Fall in love with the problem, because the solution will always change. If we stay close to people’s lived experiences, listen deeply, and design around dignity, innovation becomes less about the object we build and more about the lives we can help change.
Dr Navjot Sawhney founded The Washing Machine Project after meeting Divya in South India – moving from consumer engineering into design built around dignity and lived need.
Navjot Sawhney began his career at Dyson, applying his engineering skills to consumer products.
Then volunteering with Engineers Without Borders took him to South India – and introduced him to Divya.
She was spending many hours each week washing clothes for her family by hand. Sawhney promised to find a better way.
Back in the UK, the first experiments involved little more than his mother’s salad spinner, a sock and an engineer’s instinct to keep iterating. That process became The Washing Machine Project.
Its Divya washing machine is manual, flat-packable and designed for communities where conventional electric machines are impractical or inaccessible. The project has since worked across communities in 15 countries.
Sawhney describes his approach simply: fall in love with the problem, because the solution will always change.
It is a significant shift in what engineering is being asked to optimise for – from the sophistication of the object to the difference it makes to somebody’s day.
Join the conversation with <Dr Navjot Sawhney>
Flagship Event 2026
Three days of focused discussion, cross-sector sessions, hands-on studios and unforgettable gatherings.
