Field Diary

Designing Skill Training and Production Workflows Using Circular Material Inputs under Custodial Constraints - Project in Partnership with Department of Prisons - Government of Telangana Image Source : Hindustan Times Jul 28, 2017 - Used for visual reference This field diary documents the design and implementation of a circular-material livelihood system within women’s correctional institutions in Telangana, undertaken in coordination with the Government of Telangana and the

A full-scale bamboo structure was constructed to test load-bearing behavior under real construction conditions. The system supported over 1.25 tonnes without failure, revealing that joint precision, wind-induced movement, and labour intensity become critical factors as height and structural complexity increase.

Discarded sarees were combined with cane frames to explore circular furniture systems using bio-materials and textile waste. The project examined how waste textiles could act as structural elements rather than decoration, revealing both the potential and limits of small-scale, low-energy furniture production under real material variability.

This document captures two decades of practice working with bamboo housing across India. Rather than presenting bamboo as a scalable alternative, it documents why scaling repeatedly fails in real conditions. The constraints were not limited to material strength or design imagination, but to sourcing, treatment, logistics, labour skills, regulatory ambiguity, pricing, and market perception. Bamboo housing did not fail; the systems around it were never designed to support it.