First 72 Hours Submission Feedback

Hi all!

About a month ago there was a post on the core77 home page for a competition sponsored by UNICEF called “First 72 Hours”, where they asked for “innovative, scalable and people-centered solutions for the 72 hours after a humanitarian disaster”. I thought this was a pretty cool competition, so I quickly came up with a concept and submitted it.

I’ve been lucky enough to make it to the final 30, and the deliverable for the next stage is due in about a week. One of the key things they’re looking for in the next stage is evidence of some sort of co-creation where “the proposal was designed or re-designed along with experts and/or relevant players (potential users and recipients) through a collaborative design.”
Unfortunately being from Australia I can’t speak to any potential disaster victims in the next week, but I thought I COULD ask a highly talented bunch of designers to lay into the concept and suggest as many changes as possible. So yeah, if anyone’s got any thoughts about my submission, I’d really love the feedback!

Here’s my original submission. The presentation and rendering is a little rough around the edges because I’m an Eng student who can’t really make things pretty unless I’ve got a lot of time, but it should demonstrate the concept well enough!

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Ok so what is it??

Well I did some research and discovered that after a natural disaster the current advised method for handling sanitation is by digging pit latrines. These are basically holes in the ground with some sort of liner to prevent water contamination with a concrete slab that has a hole in it stuck on top that you squat on. Pit latrines are actually a pretty effective long term solution, but they’re slow to deploy (good luck manufacturing a concrete slab in the days after a disaster), and the squatting technique is absolutely dismal for anyone with any form of disability where they can’t bend their legs well (read the elderly, the scores of people injured in the disaster). Basically concept is to create a very basic seat that shipped in flat packed, and takes holds a biodegradable bag. There’s a company called PeePoo that has started to roll out these biodegradable bags, so we know they work, I’ve just taken it a step further so you’re not just squatting on top of a bag.

I’ve already received some feedback - among the most useful suggestions was to modify the seat so that it can be used with a pit latrine, as that way you still support the disabled once more permanent infrastructure is built. However, I’d really love it if anyone else had some thoughts about how to improve the design for the next stage!

Cheers,

Nick