Quito

For context, a resort village of Canggu in Bali with an area of 6 km2 is 70% covered in rice paddies, an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes. The remaining hosts more than 2,200 villas with private pools, cramming thousands of international travellers in a density of a Jakarta slum, a vulnerable starting ground for a pandemic.

With the current solution dominated by toxic mosquito coil and disruptive fumigation, Quito provides a sustainable and culturally appropriate alternative to this vulnerable user group. Its scientifically proven technology combined with its informed material selection ensure an aesthetic fit and competitiveness to other solutions.

What Quito does is one thing, but how it’s made is a whole other layer of impact through design.

Rattan, the most abundant type of vine wood in the tropic, is sourced from Borneo by local farmers. It is then transported via rivers and hand-bent and woven by local artisans. Paired with the locally made slip-casted ceramic means the structure is biodegradable.

By identifying a specific target market most vulnerable to the issue, the design can be heavily informed by local cultures and environments resulting in a solution that is original and relatable for and by the people.

Using traditional craft as a way to achieve mass production of a rather precise technological product is a departure from the current industrial design model. By creating a system that doesn’t benefit from scale through decentralisation of manufacturing and localisation of supply chain, design can be the agent for improving environmental and socio-economical sustainability in many parts of the world.

This model can hopefully advance industrial design from the profession preoccupied with solving marginal efficiency issues of the same system into a cultural cross-pollinator role requiring higher level of problem solving that is based on empathy.

Most of the competition relies on burning propane to produce CO2 which is both expensive and not readily available in tropical islands such as Bali, furthermore, they have a very industrial aesthetic not culturally fitting for a resorts island explaining their absence or inefficacy.

Most of the competition relies on burning propane to produce CO2 which is both expensive and not readily available in tropical islands such as Bali, furthermore, they have a very industrial aesthetic not culturally fitting for a resorts island explaining their absence or inefficacy.

Quito uses natural fermentation of sugar water, yeast, and lactic acid that reacts to produce CO2 and artificial human odor. For operation, it relies on a minimal electrical input to power a 6V motor and a heating coil to spread these cues and attract mosquito, a huge contrast to the competitors who rely on burning propane.