Lota Agua

The project will be focused on a low tech shower and bath with the reuse of grey water for gardens and green space for Lotina communities living on illegal land with no potable water, where the full use cycle is taken into account.

When researching the temporary housing, every interviewee mentioned that their primary issue is water. The issues related to water are mostly political ones, however what the people of Lota in temporary housing need is a reliable system now, not in decades if the political situation is ever resolved. After all water is a basic need for survival.

Currently, there is no running water and transportation, storage and pouring is accomplished through the use of buckets. In some houses, water is stored in large garbage cans. Such communities have no managed method of water disposal and often grey water is poured to a body of water surrounding them. Others wash their bodies, clothes or dishes by the river with toxic chemicals. Most of the housing in illegal land have difficulty washing themselves as there is no running water.

There is opportunity for a personal and possibly communal washing space since the biggest problem is the act of washing and since is no designated space for the disposal of used water, a possible garden. Infact this all can be part of the same system. Currently in the community, buckets are used in order to store, trasport and use as a tool for pouring.

Although many were relocated and the municipality provided materials for housing and some help with plumbing, many people due to delayed allocation of land moved to illegal land where they made their own houses with the supplies given to them. These communities remain with no running water and have simple temporary housing, with temporary bathrooms, no showers and sometimes no stoves. Many still wash their clothes in the body of water nearby and others dispose their water in the dirt pathways around the house where greywater sits and can be more contaminated. I went to several temporary housing communities. The one that made me realize design can be a solution to is temporary housing number one and two. Even when i asked the communities, where do you throw the water you use, they kind of put their head down and said that in the nearby water or road. Infact in the Lota charrette at DUOCUC the residents of lota were very concerned about this issue.

Finally, when i went to the Toronto Charette in November, ironically I had the chance to work with the water group and we designed emergency shipping containers that could serve a need, in this case water. We worked on this project for days and every day at 5:00pm we talked to experts in Water, Industrial Design, Architecture and Development. And what I came to realize is that although basic needs are very important, sometimes design is about added value, its about dignity and about social and psychological aspects. Many of Lotina's needs are met but the in the most crude and uncomfortable way. They CAN wash themselves, they CAN get water to drink but it is not something they look forward to. I want to design a scenario where you look forward to doing the activity.

Imagine:

warm water falls from your shoulders, run down your body slowly, you breathe in, you can feel the warm air, the steam of it all, makes your body relax. As you sit and ponder about the day and the people you are around, you take in slowly the most incredible, indescribable aroma of lavender and herbs that you are softly stepping on. You are sitting in a space where you can gaze in to the ocean, its endless.

As the water drips down your face, down to your chest, to your legs , knees, feet, it finally reaches the ground... now the soil is drinking it in, thirst is replenished and the water runs down travels slowly through the soil, filling every hole where thirst made a home.

This is what I want. I want to create an experience that is much beyond meeting a basic need, because sometimes thats dignity, pride, and a sense of self.

Chile Recicla

Yanira Moncada is currently working on an environmental project, and has sent me a link to the Triple Bottom Line being developed in Chile. The "Santiago Recycle" is an initiative that aims to raise awareness about the importance of recycling in the metropolitan area and nationally.

Temporary housing in Lota

Here is a video of a gentleman, who has kindly invited us into his home. This is a typical temporary house, which he built himself following the earthquake. It is so cramped, that most of the things have to be stored outside. The blue bin that you see in the kitchen is a typical container, which is used for storing water, fuel and garbage. Things that should not be compatible. Since HIMCE trucks are not able to go down the roads in these neighbourhoods, he has to transport this giant blue container uphill to one of the main roads.

Phase 2 : Alëna's Summary

The title of my project is Lota Verde. It means Green Lota. And Green Lota means a step into sustainability of waste management system that integrates waste re-use and recycling strategies, while engaging the community and improving the economy of the city.

Solid waste collection and disposal in Chile are the responsibility of municipal governments. Lota was able to secure a contract with empresa HIMCE in 2008 for the removal of solid waste and its transportation to Coronel landfill 12.5 km from the city.

Additionally, a number of people - chatarerros - make their living in the informal waste recycling sector. The groups involved include door-to-door collectors, street scavengers, traders and dealers in waste materials. Such recycling activities are not well integrated into the solid waste collection and disposal system in Lota.

One of the major problems in Lota's solid waste sector is that many tons of solid waste collected are improperly disposed of in open dumps that do not meet sanitary standards. In addition, there seems to be little active management over what is dumped, how it is treated, and what fees are collected.

Some of the social costs associated with improper waste disposal include contamination of both surface and ground water, spread of disease, and uncontrolled population of stray animals.

In Lota, the high standard quarters and average standard quarters benefit from house-to-house garbage collection. However, this service is relatively low or non-existent in temporary housing quarters. MSW management is malfunctioning, because of the lack of paved roads - HIMCE trucks are simply not able to reach these dwellings.

The final convincing point was a visit to a local middle school escuela Adventista, where Sam and I along with Miki and Cote (IwB and Duoc students) conducted several exercises. One of which drew from Lorenzo Imbesi idea of a perfect city. The question that we asked during one of the exercises was “What is your ideal city?”. Children filled a sheet of paper with many wonderful features of Lota, including its beautiful parks, and beaches. However, about half of the paper featured phrase “sin basura”, which means “without garbage”. Children, which are supposed to be the future of the city, are concerned with the amount of poorly treated waste on the streets of their city.



The scope of this project allows me to address the design of a waste management container that will be used for transporting sorted solid waste to a neighbourhood transfer station. Further sorting and recycling/reusing operations could be carried out by chatarerros, thus, incorporating informal waste picking within a formal waste management sector. The transfer station will not be addressed to the same extent and detail as the container. However, it is recognized as a key component of a suggested WM system in Lota. Without such transfer station, the waste container will be ineffective.

The development of an artifact to fit within the system will be guided by three design principles.

• Scale and configuration of device should take up minimum space in the home of the resident of Lota.
• When the device is engaged, it should promote recycling , re-use, and proper management of waste, while being comfortable and safe to use.
• The device must be integrated int a natural topography and underdeveloped road system of Lota.
• Quality and comprehensiveness of visual appearance and function of device is vital. Functioning components, such as handles, lids, hinges, etc. should receive careful consideration.

Lota faces the same challenges as many other cities with stagnant economies in terms of poor infrastructure, high prevalence of the informal sector, and poor public awareness on safe domestic waste management techniques. Public awareness is needed, but this could be useless if the community is not actively participating in the process.

The construction of transfer stations would be a good solution to reduce distances between households and waste collection sites. Appropriate waste container for recyclables and other types of solid waste would be complimentary to the proposed station.

Phase 2: Rahim's Summary

The purpose of this project is to design a toilet to aid individuals who lack basic sanitation needs. The focus will be on providing better sanitation methods to individuals living in temporary housing areas, as well as those trying to recover from a natural disaster, both of which do not have basic bathroom facilities. Many countries right now, following a natural disaster are having huge sanitation, for example Haiti right now has a huge Cholera breakout do to waste contaminating with drinking water.

The family above was the reason why I decided to focus my thesis on toilets.This family uses buckets to go to the bathroom. I learned that the night before, the gentleman was discarding his waste in a nearby forest where the man was stopped by the police and was given a warning. There are many individuals, just like this couple who are not associated with a temporary housing community, and therefore lack basic sanitation needs and a proper structure for discarding waste.

Lota currently has 3 main options to go to the bathroom. The first one is chemical toilets.Chemical toilets pose many threats to users. Some individuals interviewed experienced severe illnesses while using the chemical bathrooms. Other disadvantages for the use of chemical toilets is that they tend to carry foul odours, too many people end up sharing a chemical bathroom, and individuals end up throwing their garbage into the chemical bathrooms as well.

The next option are shipping containers turned into bathrooms. During a natural disaster, aid is usually sent via shipping containers, which are typically 20 feet in length. In Lota, the municipality transformed these shipping containers into bathrooms with a fully functioning shower system and toilet. There are 4 stalls on each side, each being 3.5 feet in width and approximately 3 feet in depth. Each stall is shared by two households and is secured with a key lock.

The last option are buckets. Individuals that live in temporary housing that do not belong to a community tend to have it a bit more difficult due to the fact that they don’t have the opportunity to share facilities. These individuals are focused to discard their waste in unauthorized areas, due to the fact of not having proper sanitation needs.

Existing Products:

Concept 1 deals with a toilet design that is a flat pack and can easily be snapped together. This concept features a biodegradable bag, which allows the user to put their waste in the bag, and then dispose the bag to a nearby compost bin. This concept ensures that the bag can easily be throw into the compost therefor the waste not coming in contamination with the user or with nearby water supplies.

Phase 2: Sam's Summary

The purpose of my project is to design a landmark or image-based method of navigation for the city of Lota that connects its existing tourist attractions in a way that is easy to comprehend. Lota is a city rich in beauty and history, with a number of existing points of interest throughout the community. Currently, there it is quite difficult for an outsider to guide themselves from one point to the next. As Lota develops into a tourist destination a system of navigation will become increasingly important.

The trip to Lota was invaluable. The knowledge that the group gained from spending a week with the Lotinos, being immersed in their culture helped everyone to solidify their project directions. I was doing research with the community group while we were there. This meant spending a large amount of my time meeting members of the community, interviewing them, and learning about their day-to-day life. There were two experiences in Lota that helped me find my project direction. The first, was getting lost with my group when we were trying to meet up with a man that we were meant to interview. Though Lota has some signage, it's very limited, and in that case of the area we were in: there was none to be found. The group had to ask directions from the office staff at an elementary school we were walking past. Once we began to walk again, the gentleman we were supposed to meet came along and said he had been looking for us. Had he not come along, I don't think we ever would have found him.

The second experience that convinced me to explore wayfinding, was an interview that was conducted with a lady from the market. She was given the pen and paper and asked to draw a map depicting how she finds her way to and from work each day. She did not want to draw the map and continually attempted to hand the pen back. It was not a reluctance to share her story that held her back but rather an unfamiliarity with writing and drawing. Through the verbal interview with her she gave us directions for the hour and a half walk she does every day to and from work. But she didn't give street names when describing her journey. She gave landmarks.

Both of these experiences indicated to me that wayfinding for this city would be an interesting challenge. The three preliminary concepts I have been exploring have to do with further exploring the idea of landmark wayfinding.

Concept one is a city map that visually depicts images of what the user would see around the city. Being able to connect a building you're standing in front of with an image of the same building on a map will hopefully prove to be a simple way of orienting oneself.
Concept two is a site marker that uses the idea of place making to help the user guide themselves. When a user sees a branded sign or area within the city, they will know that they have arrived at a point of interest. The site marker could also display information or a historical background on a given attraction.
Concept three is a path marker. This could be in the form of a medallion that might be inset into the sidewalk or path. The user would follow these "breadcrumbs" from tourist site to tourist site.

Phase Two: Rachel's Summary

The visit to Lota, made us fully understand the natural beauty and potential that this town has to becoming a prosperous place. While we noticed many positive aspects, that pictures and research could have never fully explained, we also noticed many elements of Lota that must be improved if they wish to full recover from both their mine closing, and the recent earthquake.

While in Lota, I was placed on team economy. Team economy was to look for possible new economic activity for the town. We were specifically asked to focus on Lota’s potential for tourism. Three main areas were identified: the mine, the market, and the fisheries.

The market was of great interest to me. The people of the market were extremely warm and welcoming. They wanted more then anything to genuinely help us as much as they could, in finding the information that we were seeking. After extensive documentation, and interviews we arrived at the conclusion that the infrastructure of the market did not match the spirit of the people within the market. This is where my design opportunity lay. The goal of my design is to give a higher quality of life for those working, and shopping within the market.

Currently the market streets are lined with piles of trash. This trash is not only unhealthy, and encourages the spread of illnesses on the market, but it is a big deterrent for tourists to come to the market. The trash is both unsightly and extremely smelly. At the moment the waste is left on the streets until a worker with a wheel-barrow comes to collect it where it eventually ends up in a dump.

I believe that composting is a realistic long-term goal that would solve many of Lota’s market problems. Composting is a sustainable practice than can create new jobs, and effectively turn the waste in to a new product the market could sell, instead of remaining a burden.

My three concepts are designed with the long-term goal of composting in mind. It is also designed with the short-term goal of hiding the waste’s and unsightliness and smell from the consumers in the market area. The first concept is a bin that the vendors can directly place their waste in to, and remain until the waste collectors, collect the waste. The second concept is designed to replace the piles of waste in the streets. It is friendly enough for tourists to use, and functional and large enough for the vendors to use. The third concept also replaces the large piles left in the streets. It is an onsite worm composter. This eliminates the need for transportation, and implements the idea of composting right away.

Phase 2: Lota Feria Fish Stall - Jane's Summary

The trip to Lota, Chile had a profound effect on the direction of the project, understanding of the needs of the people and municipality, and has inspired progress in a unique direction for each member of the group.

My efforts will be focused on the fish vendors in the Lota market. While in Lota we spent a relatively long time photo documenting the market streetscape (examples below), interviewing vendors, and getting a sense of the pride, vibrance, warmth and resilience displayed by the Lotinos who work there. We identified the market as the future of Lota’s tourist based economy. Not only does it already attract a small number of visitors, but it could become a stronger attraction through offering traditional Chilean crafts and foods that would appeal to tourists, more resting areas, cleaning up waste out of sight, and organizing stalls into sections where similar goods are sold. It offers the greatest opportunity for new entrepreneurs to start small businesses, as well as space for small businesses to work together to become larger.

With this in mind I’m focused on designing an improved fish stall that will replace the fish displays made of a wheelbarrow and plywood that are currently being used in some areas. The aim is to improve the ergonomics of the workstation for the vendor, make it more appealing to the buyers and tourists, and start a ripple effect of improvements throughout the market. These small fish stands could be feasibly changed for a relatively low cost with minimal disruption to the vendors. Small improvements in one area hopefully cause the market management and municipality to consider the positive effects of other improvements to this critical area of the city’s economy.

The concepts developed attempt to achieve these goals in slightly different manners, with varying degrees of success.  Considerations to size, material, cost, construction, and aesthetics have been made in each. It’s likely that the final concept will combine elements from all of them as well as other features that have not yet been addressed.

Through our collaboration with the Institute Without Boundaries the projects developed by the Carleton group will fit into a larger system plan for the holistic revitalization of Lota.

In the coming weeks the concept will be further refined, taking into account the feedback received from the presentations made when this material was presented.