CB Bureau
Thirty
designers from India and eight from other countries with different design
competencies came together at a workshop to address some of the social and
infrastructure challenges facing Mumbai.
Titled ‘2014 Interdesign Mumbai’, the workshop was organized by Prin. LN Welingkar Institute of Management
Development & Research (WeSchool) along with The International Council of Societies
of Industrial Design (ICSID).
Themed ‘Humanising a Metropolis’, the workshop tried
understanding the design bottlenecks faced by the city, focusing on key issues
like drainage system, waste management, challenges of creating an educational
township, socializing in a metro, improving the outdoor experience for
citizens, chaotic shopping experience and lifestyle-related health problems, and
discussed ideas that could help in resolving such issues in the near future.
The exhibition of prototypes at the workshop had sub-themes like ‘Visualising Matunga as a University Township, ‘Living with
Rain’, ‘Zero Waste Household’, ‘Redefining the Outdoor Experience’, ‘Health on
the Go’ and ‘The Great Indian Bazaar (unorganized and organized retail)’. It was an attempt to showcase solutions that could be
applied across Indian metropolises and emerging economies of future.
‘This is the first time the ICSID Interdesign
workshop was held in India and we are happy to be hosting it. For the past two
weeks, WeSchool has been an innovation hub with experienced designers from
India and abroad devising ways and means to bring about simple design
interventions, to tackle some of the critical infrastructural and social
challenges in a metropolis like Mumbai. The aim behind this workshop was to try
and bring about transformative changes that will improve the living conditions
in Mumbai by tackling existing issues through a designer’s holistic and
abstract approach,’ said Dr Uday
Salunkhe, group director, WeSchool.