THE WHOOL

WHOOL

The 'Whool' is a wheelchair that has the elements of both bamboo and metal.

This project was started to achieve a more eco-friendly design for transporting structures made of metal. 

It's always been known that the strength of bamboo is almost 10 times greater than steel. 

Bamboo can withstand greater compression and over all pressure as a whole structure. 

But the intricacies involved in dealing with Bamboo as a building material is more of an artisan skill than a process that can be mechanized. 

Although there are some places that encourage the construction of large workshops that are adept to deal with the manipulation of bamboo to create larger structures.

These units are usually in places where Bamboo is a found in abundance, majorly in the areas of Bali, Vietnam and Cambodia where the kinds of bamboo range from different colors to sizes.

Another interesting aspect of Bamboo is that it is one of the fastest growing grasses, growing by almost 4 ft a day. 

MORE ABOUT OUR PROJECT :

The bamboo wheelchair is a light, affordable wheelchair that we are working on to replace expensive wheelchairs in third-world countries. This is aimed at seniors in those countries to have a more sustainable version of a wheelchair to move around in, using locally sourced eco friendly material.

Our solution is a wheelchair made of majorly of  bamboo with materials such as tarp for the seat, metal rods, bike tires and rope. All of these materials are locally available in India. According to statistics, India has 7,000,000 disabled seniors in need of a wheelchair. 

Our wheelchair has three wheels, two in the back and one in front. We have two separate sets of wheels : One small for indoor use, and one large removable wheel for outdoor use. The large wheel can be propelled with a spring loaded gear attached to a bamboo rod. We are currently working with the Bamboo Centre in Pondicherry which provides us the required tools to manufacture our product.

The total cost of The Whool is Rs.500 as opposed to the ones in the market that cost around Rs.4000.

Below are some inspirational images and designs sketched out to build the wheel chair, taking into account areas and spaces in the chair which we can replace with bamboo effectively and efficiently.

Also enjoy the wonderful structures that have been built from Bamboo in various regions that change out perspective of using bamboo as a construction material.

Bamboo Workshop at Auroville, Pondicherry

This was my first visit to the Bamboo Centre at Auroville. I went there to improve upon my learning of furniture and material.

I took a bus from Chennai and was there before I knew it. Once I headed into the centre I was introduced to Walter, a freelancer from Belgium who was going to be our mentor. A few more students arrived. Some from Rajasthan and another from Barcelona.

We had a chat with Walter about the benefits of bamboo and he took us on a tour of the campus, showing us what the other students had built.

We then went to the workshop to give our skills a go. We were taught basic joinery. That took a while. By five we were done. After a meal at a nearby bakery with Paola from Barca, I headed back to the centre.

I met Vijay and Logesh there who were in charge of night duty. They were sixteen and they had failed school. Now they were working at the centre and also performed in a drum group, travelling around the country. Vijay had been to Sikkim and was recalling his adventures.

Logesh and Vijay claimed to be in love with their childhood sweethearts too. They made me some French Toast for dinner.

I went over to Walters hut to say hi for a bit. All the residential huts were made of bamboo and eco- material. It was interesting how he told me the story of a private school built for the children in Pondicherry, each child being sponsored by a Godmother and Father from Pondi or Belgium. The school was quite a place, taken from a traditional house and transformed into a learning space with quality areas beyond any regular school.

I soon bid goodbye and hit the bed.

The next day was build day. My team chose to build a chair while the other a table. This was quite a task. After taking the bamboo measurements we just got done with cutting the pieces and the day was over. Again my bakery was there to save the day. On the way back I stopped by a music store and bought a metallophone from them. It was the most serene sound I had ever heard. There were also large wind chimes hung on a tree outside, near which I was sitting and listening.

I headed back with some food to feed me and the dogs at the centre.

Day three was the most challenging. Assembling and gluing the parts in the heat and dust was not easy but it was done quite well as a team effort.

Walter and us were pretty happy with the work done.

We clicked a few pictures commemorating the experience and I took a bus back to Chennai.

Definitely a trip to remember ☺