United Nations Academic Impact Programme

Overview

 

The United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) is an initiative that aligns institutions of higher education with the United Nations in supporting and contributing to the realization of United Nations goals and mandates, including the promotion and protection of human rights, access to education, sustainability and conflict resolution. Since 2010, UNAI has created a vibrant and diverse network of students, academics, scientists, researchers, think tanks, institutions of higher education, continuing education and educational associations.

The work of these institutions is vital to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals as they serve as incubators of new ideas, inventions and solutions to the many global challenges we face.  Every subject and discipline can have a UN imprint.

BNCA is a member of UNAI since 2012 and a UNAI hubsince 2014.The UNAI is built around ten principles, and there are ten institutions across the world that serves asUNAI’s global hub on each of the ten principles. Dr. B. N. College of Architecture serves as UNAI’s global hub on “Addressing poverty” . The central idea of the hub is to serve as a platform where students and educators from the parent institute and from other UNAI member institutes come togetherto share ideas and discuss action plans which aims at addressing poverty.It has been enabling various programs addressing poverty through education. As architects and planners the material outcomes of any development can be realized and the process itself becomes a catalyst for bringing together communities and patrons. BNCA took forward this idea and looked upon how concrete actions and projects can inspire its students.

BNCA aims to bring together educators in higher education across the globe to identify a common core of strategies to be shared among countries which will help mitigate crucial issues related to poverty. Its objectives are;

  • To work with people and communities experiencing poverty and to enable them to address the same through innovative approaches.
  • To work on collaborative live projects and workshops.
  • To help spread awareness regarding SDGs, UNAI principles and role of academics.
  • To work on Knowledge exchange through research and development.

The institute thus invites various partnerships among actors and educators to join hands and build further towards its aligned goals.

Director and Team

 

“At UNAI hub we provide a platform to work towards international associations with universities and global networks as partners for knowledge exchange. We follow Ban Ki Moon’s vision and importance given for the need for ideas and breakthroughs which essentially brings life at United Nations.

We at BNCA as an architectural fraternity use this platform to generate action oriented projects with multidisciplinary approach sharing ideas across borders to find solutions for interconnected or common problems. We aspire to build a better world inspiring students with dynamism, energy and commitment with an enhanced learning experience with live projects. We hope these various aspects continue to evolve and become valuable contributions, may it be studying new theories, perspectives or developing new modules and designs thus creating an impact.”

 

Prof. Asmita Joshi,
Director, UNAI Hub, BNCA

 

Ban Ki-Moon
Founder Secretary – General of the United Nations

 

Ramu Damodaran

 

Mahesh Bangad
Associate Prof., BNCA

 

Swapnil Gawande
Assistant Prof., BNCA

 

Nirupa Tambe-Kakade

 

Madhuri Zite
Associate Prof., BNCA

 

Dhanashree Sardeshpande
Associate Prof.,BNCA.

 

UNAI Programmes at BNCA

Sustainable housing unit at Shinyanga, Tanzania in collaboration with Savana plains international school

Aim:

  • Building of a Sustainable Unit in Shinyanga for the local community.
  • Environmental Education through ecological initiatives – Study of Lake Victoria
  • Environmental Awareness through series of Lectures
  • Local Technology of interlocking bricks was identified and selected
  • Estimations done with the help of Local contractors

Ketaki Randive, Tanvi Bhagwat, and Prof. Asmita Divekar travelled to Shinyanga Tanzania.

Community Centre and dry compost toilet at Lusaka, Zambia with Kapila school and University of Lusaka.

Aim:

  • To design and build a ‘Sustainable Multi-use Community Block’ at Kapila for the use of the school, students, teachers, youths and community around the nearby villages that surround this place.
  • To Introduce the concept of a “Dry compost toilet” in the water scarce area of Lusaka
    Students enrolled for the project were

Anisha Patel, Aditi Lawate, Meenaxhi Dravid, Karishma Mishra, Surabhi Bhavsar, Tanvi Yengul, Aboli Pradhan

Revamping shipping containers for school use at Montego Bay, Jamaica.

Aim:

  • BNCA students worked on the design of Container for multi –use – prototype for Schools in Jamaica with Barrack Road Primary School at Montego Bay.
  • Study of Ecotourism in Jamaica in association with the Jamaica Tourism Board
  • The BNCA Team met Representatives from the Ministry of Education, Members of the parliament, and Representatives from the Tourism Ministry
  • The Team worked on revamping Ship containers for school utilities to be used as classrooms, libraries and study area.
  • The solutions were innovative, and creative and were implemented at the School

Students enrolled for the project were Renuka Patil, Ruchi Pahuja, Kalpita Deshmukh, Minna Bansal, Roshni Ghatge, Karishma Kalbhor, Ishani Nawale, Suruhuda Karekar.

Workshop on the urban landscape: Design for the botanical garden at the University of Maribor, Slovenia.

  • This workshop was an initiative for a global collaboration between BNCA, DEMOLA Slovenia, RAZUM
  • The objectives of the workshop were an introduction to the design thinking process in the context of green building in the botanical garden. It was followed by developing a design brief taking into consideration the functions of the given site.
  • BNCA architecture students were accompanied by students from several other countries. A presentation was also done by BNCA students about a rooftop garden project in Peru, which is a prospective trip in the future. After that, two people from each group presented ideas for ideal rooftop garden sustenance for areas with dry climate.
Brain storming session to develop the proposed design for the Botanical garden of the University of Maribor, SLOVENIA

Emergency Shelter Design Phase 1
design workshop in collaboration with Demola in Pune.

  • The aim of this workshop was to design a small scalable shelter covering as many human needs as possible, which could be made of any materials or a “sandwich” made from several materials including recycled products. Students came up with designs where easily transportable, readily assembled, and could be used in different types of emergencies.
  • This workshop was done with the user-perspective & feasibility in mind. During the workshop the students experienced an inventive thinking process having a modular and global approach.
Presentation of ideas.
The team working at BNCA including the Budapest Mentors

Emergency shelter design phases II and II
building prototypes in Budapest, Hungary, and Pune.

  • The initial design phase conducted in Pune was brought further to be implemented by building actual scale prototypes with the help of MEGAPLAST in Budapest.
  • The project was done partnering with DEMOLA is an award-winning Finnish innovation ecosystem for students, companies and universities. It is a collaborative open innovation platform where talented university students co-create new solutions to real-life problems with companies and other project partners.
  • The event was a success with built modules and students had hands on experience with the help of machines provided by the company and hosting partners. There was knowledge exchange among students from different cultures and BNCA received further positive response with the interests of students involved with research to visit and learn at BNCA campus Pune.

Shelter prototype explorations using sensor based technology.
Presentations to the experts in the field
Budapest-hungary-pune-bnca-02
The team at the exhibition of the developed prototypes.

Holistic villages initiative. Collaboration with
bus architecture Vienna.

  • ‘Holistic village’ is a master planning concept that includes planning principles to consider includes the desire for well-designed urban areas easily serviced with efficient infrastructure, mobility for both goods and people.
  • This five days intensive workshop titled ‘HOLISTIC VILLAGES’ conducted at BNCA campus was guided by Dr Laura Spinadel and her team of professional associates from Vienna along with a specialised team of BNCA professors. The mission of the Holistic Villages is to create a critical mass of freethinkers who decide with self-determination to qualify the environment where they co-exist. This unique opportunity was to help the students to gain a different perspective towards shaping and planning holistic societies.

Workshop on the landscape in Tunisia and extension of Illbisil School Nairobi.

  • Students participated in sketching workshop at the UIK University of IBN KHALDUN, TUNISIA whilst exploring the Berber settlements in south of Tunisia.
  • BNCA designed a structure as part of a school expansion within the Masai Community
  • The primary focus was to help in the extension and interior planning and design of the school building for multipurpose use using old shipping containers to be used as a cafeteria that could cater to the school as well to the tourists passing through the road.
Exploring South Tunisian Berber settlements
At the Illbisil School. Nairobi. Understanding the campus for proposing a comprehensive landscape development plan.

 

Certificate

Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding

Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding

News and Events

 

Students Testimonials

Meenakshi Dravid, Alumni, BNCA

Studying at Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI_Arc) with specific interest in digital, analog and robotics), Received the Thom Mayne Scholarship for 2016-17

“To be part of an academic program under the umbrella of the UN itself was a very great opportunity. Building alongside with the communities of Kapila andKatuba along with my peers, was an experience I will treasure for long. The Impact program helped me to bridge the gap between the academic intent of sustainable architecture and building and put it into practice.”

Anisha Patel, Alumni, BNCA

“I lead a team of students that researched on and designed a multi Utility center along with dry toilets for the town of Kapila near Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. We had the opportunity of collaborating with Green Contributors Canada andEcosan Services Foundation on designing and understanding the technology involved. The experience of working on site for three weeks on this project helped me understand the importance of stakeholder involvement in the project, which is in line with the Sustainable Development goals. This experience has expanded my understanding of vernacular and encouraged me to enroll for the World heritage Studies program at the Brandenburg University of Technology, Cottbus, Germany.”

Karishma Kalbhor, Alumni BNCA

Pursuing M. Arch in Landscape Architecture, BNCA

“In June 2014, I participated in the UNAI program at Motego Bay where we used shipping containers and submitted a design proposal of school classrooms and library to the Chamber of Commerce. We studied the Eco-tourism aspects of Jamaica and also presented a management plan for the same. It was a very good learning experience and a platform where we were able to showcase our ideas and views about important issues which needed attention. The program really helped us get that confidence to speak up and express our ideas on an international platform among delegates of United Nations at its headquarters in New York.”

Ketaki Randive, Alumni, M.Arch (L.A), BNCA

Achievements & Awards Special Mention for Landscape Design Proposal for an Industrial Project, Atlas Copco, 2013; Best Outgoing Student, M.arch, L.A, (2012-2014)

“Building a Sustainable Housing Unit at Shinyanga, Tanzania for a family of 7 people has been a wonderful experience at fieldwork; as working with new people, in a complete new environment & culture and having a language barrier had not been an obstacle anywhere in the entire project and has resulted in successful completion of the house in mere two weeks. As the project was a prototype it will serve many in long run.”

Suhruda Karekar, Alumni, BNCA

“One of the biggest highlights of my architectural education was visiting Jamaica and working on a live site for a community development program. It happened to be my first international visit so I was really excited. We met and interacted with local authorities, teachers, students and many people from different cultural backgrounds. We incorporated this knowledge with our research and analysis and came up with best possible solutions to create sustainable spaces using ship containers. It was a great learning experience to use our academic knowledge and research skills in addressing genuine community needs.”

Ruchi Pahuja, Alumni, BNCA

Graduated – June 2016
Attended the UNAI program in Jamaica

“UNAI is a platform that allowed students willing to contribute really explore and manifest their ideas into something useful and probably life changing; at a scale only a few can imagine. The amount of exposure that I received in the 1 month that we worked on the project, including the 10 days of presenting, discussing and and deriving the final product contributed to how I approached any
project thereafter. It was because, there was no one else involved in the design process but us the designers along with our guides and the client, the students of barrack roads primary school, that is the freedom this program gave us.

Visiting the students at Barrack Road primary school and interacting with them was almost liberating, because it made us more aware of the change we can bring about as architects and affect peoples lives. It was that opportunity that we as students could not miss, to provide children with a study space, to help them attain education.”

Anagha Patil, B.Arch 4th year, BNCA

“In the year 2015 I got an opportunity to attend a workshop in Maribor, Slovenia under the UNAI program. We worked together with students of University of Maribor under Demola, which gave an idea of their working techniques and design abilities and by combining brains of all of us as a part of the workshop we could come up with basic yet creative solutions for redevelopment of Botanical garden of Maribor as well as for encouraging green architecture.”

Riddhi Kulkarni, 4th year, BNCA

Attended UNAI program in Slovenia

“Our project consisted of finding design solutions for sustainable roof top gardens for families in Peru . The roof top garden would help sustain a family of 6 people along with reducing their expenses on vegetables , fruits , etc. To understand this, we visited the botanical garden of Maribore with students from Maribore University. The first assignment was to express and sketch our findings regarding the botanical garden. In the next sessions we worked on solutions understanding the needs of the families in Peru and accordingly each group presented atleast 3 proposals.”

Ritika Mantri, Student, BNCA

“My experience at UNAI program in Budapest was truly mesmerising. I was introduced to a new design concept in the emergency shelter design workshop. We worked continuously for days and came up with a design of shell structure which can be used as a shelter in earthquake or flood prone areas. The faculty and organisers at Demola were also helful and led us to explore new ideas.”

Alisha Sanjay Bothara, Student, BNCA

“It was a very good experience under UNAI where we worked with engineers and understood the architect and engineer relationship. We also learnt about emergency shelter design, how with use of cost effective and minimal materials strong disaster sustaining designs could be created. This helped me get introduced to various new materials available and exploring arrangements to get least bending and max bending moment. Thanks to UNAI and giving us this opportunity where we learnt many things and had good experience to cherish for lifetime.”

Neha Oswal, B.Arch. 3rd year, BNCA

“UNAI demola was a very creative platform for budding students like us to build hands on experience as to
designing with materials. We learnt to work with the local students and faced practical difficulties and found
alternative solutions to the same.”

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