Make A Proposal

Start to learn how to make a proposal in the design process.

Proposal template:

I was doing this proposal with my group. Before that I don't do what is a proposal about. At first I feel that it is hard as many details need to follow. But after that I realized that it is very useful to me and I learnt many ways of searching the information that I need.

It is many steps of process help us to complete a proposal and we will keep refine the proposal until it is good enough. It is better if we put our own figures and pictures or from books. We started it with the understanding of our problem. After that is doing the research and using a lot of the research methodology. End up with our final solution within the sketches of solution.   

Problem of making worse condition in the cleaning industry.

Discarded ponchos, water bottles and more after the 2015 Laneway Festival held at Gardens by the Bay.
Photo: Anjali Raguraman

This is one of the news in Singapore said that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong ticked off Singaporeans the trash left after the Laneway music festival. The reality is we actually look clean because we have 70,000 cleaners cleaning up after us. 


The problem of making the worse condition to those elderly cleaner is that most of people will not go and clean automatically. If someone dumps something at the floor, there will no one will go to clean. Most of people will just wait for the cleaner to come and clean. So this sad reflection will lead the cleaning environment become worse. So we hope to change the situation and the cleanliness of environment is the duty of every users.


In others case that the elderly cleaners were falling down in the toilet due to the wet floor.It is one of the problems that after the toilet was used or washed, it will remain wet and thus making it hazardous place for elderly cleaner.  
  


 However, there is some of the toilet were well-maintained in some others countries also such in Australia, South Korea, Japan,...  One of the very important reason of having the good cleaning industry is that well-educated of keeping the environment clean after used. For an example in Japan, children are taught to clean the toilets in their school so that they know how it would feel like to clean. So they will make sure they do not dirty the toilets and keep it clean for the next person.



Reference:
Chang, Rachel. "Liak Teng Lit: 5 million people, 70,000 cleaners...that's ridiculous!". The Straits Time. 16 Feb 2015
<http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/environment/liak-teng-lit-5-million-people-70000-cleanersthats-ridiculous>

'S'pore likely to become garbage city without foreign workers:ESM Goh'. Today. 29 Jan 2015
<http://ifonlysingaporeans.blogspot.sg/2015/01/pm-lee-calls-for-clean-not-cleaned-city.html>

Improving working condition of the elderly in the cleaning industry.

The world's population is ageing fast. A similar trend also can be observed in Singapore. Singapore's life expectancy is one of the highest in the world. Its older population is projected to grow from 814,000(15% of population) in 2012 to 1,308,000(28%) by 2050, even faster than Japan. At this rate of growth, Singapore is anticipated to become the world's 4th 'oldest' country in the next three to four decades. 

As years pass, I also found that there is a lot of the elderly works as a cleaner in Singapore. We can always see them in the hawker center, park, shopping complex, office... Maybe some elderly feel bored during their retirement so they choose to work as cleaner instead of stay alone at home, but the physical condition is quite hard to work as a cleaner. I think this phenomenon of so many elderly working as a cleaner is not good.

Therefore, we focus on the topic of how to improve the working condition of the elderly in the cleaning industry.


After research, we found there a number of common problems facing elderly worker who works as a cleaner. Cleaning work is demanding and labor intensive so many tasks involve heavy manual work. These will make our body tiring and easily to be hurt after long working time especially to the elderly because their physical is weaker. Most of the elderly cleaners' back and neck were arching badly. One of the problems they faced is they have no place to rest well during their resting time, they can only squeeze in the store room which was placed with cleaning equipment. 

Sources:

Yuen, Belinda, and Withanage, Chathura. “Smart Designs for An Ageing Population”. The Straits Times. 17 Nov. 2015

<http://brandinsider.straitstimes.com/hitachi/solutions-for-an-ageing-population/>

Bibiography

3 different sources that I have found:

Books

1. MacEachern, Diane. Big Green Purse. Use Your Spending Power To Create A Cleaner, Greener World. New York. 2008. 

In this book, it is more related to our environment problem. So we can get the suggestion of some simple environment lifestyle changes in our cleaning industry.

2. Tan, Chwee Huat. Employment Relations in Singapore. Singapore: Prentice Hall, 1999.

  

This book covers the major issues in employment relations in Singapore. It is written mainly for students who need to know the basic issues of them. It also included the environment within the employment relations operate and the changing features of the labor force.

Magazines/ Newspaper

3. Seow, Joanna. "Labour movement launched campaign to appreciate workers, starting with cleaners" The Straits Time. 16 Jun 2014

<http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/labour-movement-launches-campaign-to-appreciate-workers-starting-with-cleaners>

4. Li, Xueying, and Suhaimi, Nur Dianah. "Not-s0-golden years for the elderly in Singapore  ". The Straits Time. 23 Aug 2010 

<https://www.healthxchange.com.sg/News/Pages/Not-so-golden-years-for-the-elderly-in-Singapore.aspx>

Online Sites

5. 'Why are there so many old people working in hawker centers in Singapore? I noticed some old people cleaning tables who are having a hard time walking'. Wikisource. Accessed 28 Sep 2014. 

<https://www.quora.com/Why-are-there-so-many-old-people-working-in-hawker-centers-in-Singapore-I-noticed-some-old-people-cleaning-tables-who-are-having-a-hard-time-walking>

6. Ng, Kok-Hoe. 'Review Essay: Prospects for Old-Age Income Security in Hong Kong and Singapore'. Published online 26 Nov 2011.

<http://tsaofoundation.org/doc/old_age_income_security.pdf>

About Tay Kheng Soon 

Principal Partner of Akitek Tenggara within Singapore & Malaysia

Tay Kheng Soon has been a professional architect since 1964. He was chairman of Singapore Planning and Urban Research Group ( SPUR ) in 1970. SPUR was an independent group examining urban environment and was active in proposing innovative solutions. He was President of the Singapore Institute of Architects from 1991 - 1993.

His professional activities included a specialization in high density, low rise, low-cost housing in Malaysia. He did pioneering work in commercial centres and shopping centres in the 70's. Currently he is involved in educational and community projects throughout South-East Asia.  

His public contributions have been as Chairman of the Task Force for the Long-term Development of the Singapore National Museum, Chairman of the Committee on Heritage for the Singapore Advisory Council on Culture and the Arts. He was also Founding Chairman of The Substation, a cutting-edge arts centre. His civic activities include being a member of the Advisory Panel of the Government Parliamentary Committee on National Development and a member of the advisory panel of the Singapore Institute of Policy Studies. He has been appointed in 1997 Adjunct Professor of Architecture at RMIT of Australia. He was appointed in 1998 Adjunct Associate Professor MA(UD) program National University of Singapore.

His academic involvements included being a Visitor Scholar under the Aga Khan Program at MIT in 1986 and in 1989. He was also Research Fellow with the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) and published a monograph, 'Mega-cities in the tropics'. The monograph began a series of papers on sustainable mega-cities in the tropics. This activity led to appointment to prepare a development guide plan for a fringe urban site in Singapore where he proposed 'the Tropical City Concept'

The book, "Line, Edge and Shade" by Robert Powell on his writing and work and that of Akitek Tenggara was released in June 1997.

He is a member of the prestigious World Academy of Art and Science and was awarded the Singapore Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 2010.

Sources: http://www.rubanisation.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=57&Itemid=29