Leantoo Design

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2007 built_AWF Vietnam aquaponics_CERES2008 redesign_Recycle Wallah2009 installation_State of Design thesis_paladin

I fundamentally believe design has a huge potential. It is an incredible tool of empowerment. Design is a key untapped capacity in dealing with poverty alleviation and climate change. Providing a clear path to making transitions to a better world whilst inspiring and including people through creativilty and imagination.

2007 Built_AWF VietnamRiver House: A prototype for housing in VietnamGroup collaborative Design project.Project Partners: RMIT, LifeStart Foundation, Architects without Frontiers. Hoi An, Vietnam 2007

RiverHouse integrates Vietnamese culture and social context with innovative design to create a home.

The project goals are:.To create transitional hosuing for street kids in Hoi An, Vietnam, enabling inhabitants to grow independently within a stable home..To integrate the design into the township with cultural sensitivity giving flexibility to mould to the needs of those who live there..To incorporate social design characteristics that will benefit the wider community..To construct and maintain an environment that is sustainable for people by providing energy and civil infrastructure independent of institutions..To construct and maintain a house that is ecologically sustainable..To confront climatic issues within the Hoi An context as a future methodology..To work within the international development framework with a frest perspective.

River House is a collaboration between RMIT Design, L3Ife Start Foundation and Architects without Frontiers.

contextual fabric materiality

initial spatial concept: public/semi private/private

design development

internal model used as a non linguistic community consultation tool

Key concepts

Social spaces Community integrationSustainability & Thermal ManagementFlood management

internal/external

2008 Aquaponics_CERESGroup collaborative landscape design project. Designing and building a large scale aquaponics farm.Project Partners: CERES, 2007

2008 Redesign_Recycle WallahClient/Job: Ramapir No TekroPartners: Manav Sadhna, NID, Kate Steele, Jess Bird.To redesign the cycle rickshaw to lower exertion by 30% whilst also creating a social innovation scheme to allow the riders to own their own rickshaw and continue evolving the design of the rickshaw.

community consultation

design methodology

networkEstablishment of relationships between Manav Sadhna, RMIT students, NID and bagwali boys.

processDiscussion with Manav Sadhna and creation of plan of administration with Viren.

discussionWith Manav Sadhna to create a livlihood program for the rickshaw wallahs.Create a document scope to get funding and volunteers.

researchUnderstanding social conditions in which the rickshaw riders live. The slum and social relationships.

experimentationExploring different changes to the rickshaw. The way the rickshaw works, why the assembly process and concept designs vs local knowledge, assembly, logistics and costs.

prototypeRetrofitting an existing rickshaw to require less maintenance. Developing a prototype to give to Manav Sadhna through the redesign.

1st phase

volunteercommitment made by five volunteers from Ramapir No Tekro to run the program. Employment of locals to work within the workshop. Commitment to ongoing design consultation with RMIT

consultationC o n t i n u e d experimentation and design by RMIT students from Melbourne as part of redesign.

loan schemeManav Sadhna buy the rickshaws then give to wallahs on a payment plan.Payment at previous level of rent. eg - Rs. 10 -20/day. Own within a year.

empowerment Allowing the rickshaw riders to own their own rickshaw in less than a year. Get out of debt cycle with middleman.

workshopLoan payments filtered back into research, providing a repair shop for old trikes to get retrofitted. Assembly point within the community for new ones.

redesignRetrofitting the rickshaw to require less exertion and need less maintenance - be easily replicable.All stakeholders to agree and this to be the basis of the livlihood scheme.Tested through the bagwali delivery boys.

2nd phase

tale of 2 citiesIntegration of the livlihood program into Melbourne CBD

parallel projectInitiated in Melbour as Industrial Design major project.Livelihood scheme and rickshaw implemented in Melbourne CBD.

savings schemeOnce the rickshaw is paid off, continuing payments as a savings scheme.Trade in option after three years for new redesign.

policyInvolving government policy to prtect people within the slum through identification cards.Creating an eco-policy to integrate through old city and AMC.

c o m m u n i t y designFacillitation of community ideas, wants and needs for continuing innovation within the slums.

c o n t i n u i n g designConcept designs and prototypes developed in collaboration with RMIT.Tested in Ramapir.

3rd phase

system design framework

Concept DevelopmentThrough intensive community consultation and collaboration we redesigned the rickshaw with simple changes:1)changed the bearings2)brought the chassis forward 100mm, shortening the chain length.3)take the weight out of the tray.4)lowered the tray for easier accessibility.5)create a triangular load bearing structure for beneath the tray.6)integrate springs under the tray for shock absorption.We built a full prototype and handed this to Manav Sadhna for road testing and to continue the project. These changes were tested and adapted as needed by VIren.

April 2009: The scheme was initiated by Viren B Joshi from Manav Sadhna in March 2008 and 120 rickshaws have been given out by April 2009 with a pay back rate of 99.8% (with no special effort), some paying extra payments to get their rickshaw quicker.

By 2050, 70% of the world population will live in cities, of these, more than

half will live in slums and informal settlements:

are we ready?

Shelter Stories:visualising an urban future

20m

Gravel CircleRecycled cardboard shelters

We live in very significant times. In 2007 for the first time in human history, half the worlds population lived in cities. With this figure predicted to swell to 70% by 2050 , we are facing an unprecedented challenge for the urban landscape, and those who design it. Alarmingly, most of this growth will occur in the slums and informal settlements of the worlds poorest countries such that in only 40 years, the majority of humanity will be without adequate water, sanitation and shelter.

“Shelter stories: visualising an urban future” is an outdoor temporary installation that seeks to visualise the urbanisation of humanity, depecting what a city with a 10m diametre might look like. It is an interactive re-sponse to the global challenge of slums that invites architects and built environment professionals to think about the need for shelter on a global level. At present 90% of the worlds design resources are utilised by the richest 10%

A series of painted recycled cardboard boxes contrasts the rich and poor. To each box is attached a story from a young person growing up in cities. As such the display seeks to contrast the global with the local.

The lower terrace of Birrarung Marr is the proposed location for the exhibition.

Using recycled cardboard, boxes will be constructed and painted white to represent shelter. To each will be attached of a story of “gowing up in cities” to contrast the global and local.

Map of Global Megacities, 2050Source: UN-HABITAT 2002 State of the Worlds Cities Report

By 2050, 70% of the world population will live in cities, of these, more than

half will live in slums and informal settlements:

are we ready?

Shelter Stories:visualising an urban future

20m

Gravel CircleRecycled cardboard shelters

We live in very significant times. In 2007 for the first time in human history, half the worlds population lived in cities. With this figure predicted to swell to 70% by 2050 , we are facing an unprecedented challenge for the urban landscape, and those who design it. Alarmingly, most of this growth will occur in the slums and informal settlements of the worlds poorest countries such that in only 40 years, the majority of humanity will be without adequate water, sanitation and shelter.

“Shelter stories: visualising an urban future” is an outdoor temporary installation that seeks to visualise the urbanisation of humanity, depecting what a city with a 10m diametre might look like. It is an interactive re-sponse to the global challenge of slums that invites architects and built environment professionals to think about the need for shelter on a global level. At present 90% of the worlds design resources are utilised by the richest 10%

A series of painted recycled cardboard boxes contrasts the rich and poor. To each box is attached a story from a young person growing up in cities. As such the display seeks to contrast the global with the local.

The lower terrace of Birrarung Marr is the proposed location for the exhibition.

Using recycled cardboard, boxes will be constructed and painted white to represent shelter. To each will be attached of a story of “gowing up in cities” to contrast the global and local.

Map of Global Megacities, 2050Source: UN-HABITAT 2002 State of the Worlds Cities Report

Shelter Stories:visualising an urban futureREVISED CONCEPT JUNE 09

LOCATION

2009 Art Installation_ State of DesignShelter StoiesJob/Client: Design and fabrication collaboration for State of Design Festival 2009 with Architects Without Frontiers.Location: Federation Square Terrace.Project partners: City of Melbourne, Lucinda Hartley, Simone Bliss.

By 2050, 70% of the world population will live in cities, of these more than half will live in slums and informal settlements. Are we ready?

2009 Thesis_PaladinIndividual Major Project. Industrial Design.Research into how we create meaning for the things we keep and love. Exploring how processes of manufacture and collective designing.

This project is about a suffocating planet exhausted by human desire. It is about a link that went missing. A link between a beautiful consumerable and the creation of it being wholly destructive and polluting.We keep what we love, what we hold dear distinguishes who we are and how we see ourselves. We need to become aware of our use and the construction of our physical world. This can be done through the construction of meaning, embedding beauty with a philosophy; a philosophy becoming a methodology.

storytelling of objects

7 households. 12 people. 300+objects.The way that people interacted with each other and how they selected objects in their own environment informed an analysis of how we create different types of meaning and the way this effects the things we hold on to and get rid of. The way in which these objects then take on a life of their own as they get passed through various hands is also insightful to larger cycles of disposability. Through this analysis it became clear that objects are given a life through the layering of meaning upon them. This is useful as a design tool as it explores how one can script opportunities for meaning into the design and production of an object.

“‘Most of our objects come with very clear stories – they have been alive for long enough.”[Appendix:Derek & Nell, p13]

It also became clear that narratives were a clear conduit to meaning hence non-disposability. Meaning infrastructure was intrinsically built through perceptions of cultural identity. Therefore only certain design intervention points could be maximised without going into custom made furniture for an individual. I explored one method within this thesis. Creating each part of the making process as it’s end functionality and giving object narratives ingrained in the pieces; of the material and the process story. Keeping things is very sustainable. When things are embedded with rarified qualities this increases the chances of the obejct being kept and passed on. Juxtapositioning characteristics - beauty of materials and the casting of light and shadows. The story of making, transparency and warmth, innovation and the age old. Inspiring a conversation about objects, meaning and creating a shift to an ecologic in the physical and the perceptive.All objects within the industrial casting process become an end product. They are given a second life as a functional object within the living room whilst being transparent in their origins: of process. By creating an ultimately rarified object it explores scripting sustainable behaviour and questions current cultural practice by upsetting production norms.

making

PaladinPaladin is a colleciton of objects using the traditional casting resin process. The collection comprises a wooden stool, a transparent resin replica and a third bio resin replica. The negative molds of the legs and stool top created to pour the resin components then become part of the collection as a grow box for the leg and a dish for the stool top.This means the collection is ultimately rarified - the method of making sold as part of the end product.The wooden stool is made from recyceld timber (first used in a far North Queensland Bridge) with traditional joining methods. The first resin stool is toxic polyester resins, this is to fully understand the extent of the process and the hazardous nature of the material. The third is juxtapositioned with it’s toxic counterpart to highlight material innovation and the ability to make something more beautiful with sustainable materials.The three stools represent the eras of production and a holistic method to design by.

Philippa Abbott.Lean Too Design.

Travel TracksExperiential public transport tickets = user centred design + graphic communication

Socio-cultural MappingDeveloped a highly sensitive method of social mapping to identify key intervention points within a system.

06 - 10 Project Snapshots

Organic 1Reclaiming construction timber and returning it to a organic form.

Organic 2Chess pieces machined from wood.

2008 2d>3dTask: To make a 3d scale furniture model from 2d material.

2008 Organic 3Disused construction timber recreated an organic form. Handcrafted.

form study

i am amorphic no i am amorphic no i am amorphic

form study = weaving + graphic

Water Harvesting Concept Large Scale Installation at Burning Man Festival.Environmental design + Art installation.

Laneway Art Concept‘Disruptive Surface’. Large scale intervention made from Waste paper proposed for Barry Lane, CBD

Design Theory Craft and critical theory project. Handmade and bound book exploring critical theories and creative responses to including drawing, narrative and editorial.

studio 1: creative abstraction = collapsible living for universal refugee + user centred design

studio 5: livehouse= collapsible architecuture + community facillitation