KOCHI: The floods taught Kerala that natural disasters can come calling at any time. Despite the steps taken by authorities to mitigate the situation, experts from the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, a Denmark-based school promoting innovative ideas globally, believe Kerala needs to adopt more life-centered design skills to face natural calamities.
To address such futuristic solutions, they are organising their first summer school in Kochi, in association with the Kerala Startup Mission to mentor and equip students, social workers and professionals working at startups and government organisations.
"Our focus has always been to work with startups and innovators keeping in mind the sustainable development goals laid down by the United Nations. We felt that India, especially Kerala, is a fertile place which is home to a large number of startups and innovations. It also has a lot of areas which need to be addressed, which is where our design skills come in," said Ana Laura Farias, CIID Summer School director.
Case-studies
The three-week programme consists of 12 workshops. At the people-centric workshop, the participants are asked to focus on aspects of the flood which were not analysed by any of the NGOs or government agencies in the state.
According to participant Sandeep Zachariah, men and women were confused when they are brought together during the natural calamity. "It struck me that the men and women lacked privacy when they are huddled together in a confined space. We are focusing on what we can do to address the lack of private space during such calamities," he said.