Abstract
Since the emerging of its idea circa four decades ago, Appropriate Technology (AT) had been proven as a comprehensive solution in a limited condition. However, practitioners & academia have different opinions with engineers on how an AT must be designed. Researchers had noted the crucial factors in the issue as such, and they gave a notion of the urgency for a dedicated design methodology for AT. This study, therefore, aims to provide it. Such methodology is developed by incorporating AT characteristics, fundamental issues in community empowerment, and the principles of existing design methodologies. The methodology emphasizes combination between bottom-up and top-down design approaches. It means that an AT must be started purely from local conditions rather than given technical specifications, and be given back to local people to be seamlessly integrated into their routines. It also underlines the crucial importance of community involvement throughout design stages. By looking at previous design methodologies that were developed based on pure Engineering Problem Solving (EPS), this study delivers a fresh and comprehensive one that covers surrounding issues and concepts to produce an AT based on the real meaning of technological appropriateness.
Highlights
Research Gap and ObjectiveDevelopment studies in underdeveloped regions remain interesting to be investigated due to the tightly constrained circumstance that is unique in each area
In order to provide a bridge between existing methodologies and Appropriate Technology (AT) approach, a basic framework is constructed based on common understanding in engineering design
The results will reveal the most appropriate technology which can be further replicated in a targeted community empowerment area
Summary
Development studies in underdeveloped regions remain interesting to be investigated due to the tightly constrained circumstance that is unique in each area. Any development effort needs to be implemented as an intelligent solution which integrates the need for optimal development from technical and economic sides and at the same time preserves socio-cultural and environmental conditions [1] In such kinds of efforts, there is a solution that can be treated as a connecting node of many development focuses in order to produce an empowered community: the Appropriate Technology (AT). The research gap is about a new engineering design that incorporates AT and community development principles in order to achieve real technological appropriateness for a designed AT (Figure 1). Existing methodologies in technological design and development did not provide suitable interpretation of modern EPS approaches into ESCD efforts Their tight foundation on pure EPS produced unreliable technological solutions for communities. This study had only one single objective: to develop a new methodology for designing appropriate technology by incorporating surrounding issues and concepts
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