Well that's really the first idea I had for these kids. Carrying that much water on the head can't be good for their necks! Also it must be quite uncomfortable to do that all the time. So I figued if we roto-moulded a few of these water back-packs and cut a hole on the top, we'll be doing them a big favour. BUT I don't really know what it's like to be living in those conditions. Some questions I ask myself - if you're able to answer :

Click on images for a larger view.

This was my 2003 graduation project - a cardboard box. That's a bit of a laugh but what this cube at 500 x 500 x 500mm was designed to do would feed a good number of hungry people on the ground. Designed to be air-dropped, this box contained a parachute which is deployed via static line. When it reaches the ground, food (mainly soybeans and water) is cushioned from the fall by a tray of popcorns (yes.... same stuff you eat at the cinemas) at the bottom of the box. So in the end, we've delivered temporary food and water relief, and a nice tray of flattened pop-corns, not to mention shelter (the parachute is made of rip-stop nylon, perfect for building tents). The rest of the box is cardboard mostly, and will disintegrate into the environment over time. It was named Manna after the biblical food sent from the skies.

Coincidentally, just before the exhibition one of my classmates ate a pack of popcorn from my model :) This was the first project I did almost entirely in Maya 5. I'm very passionate about finding the right software for the right job and finally decide on Maya for its animation capabilities. It was one hell of a challenge though, to learn Maya in 4 months to produce an animation of the deployment of Manna. I've since lost the AVI of the animation - it was kinda crude but conveyed the design intent through easily.

Hopefully one the UNESCO guys will see this, and perhaps utilise it in real life conflicts. Send me an email if you do!

Quite honestly, this has been my "toilet book" for the past 1 year. I've had it for a while though, ever since 2005. I've probably read it cover to cover more than 3 times and still find it very intruiging.