Chulha Goes Commercial

Philips has taken on this global design challenge with the humble chulha to make a better and healthier world for people to live in.

The Chulha found itself winning the Home category for the Danish-initiated Index Awards 2009.   The bi-annual award supports the INDEX mission to generate more design that improves quality of life all over the world.

Traditionally the chulha (Hindi) is a stove used for cooking using bio fuels such as wood or charcoal.

The conventional chulha has fueled concerns over ill-healths and subsequent deaths of millions, especially women and children. WHO estimates a 1.6 million deaths annually from Indoor Air Pollution (IAP) in which toxic fumes emitted from indoor cooking with “bio-mass” fuels.

Philips’ Philanthropy by Design unit has collaborated with ARTI (Appropriate Rural Technology Institute), to come up with a design to limit dangerous health conditions caused by traditions of indoor cooking in many rural areas of the developing world.

Dubbed as being innovative, sustainable, and a promotion of healthy cooking, the stove is being made available by Philips Design to the universe of social entrepreneurs so that they can, free of charge, produce the stove, themselves, and generate local business.

The award nominees were Unmesh Kulkarni, Praveeen Mareguddi Philips Design Team, India and Bas Griffioen, Simona Rocchi Philips Design Team, the Netherlands. According to Index,  the newer avatar of the Chulha promises to create a safer milieu for indoor cooking in several ways:

• It traps smoke and heat inside a locally cast housing in such a way as to heat two pot-holes with a high rate of efficiency to require less fuel;

• It then directs the smoke through a chimney chamber that includes a stack of slotted clay tablets – they capture particulates as the smoke moves through, cleaning the exhaust before it ever leaves the assembly; and

• The Chulha’s chimney then includes an indoor access for cleaning, eliminating the need seen in previous devices for a family member,  usually the mother, to climb on the roof and attempt cleaning. This has been blamed for many accidents, along with the toxicity of the smoke.

Currently two models of the Chulha have emerged to accommodate different income levels: one version priced at 9 to 11 Euros (approximately AU$15 -$18 ) has a double oven and hotbox; a more expensive model, at 13 to 15 Euros (AU$22-$25 ), includes a steamer. Both stoves feature a  decorative pattern with a Desi-touch, which could be described in marketing terms as a lifestyle upgrade. After all, notes Rocchi, “Design solutions for poor people don’t have to be ugly.” 

When asked how he plans to spend 100.000 Euro on more design to improve life, Stefano Marzano, CEO and Chief Creative Director for Philips Design (who developed the Chulha) says that Philips Design will spend the award on further supporting the availability of the Chulha in India.

Wonder if the new avatar will reproduce ma ke haath ka khana (cliched reference to Hindi cinema) *wink??

Bag a Bague

Out on a cold but beautiful sunny Sunday, I set out to see the oddly dubbed This is not a Design Market, featured as one of the State of Design Festival currently running in Melbourne.

Wondered why they called it that. Anyway quite to the contrary, I found wares that were absolutely beautiful…I am talking “curiosity-arousing” stuff. My favourite was the Bilingual jewellery presented by two people (whose bcs I forgot to take). You can see their designs at http://www.bilingual.com.au

My favourite was this one below, unusually comfortable, given that orthogonal jewellery are not known for their comfort, this one needs to be slid along the width and turned 90 degrees to fit onto your finger. Slid absolutely smooth as butter and didn’t hurt a bit .

Images from Bilingual

© Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction

Urban or Retreat?

© designsstapler.wordpress.com

Time Magazine recently published a list of places in Asia claimed to be the best for the Mind, Body and Soul. It was indeed very surprising to see Chandigarh to be named an example demonstrating Best Application of Corbusian Principles. The city is literally devoid of any neon and “numbered housing “sectors” are egalitarian, the setting almost too tranquil.” writes John Krich. Modernism perhaps at its best or I should say Corbusier’s best in terms of urban planning, Nehru decided to build his socialist vision by engaging the Swiss master builder for setting up the state capital of a divided Punjab. The concrete edifices although magnificent, are “in dire need of applied-for World Heritage protection”

Methodical and thought out…...is the spirit behind the entire scheme of the city. Set amidst gardens and parklands is the smooth flowing traffic.

It feels very ironic to see that the urban setting can be considered as a “retreat” site. Though Krish very aptly points out to the old vision of modernism is being substituted by a new vision of business-oriented growth, commercial spread and consumerist excess, however these concrete buildings are testament to a time and reason for Chandigarh to exist in the first place. I would say to critics who question Chandigarh’s “Indianness” should consider that India is becoming or has become an political (the biggest democracy in the world), economic, cultural (Slumdog millionaire..wink!) powerhouse, a force perhaps to reckon with. I agree with Krich when he says “the world still waits for that “era of harmony” Le Corbusier promised to advance here. There is still work to be done.

*Source: Time Magazine

Stairway to Creative Heaven

I was absolutely fascinated in the delicious nature of an architectural photography website stair porn. stair porn is laden with fantastic images of nothing but stairs. Justin Anthony, who specialises in residential restoration, is the website’s author/editor.

Some of my favourites in stair porn are the art nouveau stairs, steps made out of wooden skateboards , and lastly wooden bookcase stairs. I am not sure if bookcase stairs will work in the Indian context, with the religious connotations of books being a great source of knowledge. The very action of stepping upon books might be considered culturally unacceptable.

Look out for the Victor Horta’s staircase design for Hotel Tassel in Brussels, Belgium* To learn more about Victor Horta and the Art Nouveau movement in Belgium, please visit the Horta Museum website

*Good Karma teaches me not to pinch images.

Global Appreciation

Bringing along several superlative labels and creative brains of the world, under its bandwagon, is the World Architecture Festival 2008, which was held late October in Barcelona.

The WAF awards website claims (perhaps rightfully) itself to be the largest awards programme in the world, totalling 17 categories. The first annual World Architecture Festival Awards eventually attracted more than 700 entries from 63 countries worldwide.

The new faculty building for Luigi Bocconi University in Milan by Irish design firm Grafton Architects won the title of “Building of the Year.” Festival director Paul Finch described the building as ‘a totally 3d piece of design’ and praised it for its relationship with the city.

Living it Up

Living Steel announced winners for its 3rd International Architecture Competition for Sustainable Housing, which called architects to design affordable housing in the wintry town of Cherepovets, Russia.

Australian design firm, Peter Stutchbury Architects, represented by Peter Stutchbury and Richard Smith, was selected as the winner who received the Jury Prize of 50,000 Euros. Two other firms received honourable mentions included Bligh Voller Nield Architecture (BVN), also from Australia and Toronto-based RVTR.

Towering Great Heights

Sydney has the Opera House, Paris her Eiffel Tower and New York the Chrysler Tower, is India Tower going to be Mumbai’s iconic architectural piece.

Well Mumbai’s skyline has not looked so iconic and “green” until American architects FWFowle have decided to design the India Tower.

FWFOWLE’s design for the India Tower centers on creating an iconic residential mixed-use building within India’s emerging new economy. The 301-metre tower is informed by distinctive indoor/outdoor environments and the desire to optimise the panoramic views of the surrounding landscape. The towers rotated form emerges in response to the buildings functional requirements and its mixed-use program – which changes with each twist of the structure. This circulation pattern separates retail, 5-star Park Hyatt hotel and service apartments and long lease duplex penthouse condominium apartments within a sustainable network of green roofs and hanging gardens; creating a singular, extraordinary building that, when completed, will be the tallest and greenest – building in India.

Stepping into Tradition

Photography proves a fantastic tool to take us back into times and traditions which we may have forgotten and abandoned. British photographer Richard Cox is indeed a magician who brings a fantastic collection of images through a touring exhibition titled Subterranean Architecture, Stepwells in Western India. Due to open in September 2008 at Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre, Wales, UK, the exhibition documents step wells and their significance and contribution to the subcontinent’s unique architectural heritage.

Known as vavs or baoris, these stepwells were built about twelve hundred years ago in the dry and arid western regions of Gujarat and Rajasthan. According to Morna Livingston, author of Steps to Water: The Ancient Stepwells of India

“The grandest period of stepwell construction spanned half a millennium–from the late eleventh through the sixteenth century–dotting the countryside with exquisitely embellished public monuments, the most extravagant of which is the Rani ki Vav, or Queen’s Stepwell, at Patan, Gujarat.”

Featured in the above image is the Chand Baori located in Abhaneri, Rajasthan. One of the oldest and deepest wells in India; the Chand Baori sits next to Harshat Mata Temple, comprises of several hundred zigzagging steps steeply descending 11 storeys deep. The result is an impression of geometric friezes carved out of yellowish brown stone laid out against the horizon. On one side of the well, constructed are covered verandas supported by ornate pillars overlooking the steps.

These stepwells provided water storage facilities for drinking, irrigation, washing and bathing purposes. Apart from these primary facilities, these stepwells became areas where passers by could cool. Stepwells also became places where people worshipped the Hindu Gods.

Richard Cox describes their use, “During their heyday, they were a place of gathering, of leisure, of relaxation and of worship for villages of all but the lowest castes. Men gained respite from the heat in the covered pavilions, while the women had a rare chance to chat amongst themselves while drawing water for their families.”

Morna Livingston explains about stepwells in a socio-architectural context, “Owing to its delightful qualities and lucid design, the stone stepwell remained the state of the art in Indian water management for more than a thousand years.”

 

Bookly Treasure

I happened to stumble upon this wonderful oddly titled book Eckart Muthesius 1930. Der Palast des Maharadschas in Indore. Architektur und Interieur / the Maharaja’s Palace in Indore. Architecture and Interior that recently made its way into the racks of RMIT University Library. The book is a fantastic collection of images and drawings by German architect Eckart Muthesius (1904-1989) for the royal commission of the Holkars’ Residence in Indore (Manik Baugh).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Palace is an outstanding early example of experimental International Style architecture and interior design in India. Commissioned by the keen Maharajah of Indaur (Indore), Yeshwant Rao Holkar II to German-English architect Eckart Muthesius, the building today stands as the office of the Chief Commissioner, Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax.

Eckart Muthesius’ designs drew inspiration from various influences, which included his father Hermann Muthesius, an architect, diplomat, writer and deep admirer of the “English house” as an architectural genre. Secondly, Muthesius’ godparent and one of the principal propagators of the English Arts and Crafts movement, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, who also was an early stimulus for the young Muthesius.