Live Prototyping Journal
Welcome to my capstone journey of prototyping! In this tab, I'll take you through the story of what happened from May to August 2021: the ups and downs, straights and curves of the final lap of year three.
Part 01
May - June
Prologue: I returned from Rwanda (to Nigeria) (two days to May) with the mandate of setting up a demonstration for the City of Kigali, as per the last discussion we had. Moreover, I had gained access to a mentorship program called Shibuka as part of the reward for coming 2nd in the Global Challenges Annual Fair. Lastly, the requirements of the capstone internship were afoot. The bright side was that all these components, seeming different, in fact, coalesced with each other, and so our capstone season began.
About two weeks into my weekly check-in meetings with my supervisor, Kwame Norvixoxo, I received an intriguing update, and on the 31st of May, we had a call and discussed it. ALU Operations desired to construct the pathway from the base of the hill (where the campus is located) to the entrance. It was time to produce a budget, my supervisor said. And within three days, because of time constraints, a budget was produced. At home, we started contemplating getting me back to Kigali to begin this work, and my supervisor lobbied extensively—putting pressure on the relevant departments to make sure the project went through. Word got back to me that they wanted to see a plan for the project. Again, in record time, a slide deck was produced—detailing the construction plan, from resource acquisition to installation, featuring online videos supporting its possibility.
Not too long afterwards, I was informed by Kwame that the project might not go through anymore because it was not a priority. I immensely valued (and value) his support. Moreover, I wondered what indeed went on behind the scenes; if it was not a priority, didn’t the school know that before asking for budgets and expository slide decks?
However, Kwame let me know that there was something else they would rather do; instead of the initial walkway (which could have been up to 250 meters), they wanted to pave the entrance to the basketball court (about 24 meters). So, I reconfigured all the budgets (which already had several revisions) and re-customized the slide decks. He got me on a call with Operation staff, and I explained to them the project (on the 15th and 17th of June). To resolve all his concerns, I sent him a letter Kwame wrote, informing the department that it was a student project and so would not need an EBM (Electronic Billing Machine, for certified businesses). I added everything else he thought would be helpful to include in the slide decks. We never heard from him again.
By the 31st of June, news had trickled down that the Operations Lead had changed, and there was much unsettlement within the institution. What went well was that I fine-tuned my skills in budget development and slide deck design; also, I got more familiar with the pavement installation process (which was a stage I had not overly focused on). I had made some strides within the mentorship program but hadn’t yet done much for the demonstration for the government. Plus, at that time, the exacerbating COVID situation in Rwanda made it a bit more precarious to return. What didn’t work well was the overall timing, as I had already lost several weeks. I had to start again and rethink what my prototype would be.
Part 02
July - August
I started to consider my prototype would be done in Lagos again (an interesting coincidence because I worked on my first prototype in Lagos the previous year). I knew finding materials would be much simpler because I’m much more familiar with the city regarding where to find things, the local language, and basic networks. On the flip side, I spent all the days in July (excluding the last three) in a boot cast due to a comminuted fracture we discovered at the end of June. This made movement many levels more challenging, and most of the days were spent indoors.
In the first week, I created video content for Operation 414 (in collaboration with Shibuka). Yet, by the end of the second week, I still had no standard plan regarding the prototype. I think that was due to my supervisor and I still hoping that ALU Operations would bounce back.
By the third week, when we realized there would be no bouncing back, I hopped unto a plan: I would prototype in Lagos, in the outside garden of one of my neighbours. I ran the idea through my superiors in Lagos, and it got edited to a more brilliant version: I would prototype in Lagos, in the local police station! At that time, it was still possible to get capstone funds from ALU; my supervisor and I had a chat about it, and I decided to make a risky move, leap off into the deep end and say, “One of our core value propositions is affordability, I want to see if this would be possible on a student budget”. The walkway strip would be about 2 meters long and 0.6 meters wide, and with the capstone funds officially out of the picture, I was, in that sense, on my own.
I spent the last week detailing the scheme, making calculations, and reaching out to and visiting relevant stakeholders—including the region's DPO (Divisional Police Officer). She heard the plan and was on board! I was able to secure most of the materials I needed (including the brick mould, and brought out some of the ones I had leftover since 2020 (like a mini-melting pot and stirring sticks). On the flip side, and a bit surprisingly, several companies and institutions I approached (who were into recycling) regarding the project and the towering need for plastics assisted with no response.
Notably, at the beginning of July, I was informed I was accepted to facilitate at a social development camp I had applied for a long time prior. It was run by African Leadership Academy, and there would be two camps in Nigeria—one in Lagos and another in Abuja; it would swallow up two weeks whole. Yet, from the first camp, I accumulated plastic bottles for the project, likely up to 120. When I returned to Lagos on the 14th of August, it was go time. I recognized my time was compromised, but fortunately, everything significant was essentially prepared.
Throughout the week of the 15th, I worked my way towards a brick tile formula that would work well (strength, resources, appearance). By Thursday, I had found a rhythm and produced several bricks per day till Tuesday. There were some close calls (with explosions and miscalculations) and times I was just one step away from aborting the mission, but that didn’t happen—fortunately, my Shibuka mentor, Mr Darrell Kofkin, was also there to ensure that giving up was not on the table.
One thing is worth mentioning about the production process, bottles were gathered through family, friends, and the DPO of the police station. My mum organized what I call (and what truly was) a mass movement, bringing back dozens (and sometimes hundreds) of plastic bottles from the office (where her colleagues would accumulate), from family (where her sister and nieces would gather), and from other sources. It is fair and accurate to say that the project would not have worked out the way it did without her support.
What worked well was that we were able to produce over 50 bricks, and we had the honour of installing them at the police station on Wednesday and Thursday on the week of the 22nd! What didn’t work too well, and an outstanding theme from this round of prototyping, is compression. The missing link all along may not have been solely sand mixture or plastic-type, but on compressing the bricks properly in their finishing; the brick mould was not suited for that, and so that contributed to less strength in the bricks than they would usually have. I also noticed immense design potential—be it with resin art or unique stones, powders, or dye; that’s definitely something to explore some more in the future.
