The Brief
Sleep Better with Mosquito Net
Swongo is an eco-friendly mosquito net structure created to prevent malaria. Around the world, millions of people remain without access to malaria prevention and treatment, and most cases and deaths go unregistered and unreported. The project was researched and prototyped based in UK and Malawi. We wanted to make a design that was actually usable for the people of Malawi's capital, Lilongwe. To this end, Swongo has three design principles: Designed for prevention, Localizing materials, and Easy to follow production method.
Agency: Royal Collage of Art
Team Credit: Donex Mumba, Jina Kim, Taisuke Ikawa
Provided Expertise: Service Design, illustration
Time: July 2019 - Febuary 2020
Design Process
Prevention than Treatment
In research we tried to understand the living condition and environment of people who lives in Malawi. Throughout the interview and journey making, we found out there are daily difficulties to use mosquito nets that they have been provided. It made us decide to take a direction of prevention rather than treatment.
Mosquito net, Inefficiency of usage
From the analysis of existing mosquito net usage, We found the current usage of mosquito nets for malaria prevention cannot flexibly respond to sustainable needs. It causes inefficiency of usage. What we found was: Difficult to attach and mostly impossible to move after attachment, Need to repair the entire net in spite of small impairments, Uncomfortable journey of everyday use.
Making, making and making
In the UK (especially Amazon!), we purchased products that looked as close as possible to the mosquito nets used in Malawi, as well as a variety of daily used items and went through several prototyping processes. However, we decided that it would be difficult to create a product that is directly and closely related to Malawi in a situation different from actual Malawi. A team member went to Malawi and communicated virtually. Together with the locals, we continued to prototype and find ways to develop.
Outcome
It was a great choice for the team member to go directly to Malawi. In Malawi, where mosquito nets are distributed as free supplies, we have focused on increasing the availability of long-lasting mosquito nets. We have created a structure that can be used in a more convenient and sustainable way for mosquito nets that were stretched and stretched due to improper use. In order not to spend unnecessary money, materials such as mud and bamboo that needed to build the structure were all easily available near the village.
Making Process
Structure 01
Structure 02
Further Design
We started thinking about how to make a wider impact of Swongo. We developed our idea to create online recipes and educational booklets so that locals could easily and conveniently access how to make them which is intended in the same direction as the original plan: made and used by locals.
Swongo educational booklet