Bamboo and plastic to save lives in Afghanistan – Terra Chile

A sphere made of bamboo and plastic and measuring over five feet in diameter using wind energy to shoot through the arid deserts of Afghanistan to detect a landmine, step on it and it exploded, saving lives and physical integrity of thousands of people.

This is the function of Mine Kafon, design young Afghan Massoud Hassani (1983) which was the sensation of the MoMA in New York and now exposed until May 17 at the Design Museum of Barcelona within the exhibition “Design for Living. 99 projects for the real world”.

In an interview with Efe, Massoud Hassani says he has combined his childhood memories when he ran for dry and dangerous terrain of Afghanistan with his concern for the design to create an inexpensive device capable of removing mines mines safely and cheaply.

“When I was little, was spherical toys to play with the wind from the desert of Afghanistan. Years later, finishing my studies in Holland, I remembered where I lived and I realized that there were so many -apunta underground mines Hassani -. I combined both ideas to create this design to eliminate them. ”

The Mine Kafon has an iron core from which extend over 150 bamboo rods that form a sphere weighing about 80 kilos, “It’s light enough for the wind to push him, but heavy to detect and blow up the mines. ”

The designer stresses that materials Kafon Mine are “basic elements that can be found in neighborhoods of any Afghan city”, so the cost of around sixty euros per device, “is very cheap, since practically is made of bamboo and plastic and also safe. ”

With each detonation, the device loses two to three “legs”, so destroying a mine does not involve destroying the ball, and this could continue destroying three or four mines in a single use.

“Today still expensive detectors invented in the 60s are used,” says the designer, who warns that the most commonly used detectors “need to be carried by one person, and are more dangerous and expensive, especially Otherwise the Kafon Mine “.

Afghanistan is the country most affected is because of landmines (1,048 in 2013), most of whom are civilians (79%) than just wounded, amputees or dead.

“This design is not only a product warns Massoud-, but also a campaign to raise awareness about the problem of landmines worldwide. Not only is removing mines, but involve more people to understand this problem. ”

The spherical shape of Mine Kafon, allowing you to roll on flat surfaces, is however a disadvantage if the device is to be used in other places such as the jungle or mountainous terrain.

“The Mine Kafon is done thinking about a local problem, which is that I lived in the desert of Afghanistan, but we are designing a new robotic device that can go through all kinds of terrain,” he says.

The young inventor has already thought of solutions and therefore shows a “drone” able to fly close to the ground and, upon detecting a mine, paint it with ink for deactivating can know where they are in difficult terrain explore.

Also, Hassani has become the first prototype of Mine Kafon in a cylindrical device with the same materials, able to exploit more mines with a single application.

All this, according Massoud Hassani, is due to be combined “own experiences with real problems,” creativity able to demonstrate how design can save lives.