Priyanshu Mukhopadhyay
About
A multidisciplinary designer from India, Priyanshu Mukhopadhyay is a creative thinker and innovator, driving social innovation to explore practical design solutions that have a tangible and lasting impact on society. His keen design capabilities, childlike inquisitiveness and commendable ability to identify critical yet hidden details allow him to effectively deliver positive interventions within complex ecosystems.
His tryst with design began early in his childhood from the plethora of digital games he would spend hours playing which nursed in him a passion for crafting meaningful interactions within narratives across a wide range of digital and physical mediums. He strives to achieve a balance of technical functionality and simple intuitive aesthetics, both integral to an effective design solution and is committed to inculcating a vibrant multidisciplinary approach to his various projects.
Post his learning at the RCA/Imperial, he finds himself with a diversified and unrivalled skillset to match his imagination and capacity for innovation, to help him realise potential and passion to build, create and weave a tapestry of design solutions that impact the real world.
Featured project: Channi [ छन्नी ]
Co-designed with street food vendors and with proprietors of commercial food establishments in Delhi, India, Channi is an accessible, quickly deployable and adaptable water based particulate matter filtration system for at-source emission capture. The project, at large, drives sustainable innovation with the twin goals of preserving cultural livelihoods, habits and workflows of concerned inhabitants of urban landscapes and assisting in air pollutant reduction in transitional phases for developing countries.
Statement
I enjoy working with the subtle compatibility and intersectionalities between multidisciplinary fields. I find it fulfilling co-designing with communities since it helps me ground my design solutions in a way that is accessible, adaptable and intuitive for the people I am trying to reach and support. The corner-stone of my design journey is inclusivity and during the course of my tenure at RCA I have tried to seamlessly blend my desire to drive social innovation with my passion for design innovation.
In the past year, I have had the opportunity to work on projects related to prosthetic aid, designing for marine ecosystems, community engagement for co-designing public spaces, mental health for children and crisis prevention in urban territories which have helped me develop a holistic outlook in my journey as an innovation designer. My time here has given me the opportunity to work at the confluence of design and social engineering and develop projects that can be of service to communities and people.
Channi [ छन्नी ]
The Problem
The World Health Organization estimates that 99% of the world’s population lives in places where the air pollution levels exceed safe limits, resulting in a staggering 7 million annual premature deaths worldwide.
A noteworthy but severely under-considered and unaddressed contributor, identified as a result of reconnaissance of traditional methods of food preparation commonly used in India, is the use of solid fuels for commercial cooking. Traditional methods such as tandoor ovens are responsible for significant emissions of particulate matter and other pollutants. One third of the world's population relies on solid fuels for cooking and heating purposes leading to large contributions to ambient particulate matter pollution as well as a myriad of health problems.
Research Visit to Delhi, India
Over the recent years, Delhi, the capital city of India, has gathered a lot of attention from global media as a city with abysmal air pollution levels. A population of 33 million lives day to day in air conditions that sometimes exceed the safe margins set by WHO by as much as 30 times! While the efforts made by the city officials and concerned bodies to curb air pollution in Delhi focus increasingly on vehicular use, power generation, factories and also unsustainable agricultural practices of neighboring regions; the use of solid fuels for cooking and heating across residential and commercial sections of the city is a significant contributor to consider.
The purpose of this ethnographic field study was to gather firsthand information, end user experiences, empirical data and other necessary information related to the use of solid fuels for various purposes, with a focus on commercial cooking, in Delhi, India to understand the culture, accessibility and habits of the end users in their native conditions.
The experiential and empirical data gleaned as a part of the field study, in the trenches with the street vendors, beside heaps of coal and tandoors spitting black billowing smoke into the sky and their eyes, revealed the dire conditions of work for commercial street vendors and a clamoring call for the need to develop a retrofittable emission mitigation device.
Product Development
Water is a substantial filter for particulate matter emanating from the combustion of solid fuels, provided there is a mechanism to effectively and consistently pass the emission through a layer of water while minimizing the amount of air channels during its transmission.
Future steps
The proposed product is a stepping stone towards retrofittable devices for pollution capture being made available for a lower economic demographic in the commercial sector.
Additionally, policy interventions at the governmental level are crucial to support the adoption of cleaner cooking technologies and promote sustainable practices. Collaborative efforts between policymakers, industry stakeholders, and communities are essential to drive the necessary changes and create a healthier and more sustainable livelihood for the people concerned.
Other Projects
Epicue
A low cost, sweat powered heat stress management solution for workers in high heat environments, achieved via continuous epifluidic sweat monitoring. A visual cue informs the worker of their heat stress level during a shift, giving them tangible proof of how their body is handling heat at that particular moment.
Designed and developed for as a part of the course with Orestis Neokleous, Selene Sarı and Seb Tam.
Read more about it here.
Holde
Exploring human augmentation with an additional gripper that swivels around the wrist made possible with an efficient blend of rotary mechanics and electronics. Developed for the 'Gizmo' module with Sebastian Tam.
Read more about it here.
Adapt
A physical game kit called ‘adapt’ envisioned to be used as part of secondary schools as a tool to facilitate an interoceptive understanding of self in terms of physiological responses to stress and anxiety.
Read more about it here.
Unfold Mk.1
Lounge & unpack at the end of a rough day on the Unfold Mk.1. An ergonomic piece made out of hand folded and welded steel sheets hoisted on hardwood. Designed and developed as part of the 'Superform' module.
Read more about it here.
