This is a story of two little girls residing in two very different parts of the world. Though their worlds are unlike each other, there is one thread that’s common between them. Their power to dream!
Niki opened her eyes and squinted at the sun streaming in through the white linen curtains. It was morning and her cozy little room was filled with the early morning fragrance of the white lilies that grew in a small pool in the garden. The garden was Niki’s love and pride and she tended to each plant and tree with equal loving care. This garden was Niki's Fairyland where all things magical and wonderful could happen.
Tumbling out of bed, Niki ran towards the glass partition between her room and the garden. Everything looked so beautiful this summer morning, Zinnias, sweet peas, four o’clocks and water lilies, all a lovely bouquet. The bluebells intertwined between the boughs of a large yellow flowered tree. The bees hummed and butterflies flitted from flower to flower. The small pool with the lilies had guests this morning as a pair of ducks were already up and about, waddling and splashing merrily. Niki laughed. The merriment in the garden amused her and made her happy. It was a small treat she gave herself every morning before she was packed off to school that stood amidst the umpteen multistoried structures. The splash of color in Fairyland carried her through the mundane school routine and gave her the energy to carry herself back home.
In quite a different part of the world, Nita woke up with a start. The cool breeze had lulled her to sleep while her goats and sheep grazed in the fields that stretched as far as the eye could see. The landscape was dotted with tiny huts of mud plastered walls and thatched roofs. A couple of ponds were home to water hyacinths, water lilies and an occasional heron that stopped to lunch on the shoals of small fish that inhabited the ponds. The sycamore tree by one of the smaller lakes was Nita’s favorite hideout which she escaped to after school. The village had one school run by the government, and attempts were being made to integrate such village schools with the mainstream education system, to minimize the gaps in the awareness and understanding of the latest in science and technology. One such attempt, was a student exchange program wherein her school had collaborated with one of the more advanced schools, to help students learn about the diverse eco-systems in urban and rural set ups.
Nita closed her eyes, trying to imagine the new world that was beckoning her. She had seen pictures of high rise and multistoried complexes in the newspapers at school. One layer of rooms atop another like matchboxes piled up. They looked amazing. How could they keep standing that way? What if a storm hit the building or a large stone crashed against it? How did so many people live together? They all must be cooking and eating together, she reasoned.
Dusk had fallen and it was time to lead the herd back to their shelter. While they trundled up the slope, Nita wondered what would it be like to go to another part of the world. Her siblings envied her. But excited as she was, Nita was also reluctant to leave behind the sycamore tree with its squirrels and the baby owls nestled in a hole in the tree trunk.,
“Niki, are you done with your packing?”, her mother called out. “You’d better go to bed early, this evening”, her father boomed. Niki carefully folded her clothes in the suitcase and gently placed a small photo frame between the folds. It was a picture of her garden and she had decided to gift it to the school she was going to. It would be the most precious gift on earth!
Pickled fruits and jellies all stacked in jars of various shapes and sizes stood waiting patiently to be loaded into Nita’s bag. Granny gently chided a dazed Nita who was lost in her own world and kept slipping into dreams about the adventures that awaited her. Never had she imagined that she would step out of her village to see the world that lay beyond.
The next day both Niki and Nita packed off to their destinations with a load full of goodies and merry thoughts to keep company. What lay ahead would change their lives forever!
All children love to dream. It is a time in their lives where their ideas are taking shape and viewing the world through the lenses of their imagination is an important step towards cognitive development.
Nita and Niki had their own dreams. Only the cavasses were different. Niki painted Nature on her canvas of concrete and steel, while Nita drew buildings on her canvas of Nature. With their imaginations planted firmly in their minds both stepped into their new environments, determined to be cast into a spell by all the wonderful things around them.
Niki was the first to arrive at her new home. It was a humble two storied brick building with minimal furniture. A reading table and a chair stood in one corner. A small cot rested against the opposite wall. A pitcher of water with a glass perched on the top was placed on an iron stand. Wooden windows flung open to an orchard with various fruit trees while a small terrace looked up to a blue, blue sky. A gentle breeze flowing into the room in spurts, took away much of the heat that the sultry weather brought with it.
For the first couple of days Niki was busy adjusting to her new environment. Everything was so strange and new. There were things such as sweat and sunburns that would be a major concern back home but was not much of a bother in this village. People walked bare feet for miles together and the dirt and mud, caking their feet was a part of the journey. There was such a lot to learn from everything around. The potter’s wheel churned out lovely pots while an ancient wind- mill groaned every time the wind pressed against the sails. Farmers toiled in the fields, some with ploughing trucks and machines, others trudging through the waterlogged, fertile mud to plant seeds. Horse carts and bullock carts co-existed with bikes and cars from a by gone era. Everything seemed right out of a story book.
As the nights set in, the village folk got busy with household chores, cooking and savoring their humble meals. Food was always served fresh and hot. Refrigerators weren’t exactly a very common sight. After a filling dinner and a hard day’s work, the villagers called it a day, sleeping soundly in lodgings devoid of any air conditioning.
As natural their simple lifestyle seemed to the village folk, Niki couldn’t help wondering why the village hadn’t adopted the latest means of urban living. Living amidst nature was fun and ever exciting but warding off mosquitoes at night did seem painful. So did the hot weather or the chilly nights when temperatures dropped suddenly after a bout of thundershowers and rainfall.
At the other end of the tale, Nita was facing a similar dilemma. The multistoried complexes with the neatly manicured gardens seemed like a painting. And no, people here didn’t cook and eat together. They lived in separate areas with gadgets and accessories that had more brains than one could imagine. But still, when she looked at the blazing sun, or the concrete roads with the cars flying by, she yearned for the green meadows and the tall trees that shielded the sun on hot, sunny days. The sycamore tree by the small lake, featured regularly in her dreams!
Both Niki and Nita are the product of todays lopsided infrastructure development across the habitations on this planet. Our urban and rural residents often find their dreams of experiencing technology blended with a vibrant, natural environ, breached by want of innovative thinking. When we talk of urbanization, we bring in technology at the expense of an otherwise thriving eco system. Rural life on the other hand is still devoid of the advantages that technology could bring in, and help the inhabitants with more time to recharge, recreate or relax.
Today’s child dreams of the co-existence of industrialization with a natural environment, such that the benefits of both are combined, to produce an intelligent, eco-friendly solution to infrastructure advancements.
The realization of such dreams, is what we at Bentley hold close to our hearts, advancing Infrastructure through advancements in technology and bringing dreams closer to reality. The iTwin Challenge, a contest recently hosted by Bentley has brought several bright minds with novel ideas on one platform. We offer you a glimpse of their brilliance.
"The challenge was to provide ample residential space for permanent and non permanent residents of Sydney in the center of the city. this model shows a mixed-use hotel and multifamily residential complex that will help many people live near the commercial area of the city and reduce in travel time."
| Brandon S Tello Gonzalez | View in iTwin Viewer
"The project as an initial challenge solves the work of a public program unfolding within a large green area, which consists of a complex sports and a considerable amount of fields without infrastructure around it. With this, the project would focus on meeting needs that can favor and improve the user experience, and second, an urban walk that improves the public experience taking advantage of the existing context."
| Leonardo Figueroa Arancibia | View in iTwin Viewer