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Ergonomics and Public SpacesFacilitator : Manas

To make everything as efficient as possible for human use. Things that I hadn’t even thought needed to be taken into consideration.

Since I am thinking of pursuing product, or furniture and spatial design, I looked forward to it and felt like this was a valuable skill I could learn.

Firstly,

Picking a place I needed to pick a place to redesign, a public one already existing and in frequent use.

I wanted to take a bus stop or a park because I knew a lot of different people use these places for various lengths of time.

I picked the Yelahanka 4th phase bus stop.

Observation

Our first assignment was to sit at our respective places and observe.

I sat at the bus stop for three days in the week for about 2 hours each.

Problems noted

A very basic problem was that the dimensions on either side of the bus stop weren’t equal. Manas explained it was probably a low budget bus stop, so they probably went by approximations.

21 1/4

78 5/8

The seating was uncomfortable. Flat rods and perpendicular, not ergonomically made for seating for longer lengths of time.

Inefficient use of space in the bus stop.

Steps not ergonomically done just unevenly cut into stone. Absence of ramp.

Inadequate shelter against rain and wind.

Plan

The ratio I chose was 1:10. So I scaled down and made numerous plans and changes.

All measurements made according to Indian Anthropometry by Debkumar.

Final PLan

Bus stop pushed back into the pavement by 30 inches.

Ramp along left vertical width of bus stop with safety divisions/ridges.

Circular bus seats of 5th, 25th, 75th and 95th percentile.

Steps along whole front of bus stop 6 inch.

Height of bus stop above ground : 12 inches.

Ergonomically made seats. 50 percentile.

Slight incline in back rest (10 inch thick)

Final model

My scale was 1:10. Changes made to roof, railing, seats, steps, ramp, height of bus stop.

reflection

I got a lot from this course that I am sure I will use in the future. The book that Manas gave us as a reading and reference will be invaluable in regard to Indian ergonomics.

I feel like my model making skills are getting better and researching and talking to people were other skills that I felt like were honed during this course.

I made a few mistakes during the length of this course but it helped me realize where I could go wrong, a valuable lesson in itself and I learned from my classmates as well.