Sukshm

Upcycled shipping container off-grid living concept

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Inspiration

Having our background in architecture as a bachelor's as well as pursuing a master's in design, provided us a unique observation and eye to see problems around us that are not superficial but engraved deep in the context and community.

Living nearby the dock city, Kolkata, we were able to articulate the dire problem of discarded shipping containers happening at the city's dock as well as around India. These shipping containers are discarded on a daily basis even due to minor damages, finally ending up as landfills, and marine debris, if there's a provision of recycling, it includes the step of burning it which generates 8000 kWh of energy.

So, we as a designer as well as innovators for the future were liable to do something, even though the problem was niche and limited to a radius around dock cities but had a significant impact on the environment due to the humongous sizes of discarded shipping containers.

What it does

So our solution, Sukhsm, gives a new life to these shipping containers, by not recycling them but upcycling them. Connecting with the concept of off-grid sustainable living which is being practiced in India through various eco-villages and ecological pockets. Both of these aspect closely gets interlinked with each other just like a pieces of puzzle solving the dire problem of climate change coherently hand in hand.

How we built it

Currently, we are at the brainstorm and ideation stage of the design and so we built it over the principals following the design thinking, human centered design and architectural design approach. For technical aspect we used software like photoshop, figma, procreate.

Challenges we ran into

The core challenge that we faced was at the initial problem identification phase. Being designers and innovators of future climate change aspects we wanted to solve problem which are deep-rooted in the culture and community from the place we belong. And here we delved deep into the discarding of shipping containers going in the dock cities leading to environment pollution and affecting biodiversity.

The ideation for this problem was also challenging it itself as we had strong preconceived notion of solving it with the community, not imposing them with something out of the culture and context thus the idea of off-grid living home modules.

We have technical challenges due to limited coding knowledge in the development of the companion app.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are actually happy that the ideation workshop yielded us the desired solution that we were looking for in coherence to community and context. Both the aspect of upcycling shipping container home and sustainable off-grid living connects as a pieces of puzzle solving the dire environmental problem in our local context.

What we learned

We learnt the need and importance of looking for problems that are happening around our city, town and neighborhood, and how through a lens of designer and architect we can give back to our community innovative solution that will better their livelihood as well as save the biodiversity and climate.

What's next for Sukshm

We have a whole phases of development planned with the Sukshm, designing and developing it further with the help of NGO's, our university entrepreneurship cell and finally pitching to various stakeholders and concern government organization like ministry of housing of India.

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