Recently in India Category
May 27, 2015
Affordable Housing: Moladi's Hennie Botes on Innovation & Perseverance
January 13, 2015
Adrian Woolridge: "Capitalism begins at home"
January 29, 2014
Whatever Happened to the $300 House?
June 15, 2011
$300 House: Open Design Challenge Winners
What began as a challenge in a blog post on the Harvard Business Review website has resulted in a collection of 300 design submissions from around the world. The $300 House Open Design Challenge is complete, with judges picking their final selections after much deliberation, and an extension, in order to go through the entries in detail.
Winners were selected in combination with votes from
the community and a panel of judges
comprised of expert designers, architects, and thought leaders. The winners share
$25000 in total prize money which includes $10,000 in cash awards to the top 16
placements as voted by the community itself, and $15,000 in scholarships to
attend a prototyping workshop for six participants (three selected by the
community, and three by the judges panel).
The winners of the prototyping workshop scholarship are
(listed by username):
"We're delighted
by the depth and breadth of the submissions we received," says Vijay
Govindarajan, Professor of International Business and the Founding Director of
Tuck's Center for Global Leadership. "Hosting
this contest on Jovoto's open, co-creation platform gave us a wealth of ideas
and identified the people who we believe have the passion, skill, and
commitment, to take the project to the next level, prototyping and actually
building a $300 house for the poor. We invite all the participants to continue
the discussion at www.300house.com."
June 10, 2011
Our Rebuttal to the $300 House Op-Ed in the NY Times
That's the question I asked myself when I saw the op-ed they ran on the $300 House.
VG and I wrote a rebuttal - here - on the Harvard Business Review blog.
Please let us know what you think by posting your comments at HBR, underneath the rebuttal.
May 27, 2011
299 Design Ideas for the $300 House
Special thanks to the Jovoto team - Nathalie, Nadine, Peter (x2), Bastian, and Shaun at Mutopo for making this happen - without your generosity we'd never have gotten off the ground. Thanks also to Scott Tew from Ingersoll Rand for your willingness to try this experiment.
Now, let the judging begin!
April 9, 2011
Shraya's Interview: The $300 House
The following questions were sent to VG and Christian by Shraya, a 4th grader in Miss Mancosh's class. Her mentor for this project is Miss Emily Pasquale. Thanks for your questions, Shraya!
We
are not a formal organization - simply a collection of concerned
individuals and companies trying to find a solution to the problem of
low-cost housing for the poorest people on our planet. So our "job" is to
help people come together - across organizations, businesses and
governments - to solve the problem.
How do you plan to get the money to construct these houses?
Does your organization operate all around the world?
Yes
and no. We have members from all the different continents who have
signed on because they are interested in solving the problem. But we
are not a formal organization, so we don't spend any money operating
anywhere.
What are challenges in building houses outside the USA?
Great
question. The biggest challenge for poor people anywhere is money -
they don't have enough money to buy land or to buy a house. Sometimes
they lack the money to even rent a place to live and have to resort to
living in anything they can find that gives them some protection from
the elements.
Our hope is that we can create affordable houses which are comfortable
and durable enough to provide the poor with a safe place to live. Every
country has different issues, and we're going to have to understand what
they are to be successful.
Are you constructing any houses in India currently?
No,
not yet. But India is one of the countries we want to build a few test
houses, to see how they work. Other countries we are thinking about to
start this project are Haiti and Indonesia.
Are you working with other charities? If so what are they?
We
plan on working with charities and businesses. You see, we think
businesses can make money and help poor people at the same time. It's
simply a matter of designing the house at a price that poor people can
afford. We are also working with non-profits like the Solar Electric
Light Fund, and shortly, we hope, with Partners In Health. In India we
are talking to a number of non-profits as well. Of course, we welcome
everyone!
What type of problems have you encountered so far?
What
problems? If it was easy, the problem would have been solved a long
time ago. So we don't really view our difficulties as problems, but
rather as a way to learn. You can't run without falling, and we're
learning to fall quite well!
How has the response been so far about this initiative?
Tremendous.
We have people like you writing us - and we have almost 800 people from
all over the world who want to do something about this issue. It's
great!
What is it like being in this organization?
It's fun to
try to do something that most people think can't be done. And what will
be really cool is if we succeed! Wish us luck - and send in your design
for the $300 House.
VG and I love that kids are getting into this project along w/ the adults. Here's an example of a submission from another concerned citizen of the planet >>
March 10, 2011
February 26, 2011
The $300 House in the City: Sunil Suri on the Urban Challenge
Read all about the Urban Challenge on the Harvard Business Review blog>>
January 21, 2011
Alex Fisberg: Snapshots from India and Brazil
The following snapshots are from Alex Fisberg, a Brazilian journalist in
India. He sent in the photos to share with folks working on the $300 house.
Alex’s blog - Um Jornalismo Social - is here >>
Scenes from India
An opportunity for the $300 House…
January 8, 2011
Raj Anand: On Converting a Slum to a Sustainable Community
Almost all urban areas of the world have slum dwellers, developed countries have slums and developing countries have slums. The common elements and operations of all such areas can be looked at from a systems science standpoint.
Essentially in any slum or slum equivalent boundary, each resident is an open subsystem exchanging resources with the larger system at its boundary. Each subsystem is driven to optimize its own resource exchange with the larger entity at its boundary with limited or no regard for other subsystems in the slum boundary. This dynamic leads to the creation of a perpetual slum. Once this dynamic is changed the slum can be transitioned to a sustainable perpetually improving community, with a developed infrastructure.
The question is then: Change the dynamics to what?
Link the open subsystems of the slum into goal oriented closed slum system which trades resources at the limited interfaces at the boundary with the larger system in an organized way to the benefit of the slum system
How to bring about the change?
- Map all the resource interchanges between the slum subsystems and the larger system. This can be done by collecting data of revenue flow into the slum area and revenue outflow from the slum area.
- Diverting a large part of the revenue flow going out of the slum area to circulate inside the slum area by setting up services needed by the subsystem by the residents of the system ( example if residents are getting al their food supplies outside the system, set up a small food supply business inside the system run by a resident)
This needs input from social political scientists, the key is to organize as a self directed, sustainable entity with controlled interface with the outside system to move the equilibrium point to higher standard of living.
What physical infrastructure is needed?
Housing, potable water, sewer system, sanitation, toilets, electricity, medical care, education, communications. Prioritize the physical infrastructure needs and find creative way to generate these, for example if the infrastructure element is at the end of the value chain where its value has been exhausted by the larger system it can be recycled into the slum system.
An example of this end of life planned value chain:
If a dual purpose shipping container is developed which maximizes the space usage of trailers, the slum system can provide a service for picking up discarded containers for a fee and recycle them inside the slum system as building blocks for houses. The residents would actually build the houses.
The shipping containers could be developed and promoted by trucking companies for it would improve their hauling capacity utilization. This would also save wood and diminish landfill space needed for discarded wood crates.
Each of the other Physical infrastructure needs could also be filled by creative value chain ideas.
Finally, once a self contained community is created it can be relocated as a whole self contained community to a better geographical location if physical improvements or land title is not possible at the current location.
How do we begin?
Let's bring together three coordinated Grad School Teams to:
- Map the revenue flow of the slum & recommend changes for conservation of the value flow inside the slum
- Study the existing Social, political ecosystem and recommend changes to build a closed system with limited interfaces with the larger system
- Creative value chain ideas to provide physical infrastructure
I'm interested in hearing your feedback in the comments section below.