Lamrana
Awards
Deutsche Bank Pyramid Award 2008
Transport for London Museum Long Term Exhibit 2008
Carmen Of London Transportation Award 2008
Helen Hamlyn & GMW Architect Award 2008
Royal College of Arts Master Degree Project 2008
OVERVIEW
Judges’ comment:
“A realistic, all-embracing project for a West African ferry service, showing total commitment to the idea and seeing it through. Expresses the idea of sustainable community through its use of local skills and resources. Truly inspiring – it is going to make a difference.”
http://www.hhc.rca.ac.uk/1454/all/1/gmw-architects-award.aspx
“The LAMRANA project takes apart the rule book of marine design and rewrote it” Julian Reichman Royal College of Arts Tutor. This is a diligent look into how Sierra Leone can attain self-sustainable growth itself using Local Craftsmanship, Local Marine Knowledge and Local Materials. The aim was to design specifically for the local skills and produce a cost effective ferry solution. The solution must efficiently overcome and compensate for the problems of expensive devices such as Radar which cannot be easily serviced in Sierra Leone. Above all it must be a beautiful, inspiring and timeless piece that Sierra Leoneans will be proud of in generations to come.
THE STORY
“The LAMRANA project takes apart the rule book of marine design and rewrote it” Julian Reichman Royal College of Arts Tutor. This is a diligent look into how Sierra Leone can attain self-sustainable growth, using Local Craftsmanship, Local Marine Knowledge and Local Materials. The aim was to design specifically for the local skills and produce a cost effective ferry solution. The solution must efficiently overcome and compensate for the problems of expensive devices such as Radar which cannot be easily serviced in Sierra Leone. Above all it must be a beautiful, inspiring and timeless piece that Sierra Leoneans will be proud of in generations to come.
It all began in 2006; I had just become a graduate in Transportation Design and was fortunate enough to be accepted into the Royal College of Arts, to embark on their highly acclaimed two year Masters Degree course in Vehicle Design.
I began my thesis on a car specifically designed for the needs of Sierra Leonean roads and people with the intention of creating a proposal for such a car that can be built locally. An affordable car for the people has been vital to the economical growth of most Western country so my thinking was Sierra Leoneans should do the same.
Studying with great talented young designers from around the world, I began to question the above thinking as guys from countries such as USA, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and more highlighted the fact that the advent of the motorcar has resulted in so many roads being constructed in Western countries that the governments cannot afford to maintain them even with their seemingly great GDPs.
As I was living in London at that time, I decided to carry out some research in Sierra Leone in order to gain a more accurate view of the situation in the two capital cities. Arriving in Lungi, I was frustrated within the hour. By the time we left the ferry port, I realised that contrary to popular Western beliefs, the motor car as a means of personal transportation in Sierra Leone is currently highly ineffective.
Moreover when comparing the Freetown public transportation systems to that of other countries in the world, I began to realise that the chaotic Poda-Poda and shared Taxi system is very competitive and cost effective when compared with e.g the heavily subsidised Transport for London. In 2010 the UK government will pay on average £5 per journey in subsidy. (British figure based on article given below).
In terms of the percentage of average monthly work commuting cost in relation to an average monthly wage, they where both around 15% in2008/9. In terms of frequency of service and reliability of service, the fact the Freetown system is based on several smaller sized privately owned vehicles seemed to surpass London because one tube failure can subsequently hold up a whole line and thousands of travellers. One double-decker break down can make it an obstruction causing traffic. This is a daily occurrence in London and once a breakdown happens, it puts immense pressure on other services which in turn drives them to breaking point.
With regards to comfort, both systems proved to be uncomfortable and a tight squeeze especially at peak times but one is more guaranteed a seat in a Freetown poda-poda whilst in London tubes and buses there tends be more standing than seating. Looking at safety, London Transport undergoes heavy scrutiny which means the vehicles regularly undergo thorough checks compared to the lack of standardisation and poor driving conditions in Freetown. However what could not be measured was to what extent would standing passengers in a London bus or tube become lethal projectiles during an incidence and does the amount of standing passengers negate the safety effort?
With all these findings, the true picture is still very much unclear even today because It must be said that the British Government at the time of the thesis had began investing heavily in new buses and trains for London to meet the coming Olympics. Rural urban migration and the increasing number of vehicles in Post civil war Freetown was quickly bringing the public transport system to a standstill. Furthermore the colonial road network was not designed to the thinking of the Sierra Leoneans which was already posing issues that a mass produced peoples, car for every household would make an even greater problem.
The solution for Sierra Leone’s capital had to retain it cost effective factor as well as its reliability of use and frequency of service. Down cast as we were on the ferry leaving Freetown I was complaining to my fiancée who was researching “How to adapt Western managerial methods successfully to the African environment.” In frustration, she cried “for God sakes stop complaining about everything and do something about it!”
The challenge was taken up and I began to look for a vehicle or system or product that can solve Freetown’s issues. My dissertation tutor’s after analysing my findings stated “The question is Should Sierra Leone have a Peoples’ car to aid growth?”
As I kept the debate and research, the thinking of splitting design into two categories became necessary. The Controlling Thinking relates to highly technological solutions such as Concorde which tend to be expensive and the Adaptive Thinking looks at locally available resources and drives towards simplicity such as the humble matchstick. I was convinced that whatever solution is proposed had to be of an adaptive nature as Sierra Leoneans would not want a system like London’s which is very expensive and would most likely need future governmental subsidy. Furthermore the amount of Jobs created by the solution must be the same or higher than the current system and the possibility to export this solution to the neighbouring countries with similar needs would also be beneficial to Sierra Leone.
One day as I was looking at the map, the peninsula shape of Freetown struck me and I realised an answer could have been staring at me all along. What if a series of smaller ferry boats are implemented around the peninsula and mainland coast? They could prove to be adaptive like the present Poda-Podas and shared Taxis plus there is no need to maintain the sea unlike railways.
This was a great idea except for one small problem which was I had never before designed a boat because I had so far been specialising in the design of wheeled vehicles. This innovative new proposal thinking and the theories it created fortunately won a few research grants which helped me conduct field research in the UK, Germany and France Plus boat operating courses. Furthermore the nearby London Science Museum with its vast collection of marine vessel ideas from historic to modern became a place of great inspiration. This was a place I was regularly asked to leave as they were closing because I always lost track of time.
After positive correspondence with an American professional boat builder I had achieved a rough plan of what could be the best boat ever created only to realise that this would be affordable and easily serviceable. Moreover I also realised that its expensive radar will be useless in Sierra Leone because radars are better at spotting metal objects and are not so good at spotting wooden boats or fibreglass speed boats which are the majority in Freetown.
I decided to approach the boat from a budget and business point of view and set a manufacture cost Price of £50,000-100,000 maximum. This was a tall order because in Europe 50,000 could easily be the cost of just engines and most of the engines I saw were either unsuitable or not serviceable in Sierra Leone.
At this point, months had past and the sleepless working nights were taking their toll so my fiancée now wife specifically planned a short holiday to a landlocked town called Orange in the South of France. It was here that coincidence became a saviour as I met someone who opened my eyes to the validity of ideas outside the western world.
Things began to fall into place and I realised that the only way to achieve my budget was to design for the skills sets available in Freetown. Imagine if the ferry uses the MAZDA E2200 Poda-poda engines instead? How many mechanics in Freetown are already highly competent in ensuring these engines run for long periods on a daily basis in Sierra Leone and how much of a reduction in engine cost this would be? What If the design is geared towards enhancing the local boat building skills in Sierra Leone, how many local builders would this impact?
This thinking was the origin of the phrase “For Them, By Them” meaning designing specifically for Sierra Leoneans so Sierra Leoneans can self-sustainably implement and maintain. This thinking initially came under heavy criticism from Western marine experts and Sierra Leoneans who did not believe this design thinking can work because of the lake of faith in African productivity.
One example was the thought of installing an automotive engine format in marine vessels. This had been deemed unworkable by experts for many reasons but the Adaptive Thinking stepped in to question this and make the Lamrana a winner. Teaming up with a British based aviation engineering company and a German based product development company; I was able to find innovative methods to safely and successfully resolve this issue.
Another example is Radar which as formerly explained would be useless in Sierra Leone’s reliability demanding environment. A spot lamp was implemented so others can see you, take evasive actions and warn you to prevent potential accidents.
As the Royal College of Art is effectively a competition of students from many nations in the world, The LAMRANA had to be able to stand her ground and be a great international resume for Sierra Leonean design thinking. Her unique features were therefore given the highest degree of design and styling finesse to make her into a timeless Sierra Leonean Icon, identity and sculpture that Sierra Leoneans to come will be proud off.
Stand her ground she did by winning many international awards and becoming the only marine design piece in London’s Transport Museum in 2008-2009 where she was displayed to inspire millions of international visitors.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8151355.stm “median” gross annual earnings—– £20,801,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/nov/04/boris-london (Tranport for london Gov. Funding)
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/modesoftransport/londonunderground/1608.aspx TFL annual passenger figures
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/17373.aspx Using monthly zone 1-3 travel card cost as average ticket
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23819295-tfls-record-pound-83bn-debts-could-send-fares-soaring.do TFL Debts crisis
Average wage to earnings ratio based on dissertation research- average wage was around Le250,000 per month and Taxi fare Le 800
Story Of LAMRANA Concept
GMV Architects Judges’ comment:
“A realistic, all-embracing project for a West African ferry service, showing total commitment to the idea and seeing it through. Expresses the idea of sustainable community through its use of local skills and resources. Truly inspiring – it is going to make a difference.”
“The LAMRANA project takes apart the rule book of marine design and rewrote it” Julian Reichman Royal College of Arts Tutor
Click on the link or see the project page.