January 18, 2023

Beautification and Badminton

Today began with a typical Indian breakfast at the BMS hostel, followed by a bus ride to a dirty gray wall covered in illegally-placed posters on the side of a busy street. Here, we were greeted by volunteers affiliated with the Ugly Indian (TUI for short), an organization devoted to bringing community members together to clean up neglected parts of the city. The Ugly Indian volunteers informed us that this wall separated us from a large cemetery and that because there were no businesses or other activity along this part of the street, the wall had been neglected and left to collect filth. Our objective was to turn this wall from zero to hero. No talk, just work! (“Kaam chalum, muh band” is TUI’s philosophy). After donning PPE and receiving a short briefing, we got right to work removing posters and dirt on the wall. As we finished this task, we moved on to covering the stone and concrete with blue paint. Next, we measured out and applied masking tape, paint triangles, and so on, until after just two or three hours, we had transformed a 100-meter stretch of dusty gray wall into a vibrant sea of blue and white triangles. I and the rest of the group were astounded by the transformation we were able to accomplish in such a short time. Despite the hot sun beating down on us as it rose in the sky, I felt refreshed to do some hands-on work after spending the past couple weeks absorbing information at our various site visits and lectures.

As we prepared to leave, one of the TUI volunteers, a designer himself, gave us some insights into the vision and strategy of this organization. The idea of TUI is to take a social problem everyone is aware of, urban filth, and to act at a grassroots level to solve the problem. In the case of our project, we removed any existing filth, then covered the wall with art to establish it as a place city-dwellers should respect, rather than neglect. The geometric patterns painted on the walls included sharp angles that conveyed effort was made to beautify the surface, and thus the work should be respected. Blues and neutral colors were chosen as they would not align with a particular group and inflame inter-group issues, considering the diversity of India and the host of cultural and political groups present. In this way, this relatively, simple-to-implement solution carefully leverages psychology and social awareness in its design. It also accomplishes sustainable beautification without need for long-term operations and maintenance. This aspect of the project struck me as especially important considering how unpopular operations and maintenance seems to be in Bangalore. A nearby wall section painted 6 months prior demonstrated the durability of this solution, showing a fresh-looking surface and minimal filth in front of it. The volunteers’ consideration of critical factors at play in design allowed them to create a solution that achieved their objective, to remove ugliness and filth in the city, while using minimal monetary resources. I expect to look back to this organization’s work for inspiration as I start on my own projects in the next few days, as this kind of problem-solving is the main objective of our program.

In the afternoon, we got to learn about more examples of design thinking in action with a lecture from Nivasa, an organization of architects seeking to improve lives of the poor with affordable housing. What distinguishes this organization’s work from other affordable housing programs is its emphasis on incorporating the beneficiaries’ own unique desires and assets to create affordable and sustainable houses. The organization has worked with a couple of rural villages in India, designing houses in the community with models that the village members could interact with and use to provide input, and building the houses using affordable materials, like mud bricks, that are available in the communities. This individualized approach contrasted with the common government approach of producing cookie-cutter affordable homes en masse that would go uninhabited. While the presenters from Nivasa noted that the houses they helped create were successful with the villagers, they did note that this individualized approach comes with a limitation; it is not scalable. At the current rate of implementation, these adored homes will not keep up with the rates of homelessness in India. Nivasa is looking for ways to address this limitation. Nevertheless, they continue to believe in the community and sustainability-focused approaches they are using, as the alternative is empty houses that don’t serve anyone. I find it exciting and fascinating to see how an organization like this one grapples with challenges to its overall approach. It seems they, like many social enterprises, are in the process of iterating their design.

I feel a bit overwhelmed from today’s deluge of information and have felt this way after most other days on this trip, so far. Despite the assaults on my attention span, I feel I am collecting some real insights into the nature of social entrepreneurship and will have a good bank of examples to refer to once I get started with my team next week, taking real action to solve real problems . . .

On another note entirely, I finished the day playing Badminton with some friends from UW and BMS in the BMS indoor court facility. I enjoyed moving and breaking a sweat after a busy day and getting to know people here a bit better. I think I’ll make Badminton a part of my routine as I settle into project work. Fun fact: BMS College of Engineering’s mascot is the Original Blue Devil. Go Devils!