testing the property of the material when joined with pieces cut in transverse direction, and also to seek for possibilities for futher intervantion towards product development.

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The variety of wall thicknesses and unique inner shape was also the point of trigger to explore the direction

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Process for cross cutting Choosing the desired bamboo culm

Crosscutting the culm

Collecting Sorting the pieces into a vessel after cross cutting.

The First step was to seek for a bamboo mostly from the basal segment as it has the maximum thickness and look for the appropriate wall thickness for attempting the exploration.

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Cutting the culm on the roundsaw bench press machine with a stopper to maintain even thickness.

Exploring shapes & surfaces After obtaining cross cut pieces, the next step was see how interesting shapes could be created by connecting one shape to another. The easiest was to glue the round pieces together but due to the less surface area at the contact point, it was necessary to create edges that could impart good surface area for sticking. Thus, initial surfaces were explored.

The cross cut pieces are cut initially in square shape with a chisel tool and hammer. Due to the orientation of the fibres of crosscut pieces being in vertical direction,it was observed to be easy to use a chisel and achieve the shape by hammering the tool with a force resulting in splitting of the piece. Later the pieces were stuck together with an adhesive. The sample initially was a exploration, just to validate if this technique could workand it did. On this basis, further more explorations were done. Sumedh Sonare

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Further Explorations

A jig made to replicate the shape

The next stage was to develop a method with which the pieces look exact similar in shape and measurement. A jig piece was made as a mock to replicate the shape in all the crosscut pieces. Another important aspect also was to look the the constraint of inner and the outer diameter as the inner sides contain lumen which is delicate as compared to the area towards the outer diameter which has the

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To replicate, the jig piece is kept on the crosscut piece and marking is done with pencil around the edges. Using the chisel tool and the hammer, force is applied on the marking, which splits the piece. Similarly this is done to all four sides to achieve a square shape and later is done to the other pieces.

After figuring out the technique to replicate the pieces, the next task was to see if there could be variations in the shape as per the removal of the sides,outside the marking. This gave the possibility to explore various patterns.

Combination trials while playing with the shapes to observe the various possibilities with the technique.

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Exploring various shapes & surfaces Looking at the possibility of creating surfaces, the next task was to see if the surfaces could be translated in terms of forms. To create a form with square pieces, a bamboo culm of outer diameter of 5 cm and inner of 1.7 cm was taken. Next step followed cross cutting it into thickness of 8-10mm and a jig piece was created to replicate shapes with the process defined above. The next task was to arrange the pieces in a grid and glue them together. For joining them Bond-tite adhesive was used as it consists of resin based and hardner based material used extensively at the workshop to glue furnitures and structures. Thus 3X3 grid surfaces were created and

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The next stage was to champhor the edges of the joined surfaces so as to joint the pieces at 90 degrees.Using sander device, the piece was kept inclined at 45 degree and the same process was repeated for 5 more sets.After removal of the material and making the angle, the next step was to join the pieces together with Bontite.

450

The shapes together,making the whole form gave an interesting play of shapes,light & shadows creating an engaging play of light and shadow. The visual as well as physical weight together were also making an interesting point to consider towards the directions of product development. The form was also appreciated by the craftpeople as well as the mentor and staff. This boosted me towards considering the direction as positive approach for engaging with the concept of joining the pieces in interesting ways.

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After looking at the various combinations with square as a shape, various shapes were explored considering the limitations of the inner as well as the outer radii. The shape below was constructed with understanding of the geometry on the surface of the cross cut pieces as a balance between the inner skin as well as the outer skin had to

be maintained, so as to not let the pieces crack. Once the pieces had been chiselled into rhombus shape, the pieces were analysed by bending them by had to see if the crossections could individually hold the shape and not split. The pieces were verified to have good strength to hold themselves

individually and let were arranged in various patterns to seek for interesting surfaces.

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The later step in the process was to develop a surface by putting the units together to form surfaces by gluing them together with a strong adhesive. Bond-tite adhesive was used here as it consists of resin based and hardner based material used extensively at the workshop to glue furnitures and structures.The pieces were glued initially and later fixed on a bench vice to make the joint stiff. Later the pieces were observed and analysed to see if the surfaces holds themselves. The units did hold themselves together and were stiff enough to be made it a form. Yet at that point of time due to the jaggeredness of the edges, it was still though to explore more shapes to see if there was opportunity to create shapes,translate them to surfaces and then seek for the possibility for creating forms which could be defined a certain context in terms of function.

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Further surface samples were made to look at a range of possibilities with this sort of manipulation and finding opportunity to translate surfaces to forms. The below line of explorations bearing triangular edges connected together seemed interesting direction as the play of negative positive shapes and the organic flow of the silhuottes created an engaging harmony with the surface.

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A lot of thoughts from previous intervention were creating curiosity towards the explorations in this direction and in terms of exploring more surfaces or rather large arrays to create surfaces as composite material and translate the surfaces into interesting forms.

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The explorations till a certain stage, showed a lot of potential to be carried forward in terms of potential direction, but it was also important to compare the different techniques used, to realise the positive and negative aspects and the factors informing the product development process.

Comparison Study {between techniques} Bamboo stick

Split based

The explorations done under stick (longitudinal splits/sections) manipulation was an interesting area to explore that created an understanding towards natural processing of material and, how a part which was being utilised for a certain purpose was being utilised for another direction, keeping the parameters of production in context and that led to the manifestation of interesting prototypes.

This technique in comparison to stick manipulation projected less potential & mostly towards only one application, out of the objects defined for the contextual brief and its requirements.

Also for the fact that the product development criteria required the products to fulfill the product development criterias to be efficient, production friendly, economic, durable yet marketable, this technique questioned these factors thus creating doubts to be taken forward towards a potential product development direction. While discussing this direction with the guide,it was realised that the technique was already being establised by traditional craftspeople and contemporary market.Thus failed to create a newer direction or perspective towards bamboo craft and also as a student from Lifestyle Accessory design discipline, created a dilemma whether to take it forward towards product development or to address the context through other ways of manipulation.

The techniques needed to fit the cafeteria context and also be consistent as form language, in order to be taken further in terms of other defined contextual products according to the refined brief.But because of the constraints of the material being suseptible to damage from physical,biological and climatic agents ,it was thought to be paused till other interventions were not figured out.

Cross cutting This technique of manipulating the material showed the scope towards further development in comparison to other techniques yet explored. In terms of approach,language and various feedbacks the exploration was fullfiling the various criterias which were essential for the direction to take forward. After consulting my guide, this direction seemed potential to take further and also to explore the direction towards translating the surfaces to forms and looking at the possibility to create a visual form language towards product development.

Contextual Analysis of Finalised technique

ture Design Cul

c Tou

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ivi ty d

This context was elaborated much further in terms of Idea and service map, previously created,for the purpose to create more awareness towards the various touchpoints, one had to consider.

esign

hpoint Design

Idea & Service Map

The finalised technique of exploring Crosscut unit as a direction was taken forward and analyzed towards contextualising it with the spatial context.

Getting money for the amount of effort put Trust, Loyalty

If service is good & fair, people don't mind paying extra for the goodness

Fair trade sp a

Portability

Transportability serving

Transparent

Restaurant/ Cafeteria Food

Activities

Engage local people (housewives) Livelihood development

prod u

Pricing strategy

Engagement

parttime job for tourist to involve in cooking & exchange ideas CREATING A NARRATIVE Retention of the feel of hollowness.

void

emptiness / Yet bounded Low carbon footprint Ecologically concious behavior

Use of organic materials (raw material) Locally produced farm to table concept

boundries that are inevitable for life yet what we should do is to embrace the truth & quality such that all we feel is openess.

Cavity Hollow Transverse direction

Fresh picked Material

Products Product Development

Positive association towards environmental impact Altering Perceptions

Positioning the material towards social and environmental responsibility. Creating awareness about the material & possibilities towards lifestyle needs

Share Knowledge

Embrace openess with concious design

Local homemade Locally sourced

Exploring larger surfaces To understand how the material behanves when arranged in a grid or array, the shapes were examined to create jigs to replicate the patterns more efficiently. Also the task was to observe how the craftpeople could be engaged into the activity or into production stages which was the prime motive of doing the intervention. Thus, Jigs were constructed, followed by removing material on the cross cut pieces, joining them together and later sanding them to obtain a composite surface which could be assessed for potential applications.

Tasks

Creating a jig Marking the crosscut surface Removing material to create shape Arranging the pieces in formation Glueing pieces together Sanding the composite surface Analysis

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Task 1 Constructing jig The images on the right and below show the construction of the modified hexagon shape which was constucted with the understanding of the crossection consisting of the the inner and the outerskin.The shape intuitively took into consideration of the adequate area required for the crosscut piece to stay intact without cracking either from inside or outside. The wider edges were intuitively thought to provide good surface area to let the pieces stick to each other this taking the tangencial forces of the weight of each other . Geometric construction of modified hexagon shape which fits the requirement providing good enough surface area to replicate the crosscut pieces derived from basel segment.

Once the shape was finalised, the Shape was then translated to a thicker board, in this case a plywood. The shape was constructed again on the surface due to the unavailability of printing services in the village.

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Task 2 Constructing jig After the creation of the jig, the next step was to remove the material by marking the crosscut pieces with the jig and use chisel or for precision use a cutter blade while placing it a millimeter away from pencil/pen marking parallelly and hit it with a hammer, resulting in splitting of the crosscuts. The removal of shape seemed like a relatively easy way to process the pieces as the blade effortlessly splits the material due to the material property of vertically splitting.

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The process was similarly repeated for other two shapes being constructed and converted into a jig. The technique is again being utilised to obtain the shape from the round bamboo rings by splitting with force with hammer on cutter blade transferred to the rings.

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Task 3 Arranging the pieces

Regular harmonic arrangement

Irregular nonconsistent arrangement

There were two variation in terms of shape arrangement which were tried with the craftswomen as well as on the software to check for the interaction of shapes and to find opportunity with the play of tessalations . The regular arrangment had good consistency where as the nonconsistent arrangment of the hexagon pieces were much jaggered to resolve into further development as forms.The regular arrangment was check for a trial to understand how the array visually looks together.

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The regular hexagon and the square crosscuts were arranged in a regular manner as the pieces allowed a less scope of regular arrangement in terms of creating a composite material sample.

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Task 4 Gluing pieces together

The next step was glue the pieces together. The grid was decided and discussed with the craftswomen for the orientation and the pieces were glued together using Bondtite as a adhesive. The adhesive's both parts were mixed together in a container of made from the node part and applied with a bamboo stick. The pieces were kept on newspaper, kept over a flat plywood surface evenly while applying the glue to the edges.

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The grid on the left was chosen to attempt a first trial of the surface as it seemed visually consistent with the surface lines and play of modified hexagon,hexagon and deformed ellipses. To see if the grid could actually be tested and made into a surface, it had to be stuck together to understand and analyze the surface.

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Task 5 Sanding the surface

After achieving the surface, the next task was to make the surface even. For the purpose a grinding tool was used with sanding attachment on the head. The composite surface was kept on a flat surface and very intuitively the whole surface was sanded by the craftsperson to make the whole surface even.

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The composite surface obtained after sanding both the sides had made the grain texture(of vascular bundles) of individual pieces more highlighted. This visual property added a nice value to the composite structure which had a good visual interaction of lines and irregular organic elleptical shapes complimenting the intentional geometry with natural occurrence of the shapes. The first impressions shared by the craftspeople and the member of the organisations towards the attempt was worth notingThe surfaces were perceived to be very different the objects and manipulation techniques they had came across. The craftswomen who had helped in the attempt even appricated and was amazed by the combined effort and the result of her intervention in making the surfaces. The members of CIBART including the mentor appriciated the development and were speculating the processes involved asking if the the prototyping method was CNC routing and how was the cavity achieved :) The tangible apsect of the material was also appreciated in terms of its grip and weight on the hand.

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The vascular bundles texture on the surface of each individual pieces created a interesting interaction of the grains towards the three converging points. As the majority of grains were concentrated towards the apex points, combined they created an interesting gradiation pattern moving radially from a piece to another. The joinery lines between units guided the eyes to flow in a visually interesting manner.

Apex

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Analysis The whole process from the crosscutting of the bamboo rings to the sanding was an interesting process and showed the scope towards further development in comparison to other techniques yet explored. After consulting my guide, this direction seemed potential to take it further and also to explore the direction towards translating the surfaces to forms and looking at the possibility to create a visual form language towards product development. The interaction of various shapes on the surface was much appriciated by both the mentor,staff and the craftspeople.The cuboidal form was also perceieved to be new, in terms of approach and language and various feedbacks while holding the form by craftspeople as well. This pushed me to seek for futher more exploration and inquiries with this approach. The translation of surface to forms had to be explored and understood to seek for potential applications. The grain structure which was made visible through the production processes, also gave the insight to understand the geometrical pattern and what could be understood from geometrical persepctives towards product development

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Production processes

Tangibility

Shape Significence Geometry

Exploration Focus

Manipulation Type

Understanding Developed

Further Potential

The focus majorly was to seek for potential direction for product development

Various types of manipulation were incorporated from sanding, drilling,splitting,joininng and heat bending.

A good understanding of the material was developed while getting used to work with the material as well as taking meaningful inputs while working on the prototypes.

A lot of insights were derived while coming across various aspects of the material from heat beading the sticks, manipulating the radii, sanding the cross cuts to expose the beautiful patterns of vascular bundles .

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Paper Prototyping

Exploring forms MDF prototyping

After the understanding developed by reaching a good stage of surface developments, the next task was to seek for possibilities in terms of creating forms with the context of developing cafeteria products and how the various form aspects would inform towards the usability as well as functionality of the forms being developed. To gather more understanding towards translating the surfaces to forms, various methods of prototyping were used from paper mock ups,MDF mockups and bamboo mockups. The process of creating forms was very organic in terms of sequence of creations and insights were derived to understand the product development from the perspective of skills involved, time taken, manipulation techniques,unit production procedures.

3D virtual prototyping

Bamboo Prototyping

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Paper prototypes

The initial method of form translation was done by printing the grid made on adobe illustrator on 200 gsm paper and later holes were punched using hammer and a punching tool to give a natural form based physical association with the crosscut bamboo rings. Using cutter and scotch tape, the forms were cut at cavities, half cut at folds and stuck together to make forms. The forms initially showed various potential directions towards cafeteria context. In order to get more persepctive of how the forms will eventually get translated into 3D, the forms were then decided to be tested on MDF. MDF (Medium density fibre) board being easy to manipulate and to achieve an understanding of how the forms will eventually get translated,was the next step for prototyping before taking it to bamboo.

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MDF prototyping The prototypes done initially gave a good insight towards the the possibilities of combining the units in various orientations to yield utilitarian contexts. The objective was also to seek for consistency and derive a language for the objects being thought for cafeteria purpose. Also the various forms had to have a good structural strength as the attempt of using crosscuts for product development, were not seen during seconary research and were explored further till a certain extent during material exploration. The pieces were either joined at 90 degrees or at various different angles to look and understand the structure forming in organic geometric manner. The various forms being created were also realised to be platonic solids. These forms were studied more in depth to understand their significence and seen if the attempt could resolve into a interesting direction to yield meaningful output.

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Analysis The explorations done with MDF, provided a much greater outlook towards the potential the forms explored had, which could lead to potential directions. Each prototype to a certain degree, showed a good potential towards contextualisation towards ideation , but at the same time it was realised that the understandings that the prototypes, also had to be tested with the craftspeople for validating the feasibility aspect, labor invovled and potential for putting into production of the prototypes. Out of the various MDF explorations, there were two languages being highlighted which seemed potential towards developing further prototypes and checking for feasibility towards the given context. The first language was connecting square units at 90 degrees and look at the aspect of creating perceived volumetric forms with less unit processes,manufacturing cost and yeild towards feasible conceptual directions with utilitarian value. The other set of connections were defining a language which had a cohasive repeatation and resulted in reoccuring forms. These reoccuring forms were not apperent while the paper mock-ups were created and tested. The forms seemed to have convexity and concavity which intuitively were imagined to probablity be contextualised towards utilitarian possibilities.

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The two languages were thought to be explored further and checked for the feasibility through ideation and further mockup generation.

The various directions being intuitively joined to seek for forms, gave insights to possibilities once the shapes were translated to forms.

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Analysis To explore further possibilites with the defined forms, it was important to contextualise them according to the their usage in the cafeteria space. The cafeteria elements having defined utility functions were further catagorised for better understanding of contextualisation of the elements, according to the space.

Restaurant / Cafeteria Space Tabletop Products