MADEONEARTH
Oilcan Canopy
What happens when a thousand oilcans decide to
fly? That’s what Sanjeev Shankar and the residents
of Rajokri, India, recently tried to find out in a grand
project reusing old oilcans. Called Jugaad after
the Hindi term for jerry-rigging or MacGyvering,
Shankar’s creation uses a ubiquitous piece of trash
to provide respite from the afternoon sun.
Shankar is an Indian artist, architect, and designer
who says he likes to merge traditional crafts-based
knowledge with more contemporary and emerging
cultural and technological trends. An alumnus of
the Indian Institute of Technology, his work has been
seen all over the globe, from Brussels to New York
to Bombay.
The Jugaad project was also about community
participation. The people of Rajokri, an urban
village at the edge of New Delhi, helped to collect
the cans and build the pavilion. Although the
villagers were initially hesitant to modify discarded
oilcans, Shankar says that engaging them in a
participatory design approach helped overcome
this. Resistance gave way to enthusiasm, and a cottage industry sprung up around reusing the cans.
“The most rewarding part of Jugaad,” he explains,
“was witnessing the combined human spirit of
creativity, improvisation, and celebration in a
culture of scarcity and survival.”
Constructed for the 48°C Public.Art.Ecology
festival in New Delhi in December 2008, Jugaad is
a suspended shade pavilion made from 692 discarded oil cans and 945 oil can covers, spanning
750 square feet. The covers were hand-painted with
gulal, a local pigment, and stitched together using
thin metal wires to create a pixelated, pink metal
fabric. Halogen light fixtures were placed in the
existing openings to provide illumination at night.
Shankar hopes to raise the profile of sustainability
and to redefine repurposing. “Jugaad takes recycling
and reuse beyond a simply utilitarian measure, into
an exciting world of architecture and design possibilities,” he says.
—Bruce Stewart
>> Oilcans in Flight: sanjeevshankar.com
Photograph by Sundeep Bali
24 Make: Volume 20
