'Inverted Umbrella' as Drought Solution in The Rain and The Umbrellas

The Rain and The Umbrellas Installation led by Kamil Muhammad. (cr: www.architectureindevelopment.org)

The Rain and The Umbrellas is an installation project led by Kamil Muhammad (pppooolll), with a team of architects Raushan Fikri, Haidar El Haq, and structural team Raditya Wijaya, to overcome the drought experienced by the people of Bojongmangu, a rural area in Bekasi, Indonesia. The installation's form is an inverted umbrella that collects rainwater and serves as a community center.

The Rain and The Umbrellas floor pattern. (cr: www.architectureindevelopment.org)

This installation is part of a long-term project for children's literacy from the non-profit organization Gugah Nurani Indonesia. Initially, the requested installation was a library; however, with discussions between the client, architect, and community, a more crucial issue emerged: the lack of access to clean water, either PDAM (piped) water or groundwater. So far, the need for drinking water, washing water, and production purposes in the Bojongmangu sub-district has been fulfilled by retail purchases.

The Rain and The Umbrellas led by Kamil Muhammad. (cr:www.architectureindevelopment.org)

With this condition background, it was decided to provide community-based rainwater harvesting installations. Working together with the sub-district government office and community health center (Puskesmas) to build 6 structures spread across the hill area, this installation also functions as a community center. The required design is simple, easy to understand, easy to maintain, and easy to create. A design that meets these requirements is a modular design, which is assisted by Formologix so that it minimizes construction waste, can be a pilot installation, can be delivered gradually in time, and can be assembled quickly.

The Rain and The Umbrellas module scheme. (cr: www.architectureindevelopment.org)

Each inverted umbrella module can hold around 400 liters of rainwater per day, which is channeled to the ground water tank and then filtered using a method of material filter selection employing granular materials, namely coconut shell charcoal, limestone, and river sand. The filtered rainwater results have been tested in the laboratory by the community health center, and it has been calculated that the filter only needs to be replaced every 2 years.

The Rain and The Umbrellas scheme. (cr: www.architectureindevelopment.org)

The short-term impact of this project is to increase public awareness about rainwater being the main water source and inspire communities to adapt the design by existing conditions in more places. The long-term impact is to resolve the main issue,, the absence of a clean water main source,, while simultaneously resolving derivative issues in the form of environmental sanitation and cleanliness. Collaborator Feel Well Ceramics has helped resolve the issue by providing 2 squat toilets and a wash basin at each community center. Even though it is not yet an optimal solution to the sanitation issue, this project will gain greater exposure to become the main issue addressed in the next project.

The Rain and The Umbrellas led by Kamil Muhammad. (cr: www.architectureindevelopment.org)

The Rain and The Umbrellas are expected to be a pioneering installation for drought solutions, not only in Bojongmangu District but also in areas in Indonesia that do not have direct access to clean water while creating a community center that increases social interaction between communities.

The rain, the umbrellas, and the people. (cr:www.architectureindevelopment.org)