Architect and urban development practitioner Viswanathan Sridhar’s new creation is a mobile public toilet.
What’s it about? An experience with two of his female colleagues spurred Viswanathan to devise a solution for urban intervention and public convenience. It’s a one-of-a-kind toilet. It’s single-use, accessible, clean, and can be mounted on a cycle. He and his team want to create an ecosystem with systematic changes rather than immediate solutions.
- Top of the priority list for the project was gender and creating a toilet for everyone, including persons with disabilities. They used Kirigami (cutting and folding paper) for the prototype that could be mounted on any vehicle.
- There were two prototypes – one set up on a cycle and another mounted on a heavy vehicle. The project has received funding from the Entrepreneurship Development Institute for Innovation, Tamil Nadu, and support from the University of Waterloo, and SPI Edge, among others.
Journey and future: Viswanathan’s experience with the Urban Fellowship Programme at the Indian Institute of Human Settlements, Bengaluru, and policymaking at the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board has served him well. He and his team have different approaches to implementing this in rural and urban areas. The goal is to reduce urban open defecation and urination.