Tuesday 17 February 2015

WATER FOR ALL - GROUP MEETING ONE

Today me and Laura had our first group meeting for the RSA 'Water For All' brief we are collaborating on. 


TIME MANAGEMENT 

The deadline for the project is the 4th of March, which does not leave us with a huge amount of time to complete research and have an informed, well produced outcome. Therefore, it is essential that we manage our time appropriately if we are going to submit an outcome we are happy with in time for the deadline. 

To ensure that we are meeting such requirements we decided to both collect some research in preparation for the meeting so that we can have an informed discussion and outline some direction to help us progress with the project. 



DISCUSSION

The session was started with me and Laura taking turns to briefly talk through the research we collected in preparation for the meeting. Despite not specifying areas of focus for the research we luckily had both collected information on different issues and subjects. 

Notes taken during the session are displayed below;


IMPORTANT POINTS - 
  • The brief is very open and lists multiple areas participants could focus on, as a consequence of this we have identified various directions the brief could be taken in -  before progressing we need to define a solid direction.
  • Interview Michaela (she works for a charity in Africa every summer).
  • Review the current schemes and products that exist to help with water collection.
  • 3D Digital mock-ups and animations can be created by Laura's boy friend.
  • Divide workload - Have research tasks finished for Thursday.



IN SESSION RESEARCH 

After briefly discussing some initial ideas and research directions we decided to devote the second half of our meeting to reviewing some exiting products that have been created with the specific purpose of transporting water in sub-saharan Africa. 

Completing the research task had two main benefits;
  • Allowed us to assess existing products used in the environment specified by the brief.
    • Subsequently, we were able to assess aspects of the products that could be improved.
  • Allowed us to see what products already exist to help avoid developing an idea that already exists. 



MATHIEU LEHANNEUR - CELLBAG

Inspired by the way in which biological cells transport water and nutrients, the CellBag is an innovative way of transporting water, in optimal environmental conditions, for small and large volumes. 






GABRIELE DIAMANTI  - TERRACOTTA OVEN 


Designer Gabriele Diamanti designed this simple terracotta oven to solve a problem that’s plagued humans for ages. Users pour salt water into the basin in the morning. Then, as the temperature rises over the course of the day, steam moves downwards and is condensed into fresh, drinkable water.






QUNXI HUANG & TOLEGMMA MARQUEZ - WATER ROLL

Water Roll, with features aimed at lessening the manual effort required for water transportation, can be used by a single user or by a group. While a caving on the surface helps fit the container snugly on the head, a hole through the center of the interlocking containers allows multiple loads to be transferred using a rod.







WATERWEAR BACKPACK

In many developing countries women and children are tasked with fetching water and carrying it considerable distances in containers - often on their heads. Aside from the strain this places on the neck and back, these containers can be discarded jerry cans and buckets that originally carried fuel, oils, pesticides, paints and other chemicals that you wouldn’t want mixed with your drinking water. The WaterWear is a collapsible backpack designed to overcome these problems.







Q-DRUM 

The Q Drum is the simple, durable, effective and user-friendly solution to the water collection problem faced by millions of women and children on a daily basis. the device is designed to ease the physical burden and reduce the time spent collecting water; thus ultimately improving the lives and well-being of countless people around the world.




CONCLUSION 

While assessing some of the exiting products that have been created to ease the problem of water collection I was able to identify that products can be categorised into two main groups.
  • Off body water transportation (Q-drum & Water roll).
  • On body water transportation (cell bag & waterwear backpack). 

The product distinction is important as both varieties have their own benefits which can be identified and assessed to help inform the direction of our designs. 



INITIAL IDEAS 

After reviewing some of the existing products available to help the collection of water in sub-saharan Africa we decided to progress with the project by getting down some of our initial ideas. 

We initially decided to focus on off body transportation techniques as we ascertained that the methods will allow people to transport more water without putting too much physical strain on their bodies. One problem with carrying water on body is that the weight of the water that is being transported is exerted onto the persons body.



Both me and Laura agreed that the wheel barrow was the strongest concept from the initial ideas we created. However, as a concept it still needs much development, and so we decided to list concept development as one of the tasks that need completing before we meet for our next session. 


PROGRESSION 

To progress from the initial session we set ourselves a number of tasks to be completed before our next group meeting. 

Tasks;
  • Complete primary research. 
  • Continue developing concepts.
  • Collect secondary research on the health implications of carrying weights. 
  • Prototypes if applicable.

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