Designing solutions for Sikkim
Sonam Tashi Gyaltsen is an Industrial Design graduate from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. He is Co-founder of a multidisciplinary design studio called Echostream and a sustainable social enterprise called La. The studio focuses on community-driven design solutions. He is a recipient of the Naturenomics Award 2021.
Echostream is a resource based vision to help the local community benefit with the help of design solutions and tackle issues at the same time. It started by making a study of the interest of tourists. Some of these solutions include Temi Tea, Tok Tok, Bohoh, Barphok Project, Menla, Flying 8 Loom, Boho, Work from the Himalayas. Temi Tea is a high quality organic tea packaged using traditional bamboo weaving techniques to create green industries and generate employment for the local population in Sikkim. Tok Tok is a product providing last mile mobility in the mountains. It facilitates easy movement of goods of any size and volume in the difficult terrains. Menla is a preventive healthcare app which can be used both by the people and the doctors to share medical concerns. It has specific functions with respect to health in mountainous regions. It acts as an instrument which helps in collecting information for healthcare workers. It also has an offline facility which works without the internet. Flying 8 Loom is ideal for any loom based products. It has helped revive wool and natural dyes while developing products. The products are all made in loom without any stitching, hardly producing any waste in terms of raw material. Boho Collection is an initiative which develops products with minimum skill interventions in terms of size, accuracy, finishing. It produces utensils and tools made of bamboo. Work from the Himalayas is a brand concerned with ‘co-working, co-living, co-creation’. It started as a co-working space by taking an entire hotel on lease which catered to local designers. It helped the farmers and other professions as well by generating demand for products and services from a single place. Barphok Project is Sikkim’s first apparel manufacturing unit. It helped create 200 plus direct employment, 100 plus direct employment, tie up with zero waste Himalayas on zero waste products and facilities. It also provides a one stop solution for small scale design brands in the Himalayas. It has facilities of manufacturing, design, in-house marketing, import-export professionals. It is open for anyone across the country who wishes to manufacture their products.
A product development for pregnant women is a work in progress which after significant development will be manufactured under Barphok Project. Creative Mountain Economy is a model proposed to integrate the aspirations of the communities living in a fragile ecosystem with various challenges of human development and growth.
Echostream has worked with 20 sectors so far in Sikkim. Collaborations so far have been with students, entrepreneurs, designers, markets, communities, government institutions, and environmental stakeholders. Echostream focuses on local issues. Entire journey consists of 100+ designers working in cohesion under Echostream. It is open to collaborations with other states because nobody understands a place better than the local people.