PEER COMMENTS

Julia Xiao
Emily Soares
Fiona Lee
Susanna Li
Wang fanru

Project 1 Designing for disaster

Disaster selected: 1998 China Yangtze River flood

Emergency phase: Recovery, Relief

Design solution: Collapsable water pasteurization bucket

Cost: RMB 20

Rationale

Problem discovery
After floods, water is always contaminated by flood water. Water-borne disease always happened after flood, because the lack of fresh water. The 1998 Yangtze river flood happened in both urban and rural areas of China. The urban areas have much stronger construction and the water supply after disaster was quickly supported by government. However, for rural areas that affected by floods, weak houses were destroyed by floods and people were displaced to higher places. Water was in needs and the supply of bottle water was huge. The transportation of water is also difficult because roads were destroyed by floods too.

Design solution
My solution to this problem is to design a collapsable water pasteurization bucket for these poor people. The collapsable bucket can save places for transportation and increase the efficiency of transportation of relief supplies. The filtration method chosen was solar power water pasteurization, which is easy to operate and durable. Solar rate is high within latitude 15-35, where Yangtze river areas is located in. The principle of water pasteurization is simple and the bucket is reusable and durable. So solar pasteurization is suitable for this emergency situation.

                                                     Basic water pasteurization set up

 The color chosen was green. The reason is that it can remind people of the shape of lotus leaf, which means peace and relief in Chines people's mind. Also, lotus leaf has the ability of holding water and the shape is beautiful, it is good for people after disaster to have this bucket, not only for its function of water pasteurization, but also for the aesthetic and the mind relief that mean to them.

For the culturally suitability, I also look into the way that people live in rural area lift water. Research found that they used to hold water on their shoulder, using a strong bamboo stick or by bamboo made basket. The reason is that they can hold more water and it is good for long way walking. So my design was to make the bucket lift on shoulder and culturally suitable for these people.

Material selected are environmental friendly and will not increase the burden of the areas. The support for the bucket is bamboo sheet, which can be locally produced. 

Benefits

The benefit of this design is that it can solve the problem of fresh water scarcity after disaster. People can support themselves by using the bucket. It can be easily transported than bottle water, and it is sustainable. After people go back to their home, they can still use this bucket to filter water, because water facility in rural area is still in lack and people have to walk a long way to fetch water. The bucket can also help them improve their living standard and reduce the risk of water-borne disease.

Reflection

This project was challenging and reminds me of the responsibility to the society as being a designer. Disaster is inevitable but the power of human can overcome the disaster. Disaster happened in rural areas usually have larger impact on the people there. It is important for us to design things for these poor people and improve their living standard. I think the best design only come after entering into the life of these people, you will know what they really need in front of you, but not by pictures. If I can go to the disaster stricken areas and help them, I will learn more about the situation and give a better design. 

I also learn from this project the importance of research. It is only after you have a good research of the situation then you can have a better understanding of what happened. A lack of research may result in low practicality of the products, which means that you did not solve the problem for these people. So if I can do this project again, I will do more research and refine my product to improve the practicality of my design. 

In this project, I also find my weakness of communication skills, which i will focus on in my next project. Moreover, sketch model is important of testing the design and help a lot in refining the design. So I will make more effort in these and improve my design skills.