Design for Disaster

There are far more disasters these days, than it used to be and we see the same things being played out. Buildings crashing: no equipments to lift the rubble. Flash floods: no vehicle to reach the location were people are stuck.

Haiti, Equipment took days to reach, probably there were not many earth movers etc. in a poor country like Haiti.

The earthquake today in China has also happened in a remote region, and the struggles are the same.

And it may not be just equipments. There is a need for survival kits, survival food, instant food which packs all required salts, nutrients,  portable operation stations, and trauma care.

Quite evidently there is a dire  requirement for equipments, devices products, which can be easily transported, easy to assemble and  install, and easy to operate. This will need radical thinking, or else how can an earthmover be converted to a much smaller and transportable device.

This could work as a decent business model too. These equipments/ products can later find use in many other applications.

Houses become hoardings for advertisers in villages.

Along the way to Bangalore, India homes in villages are being painted by companies with their advertisements. Its a great sight, with advertisement being directly painted on houses. The houses themselves become the hoarding. This is interesting in many ways. For the advertisers they get a great view and it stands out so well, because you get such a big hoarding space. For the villagers their houses get painted, which otherwise would cost them a lot of money. What happens to visual culture? Hmmm. That is a difficult question. Across India the way the homes are decorated are very unique to cultures, and this may not be a good thing to happen. There were many homes where the front patio retain the traditional colour schemes and only the side walls were given. On the other hand for the villages it is a way to earn money and also to get their houses painted quite often. A win win situation!

It is a unique and creative solution the advertisers have identified. It has got great visibility. There are no costs of erecting hoardings, and you dont need to worry about the hoarding being exposed to the vagaries of nature.