GO FRUGAL: LESSONS FROM SLUM ARCHITECTURE
Ar. Kamal Passi , Dr. Gaurav Raheja
Abstract
While the authorities struggle to find ways to cater to the problem of slums, thousands of shelters are being built daily without any major outside support or government scheme. If there is any possible access to land, people build homes and improvements are made over time. This quality must be identified as strength, and harnessed if India is to provide decent housing to its growing urban population. Providing Slums with Architectural solutions is like giving cookbooks to a famine hit country. What needs to be understood is that slums are not a problem to begin with. They are the products of various shortcomings in the Macro level planning policies. …show more content…
Through minimising the use of resources in development, production and delivery, or by leveraging them in new ways, frugal innovation results in dramatically lower–cost products and services. Successful frugal innovations are not only low cost, but outperform the alternative, and can be made available at large scale. Often, but not always, frugal innovations have an explicitly social mission. (Bound & Thornton, 2012)
Particularly in India, there are a number of factors that compel us to think of a frugal future, and how frugal innovations can greatly serve the society as a whole.
• The out of the box thinking mind-set and unusual skill sets required for frugal innovations are abundant, which is evidently seen from the culture of “Jugaad”
• The aspirations of the middle class are growing that open up new markets for frugal innovators. They are simultaneously willing to experiment following their price sensitivity.
• Extreme gaps in services instigate demand for low-cost and efficient solutions in various public sectors like health and energy.
• The cost of investment for frugal innovations is being lowered by the many social financing
Ar. Kamal Passi , Dr. Gaurav Raheja
Abstract
While the authorities struggle to find ways to cater to the problem of slums, thousands of shelters are being built daily without any major outside support or government scheme. If there is any possible access to land, people build homes and improvements are made over time. This quality must be identified as strength, and harnessed if India is to provide decent housing to its growing urban population. Providing Slums with Architectural solutions is like giving cookbooks to a famine hit country. What needs to be understood is that slums are not a problem to begin with. They are the products of various shortcomings in the Macro level planning policies. …show more content…
Through minimising the use of resources in development, production and delivery, or by leveraging them in new ways, frugal innovation results in dramatically lower–cost products and services. Successful frugal innovations are not only low cost, but outperform the alternative, and can be made available at large scale. Often, but not always, frugal innovations have an explicitly social mission. (Bound & Thornton, 2012)
Particularly in India, there are a number of factors that compel us to think of a frugal future, and how frugal innovations can greatly serve the society as a whole.
• The out of the box thinking mind-set and unusual skill sets required for frugal innovations are abundant, which is evidently seen from the culture of “Jugaad”
• The aspirations of the middle class are growing that open up new markets for frugal innovators. They are simultaneously willing to experiment following their price sensitivity.
• Extreme gaps in services instigate demand for low-cost and efficient solutions in various public sectors like health and energy.
• The cost of investment for frugal innovations is being lowered by the many social financing