Commuting to school has always been a memorable time in every kids life. They play they grow together, they share emotions, feelings, appreciations they received with each other. Earlier kids used to commute in buggies and rickshaws which were open or have an arch to protect from rain and sun but that concept had no bounderies, kids enjoy that space even when it was overloaded. The direct contact of the outer world and fresh were mesmerising. But, in the current vehicles, there are boundaries which restricts their vision, it feels like they are trapped inside and the seating layout and the interior are not designed according to their anthropometric dimensions and they sometimes end up fighting with each other for the window seat. The kids , they enjoy staring outside, looking at the outer world. They like to imitate, draw rough doodles of their friends and play a lot of games inside the van/buses while commuting.

This project is an attempt to study the needs and aspirations of the young kids, activities they like doing, problems they face while commuting in vans/buses and hence to design a school van for kids aged between 5-12 years.

For a better understanding of this project, the project was planned and a brainstorming exercise was conducted to point every aspect necessary aspect for the research. To identify the needs of the kids, driver, a well-planned user research was performed which involves user interviews, photo documentation of current vehicles at selected locations, observational study. To perform the user study, the Kendriya Vidyalaya in IIT premise was selected.

The data was analyzed and insights were drawn with the help of tabular charts and based on the research insights a design brief was drafted. Many concepts were proposed and then evaluated based on the parameters of Safety, interaction among kids, layout, effective space utilization, aesthetics
and leisure activity. One concept was taken ahead and then further developed. An inspiration was made to render the desired aesthetics and capture the feeling and emotions of the kids. But in the current context with much traffic and vehicles on the road, an open concept will not be safe for the kids.

The keywords for the exterior are strong and humble, calm – the values that we impart on the kids and the interior make them feels like home a space where they can relax comfortably and enjoy both the calmness of the inner space and the panoramic beauty of the outer world.

Submitted by: Rajat Prakash Kushwaha, MDes (2018-20), IIT Bombay
Guided by: Prof. Sugandh Malhotra