Aesthetics of water challenge¶
| Download |
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| 1. Presentation Poster |
| 2. Presentation Video |
Challenge¶
The Druk Gyalpo’s Institute In Paro, Bhutan is an Royal Academy, a Teacher Development Center and an Education Research Center. The beautiful buildings are surrounded by incredible nature. After a landslide because of heavy rains, the natural water sourced from the mountain, turned yellow. The quality of the water is NOT the problem. But the color yellow makes people hesitant to drink it. Since the problem is not the quality of the water, it is also about aethetics and the need of a deeper understanding that the water is safe to drink.
The challenge had two parts:
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First of all: can we help to make the water clear?
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and secondly: can we come up with a monitor system for a better distribution of water?
Team¶
The challenge team members are Dawa Tshering, Deepti Sharma, Haru Hideo Oguri, Leen Nijim, Marleen Stikker, Matthieu Dupont, Murad Saadeh, Pema Dendup, Remy Ducros, Rozeani Araújo, Sobit Pradhan, and Walter Gonzalez Arnao.
The support team members are Anith Ghalley (Teacher and Fablab engineer), Dasho Zimpoen Karma Thinley (Project director of The Royal Academy Construction Project), Dewan (Plumber), Dorjee (Fablab assistant), Jean-Michel Molenaar (Fab Foundation), Pema Rinzin (Student), Penjor Ghaley (Cerebral coordinator), Sangay Yangden Jurmi (Teacher), Tashi Namgyal (Student), Tenzin Choden Thinley (Student), Tenzin Jamtsho (Director of Adminstration), and Thukten Choida (Student).
With a great international team and a support team from Bhutan we took up the challenge.
Understanding the context¶
We worked together with the students, the director of DGI and the technicians. We studied the water system and explored the terrain. We went on a factfinding mission to the natural source high up in the mountain. With these insides we went to the fablab.
Talking solutions¶
In the Fablab we brainstormed, experimented, designed and tested. We created prototypes, and an educational toolkit.
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For the filtering we advise to add an extra natural filtration station using roughing filter. We designed and made the prototype. A solution that is fab proof and can be made within a FabLab.
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For the monitoring we designed a prototype that simulates a digital monitoring solution for the water distribution on the campus. It collects water pressure and flowrate data from key points in the pipelines, it can actuate the water valves and monitor the water level of the filtering plant tanks. We added a dash board for an overview where the issues occur.
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We enjoyed the specific Bhutan architecture and we saw a great opportunity to harvest the rainwater of the buildings. We made a generic prototype that can be used in the rest of country.
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For educational purposes we designed an educational tool to understand the path form natural sourced water, different filtering stations and the tap. This tool can be used in other context as well.
Impact and sustainability¶
To make impact, our work meets the expectations of the four pillars of this year fab event:
Youth & Education¶
We really wanted to go beyond technological solutions. As we learn a lot about water we created an educational kit to play with. It could be easy to use and replicate and it’s accessible to all (from all age).
Innovation, Sustainability & Community¶
Almost half the time of the challenge has been invested into meeting the local communities to better understand their problems. Everything we’ve done was for them first.
We had to be resilient and innovative to complete the challenge. During our study phase we needed a turbidity sensor and couldn’t get it so we have decided to design and make one using what we have available at the lab.
Also, all the solutions, prototypes and educational tool are replicable and can be used in other environments. We documented our research and results on the gitlab site of the Fab Foundation.
All the content of this website is open source. Everyone should feel free to recreate, modify, contribute to this work.
This strategy help disseminate the solutions to have a global impact.
Technology¶
Even if we designed human centered solutions we used all the digital fabrication tools of the fablab and electronic sensors implemented with micro controllers.
More than prototypes we also suggested plan to scale our solutions using appropriate technologies.
Economic opportunity¶
Our solution helps create economic opportunities. Indeed, monitoring the whole system can avoid leakages and water waste.
Also our monitoring system will help the local technician to easier identify failure and thus fix faster the problems.
Video¶
Here you can find a short video presenting the outcome of the challenge.
