India

Traveling to India has been a long dream of mine, for the search of spirituality, culture and surrounding myself with different environments. After staying in India for only a month I can say that I have encountered two of those three things. The reason I traveled to India was to learn and research sustainable building practices namely, bamboo. I took this internship as a final project of my 5 year undergraduate architecture degree. For six months with an optional extension, I will be working with Wondergrass Inc. in the development and implementation of bamboo as a common building material for India. For two years, Wondergrass has experimented, researched, and tested bamboo’s effectiveness as a building material. Although there is ample information concerning bamboo in India the need for hands on testing is vital to Wondergrass’s ability to implement bamboo. My first week was doing just that, learning and field testing the characteristic of bamboo for furniture, small utilitarian objects, as well as structural members. In this process I have learned quite a bit, and for the remaining time in India I will hopefully have some sort of impact on the revolution of building in India. The headquarters of www.wondergrass.in is in Nagpur, India, the land of oranges and snakes. And coincidently Nagpur is the direct center of India, with the mile marker being 0 leading in every direction across India.

Without talking about the people of India is like not talking about the bees in a beehive, with its greatest resource being its people they have no experience in seeing a foreigner such as myself. With heads turning from moving vehicles to school children taking my picture in alley restaurants the sight of a white man from America is as foreign as a man stepping on the moon. Thousands in sight I start to feel the mentality that one could take on while living here. So many and so vast the task of maintaining brief personal moments becomes impossible and the effort to care of the reactions of others starts to disappear. After learning that once personal relationships have been established and secured it has become more important here in India than other places I have been. Since relationships can be fleeting the skill to securing them is a cherished one. But apart from that, Indians have a positive and anti-problem attitude. I’m always amazed that with all these people pushed closer and closer together they seem to work around each other with ease and skill. Like a maze of cars people and semi-trucks cruising down highways and streets, there seems to be this naturally born ability to swerve and miss any obstacle known or unknown coming at you. I’m impressed to high heavens, and the next time someone on the US comments on the traffic or wreck less driving I’ll be pleasantly reminding myself that it pales into comparison the movement of vehicles in India. Ironically the common bumper sign on every vehicle from a rickshaw to a truck is PLEASE USE YOUR HORN! I somehow believe that is not a problem.

After completing the adventure of traveling 12 miles, we reach our work site that is located in the small village of Payt. Made up of randomly built concrete slab homes that line paved streets, Payt offers no disguise to hard working families who survive through cottage industries, such as pottery, construction, etc. My room is a rented addition to small home inhabited by a wonderfully sweet family who address me as brother. Good morning brother, excuse me brother, and so on. But every coin has another side. Across the trail exists the Woody Allen of India. With his porch facing my entry, I cannot elude this attention. “Hello Mr. Alex”, said by a well kept man in his 50’s calling himself Olmcore. Our relationship started as most village relationships start, I come over for a wonderful cup of chai and short worded conversations, but this was different. Mr. Olmcore kept tabs on my schedule like a moths keep track of porch lights. I’m a guest of India and wish the highest respect of the smiles that are selflessly given to me on a daily basis, but Olmcore’s smiles have become like those smiles from flannelled car sales men who just don’t know when to give up. With his happiness in our friendship growing like a chia pet, he has become to realize that my only window or eye to world is the same height and size as his curious face. While one morning sitting on my bed preparing for a day in working with bamboo, I was surprised to see the face of a finely groomed man staring at me with words that have become a wondergrass joke, “What are you doing Mr. Alex get up!” I support myself after falling off my bed and break the door open ready to throw my bath water at him, he disappears as if knowing my reaction. The curiosity of my happenings has been a trademark of his. Once after taking dinner with Mr. Olmcore, I left to walk into a field and water a tree. Without hesitation he shouts with a disconcerting tone, “where are you going Mr. Alex? I shout without thinking, “I’m taking a piss! Do you mind?” It has become my personal battle to gracefully swerve the unwanted attention of Mr. Olmcore. While leaving for Nagpur one sunny day, my friend and I are waiting for the hourly bus on the main road. While driving up on his two wheeler opposite of us, he shouts for the tenth time that week, “Where are you going Mr. Alex?” I say with a big smile, “heaven!” He laughs and subconsciously realizes I’m not in the mood for being the tool of his popularity. Mr. Olmcore has motivated me to rise earlier, and make good time of walking out and reaching the bathroom before he swaggers out onto this two-wheeler. I’m constantly amazed at his six sense on my location. On one successful day I had walked out my door, past his porch, and out of the village with light shoulders, and confidence on how the day was going. Without warning, I hear from behind a tree the words that have made me cringe, “Where are you going Mr. Alex? Good bye Mr. Alex!”

But his personality has made good stories that make my new friends laugh, and have made my experience a humorous one. On days where there is enough time after a day of working on site with bamboo, my workmate and I walk over to the potter’s house. Shielded from the main path, a young man and his father squat next to concrete wheels turning fast enough to sculpt clay bowls that tell their story. Learned from the earlier generations, these potters are currently taking orders from the government to supply enough lights for the festival of DEVALI. The festival of lights is one that lasts for three days, and is celebrated with oil lights that float in the water ways, and streets. The potters talents have been used to light Devali for centuries, and their artistic beauty is always in demand. There is a connection that artists/designers have that can be shared beyond languages. Through me patient friend who has taken on the task of translator, lets the potter know that I too have done artisan crafts, such as blacksmithing, carpentry, and a little pottery. It always impresses me the gift of creation we all possess and for those that have a joy in it’s role in life, can converse and create beautiful things through collaboration. We have already talked about designed a potter’s wheel that is more efficient through a system of pulley’s and ratio’s. The potential for innovation in India’s rural industries is immense. My supervisor Vaibhav Kaley as well as the rest of his family have all had the unitchable desire to create and innovate through problem solving. His uncle has developed a more efficient rickshaw that save power created from the driver and stores it in spring so that the rickshaw driver can take breaks after pedaling up an ungodly hill. There are many more innovations that spark a moment of amazement that can be implements all over India and the world for that matter. But I have realized through talking with fellow workers, and friends in India, is that the main problem for progress in innovation is the obstacle of fear of change, and lack of self respect. People do not understand that personal independence can be taken and used by themselves, they instead believe with a certain type of sadness, that they need western creations to make their lives better. The sad fact is that if I showed an invention to several working class persons they would most likely embrace it, but if my good friend were to show the same invention, they would turn away. A major crutch to rural development I have seen is the self empowerment that is lacking. Obviously there are factors of education, resources, time, money etc. but time and time again there are inventions made by second grade education citizens that improve efficiency in daily life. That also relates to housing and the introduction of sustainable materials.

For the last 100 years rural citizens of India have used cement and brick to build their homes. They are reasonably easy to build, lasts for a very long time, and is somewhat affordable for a one time cost. However, the most important point to consider is that they do not need any maintenance. They are extremely durable as well as provide flat roof top terraces. My second week I was here we went to study the bamboo housing cluster in Wardha India. Built for a family of 6-+, these homes were built 6 years ago, and were subsidized by the state of Maharastra. They are a composite home, that have concrete walls with a height of 7 feet and beyond that exists bamboo trusses, rafter, and purlins. There area also composite joint fixtures that are made of metal nut and bolt connection and bamboo ply connections. Without going into too much detail we interviewed several of the non-english speaking families and found two great obstacle for out future design of bamboo housing. 1. Home owners do not know how to maintain homes, they need to be educated about proper usage, and upkeep that is needed to make good living spaces. 2. There needs to be a social change in how people think of their homes. Because the target group we are aiming for are extremely poor they do not believe they are staying there for very long. They are in constant fear that they will be asked to leave, kicked out, etc. If they believe they have no safe refuge from the world they will not take pride in their home ergo, keep it in good condition. Therefore we need to build durable homes that can become part of the users psyche as a safe place to be from the world. The more and more we design for humanity the more we need to realize the mental framework for with the architecture will highly depend on. And in some instances there has been a growing number of movements big and small and urges citizens to take back confidence in ones own abilities to create a better life for one’s self.

I recently spend a night at M.K. Ghandi’s ashram in Wardha. There we were able to be in Ghand’s personal ashram, as well as talk with t. Bunk, a close friends of Ghandi’s. For 15 minutes or so me, Bunk, and a fellow architect talked about humanities main obstacles to progress. They weren’t safer retirement investments or highly efficient automobiles, but rather the movement towards independent energy production. During the movement of Ghandi, there was a push to break from Greta Britain and become an independent nation. The solution was to create independence in rural energy production. This was done through innovative machines and self confidence in one’s ability. It was successful but it still continues to make a larger permanent hold on all of India. We were able to visit the campus for rural industrialization and were able to present to a board of scientist, directors, and designers, the principles and intents of Wondergrass and bamboo in India. It was a campus who’s aim was to research and implement sustainable technologies for the betterment of India. We saw bio-gas engines, solar reflective water heaters, and waterless toilets. The amount of innovation was up to par with the rest of the world in discovering efficient and environmentally responsible technologies. However, the main problem was taking these great ideas and placing them in rural India. Like anywhere in the world, great innovation is never embraced for it’s intelligence, but just for it’s possible money making abilities. People did not take these new creations very well, but just regarded them as to difficult to use and maintain.

The best example of a much need design that has surprisingly not had a deep impact in Nagpur or India for that matter is the multi-geared composite internal combustion engine rickshaw. I recently was able to meet several innovators and one of them had designed a sophisticated gear system for his rickshaw that was similar to 27 speed road bikes. But what made this design so impressive was that it was created by a man who makes a living for about several dollars a day, and has no formal education. He was able build on to his rickshaw with all local materials, and persevered despite the constant nay-saying of his friends and neighbors. I’ve included a video and some pictures of my ride in it, and the gear system. On top of riding in the most innovative rickshaw in India, the constant amazed looks, and fellow rickshaw drivers curiosity made it even more inspirational. This rickshaw had several gears that increased the efficiency of each pedaled stroke, and also had a kick start motorcycle engine attached to it, that could be started from the riding position in front and used for steep hills or fast traffic. I’d be in the back seat and he would be pedaling down a street, and suddenly through some quick strong pedals he changed gears and his two-cycle engine would start and move us down the road. The looks on everyone who noticed was one of disbelief, seeing a bicycle rickshaw moving down the road through help of a motor attached to it was quite rare.