Asylums may not always be provided by the states, particularly for political refugees. Breaking the wall of stereotypes comes through Maker’s Asylum. Based on the learning of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Maker’s Asylum is India’s first Open Makerspace in Goa that provides a space for all genres of individuals to come up with innovative ideas and bring them to life.
Enthusiasts working here believe in creating alternative learning avenues which would stand significant in creating bespoke learning journeys for people. Spreading a layer of butter on this bread of evolution is Richa Shrivastava, a fanatic maker who is committed to driving strategic collaborations and partnerships at Maker’s Asylum. Being a graduate of the Indian School of Business, she has also previously worked with the Government of Andhra Pradesh to drive Fintech and Blockchain investments into the state. Having been working in the Indian Telecommunications industry, she has also been recognized as the Emerging Professional by the Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group for her contribution during the Telecom Spectrum Auctions held by the Government of India. Richa also holds the crown of being the Vogue Woman of the Year in 2020 for her commendable devotion to work via the M19 Initiative started by Maker’s Asylum. “Apart from my work I also happen to have some hobbies such as scuba diving, cycling, hiking, paragliding, etc which help me keep away from stress and keep me going,” says Richa.
Maker’s Asylum was formed in 2013 as an open community lab where any individual could step in and make ideas happen. A space produced for people to come together, share tools and make things, with a vision of providing people the confidence to solve problems. An enthusiastic Richa says “ I believe, confidence is gained when you frame out your problems, ideate solutions for them, and then make your solution all by yourself”. Maker’s Asylum has moved eight times through different places in nine years, one can now find it settled in beach-state Goa, residing in an aesthetic hundred-year-old house where the unique fusion of tradition and technology is witnessed.
“Maker’s Asylum is not a phrase, it is a philosophy” quotes Richa. It has always been focused on education and learning experiences.
Education and open innovation always go in a loop at Maker’s Asylum, where people from various genres of occupations come together, learn and preach the use of tools and machines to make something innovative. Anything at the intestine of hardware, design, programming is something that Maker’s Asylum caters to.
Here you would find a woodshop, metal shop, digital fabrication lab, 3D printer, electronics and robotics lab, virtual reality and the list goes on.
Being with Maker’s Asylum for four years, Richa pours an extra syrup of her story of how she got into this wonderful hustle space. “ Vaibhav, my friend once called me over this space called Maker’s Asylum at a weekend as a substitute to parties and movies and assured me that I would have a wholesome and fruitful weekend experience,” says Richa. Being a part-time member at Maker’s Asylum before she permanently got into the asylum in 2018, Richa was simultaneously working with the Andhra Pradesh government to drive Fintech and Blockchain investments into the state and was also pursuing her business degree.
Two years later of Richa’s permanent engagement with Maker’s Asylum suddenly, tables changed, coins switched their faces and entire India went under a lockdown due to Covid-19, on March 23, 2020. Instead of walking back home, all the makers made a decision to stay there and get quarantined inside their second home, Maker’s Asylum. “ Our sole aim to stay back and not return home was to explore and make use of the tools to come up with something innovative instead of residing home with boredom” Covid acted the harshest on the city of Bombay, and a list of necessary requirements was published by the government. “An idea of making face shields for all the frontline fighters took birth in our minds, and a beautiful journey of M19 initiative began” brags a proud Richa. With twenty-one ideations and prototypes of face shields being made, the team finally came up with a usable face shield, where the primary material was foamboard. It was a two-week-long journey of thinking, ideating, and actually having the end product in your hands. Their first target set to sell ten-thousand hand-made face shields. This particular process of making face shields with bare hands was a tedious and time-consuming process. Richa says “ You cannot transport things, but you can always transport knowledge and skills”, this is when forty-two cities, with multidisciplinary personalities such as designers, engineers, medical professionals, chefs, etc. joined in hands along with the youngest member aged twelve from Gujarat, who alone created three hundred face shields. Together, we can create wonders and Maker’s Asylum proved it by making one-million face shields within forty-nine days. They also made eye-catching superhero face shields for teenagers and babies aged from zero to three years who cannot wear masks. They also went a step ahead in making sustainable PPE kits and portable respirators etc.
The excellence of Maker’s Asylum does not stop here. They got an opportunity to work with various partners and stakeholders such as Institut Francais, UNESCO, World Economic Forum, Pearl Academy, etc. Alongside, they also ran an SDG School, a program where people would be handed over with a toolkit and have a wholesome experience of going through the tunnel of brainstorming, ideations, to making things. Starting from 2015, this program was brought onto the stage to teach and help people to take upon and break down large problem statements, create, ideate, and make solutions for those problems. It is a ten days long program where you are first given an introduction to SDG, the following steps would be, design thinking, problem facing, field visit, open house, prototyping, skill bazaar, solution brainstorming, assumption testing. “By the virtue of this community, you can make a lot of ideas happen,” says Richa.
Gathering up and working with people from different occupations can surely make you reach heights. No one other than Maker’s Asylum can prove this strongly. Thus, it is rightly said, ‘ United we stand, divided we fall’
