THE BOTTLED EYE.

Project idea

The urban design proposal is derived from a group site analysis of kamwokya and Kololo suburbs in Kampala, Uganda. Based on the concept of adaptive and artistic reuse of plastic bottles, the intervention looks at waste bottles as an alternative construction material within the slum. This can be used for both house construction in the Kamwokya slum and various instalments that act as place-makers or land marks within the site.

Project description

Plastic is one of the leading threats to the natural environment specifically to the Kamwokya slum in this context. The purpose for this intervention is to provide a sustainable solution to this problem through adaptive and artistic reuse.
The intervention is a bottom-to-top approach that involves people in improving their own neighbourhoods. This method is also known as Hand-Made urbanism.
the intervention is run in a cycle from the time plastic bottles are disposed after use, where and how they are disposed to what happens to them after disposal.
The ideology for the form of the installation draws from both the human eye (since the site is a good view point to micro and macro land marks out of the Kamwokya slum) and a deconstructed water bottle (since plastic bottles are the issue at hand). Thus coining the project's name as "THE BOTTLED EYE"
The bottled eye is designed to act as a place maker and land mark within the slum thus contributing to the identity of the site.
The project is aimed at being a form of acupuncture because the waste plastic bottles are collected using designated garbage drums from different neighbourhoods throughout the slum. They are then transferred to the site for cleaning and sorting according to sizes having the common 300-330ml bottles fixed onto the installation while the bigger ones of 1-5 litres are reused as planters for vegetables.
Various colors of paint are put into various bottles respectively that are fixed onto the wire mesh of the installation which creates and artistic impression for the intervention.
this evokes a feeling of curiosity and excitement to the passers-by hence drawing attention.

Technical information

The intervention is about 10 metres high and 6-7 metres wide giving it a significance on the slum skyline.
The installation is estimated to consume about 20000 plastic bottles at the time when the wire mesh is all filled up and the period or lifetime of this process is 2-4 years.
The installation will also have solar panels to generate electricity that illuminate it in the night and also provide more light in the slum given its superimposed proportion relative to the adjacent slum houses.

Co-authors

none