As a student of architecture, Nishan Nazer was asked to design those things that are sustainable but he realised that very few people work towards sustainability. Nishan never liked the idea of beautifying the place by hampering environment. The other thing that bothered him was that why not many architects work in the villages.
Nishan who studied architecture at National Institute of Technology in Calicut said, “Few architects suggest for a glass wall and then ask to install AC inside that room. They talk about how they are using a glass which can resist up to 60% of heat but they forget to tell the client that 40% of heat is still going to come into the room making it impossible to stay there without an air conditioner”.
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To work in the rural areas and to come up with designs that are sustainable, In the year 2016, Nishan applied for the SBI Youth of India fellowship and got selected. During the fellowship, he worked with the NGO Gram Vikas. As a part of the fellowship, he visited many schools in Rudhapadhar village located in Odisha’s Gajapati district village but the infrastructure was very bad in every school. The students studying there were not provided with any desks for writing. When he filed an RTI query, he got to know that as many as 45, 000 schools in the state do not even have basic infrastructure.
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He then decided to come up with such a furniture that is not only helpful but also needs not much space. He then came up with the multi-utility furniture and named it SURFACE. The cost of manufacturing this furniture was coming around Rs 1,400 he then started raising funds through family and friends. Till now, he has given 30-40 surface pieces to the schools run by Gram Vikas.
Source: The Better India
