BIOME environmental solutions pvt ltd

Temple for ISKCON Salem

2011-11-25T18:42:00.001+05:30

Biome is designing a stone and earth temple for ISKCON at Salem, in Tamilnadu in South India. In this temple no steel will be used, a rarity in present day construction. What is being done here is to use a structural system of arches, vaults and heavy masonry walls. Studies were done of old Churches to understand such structural systems.
Design- Sheelraj Shetty
Structural engineering- B.L.Manjunath
Cotractor-Narayan.M.C

"Bhuvi" - An Abode for Aithals

2011-11-01T16:54:00.000+05:30

Its located in north bangalore, being one of the 60 plus residences built with in 2 Km radius vicinity of Biome! Its a 1500sft site with a landscaped area which opens completely from the living room, giving the house much required privacy and respite from the dusty road and crowd from a shop just closeby.

Rammed earth, Mud bricks, Arch panels, Filler slab, Skylights, Mineral based wall textures are some of the elements that adore the house!
Designed by: Monalika Built by: Ranganath

Residence of Poonam and Krupakar

2011-10-04T11:14:00.001+05:30

A recently completed project of Biome on Haralur road, Bangalore. Significant points in this house are that it has a dedicated catchment for drinking water, treats the wash water using a reed system on the terrace to be reused in the house for flushing.

A half vault, a tree of life skylight are some other noteables in this house.

Design credits- Anurag Tamhankar, Nishant Upadhyay, Lakshmi ,Chitra Vishwanath and Smitha Shivaraju

Contractor- Muralidhara Reddy

Residence for Madhavi and Srihari

2011-06-26T21:45:00.001+05:30

This is a modern home with a difference---not by it being ecological but by being an all inclusive kind of living.
Srihari and Madhavi trouped in with their four children one day and they said they wanted a large house.
Looking at the number of children we assumed its a large house since they would need bedrooms for each kid or thereof but no it was not so. A large house was needed besides the immediate family for the parents of both the spouses. Which we felt to be unique in this time of "Dink" families and that was a real nice design challenge. The house has a large basement for kids play/music and study area , which gets sky lit while being visually connected to the whole house.
the ground floor houses a guest bedroom with large living dining and kitchen areas. The ground floor is then connected to a small bed/study /veranda/toilet apartment with a court in between to the one of the parents' residence. At the first floor is Madhavi and Srihari's room which is interconnected to childrens' bedroom. At this level a bridge with a small kitchenette connects to another of parents' apartment.
The house is built with stabilized mud blocks, harvests rain for all year long cooking and drinking purpose , treats its waste water for gardening purpose and is totally day lit as well as naturally ventilated.

The stairs to the basement are raison d'etre of the house. They are green in colour curved and are seen from all the levels.
The home is designed by Monalika and Devyani and built by Sunil Kumar.

Professor Yogananda explaining- Soil, Lime and Adobe

2011-06-07T15:01:00.001+05:30

Stabilizers in Mud construction

2011-06-06T12:15:00.000+05:30

Professor Yogananda explaining stabilisers in Mud construction!!

Rainwater Harvesting Training at GE India

2010-12-13T16:49:00.004+05:30

Biome conducted a training program on Rainwater Harvesting for engineers from General Electric (GE) on the 9^th and 10^th of December. Mr Atul Vij of GE Bangalore contacted us with the aim of encouraging his engineers to focus on issues which are outside the realm of their regular day to day activities. Our brief was to prepare a module which involves some amount of system level thinking and simple calculations, and a design problem.

While Biome has conducted training programs before, this audience was a little more challenging since their profile was typically post graduate engineers with about 4 years of experience. We went about our task by dividing the workshop into three broad sections:

Resource management: The main point we made here was that even before looking at rainwater harvesting per se, one needs to view overall water management in a holistic manner. There are different uses like kitchen, gardening, taps, toilet flushing and in the context of a corporate campus, air conditioning via cooling towers. Not all of these require “good” quality water or even fresh water; for instance toilet flushing and gardening can be achieved through recycled water. Understanding this well helps us realize where in the overall picture rainwater really fits.

2. Rain, Groundwater and ecology: This session dealt with the “romance” of rain. We talked about the various sources of water, rainfall patterns and discussed base flows and how forests play a role in keeping our rivers alive. Also covered were groundwater, hydrology and lakes.

3. Technical aspects of rainwater harvesting: Here we covered the basic aspects like catchment, conveyance, filtration, storage and groundwater recharge.

At the end of the first day we gave them their assignment which was to design a rainwater harvesting system for the whole campus. The GE facility is located on a 50 acre plot and has several large buildings.

The following day, each group presented their findings and gave suggestions. We had also requested personnel from the Environment Health and Safety (EHS) division to be present and give their feedback. The EHS team manages the whole water system, and gave valuable inputs. They acted as a reality check for the engineers holding forth on their grand plans to harvest rain :)

Pre-cast roofs, arch panels

2010-11-24T16:28:00.000+05:30

Arch panel roofing is a technology often used in Biome's works. This is a pre-casting system where the panels and the supporting beams are cast on the ground and then lifted and assembled. A thin layer of concrete is cast over the same. This technology reduces the use of steel and cement by about 20%, eliminates the need of shuttering and centering needed for R.C.C roofs and the need of painting. More details of how to make this roof can be found in the attached PPT.

Text- Sharath Nayak

Masons manuel

Top soil and landscape conservation during construction

2010-11-22T19:11:00.001+05:30

Biome is currently designing a retreat for ISKCON, Girgaum chowpatty, Mumbai at a place called Galtare, 100 kms from Mumbai. Top soil conservation and landscape protection has been taken up in this project. Typically, in India the first 6 to 9 inches of soil contains humus, is fertile and is good for growing plants. In the normal practise of construction, one typically builds over this and the fertile soil is lost. The surrounding soil is polluted by construction waste and debris.

In this project, the top soil has been removed from the construction site before commencement of construction activity and kept aside, stored for future use in landscaping after completion of construction. Usually, in such a proccess, one cover up this soil with a plastic sheet to prevent erosion. The proposed idea here is to gro horse gram on this mound, the roots of which will prevent erosion and the soil will be productivly used during construction.

One can also note from the pictures above that the soil near the retained trees has been left untouched to prevent damage to the roots. This area will be fenced off from access during construction. The reasons for this are to prevent soil compaction due to human and machinery movement, to prevent soil pollution and also block off access to workers who might damage the trees during construction by nailing trees and lighting fires under the trees. Typically, one needs to fence off a few feet more than the area covered by the tree canopy.

Architects- Biome
Design team- Chitra Vishwanath, Sharath nayak, Deepak Godhi, Anshu Ahuja, Nishant Upadhyay
Landscape architect- Akshay Kaul
Contractor- Ravi.K

Mud House in Jubilee hills, Hyderabad

2010-11-14T15:19:00.001+05:30

A Mud house designed by Biome at Jubilee hills, Hyderabad
Design credit- Chitra Vishwanath and Chandrakumari
Contractor- Narayan M.C.
Photo credits- Lavanya Goradia

Radhika Kumar Talluris

2010-11-04T17:20:00.002+05:30

A phenomenal energy churning up through out, the frontline of the project , both Radhika and Kumar as well as the team from Andhra and TamilNadu countryside, put it all together!
The house built on an acre plot, brings in the nature in their lifestyle. Water harvested takes care almost full year requirement and reducing the use of water softeners to Nill in that area! Four recharge wells take care of the surface run-offs of the site. Treated waste water of toilets is providing a feast to the Bananas growing by its side as compared to its cousins growing little away near the boundary line!

Builder: Mr.Srinivas with complete involvement from Mr.Kumar
Architects: Chitra Vishwanath and Monalika Nandaa
Photographs: Ankit Prajapati and Aswathy M.S

An earth house in a concrete jungle

2010-11-04T11:36:00.002+05:30

A rammed earth house in Bangalore, slatted for housewarming this week end. More pictures to follow.
Design team- Chitra Vishwanath, Sharath Nayak, Vrushali Patil
Contractor- Narayan M.C.

Urban Getaway for Priya and Shri at Bangalore

2010-08-25T16:50:00.000+05:30

Sarjapur Road! Right behind the hussle bussle, is this space created for Priya and Shrikrish. There was an existing house which was built with mud blocks long back. We rennovated the old portion and also added a new wing to the front, in stone and mud, to meet the new space requirements. The old and the new joined through a "Mitham" and a puja room connecting them.

Very enthusiactic and involving in the process, Priya documented the whole process of transformation! There was a huge unused and abused Well right in the front as you see in pictures here. That point became our foucs and we gave it the prime position as the welcome path into the house, through a bridge, apart from using it for ground water recharge which came as sump overflow. The doors and windows are from the old dismantled mansions which now provide views into the whole new setup around them.
Builder: Mr.Uday Kumar
Architects- Chitra Vishwanath and Monalika Nandaa

Mural at Blind School

2010-08-17T14:17:00.027+05:30

Biome, along with artist Sanjay Singh have installed a mural at the Shree Ramana Maharishi Academy for the Blind located in JP Nagar, Bangalore. This was an initiative of Kilikili, an NGO which works for disabled children. Biome and Kilikili have worked together previously to create play spaces for disabled kids.

Artist Sanjay Singh and the team, next to the completed mural

The mural was conceived as a combination of regular letters and the Braille alphabet. We also created motifs of flowers, fruits, birds etc.

Being visually impaired, the only way the children would relate to these structures was touch. Hence the main aim was to create a richly textured which would stimulate the childrens' imagination.

Tiles made through "sand casting"

We used a technique known as sand casting. In this, liquid cement is poured over a sand bed to form 9"x 9" cement tiles. The desired image is achieved either by scooping out portion of the sand bed or by placing a thermocole cutout above it. Among the available options we found sand casting to be the most appropriate, both in terms of cost and also durability of the finished product. Our hope is that masons and craftsmen who have worked on this, will look at sand casting as a viable option for future projects.

Pouring liquid cement over a sand bed

Completed tiles affixed on the wall

The colouring of the letters was also done taking special care of the childrens' needs. Most children at the school are only partially blind therefore we chose colour combinations which are scientifically proven to appeal to them.

Painting the tiles

Mr Sanjay Singh also created a set of turtles using scrap metal and other discarded items. Chitra Vishwanath designed a slide in the form of an elephant. Other artists also chimed in with various musical instruments and other auditory aids. These aids as well as a see saw swing were developed by a group at Auroville and a design student of Srishti Nachiappan respectively. There is also a wall which gives an idea about different shapes and acts as a sensory surface.

Auditory and sensory aids for the children

Elephant slide

Turtles made from scrap metal

A very special thanks to the following individuals:
- Ms Ramya for offering her house construction site to make the tiles
- Mr Ranganath (contractor with Biome) for offering his labourers as help on the project
- Mr Mali: For helping arrange the materials and logistics

Shree Ramana Maharishi Academy for the Blind
C.A. 1-B, 3rd Cross, 3rd Phase, JP Nagar, Bangalore 560078
Ph: +91-80-2658 1076

Team members- Ankit Prajapati, Amit Tandon, Ashwathy Mohan, Pankaj Duberkar, Karan Singh, Rucha Kelkar and Stanislaus.

Text: Karan
Photos: Ankit

Art in Buildings by Biome

2010-07-31T16:12:00.009+05:30

Mural on the roof of Prof. Rajagopalan's house, Vidyaranyapura.

Artist- Sanjay Singh

Ceramic mural at the reception of Olde Bangalore.

Artist- Kiran Sahi

Wall Mural, Administration building for Utopia

Artist- Sanjay Singh

Releif plaster, Kumar's house.

Artist- Sanjay Singh

construction

2010-07-29T22:29:00.004+05:30

Most of the times this blog shares pictures and details of completed works, but I personally enjoy the construction or the not so finished part of a building ...the building then does not belong to anyone but is still in a midway state neither just starting nor ready to occupy...the doors are not in place...concrete and plaster are raw so are the walls but at places there are frames with grills as well as tiles of the toilet.....the sunlight is not modulated with any type of glass or a covering...
Here are pictures or a rammed earth building we are designed which is under construction at RT Nagar . A small four storey (each storey being 8' height) double studio apartment for a sister and brother...hope to finish the project by next month end......chitra

Vinay and Aparna's residence

2010-07-06T04:28:00.010+05:30

Biome, to date has designed and detailed close to 500 houses and each one is different since each family is different and the results of interactions too are different depending also upon the project architect who worked on the same with the client.
Vinay and Aparna's house, (though must say the picture here showing the entrance does not justify the overall looks of the building) is a simple earthy home filled with light coming from some unexpected quarters and also chic and simple details.
One can at no point of time not say enough with regards to the inputs from the owners and also the hard work put in by the builder.
the house harvest all its rainwater and also boasts of a very good Grey water treatment system which allows for the lush greenery in the garden.

Design team: Amrita Dasgupta, Anne Rupperecht and Chitra
Builder: Manjunath
Photographs:Lavannya Goradia

Guest house at Sirsi

2010-06-29T09:00:00.011+05:30

Designed for a an extended family, most of whom have now moved out of Sirsi, this is a private guest house for the family for its yearly get togather during the annual car festival in the local temple. Able to accomodate 40 people in its two dormitories and three bedrooms, this building also has a large dining area and a kitchen.
It is entered by crossing a nallah over a small foot bridge. A disabled friendly ramp leads one to the large Jagli or verandah. This part of the building which is built out of laterite also has a brick vault. There are three projecting balconies which project out onto the areca plantation in the front. The rest of the walls are built out of stabilized mud bricks.

Other significant features of house include a double roof, which is a combination of pre-cast "flat-panels" and mangalore tiles. This roof keeps the dormitories cool. The building has a large sump tank which harvests enough water for the cooking and drinking needs of the occupants. It treats all its water and this water is reused for flushing the toilets.

Design team- Chitra Vishwanath, Sharath Nayak

Contractor - Ranganath.L

2010-06-19T15:12:00.003+05:30

The simple way of building a rammed earth wall

Parthasarathy residence

2010-06-18T13:30:00.013+05:30

With seven coconut trees and four cheeku trees on site , this house ,on northern edge of Bangalore, was a retirement home for Mr.Parthasarthy who was a very nice person with lots of things to talk about :) .site , this house ,on northern edge of Bangalore, was a retirement home for Mr.Parthasarthy who is a very nice person with lots of things to talk about :) .The house had to be a gathering place for family and friends to spend lots of their time amidst greens .But at the same time the bedroom had to be a secluded unit to spend time alone even when there are people around.

We started with a jagli area as an entrance foyer which guided to the central living area opening into the internal court.A little skew to the bedroom space disjointed it from the main house and gave a three side view and ventilation to the bedroom.An attached library was given in the bedroom to make it a self contained unit as per requirements.

Vault in the living area and soccer dome in the bedroom add upto the volume of the spaces thus takes the hot air up making the living zone comfortable.

The flooring was done in green oxide and clay tiles with built in furnitures as bed and book shelves for library which also provided a transition space between the living area and the master bedroom.

The landscape played an important role for the house which had various herbs , fruits and vegetable garden at the rear and built in seats and low height flowering plants for the music area in the front.To mark the boundaries of the site only hedge has been used.

Natural light and ventilation reduce the power consumption without compromising on the comfortability factors.The house also harvests the rain water and treat the waster water through the reed bed with a small chappadi bridge over the polishing tank.

Design credit to Devyani, Chitra and Lavannya and Mr. Sunil Kumar for construction.

Mrs.Kala Gopinath's Home

2010-06-01T14:36:00.017+05:30

Set right in the city centre, near the Racecourse of Bangalore, is this new villa with its own mini world ! Huge jackfruit tree conserved and potentially used to get a view from the bedrooms and block the road junction round the building corner. Mrs.Kala Gopinath loves to garden and you see pockets of garden on each side of the house.
As you pass through the low height lobby with tile filled ceiling, you enter into a high vaulted roof living room, which makes it the coolest space. Do lend an eye to the yellow paint on the entrance door threshold, reminding us of our tradition. The free flowing horizontal pointing on the living room wall walks you through the house into the central court, defined by the stone pillars and lovely teracotta floor. Seated in the centre is an inherited piece of swing drawing all the power from the pyramidical skylight above it! Kitchen loves the light from sky directly! The Mud plastered wall awaits for its painting...
Builder-Mr.Narayan M C , Architect-Chitra Vishwanath and Monalika Nandaa

Article on San Souci- Residence of Chitra and Vishwanath

2010-05-27T10:37:00.001+05:30

http://doseofdepps.blogspot.com/2010/05/zenrainman-museum.html

Biome in small towns

2010-05-21T16:50:00.013+05:30

Murthy house, Doddaballpur( Architect- Martin Lafierrre)

Govardhan eco village, Galtare, Maharastra( Architect- Chitra,Devyani Dayal)

Community center, Thiruchendur( Architect- Chitra, Chandra)

Vaid house, Bahadurgarh( Architect- Chitra Vishwanath)

Subramaniam house, Srirangapatana( Architect- Martin Lafierrre)

Managers bungalow, Kulakumbai( Architect- Chitra, Sharath Nayak)

Forsyth Lodge, Madhai( Architect- Chitra Vishwanath, Lavanya Goradia)

Shelter home, Killai( Architect- Chitra Vishwanath and Vikraman.J)

Ghosh home, Coonoor( Architect- Deepak Godhi, Chitra Vishwanath)

Kumble home, Mysore( Architect- Chitra Vishwanath)

Hornbill House, Kulakumbai( Architect- Sharath Nayak, Anurag Tamhankar)

Rai home, Balehonnur( Architect- Sharath Nayak)

Jagadish home, Kolar( Architect- Sharath Nayak)

Riyaz home, Trichi( Architect- Noel Gerald)

Guest house, Sirsi( Architect- Chitra Vishwanath, Sharath Nayak)

Pepper house, Kulakumbai( Architect- Chitra Vishwanath, Sharath Nayak)

Over the last few years, Biome has been undertaking designs of a lot of buildings outside Bangalore.

While there are lots of learnings and fun for us, execution has always been a challenge. Whatever has been acheived has been due to support from various quarters at different times. Sometimes it has been Bangalore based contractors and masons, entreprising local contractors, masons and other workmen, client backing and trust. It is also our objective to mainstream ecological construction.

Arkere House

2010-05-18T15:30:00.006+05:30

A residence designed by BIOME about three years back. A ground floor rather small building existed at site which needed to be made larger. When we started demolishing some of the parts of the old building we realized it was also built with mud blocks!This house harvests all its water and is made totally accessible.The house plinth is reached by a ramp, the toilets are wheelchair accessible in the ground floor and the its lit very well with a central skylight.The skylight has a very interesting pattern - a take from Escher but with a twist....

Design Credit- Amrita Dasgupta

Wipro wetland

2010-05-17T17:12:00.008+05:30

The Wipro campus at Electronic City (Bangalore) is currently saddled with a huge water demand. Part of the reason for this is a large artificial water body that they have maintained. Extending over an acre (4000 sq mts), this water body is topped up with tanker water to the extent of 20,000 litres a day.

Biome had already done rainwater harvesting in Wipro in 2005. Five years down the line, they have approached Biome once again to figure out if anything could be done about the water body. Mr Vishwanath suggested converting the water body into a natural wetland. This would incorporate different varieties of reeds and plants so that over time the water body may go from looking like this

To looking something like this

Pic: Narsipura tank at Vidyaranyapura

The idea behind the whole exercise is multifold
1. Reducing water demand: In a sterile water body, just making it look good is an effort since the water level needs to be constantly monitored. With natural growth, one need not maintain a continuously high water level. It is ok if this fluctuates with the seasons - it will still look fine.

2. Water quality: Currently there are water purifiers and aerators working furiously to keep the water clean. Inspite of that, the end result is quite sad with the water looking a dirty grey. Plants will use up nutrients present in the water and that will naturally improve the water quality. This principle has also been used in a Bio-Pool done by Biome.
www.youtube.com/user/zenrainman#p/search/1/DR08yJzyZko

3. Improved bio diversity: With the introduction of new plants, the campus can expect more birds and aquatic life.

We have begun by introducing some plant species such as
- Water hyacinth
- Cana
- Philo
- Money plant

These are mix of water based (hydroponic) and soil based plants.

Two more cob buildings under construction

2010-05-12T12:45:00.001+05:30

Cob cottage in Salem.

Cob studio in Rajankunte.

Biome is building two more structures in Cob. One in Salem and another in Rajankunte near Bangalore. People interested in getting an hands on experience can write to Anurag (anurag@biome-solutions.com) for the Rajankunte project or to Sheel (sheel@biome-solutions.com) for the Salem project.

First of its kind around Mumbai

2010-04-27T17:49:00.009+05:30

This small cottage built on the Govardhan Eco farm, ISKCON in Galtere village and is this building is thought to be the first mud building in the modern ages around Mumbai. Local mud has been used to build the walls and a few of the roofs. For the roofs, pre-cast panels of mud were made on ground and then asembeled in place.

A sump tank built in the front of the building is expected with proper managment to harvest 1.3 lakh liters every year out of the 1.4 lakh liters that fall on its roof every year. The building will treat its waste water and the treated water will be used in irrigation on the farm.

The building construction was a joint effort of masons from Bangalore, local villagers and Devotees and Brahmacharis of ISKCON. This cottage is a part of the larger project which is up for green rating unger the TERI-GRIHA rating system

Design credits- Devyani Dayal, Sharath Nayak and Chitra Vishwanath

Villa Concorde

2010-04-06T11:54:00.004+05:30

Concorde villa, is one of the 9 Villas designed for a 140 acre coffee and tea estate. It gets its name

because of the resemblance of its roof profile to the wings of the Concorde airliner. The design of the villas are all derived from their siting within the estate. The idea behind siting and building design being to offer a different experience from each villa, thus offering the scope for a guest to come back more than once for varied experiences.

The location of the Concorde villa is on a old drying yard, on the edge of a water fall, opening onto the views of a water fall, valley with a backdrop of layers of mountains in different hues of blue and tea gardens, with each of the views in a different direction from the location. The layout of the building integrates this unique feature of different veiws or worlds from one location within it. All the rooms have predominant view of one of these features, while offering a glimpse of the rest.

The roof is designed to look like a paper rocket, like it is taking off into the valley and adds to the

drama. Hence the clients have named it the Concorde while the local tribes find the roofs to be like the mast of a ship. The walls are composite, with mud bricks on the inside and stone on the outside.

Design Team- Chitra Vishwanath, Anurag Tamhankar and Sharath Nayak

Contractor- M.C.Narayan

Jenny pintos studio

2010-03-18T20:04:00.001+05:30

Click and watch Jenny Pinto's ecological paper making studio

The clock is ticking - opportunities for RWH

2010-03-15T22:08:00.005+05:30

As you may know, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has recently introduced an amendment to its Act that requires rainwater harvesting (RWH) for all buildings on plots of 2,400 square feet or greater, and all new buildings on plots of 1,2000 square feet or greater. The amendment requires compliance by May 27, 2010, which is rapidly approaching. Unsurprisingly, our phones at Biome have been ringing off the hook for several weeks now with requests for RWH services.

One of the first questions we're asked is "How can RWH be implemented in my home/apartment/office building? What are the options?" We think one of the best ways to understand your options is to see for yourself how RWH can be applied in different contexts. To that end, we've developed a tool using Google Maps that we refer to as Bloogle, which showcases select RWH case studies of projects we've implemented throughout the Bangalore area. We have project descriptions, photos, and in some cases even video of these systems. Take a look at Bloogle and see what's possible for your property!

Oland estate Coonor

2010-03-08T13:49:00.007+05:30

The project to design 9 farmhouses at Oland an estate which grows tea, coffee and fruits in an organic manner. These farmhouses are then rented out to guests. The property is a "fringe" property bordering the forests of the Coimbatore wildlife range and opens out to spectacular views of the hills around. The views are everchanging. On a clear day, one can see the windmills in the neighbouring state of kerala, the Pykara dam and the lights of metupalyam and coimbatore in the night. Some days the hills multilayered hue of blue. Wildlife like the Indian gaur, Elephants, bears, hornbills and the barking deer are frequent visitors to the property. Two streams pass thorough the property and cascade into waterfalls within the propert

The design started with selection of locations to build. Given that the estate already had a network of roads, nine different locations were choosen to build the villas instead of clustering them. This offered the possibility of a different experince for a returning guest.

The first of the completed buildings is the Refurbished Managers bungalow. Originally built in 1851 for the estate manager, an upper floor was added to provide a bread and breakfast facility. Noatable features in this was the use of wood from the old building for the floors, doors and windows and paints which are easy on the environment. The resultant debris from the demolitions has been used within the property to make roads, minor dams and dining platforms thus making this a zero debris project. The water supply is from the natural stream which flows next to it. The property has a large range of Di-urnal temperatures. The passive design features employed in the project ensure that the insides are maintained at a constant temperature.
Design team- Chitra Vishwanath, Sharath Nayak, Anurag Tamhankar and Jayashree Bardhan

Contractor- M.C.Narayan

go to www.olandestate.com for a booking.

An industrial building in Mud

2010-03-03T12:49:00.003+05:30

Hi-tech Magnetics specializes in printed circuit board artwork, PCB assembly and manufacture of transformers. The priority of owner Mrs. Uma Reddy was to provide for sufficient natural lighting for the workspaces, as her earlier premises had used too much electricity for lighting. She liked the idea of an ecological building since it reduced her maintenance cost, and the facility’s rainwater harvesting system provided her with adequate water to manage the building.
The building provided for administration areas, meeting space, raw material stores, a shop floor and transformer lamination facility. The shop floor spaces incorporate passive cooling features.
The building is designed by Sharath Nayak and built by Mr.Sunil Reddy.
Photo credits to Dr.Vivek.M.

Vishwanath's Interview on Climate Challenge India

2010-03-02T11:35:00.001+05:30

Click on the link below to find the interview Vishwanath

Biome's office

2010-02-26T10:52:00.001+05:30

A walk thorough the office of biome. One can see the different ecological construction techniques in use here.

Natural swimming pool in Bangalore

2010-02-17T11:34:00.002+05:30

Conventional swimming pools are water,energy or chemical intensive.Using the concept of bio mimicry globally the effort is to build more natural swimming pools. How bout allowing some plants and tadpoles to swim or be with you?
Our native village', is an ecological resort,in Hessarghatta close to Bangalore. It lays claim to one of the first such natural swimming pools in the region.

www.biome-solutions.com
www.ournativevillage.com

Sanjay and Pratibha Singh's house

2010-02-16T10:16:00.005+05:30

A small video from Zenrainman's channel going thorough artists Sanjay and Pratibha Singh's ecological home.

Jolapara twin house

2010-02-15T10:55:00.001+05:30

A house built for two brothers on a 2400 sft corner plot. The request for two houses with three bedrooms each was a challenge. Instead of the routine of a house on each floor, biome designed the houses adjacent to each other. This ensured that each linear house had its own parking space and double height spaces which brought in adequate light to the ground floor spaces.

Filler slabs using waste stones and tiles were created thus forming interesting patterns in the ceiling of each bedroom. The owners also enthusiastically made their own patters. Filler slabs reduce the use of concrete and encourage effective use of waste material which would have otherwise ended up in landfills.

The house is designed by Lalitha Kumar and built by Mr. M.C.Narayan

A chicken coop redesigned into a modern house

2010-02-11T11:00:00.002+05:30

Located on the outskirts of what was the "outside Bangalore"at that time, a unique challenge to build on this 5 acre farm was to locate the building without disturbing any of the planted area. The site had three sets of dilapidated buildings. Eventually, it was decided to site the building on the foot print of an old chicken coop. This offered us the chance to design an unusually dimensioned building. Built largely using material salvaged from the old chicken coop and another demolished house that the clients owned, the house is 275 feet long and 35 feet at its widest and 5 feet at its narrowest.

The house harvests water for all its needs, treats the waste water and uses it in its farm. The house designed by Chitra Vishwanath, assisted by Lalitha Kumar and Sharath Nayak and was built by Mr.Sunil Reddy.

And credits to the clients for allowing an unusual design to be translated into reality

Macquette for Sitting type Eco San pan

2010-02-09T23:07:00.000+05:30

We have been working at the design of Eco San toilets at least for the past 7-8 years and have been constantly exploring design ideas. Dahir Nisha , a student from Chennai, who joined us as a trainee was made to work at making a life size model of an Eco San Sitting type WC. Here are some pictures and drawings of the attempt.
A lot of work was done in anthropometric studies too and it was at that tiem the table lamp Wc was bought for more understanding.We could not make this because of the high cost of the mould.
In the next post we would see the journey to making of a different kind of squatting pan for us washers.

Biome In Nigeria

2010-02-06T16:59:00.000+05:30

Biome was involved in the design of a student housing project in Nigeria and the subsequent technology transfer process. Biome worked with the local staff of Earthblocks, Nigeria the developers in,

Site identification
Developing the building brief and design
Soil identification and modification
Making of rammed earth foundations
Making of stabilised mud bricks and building walls
Making of Pre-cast roofing panels and Pre-cast concrete beams
Making mud centering for roofs and lintels

SheelRaj Shetty and Sharath Nayak were involved in the technology transfer process and worked jointly on the design with Chitra.

www.biome-solutions.com

Chitra here.I like stories associated with projects and this one has an interesting one.
The process of this design and execution was a truly global one. The client, Mr.Mobolaji, sent us an email while he was working in Ireland .Frankly we did not believe the email at all in the beginning.Mobolaji came over to India met us and gave us presentation of the site.He then travelled to Auroville to see more mud buildings as well purchase a machine.
Then while he was staying over for three days in Bangalore we spent whole day and major part of the night on two days working out a design based on teh climatic conditions--which were to maximise the wind movement for the humid equatorial climate. Anne , trainee from Germany helped us in making a 3D-one of the first 3Ds done in the office. It was fun and we called the building "The Butterfly".
After Mobolaji's return , he sent an architect Jimmy over to us to be trained for construction.We did try our best with training Jimmy but he did contribute to Indian economy by purchasing lots of stuff in India.
When the construction was to begin Sharath went to Oru and helped in streamlining the construction as well as scouted for a better site in terms of location and quality of the soil.
The new site changed the design which was made into four replicable parts and Sheel went over to help /train build the same. Sheel stayed for eight months and built quite a large portion of the first phase while experimented and demonstrated different techniques to the construction folks.

Utopian dreams

2010-02-06T16:35:00.000+05:30

Sarita and Dinesh are the developers of a gated community called Utopia, and wanted an ecological house in their new community to be the beacon of their philosophy. The ground floor of the house has two distinct spaces: one for the inhabitants built around a courtyard with an embedded rock surface, and a service core which houses the utility and drying space and an accommodation for drivers.

The ground floor in the home area has a foyer, a puja in the northeast corner of the plot, living room, dining room and kitchen, and three bedrooms. The first floor of the home is two bedrooms for the children and an open verandah living space for the swing. In the service core is a small apartment for the household help.

The house was designed to harvest all of its rainwater and also treats its black and greywater, which are used for landscape and recharge. This project taught new skills to the team at Ventures, such as coloured cement flooring. It also brought new skilled personnel to the Ventures team.

The house has been designed by Martin Laffierere of Biome Architects, Bangalore

www.biome-solutions.com

Gowri and Harish's house. A Mud house next to a multi story apartment.

2010-02-04T10:45:00.000+05:30

With the plot located right behind a huge apartment complex near outer ring road, we were approached to design for them an ecologically sensitive house. The couple, Mr.Harish Iyer who works for a Bio-technology firm and Mrs.Gowri Iyer, who is involved in Education Research decided to build and live in a home that reflected their beliefs.

The walls of the House are built with the mud by stabilizing its with 7% of cement, compressing it, sun-drying and curing it. Thus the whole wall system completely removed the need to burn anything for its production.

The curved roof of Jack Arches has kept the steel and concrete consumption much lower than a conventional RCC roof.The ribbed hollow clay block roofing keeps the room cooler on a hot day due to its thickness and air-gap.

Cooler evening wind drifts the hot air inside creating a pleasant space inside throughout the year.

The Kota and Jaisalmer stone flooring in the Living and Lounge spaces add to the presence of the stone pillars inside.

Clay tile flooring in the bedrooms maintain almost a constant temperature throughout the year and more importantly keep the users healthy.

The natural light flows in through skylights and windows avoiding use of artificial lighting till the dusk.

The wind crosses through the house and lets it cool without the need for a AC even on a hottest day.

The House harvests all of its rainwater and also treats its washing machine grey water to flush the toilet in lower floors.

The house has been designed by Monalika Nanda and built by Mr. M.C.Narayan

just reminiscing..........

2010-02-02T13:54:00.000+05:30

We are besieged with questions from young as well as other architects as to how is it that they can practice sustainable architecture or build in mud?
Yes, there are umpteen workshops and trainings which are organised by many( we too want to get ourselves into this space;)), but they rarely arm the attendees with practical knowledge and also site specific decision making. The other thing these events miss is Human interaction which is needed to pursue this thread of idea. It is generally assumed that we have had it easy....yes when we Vishu and I started we were young and it did not feel the process to be difficult.We were also lucky to have had friends , who are now friends for life, with the same kind of enthusiasm , and also commitment. I for one shoudl also not miss the contribution of family members---though it may all end up being seen as as Oscar?Grammy acceptance speech. My FIL and BIL being civil engineers contributed in me learning the practical as well as structural design aspect respectively. My MIL . I couldn't ahve done without her contribution at all...and there is a long list of it ......................
All of us had one common thread and that was questioning the existing way of working?why not- was a question we kept asking in every situation??? Why should be what is conventional be followed? Laurie Baker and IISc were pioneers we looked up to but since we also liked to twist our design education around we questioned both of them and worked at an amalgamation of Laurie and IISc with a lot of personal Masala to dish up something new and relevant.
Bnagalore is a blessed city not only with regards to climate but also regards to its people.SO, for us though the city and its environs provided us with materials and skills, its the people who gave us the responsibility to work on their houses have played a very important part in this journey of ours.
Thus for past twenty years we have been working on the same concepts, evolving as well as maturing it as a good wine...Our original connections have remained and have become stronger cause now we have also bonded with their families and have also developed newer connections. On board many young enthusiast have joined us and taken ownership, and taking forward this vehicle.
Personally now I feel its needed that BIOME establishes itself as a vehicle which would assist newer members of architectural and construction fraternity to establish themselves in genuine Sustainable design ideas.

Kumars house- Ecological city house on a small plot of land

2010-01-30T11:48:00.000+05:30

People often ask us the question whether it one needs a large plot to build an ecological house, whether it is possible to build something nice and simaltaneously eco-friendly on a small plot of land within the city.

Here is a project designed by Biome in Malleshwaram, Bangalore in the year 2000. This is a 2 bedroom house on a plot of dimensions 15 feet x 40 feet. Given similar constraints of plot size, neighbours had already built till the edge of this plot. To provide for light, ventilation and privacy, the house has a staircase around a central skylit court. The court provided the light and air to the house and also enables the owners to have privacy from the neighbours and has murals by artist Sanjay Singh along the stairs.

Designed by Deepak Godhi and built by Mr.Ranganath this house is a framed RCC structure with 6" thick SMB(stabilized Mud Blocks) walls . It harvests it's water and has ample daylight. At a cost of about Rs.600/Sft, it costed much less than a conventional structure of a similar size at that time.Besides it also saves money on water, and use of external energy for ventilation and lighting.

Sunny's cob house

2010-01-29T15:13:00.000+05:30

Sunny's house was designed by Sheel. Sunny is an organic farmer who will be growing his own food on the rest of the plot using harvested water from an excavated pond. The earth from this excavation is used to build the walls of this house. The walls are 18 inches thick. It was mostly built using local labor with some contribution from volunteers over the weekends. The volunteers were students and young architects, who learnt the art of cob building in the process.

The intermediate floor for this house is of precast panels and the final roof is of reinforced concrete.

The house harvests water for drinking and cooking needs and also has a composting toilet.

The construction of this house saw a few hilarious incidents in form of comments from lot of curious neighbours who thought of it to be a brick klin and sometimes to be a temple.

Sheel does a Gaudi

2010-01-28T13:08:00.000+05:30

Broken tile patterns by Sheel avara balaga.......at Sunny's.

An evening out...alone....

2010-01-19T23:13:00.000+05:30

I rarely do this...blog..yes and also go out alone.Today I decided to.It was no great outing.Met some architects at Century Club who were talking about some forthcoming event and also met in the bargain architect Christopher Benninger, who seemed a very nice man.
For me it was to experience the city alone ...and alone in the evening/night.
In the evening at 7 pm the roads are chaotic.Most places traffic is gridlocked , air polluted as well as the noise of honking, all pointing to the fact that next time we would be better off walking.
But at 10.00 pm the city changes the way it presents itself,no traffic jam, fast moving cars, air is cool and pleasant, not much honking.Its such a pleasant city at this time....but what would a person without a vehicle do at this time...and a woman to boot.
Though I loved the sight and smell...I felt a bit lost...no idea as to which side should I go to take the correct bus, was afraid to even cross those broad roads and to just reach the other side which has no footpath.Anyway wherever I was standing too did not have a footpath.
Thats what I do not like...the feeling of helplessness in the very city I belong to. I am a tax payer and am a citizen of this city but it ignores me especially when I try to be a responsible person who is not polluting the city.

Chitra's interview at Tree hugger

2010-01-13T16:24:00.000+05:30

Here is the link

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/01/interview-chitra-vishwanath.php

Photo: The grey water storage and lily tank all lit up on Diwali night at Our Native Village, an eco-resort outside of Bangalore (Chitra K. Vishwanath)
More often than not, I am greeted with blank looks whenever I mention the words 'earth architecture'. But forget mud huts and even the Great Mosque (Mali's masterpiece of traditional earth building). Despite it being an ancient building material, designing with earth these days is not as humble as it may appear, especially in urban settings. This unseeming paradox is one that Indian architect Chitra K. Vishwanwath - a well-known veteran of the profession - has worked with for almost two decades. Along with her firm belief that mud is possible in urban settings, her works show that the proof is in the pudding: earth is just as versatile and aesthetically pleasing as your run-of-the-mill, high-tech, designer eco-material - as well as answering that unspoken question on everyone's mind: why bother with earth?

TH: When did you build your first earth building, and could you describe some of its features?

Chitra K. Vishwanath: I graduated in December 1988 and after a one-year stint in an office in Bangalore, I started one of my own with the support of my husband Vishwanath. In the first five years of our practice we did just two mud buildings and rest were economical structures based on Laurie Baker's innovations.

There is not much to say about the first two mud buildings but a lot about our house which we completed in 1995.

We decided to use earth as a primary material after looking at the site and incorporated a basement to procure the needed mud. This is now our mantra every time we design: look for the possibility of getting earth for the building - which is usually best done by incorporating a basement. This house of ours is also a laboratory of ideas: ideas on material use, spaces suitable for different climates, biodiversity, water and food. So far, it has no need for fans, recycles water, harvests rainwater and has a facility to turn waste into fertilizer. What we love about our house is that it is always growing on us and fosters innovation as a partner, thus it is always a work in progress. After completing our house in 1995, all the work we have done is ecological and 99% using earth.

Photo: Residence for Pratibha and Sanjay Singh; To the front door with the rainwater harvesting tank in the foreground hidden by the climber and the typical North Indian landscape (all done by Sanjay who is from Bihar)
Photo: Residence for Pratibha and Sanjay Singh; interior atrium (skylit) with a tree growing in the middle - which is also the living room

TH: What are some of the inspirations that steered you in this direction?

CKV: Inspirations have been many and always depends on how one looks at it. The philosophies and methods of Laurie Baker, the Indian Institute of Science and its innovations in mud construction and all the different works at Auroville have been my teachers, but to be able to put it in action in the fast-growing city of Bangalore - will compel me to claim it has been just our persistence and firm belief that mud is possible in urban settings. Also, the contribution of our engineer friends who have helped us realize our visions is paramount.

Photo: Residence for Nishwath and Prakash; Skylit dining space of the house, looking toward kitchen

TH: What is an interesting recent project that you've been working on?

CKV: Now the office has grown from a one-woman show to eight partner architects and people from other professional spheres - all working on many different projects. I work on few and one of the recent one is a small resort near Satpuda Game Reserve, in the state of Madhya Pradesh.

This project has been interesting personally because it was in a different context. Here we had to learn from contending with a restricted range of available material and still make the place unique. We were lucky to have a very enthusiastic contractor who is also a trained architect, Vikesh Agarwal. His team worked wholeheartedly and we worked extensively on "cob" walls for the rooms, and we also built partly with rammed earth.

There are many other projects happening in the office which are all very interesting in terms of their nature of client brief, construction method and materials and finally the design per se. We find every residence to be a fresh challenge.

We are currently doing a marketplace for rural women, an orphanage / reading centre, an eight room resort in Coonoor, on 150 acres of abandoned tea estate, a school for blind children and numerous residences.

Besides Architecture Biome (as the new office is known) is also involved in giving strategic consultancy towards issues of water, sanitation (we just built 10 bamboo based EcoSan toilets in flooded districts of Bihar), alternative energy and consulting for other architects in making their projects ecological. As Biome we also conduct workshops for school children, college students and do training in rainwater harvesting and building techniques.

Photo: Biological Pool or "biopool" at Our Native Village Eco-resort; tney are are swimming pools in which water is cleaned by means of microorganisms and plants. They also harbour bio diversity and are like good old village ponds.

TH: How would you characterize the green building movement in India, in terms of past and recent developments, and in comparison to North America or Europe?

CKV: The Green Building movement is taking big strides in India and most informed architects are looking at ways and means to make right choices.

Our vernacular and historic architecture has always been very sensitive to nature. We can see many examples of innovations of water harvesting, cooling, ventilation and use of local materials in them.

In the recent past works by the likes of B.V. Doshi, Charles Correa and Achyut Kanvinde too incorporated material, climate and culture in their projects and for all of us practising now there is much to learn from them.

Currently, there is an improved awareness with both architects and clients of the negative impact on the environment buildings can make and there is interest in both to work towards sustainability. Many times the decisions of being green makes business sense in terms of reduced cost of water, energy and maintenance aspects and in a lighter vein they are also taken in light of the attention these projects would receive in the media - and this is a lot to do with how Western press would see our works!

Indian architecture has a very strong language historically and has held its own, while the British incorporated elements and created a synthesis. As we embarked on building our nation after independence we were in a hurry. Though we have some good works by foreign as well as Indian architects, what happened was that as India built large educational institutes and many infrastructure projects, it also built many sorry buildings in concrete and bricks.

With the advent of the information technology (IT) and service sector, our buildings started aping whatever was happening in the West. So, now we have a profusion of glass and steel in our buildings which consume enormous amount of energy to maintain, while the materials used are also energy-intensive to manufacture.

With advent of LEED certification, Indian architects have now got an impetus to follow a new trend. So there are many Platinum, Gold and Silver-rated projects in India, which on hindsight can only be improved upon - since as the Noble Laureate Amartya Sen puts it, we are "argumentative Indians." So with the advent of LEED we will surely see a movement of Indian architects to come up with ratings which are contextual to India.

Finally, in a very serious vein, if LEED is so concerned about energy and sustainability I wonder why does it rate buildings with the names of materials that take enormous toll on people, energy and environment to mine them? Instead of Platinum, Gold and Silver, its best buildings should be given "Mud", "Wood" and "Stone" ratings.

Detail

TH: Why do you think earth-based building is important in urban settings? Does incorporating earth into the building process significantly help to reduce the ecological footprint of a house?

CKV: Since I am more aware of the Indian context I will answer from this perspective, because it also brings to focus that most eco-solutions will be based locally though they will certainly have global consequences.

In India most buildings are made with bricks. These bricks are fired with wood, gas being very expensive and also very rarely available. This wood is sourced from nearby forests since we have almost no sustainable plantation for firewood purposes. These brick making industries come up in villages outlying a city and thus also take away agricultural land. Many times the soil used is of good quality for agriculture. In this way, loss of arable land and therefore food works its way into bricks, making it a less-than-sustainable material. Also, these Asian brick-making industries are contributing to a growing ozone hole over New Zealand.

When the bricks are made non-locally, they must be transported via long distances into the city - adding to air and noise pollution and other health hazards, including accidents. On the global scale, this long-distance transportation of materials within an oil-based economy means consequences like war in Iraq and the melting of glaciers... the list could go on.

In all of this, let us look back as to use of earth: with the use of earth from below your building area, the transportation is reduced, you are using soil from where no food will be grown, thus reducing the footprint in totality.

Similarly, the energy used in most of Indian construction is human labour, thus the work feeds people and not a manufacturer. Building with earth in this context makes sense and is common sense.

Chitra K. Vishwanath

2010-01-11T13:30:00.000+05:30

Paintings on the wall.

It was a very normal Sunday, woke up late went to Devyani’s & Pooja’s place had breakfast. Suddenly I & Poo decided to buy a hard disk. We fixed to leave at 1200 hours & I went back home for a bath. As usual they were late, we took out bikes & left for reliance time out, Devyani was riding Pooja’s bike (without license), she was too slow. While passing through mekhari circle I was admiring the work done by artists on the wall of the fly over. I found it very interesting, it was too good to see this artwork instead of the dead concrete wall or an actor with his weapon, was so lively there. This might not be a great composition but the work these guys were doing was fascinating. Nice picturesque depiction of cultural values of Karnataka, flora & fauna resting in the lap of Western ghats. I had seen this work many a times also had seen the stages of this but never had met any artist doing it.

I saw an elderly person with his efficient hand painting a tiger on wall near Mount Caramel College. Could not resist urge of talking to him, with my little Kannada knowledge I framed first question, “Nimge Hindi gotta?”(do you know hindi?) The tamilian guy replied in fluent Hindi. Suri is from Cuddalore settled in Bangalore from 15 years. He was working as film poster artist. Suri is working now with a team of 6 people, they finish about three pictures a day together, they start with an charcoal outline put primer on it & finish it with oil colours.

He is very happy doing this, business for him had gone on toss in this digital printed posters era. He did not have job almost for a month, then BBMP came with this idea of city beautification, which was very encouraging for these people.

For every action there is a reaction, this was no exception. There was mixed reaction amongst the people, “it is so beautiful” “this is a new concept” “what kinda rubbish this is? I would have done a better job” “What do you think people are not going to pee on it?” “This should have been given to artists other than the poster artists”.

Everyone is right in their ways, but as a cumulative thing, I feel this is good concept it is making the city better, it is creating employment for unemployed people (not for the artists who have ability to think wide & are already high paid). Accepted this might not be a great portray of art but it is educating people who are residents of Karnataka for more than 10 years by taking them through a journey of their own state & for an outsider nothing could have been better.

“We need to encourage them, the authorities are doing something good for the city, let us volunteer & suggest good things rather than pointing at mistakes. We can go & approach them tell them we are ready to help them doing this job” says Ar. Chitra.

In my opinion, next time whenever I am struck in traffic, I will not be bored.
_Anurag

Avatars of a PET bottle

2009-12-22T17:51:00.000+05:30

You can find them uselessly lying in unused corners of every house and often on the streets, doing their bit to spoil the environment. Have you ever wondered what a useless PET bottle is actually capable of? No? Here are a few things you could do in just a matter of minutes..

BIOSAND filter:
If you're living in Africa, or remote parts of our country,Diarrhea is definitely not new to you! More than 2.6 million people die every year due to it.

Chop off a 2 litre bottle near the neck. Make a small hole at the bottom and insert a small tube. Fill it with upto 3 inches of fine grained sand which has been washed. stick the tube vertically and bend it at the point where it is as high as the sand.

How it works: When you pour water into the filter, it wets the sand and excess water comes out of the pipe. The level of water inside the pipe and the filter will be the same. This means that the sand is moist all the time. This layer of moist sand (in 2 weeks) nurtures a dense collection of micro-organisms. This layer helps combat the other micro-organisms and contaminants in the input water.

BioSand Filters remove 95 to 99% of organic contaminants, including bacteria, viruses, protozoa, worms, and particles. Safe water produced by the filters is free of discoloration, odor, and unpleasant taste , and can be used for drinking, food preparation, personal hygiene, and sanitation.

SODIS filter:
Solar Disinfectant filter has been in use in the developing countries, but not many people are aware of it. All you have to do is paint half the bottle black. Fill 3/4th of the bottle with water, close it and shake vigorously to oxygenate it. Then fill the bottle fully, close it and place it horizontally on the roof with the black portion down. After 4-5 hours, cool the water, and its ready for drinking.

How it works: The UV rays from the sun enter the bottle through the transparent side and kill/deactivate the bacteria in the water. The Infra red rays strike the black portion and heat the water upto 60 degrees, which further kills the micro-organisms.

For best results, these two filters can be used in succession. These filters are especially useful in flood affected areas, these water is physically and biologically contaminated. Every house can have its own set of filters, which require absolutely no investment.

DRIP irrigator:
Cut the base portion of the bottle, leaving a little so that it acts like a cap. fill in water and loosen the cap till the water just drips out. Dig 3-4 inches of soil from a pot and fit this bottle inside, upside down.

How it works: Normally when we water a pot, majority of the water either floods out or evaporates. A drip irrigator gradually delivers water directly into the root-zone of the plant. This way, water needs to filled in the bottle once a week!

I've only written about what I've done. But to create useful things from bottles, the only limit is your creativity.

MUD is the secret of our Energy!

2009-12-18T11:25:00.000+05:30

Climate change. Global warming. Energy Crisis. Today, these are the words we hear as much as Obama, Osama and corruption. While the big wigs are rattling away ideas and policy changes needed to overcome, or rather slow down this crisis, A bunch of us sit and wonder in what way, however small, we could contribute to save energy.

Before I talk about saving energy, let me describe the different types of energy..

->Embodied energy is the energy that is spent while manufacturing the object. For example, traditional clay bricks require burning in a kiln, which not only consumes a lot of energy, but also pollutes the atmosphere.
->Grey energy is the energy spent for the transport of the materials. The significance of saving grey energy is that it supports local business, and again, the pollution from transport is minimised.
->Induced energy like the stress on the walls, noise, etc are not of much importance.
->Operational energy is the energy spent in day to day house activities.

Now I come to the point. The article "In a mud shell..." tells you how Stabilized Mud Blocks (SMB), Rammed earth walls and Mud mortar are made. Let us look at it from the Energy point of view. As i've explained earlier, materials like bricks, cement and paint contain a lot of Embodied energy, where as SMBs and mud mortar are prepared by a simple mechanical process, and the walls do not require any coat of paint. The strength and durability of these walls are proved to be as good as, and even better than brick walls. So in additional to the natural look of the building, a lot of embodied and grey energy is saved.

With reference to the article "Reqium for a dream", We see how green roofing can be incorporated on our terraces. This patch of mud which can used to cultivate ragi, rice and many other plants serves more than that purpose.

->When this patch is flooded with semi treated grey water, the water that drains out is crystal clear, which makes it an inexpensive water purifier.
->It adds a lot of ecological value as it supports a variety of life,earthworms and birds, to name a few.
->Most importantly, green roofs keep the room below at 7-8 degrees lower than the outside temperature. This eliminates the use of ACs and ceiling fans, saving a majority of the operational cost.

All this can be done by including a basement in the design, the mud that is dug out is used for the construction. These techniques are nothing new or extravagant, Its just a forgotten art.. Energy can be saved in hundreds of other ways, but here i suffice it to say MUD is the secret of our energy! In Laurie Baker's words, "Treat your mud as you should treat your wife and you will have a wonderful house for life!"

--Vivek Shastry
2nd year Civil Engg
NITK Surathkal

Visit to Flood Affected Areas in Guntur District (Andhra Pradesh)

2009-10-13T18:06:00.000+05:30

“My house is gone... It’s no more...”, “I don’t know where my cattle is... Rather if it’s dead or alive...” this was a very common phrase I heard when we had reached a government school which was a relief camp for the people who were affected in the floods which recently took place in some parts of Guntur District (Andhra Pradesh, India). I was in Guntur to visit the flood affected area. (Hereon it will be called FAA).

We were in a team of 4 from the office, where I am presently doing my project; Avinash, Sheel, Sunil and me. We left Bangalore on 9th October to a city called Guntur. After travelling for almost 650kms and 12hrs we reached the small city called Guntur. We had already made a contact person in Guntur who was going to accompany us as well as guide us in that locale. We were directed to an Institute kind of a place where our stay was organized for next 2 days. The institute name was BIRD (Bosco Integral Rural Development). We got freshened up and soon Mr. Bala Kumar; our contact person in Guntur, arrived at the place where we had been put up. After the self introduction session, we immediately started heading towards the flood affected areas and the relief camps. Toyota Qualis was arranged for us to roam around the places. En route we had brunch where we met Mr. Jagdish who joined us.

We got the news that the relief camp was soon going to be bunged as most of the villagers were going back to their native places. So we thought of having a look at the relief camp first. We reached a small village and then entered a government school. This school was a relief camp for the FAA people. There was a big line of men and women, quarrels going around everywhere, policemen trying to sort them, some government officials trying to regulate the process.

After a few minutes I comprehended what this havoc was all about. All the FAA people were getting food grains (rice) to take it to their home. This rice was being supplied by the government as a help for those who were affected. “My house is gone... It’s no more...”, “I don’t know where my cattle is... Rather if it’s dead or alive...” was quite a common thing to whomsoever I tried to talk. We were lucky to have Mr. Bala Kumar as he was a local person and well conversed with English and Telugu. Thus language was never a barrier for those 2 days. Around 5000 people were staying in a small school where they were provided with lunch, every day. They were also provided with clean drinking water pouches and biscuits. We clicked a few pictures of the provisions made in the relief camp and then we moved onwards to the actual affected area. We were watching all the flood affected farms, live, and till date had seen them only in the newspapers.

While listening to the stories about the floods from the local people accompanying us, our vehicle suddenly stopped and then we realized that there was a low lying area ahead and water was flowing over the road. It was a distance of 30 meters approximately to cross, but the water was quite high and we had to take a boat to cross this area. On the other side of the road an auto rickshaw tempo was waiting for us to take us to the villages. The first village we halted was Panchalanka. The scene was catastrophic as most of the houses were in water and mud slurry. The whole area was water logged. People were walking in the mud, in the garbage and whatever was there on the ground. The houses had buckled and people were trying to clear their spaces. We met few villagers and asked about the problems they were facing. It was really bad to know that their cattle were flown away with the flood water. A very few of them were lucky to have their cattle safe and sound. We then travelled to another place called Kullur. We were welcomed by applause. I still wonder what they were thinking about us! A relief camp was setup in the village school and was still very much needed as half of the village was in water. The flood water was still flowing through the village. I feared to step into the water for a second, but then built the courage to get into it. I was having a look at a house and then the toilet grasped my attention. The water was gushing out from the toilet as the soak pit under the toilet had got filled with flood water.

We observed few damaged houses and spoke with the house owners. They had accepted the circumstances without any scowl on their face. They took us inside their houses. The beds were hanging to the ceiling, just to avoid them from getting wet. At the other sight, a shack made from dry tody leaves had collapsed. The lady owner was smiling cheerfully and was ready to show what all had got trapped inside her house. We came back to the place where our tempo was parked. A small shop in the village refreshed us from the scorching sun by providing us cold drinks. We started to our way back by taking a ring route. Our Qualis was waiting on the other side. All had stunned after witnessing the devastating scenes. Mean while we had a late lunch in Tenali town. We asked Mr. Kumar if it was possible to visit some nearby village and have a dialogue with the villagers about sanitation. He immediately called a contact person and arranged for a meeting in a village. These people were from Self Help Groups (SHG). They spoke very freely about their concerns of sanitation and toilets. They had no other option than open defecation that too at a minimum distance of 1km from their house. They had separate areas for men and women. They had no solution for it. All this was adding to my experience and was not a bookish knowledge. It was late, we took their leave and went back to the city where we were put up. At the end of a hectic day, we wanted rest, after taking a wash!

Day 2

The day started with heavy breakfast at a roadside eatery. We met Mr. Bala Kumar in his office for a small meeting about the potential of development in the villages. A Qualis was arranged again for visiting villages nearby, but this time it was non-flood affected areas. We had a visit to village Lam, a hilly and rocky area.

This village was surely a big potential for EcoSan toilets according to my readings and knowledge. An interesting case in this village was about a handicapped girl, who had no other option than to walk about 1km as all the villagers do, for the big job. Most of the houses in this village had a small bathroom in the kitchen garden, but the water coming out from the bathroom was allowed to run in the open areas in the village. We visited one more village called Thullur. This village looked a little bit economically sound than others. The houses were having toilets as well as bathrooms. The wastes were allowed to flow to a septic tank. But rainy season was a big problem for these toilets as the water tables used to rise and the drain came out from the toilets. The village had open gutters flowing all around and was a major breeding hub for mosquitoes. The third village we visited had a surprise for us and welcomed us with a home prepared food with the country side taste. Very well prepared 9-10 varieties and to end it up, we were offered Kheer (porridge). After resting for a while and brief talks with the SHG leaders, we headed back to Guntur. We realized the potential these villages have to install EcoSan toilets. With enthusiasts and dedicated people, I am sure that sanitation will not be a dream for these villagers. It was a very much enriching experience to understand the state of Sanitation in the rural side. I hope that all the villages in India will cope with the problem of Sanitation and help to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

For more photos visit the link

-Parag Deshpande

Requiem for a Dream....

2009-07-13T20:09:00.000+05:30

"Rain Rain go away, Come again another day" is in anethema for any rain water harvester, though it might have been his favourite poem in his/her childhood. The environment is a loan from our children and we can all conserve it in our own ways at our very homes. What we have to understand is that though our efforts might look small in the global context they are certainly contributing to something big for the future. Well, this realisation hit my brain quite recenly, after the workshop on rain water harvesting which was held on the 20th of June by the rain water club. The workshop was aimed at making one understand the different ways of conserving and reusing water.

The workshop was held at the Vishwanath's residence. It began with a simple explanation about how rain water harvesting was being carried out. The rain water from the roof top is collected into a rain barrel after it passes through the first rain separator and a netlon mesh to remove all the sand and other impurities. The overflow from the rain barrel and the rain water gets collected in the overhead tank which further overflows into the sump.

This was followed by a talk on how the grey water(water from the washing machine and the bath water) is reused. The grey water is allowed to pass through 4 plastic cylinders each having reeds (typha) grown in them. Reeds are basically water plants that feed on phosphates. They suck the chemical impurities from the grey water. This is then passed through a sand filter to remove the remaining impurities. This water is used for toilet flushes and to irrigate the ragi plant which is being grown on the roof top.

We were also told about the ways in which solid waste was being converted into useful matter. This was done using the ECOSAN and DAILY DUMP. ECOSAN is a dry toilet that uses very little water for washing and no water for flushing. It infact works on the reverse theory of WCs. The ecosan consists of a hole for collecting the faecal matter (solid waste), one for the urine and a basin for washing. The urine is used as a fertilizer for the ragi plant. The faecal matter is collected in tin cans from time to time. It is allowed to decompose for 6 to 8 months after which it turns into manure.

The DAILY DUMP is used to convert the daily kitchen waste into compost.It consists of three mud pots stacked one on top of the other each with small holes near the rim for ventilation except for the third one. The daily kitchen waste is put in the topmost mud pot.This is done till it fills up. It is emptied into the second one and susequently into third pot where it is left to decompose completely.

Last but not the least - THE TIPPY TAP. The Tippy Tap is a simple device for hand washing with running water. It is made from an old plastic container with a hollow handle. The base of the container handle is sealed such that when the container is tilted the water comes out only out of the hole near the sealed base.The tippy tap is not only economical but also a simple and efficient way of washing hands.

The workshop not only taught me a lot but also inspired me to incorporate these techniques in my house. The conclusion drawn out of the workshop is to take a big leap in improving the current situation of water. Otherwise, we will be left repeating what William Wordsworth had said many years ago

"Water Water everywhere but not a drop to drink"

-- Rohini Raghavan

In a mud shell...

2009-07-07T11:54:00.000+05:30

Leaning across the concrete common wall that stands "firmly" between his house and the adjacent 'mud house', bearing a condescending air,he(the cynical neighbour)posed us,a bunch of novices,a rhetorical "so,its a matter of days before this house gets washed away,uhn?".It took us awhile(a workshop with Prof.Yogananda) to unearth the formula that tells a 'mud house' apart from a sand castle.

Understanding soil is only half the stor(e)y! Soil, a composition of sand,silt and clay(along with impurities and organic matter) is available in abundance in shades ranging from white to the seldom preffered black(cotton soil)...but experts say "it deosn't matter if its black or white"for colour is not a reliable indicator of its strength.Clay is the active material, exhibiting a variety of moods-swelling,shrinking,cracking,depending on her relationship with water. Sand and silt are rather inert with no cohesive property.Because of this neutral behaviour,a high(atleast 70%)sand content is preferred.

To understand the percentage of sand in a particular sample,we take a known quantity of soil and seive it in a 75micron mesh. The passing through mischief makers are clay and silt.Weighing the sand retained on top will give us the percentage. Once sand content is adjusted to 70%(by addition of quarry dust or sand),cement or lime is used as stabiliser.

Stabilised mud by definition is"mud which does not soften due to action of H2O,by use of a small quantity of binding agent." Now the homogenous mixture(of soil+quarry dust+stabiliser)has to be compacted to increase density by applying pressure to soil in a mould which produces SMB(stabilised mud block).Alternately soil can be rammed on site in a mould.These mud blocks undergo a crucial test(the wet compressive strength test).Its soaked in H2O for 48hrs and then tested by placing it in a machine and applying load.

Once crushing strength is determined, and blocks are certified satisfactory,they are ready for laying with composite mortar(cement+soil+quarry dust-1:2:3 ratio). These walls have to be well protected from rain.A good plinth level and overhangs will do the job in most cases. for the paranoid, a protective(silicone compound)coating should suffice.
In a mud shell, thus doesnt have to conjure an image of only a poor man's debris with mossy walls and termites giving the wall a velcro hug....and even if they do(for the sake of argument),cant we welcome a little friend and in true traditional spirit say "atithi devo bhava"???

-R.Ramalakshmi

FIRST “SUSTAINABLE LIVING” WORKSHOP FROM BIOME

2009-06-23T17:39:00.000+05:30

20th June Saturday was the First “Sustainable Living” workshop from Biome. It was probably one of the few completely non “ppt” based workshops in modern times which was very good. It was attended by 6 participants (from varied backgrounds) and 5 interns from the Biome office. There was a tour of Vishu’s house to see the rainwater harvesting systems, grey water treatment systems, EcoSan and Mud Block architecture which was anchored by Vishu and Avinash. This was followed by buffet lunch. A trip to the Farm pond and Poly House inGKVK led by Karan was the post lunch activity. The workshop concluded with an informal discussion between all particpants, Prof Rajagopalan and Vishu. We should be having more of these in the future.

He who fixes your pipe and She who cleans your home

2009-06-15T17:22:00.000+05:30

Meet Muniyappa and his team of well diggers. They have dug over a 150 wells with us in the last two years and perhaps more than a 1000 wells in their life time. While digging Muniswamy (or someone else in the team) is drenched in sweat and is bare chested. He climbs up and down the well which can be upto 40 ft deep on footholds 2 inches deep that he himself digs into the sidewalls of the wells. When he is deep down under, digging, and soil has to be hauled up, Srinivasu and Muniyappa are precariously perched on the side of the well pulling up the rope that holds the basket full of soil. And then once the well is dug, concrete rings (each weighing in the range of 75 Kg to 250 Kgs depending on the size of the well) are introduced down from the top with the help of the rope – and the sinews of Muniyappa, Srinivasu or Muniswamy. And during this process, Muniswamy virtually climbs in and out of the well for each ring that is introduced.

Care to shake their hands ? You will feel their toil on them – how many Fair and Lovely (sorry for them now there is Fair and Handsome !!!) tubes can smoothen them out ?

Care to watch them work ? Bruises on their legs and backs. No sirs and madams, no ambulances, no first aid kit, no accident trauma doctors on the stand-by just in case something happens. No medical insurance. Not even basic stuff like safety belts and helmets.

Meet Babu, Chitti Babu. Forced to land in Bangalore as a 15 year old boy and spent the first 15 days on the street. He comes from a village near Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh. He then washed vessels in a hotel. He then became a helper to a plumber. Now he is a full fledged plumber himself – and with much pride. He has a small team of helpers – all on a daily wage basis of course. He has learnt how to “operate” a computer (even browses the internet and sends email!) . He shares his income with his parents house in Chittoor, and has now bought a bike for himself (loan still getting paid). He finally has a Bank account! Now aint that one hell of a career growth path ? He of course has had no annual leave, earnt leave, casual leave, medical leave or any of that sort of thing.

And it is said that everyday, everyday, there are 15 to 20 young Chitti Babus coming from here-there-everywhere that land in our very own “Majestic” Bus stand of Bangalore whose stories may or may not be the ‘success story’ that Babu’s is.

What if you and I came from a village with no education and had to live on the streets for 15 days before even some one gave us a job to wash vessels ? And what if you and I couldn’t open a bank account because there is no document to evidence your and my existence – Proof of residence and Ration card and what not ?

And what do they do for us ? They build our walls, the roof above our heads, they ensure we get our water and our shit is taken away from our toilets. They clean our houses everyday, cook for us and throw our garbage out. They do all the “little” things without which our lives would be an insanitary mess, out on the streets……and then would our abstractions mean anything? I mean to us, would they mean anything to us?

Yeah, that supreme abstraction that we pride ourselves with, our work ethic, our “professionalism”. So we haggle with plumbers, masons, well diggers, maids, the works – to be cheap. We often trouble them for their payments because we think they are “cheats”. We pay less because they were not professional, they didn’t use the right tools. We are absolutely pissed off if while a project is ongoing the plumber suddenly has to go home to Chittoor for an emergency or when he suddenly has lost control of his labourers – “Hey that’s not professional!!. My garden will get flooded !”

When will we ever come out of the cosy shell of our abstractions – abstractions such as values, ethics, merit – that we define and define only in our own social context – Never asking ourselves what they would mean to us if we were different.

You've been with the professors
And they've all liked your looks
With great lawyers you have
Discussed lepers and crooks
You've been through all of
F. Scott Fitzgerald's books
You're very well read
It's well known
You know Something is happening here
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?
- Bob Dylan

Posted by : Avinash Krishnamurthy, 15 June 2009.

power from flowing water

2009-01-13T17:47:00.000+05:30

27/12/08. Saturday.

A short talk by Mr. V Ramasubramanian on Micro Hydro Power.

Mr. Subramanian is associated with www.villageres.com. He works in village renewable energy systems. Our office today was previleged to have him tell us about micro hydro power. Rams, as Avinash referred to him, had worked in the Gandhigram trust for several years with a strong backround in pojects with a social background. He has developed projects for basic electrification in remote/ rural areas. His projects are in the remotest areas of sikkim, himachal pradesh, orissa, karnataka and several villages all over India.
Our firm has always tried to established a self sustaining system of energy supply, or rather has always tried to assess the site conditions such as to acheive the best measures of conserving local resources. Today Mr. Subramaniam gave us basic specifications and technical details for us to help understand the energy scene at most of our rural sites. It was gladdening to see him talk about and value people's participation and initiative in all the projects that he has worked on.
Micro Hydro: It means using the power of flowing water for: mechanical/elecrical energy. In simple language, try visualizing the scene in the movie Swades where a little bit of water channeled down by the right way, attached to a good turbine, lights a bulb! Simple turbines have been in use in age old ways like the flour mills situated along several streams in uttaranchal. Here the flow of water directly turns a turbine which grinds the flour housed in a shack above it.
Micro hydro system basicaly involves the following
a)checkdam ( this is traditionally present in most rural areas)
desilting tank
( uptill now clear water is preferred for utilizing the energy of flow. Mr. Rams however said that there was a proposal for tapping on energy from grey water too, but it still needs to be worked on. Particularly for sewage treatment plants where 10% of the energy used for pumping could be recovered back)
b)Forebay tank
c)Penstock( that is the pipe which carries a part of the water to a room where the turbine is housed. This pipe is usually preferred in PVC or UpVC for the ease of transport to remote areas)
d)Turbine

A micro hydro system should be designed such that it does not affect the existing flow of a stream. The govt of India regulates for 15% of the stream water to be left untouched whereas the rest can be channeled away. However, in these projects that he showed us, he had taken care to channel away a small amount for the turbine only. The water is then channeled back to the stream causing minimum effect to the existing ecology.

How does one find out the power available? The equation says
P( in watts)=6 x Q x H
Q is the flow of water in litres per second. Typically a flow of 100litres/sec or above is good for a hydro system.
H is the head that is the height difference achieved.

Mr. rams also enlightend us about different kinds of pumps which could be made locally by low inputs and sourced from local markets. Several factors involved in working in rural areas are related to material and sourcing of material. For example pvc pipes are easier to carry as against any other material. Rams reiterated that when there is community initiative many hurdles can be crossed easily, which was visible in his projects.

We were truly privileged to have Mr. V Ramasubramanian. For further information, he can always be reached at his website www.villageres.com.

2009-01-08T21:12:00.001+05:30

http://www.jaquar.com/thermostatic.htm
This is a link to thermostatic mixers. A very appropriate product, especially for the hospitality industry. It ensures that the water comes into the faucte/shower at the desired temperature.
Suited especially for non- conventional water heating devices like a biomass boiler. It will ensure no scalding happens

Posted-Sharath Nayak

2008-12-31T19:28:00.000+05:30

Given the fact that most of the wood used for construction in India is imported, our quest for sources of wood grown with sustainable practices led us to the Forest stewardship council. The council provides certification for consumers to assure that the wood comes from forests that are managed to meet the social, economic and ecological needs of present and future generations.
The certification-

prohibits conversion of natural forests or other habitat around the world
prohibits the use of highly hazardous pesticides around the world
prohibits the cultivation of genetically modified trees (GMOs)
respects the right of indigenous peoples around the world
controls each certified operation at least once a year – and if they are found not to comply, the certificate is withdrawn.

More information can be found at link, www.fsc.org
Another intersting link, www.worldwildlife.org/what/globalmarkets/forests/index.html

Posted- Sharath Nayak

workshop

2008-12-11T14:16:00.000+05:30

the following activity to be covered :

experience with cob
earth bag
adobe
rammed earth (wall construction)
flat panel (roofing system )
DATE:17th Dec 2008
timing : 9am-5pm

address: shree ananthnagar layout ,1st phase, kammasandra village, anekal taluk ,electronic city,sunny 's site

Pondi Trip . . .

2008-10-17T11:45:00.000+05:30

We arrived in Pondicherry (Puducherry) at night. Nishant and Geeta met their friends in Auroville, which made them very happy, and also they helped us in getting food and accommodation on arrival. We spent that day in Auroville, an international village near Pondicherry. First thing which caught our eyes was the roof of the security office for the visitor’s center, which was a kind of deformed square. After lunch, we went to the office of a French structural engineer who specializes in arch, vault and dome construction and also use of Ferro cement to make different and interesting forms. I saw a picture in his office about a town in Yemen called “Manhattan of the desert” (see photo). Then in the workshop showroom we saw samples of soil of different countries, which were so different in color and textures.
Then we went to a circular building surrounded by a mote loaded with some kind of fish that would gently nibble at your hands or feet if you keep them in the water for a while.
The next day was almost all about observing, taking pictures and sketching the buildings in Auroville. The buildings were mostly well-planned and used earth construction plus reinforced cement concrete.
While going for lunch we saw an Iranian guest house called Afsaneh which made us so excited, though this didn’t last for long as we saw that they’ve used Japanese style of architecture. It was really nice, but not what we expected.
Then we went to a Tibetan house, which had a pond in the middle full of the same fish we found earlier in the mote.
The next day morning we attempted to visit Paradise Island. I saw the first real tree house in my life. Unfortunately, the ferry ride cost Rs. 60, and everyone except me quickly lost interest. Instead, we trekked over to “Auro Beach”. The slope of the sand had a steep pitch, and the waves were quite strong which made it not so suitable for swimming, but that didn’t stop us. We rushed to the sea like kids. Nishanth and I buried each other in the sands one after another. Seeing Molood being thrown away by the strong current was another thing. Geeta was scared of going to the deeper parts so she just stayed in the shallows and watched us.
During the last day of the trip, we went to Auroville and rented a bicycle from the central guesthouse, which had a very big tree in the middle. Then we went for meditation in Matrimandir, but we were disappointed to find that it was closed due to rain. Then we went to music instrument showroom and saw the music instruments made locally. If we hadn’t completely broke, we would’ve bought one or two.
Finally, we caught the bus for Bangalore, though he was drunk and almost got us killed.

Drinking water for travellers

2008-10-07T12:45:00.000+05:30

The above structure is a roadside drinking water facility for travellers, near Kolar. From the left, the stone ramp is from where you can access the top of the tank and fill in water. The tank is the box in the center. The stone slab next to it is where the traveller can unload the luggage, which would be usually carried on his head onto. With the height that the slab is at, he would not need the help of a second person to lift it back onto his head. The last slab is the seat.

After arrival of piped water, the structure is no longer in use. It just stands as a witness to the passing traffic. Travellers have carved out board games into the seat and the tank has also been used as a billboard in the past. When was this built, who built it or maintained it- The answers have been lost with time.

Presently Kolar city use bottled water for drinking. Older wells and lakes are dry and ground water has high levels of flourosis. Quite a change from a culture which revolved around water around with tanks, wells and araghattas.

Posted by Sharath Nayak

Cob In China

2008-10-03T12:10:00.000+05:30

An example from China......
Posted by Chitra

Cob In Mangalore

2008-10-02T17:29:00.000+05:30

The following pictures are of Cob buildings from the western coast of Karnataka. The demolished house is a structure, which we were asked to work upon. In this house with walls of cob, an interesting note is that where the primary elements of the roof rest on the wall, the wall is built out of laterite, a relatively harder material. Laterite is a commonly available material in this region. The name laterite comes from the Latin word "later" which means a brick. It is a soft stone which has clay with high iron content. With exposure to air it goes thorough an oxidisation process and hardens. In a quarry, under natural conditions it is only the first three to four layers which have reached this level of hardness. In this picture, it is fascinating to see the frugal use of this resource, used only as much that it is needed. Judicious use and thereby the lesser demand allows the exposed layers in the quarry to harden. Such resource management whether planned or not allows the material to be used in a way that maximum use of its strength can made.
Note the amount of gravel in the cob wall. This makes the skeleton for the wall. In the first picture, the soil contains very little gravel. This is made up for by the use of waste tiles. This is a sort of a in between way of building a wall. Something in between a "formed" cob wall and a "built" masonry wall. again to be noted is the use of brick where the roof sits.

Posted by Sharath R Nayak.

Shivgangasagar rediscovered!

2008-09-18T15:37:00.001+05:30

The day started off with all of us gathering at Martin’s place (people literally trickled down one by one and everybody was there by 9:00hrs). What was the occasion?? It was Ganesha Chaturthi and Biome gang had decided to climb Shivagangey ; a beautiful pilgrim hill towards north of Bangalore. The bike ride was smooth with the perpetual waiting for ‘THE STREET’ and its Riders. We stopped for breakfast at a Dhaba where everybody had either Chitranna or Idli, except for Sheel(who had both).

As we reached the hill the picturesque landscape came into view. The beautiful hill soared up wearing a crown of a grey bleak cloud on its summit. Hardly we could wait to go up and feel the mist. After parking the vehicles we started with trekking/stairs ascending or whatever you feel we do on those partially carved stairs on the sloping rock.
Martin and Arash lead the way and were soon lost with our slow and their fast progress.
Sheel and Sharad tried to ‘throw away’ Naveen as soon as they found a cliff high enough…though luckily we ended up just taking a few pictures and leaving Naveen to help Praveena who was finding it pretty difficult and was bare foot(That’s called dedication). On the way, the language difference advantage was exploited and an enthusiastic Kannada learner ended up embarrassing herself( No, it was not Molood this time). The sour Amla in the way was very enjoyable. After a constant cycle of resting and walking we reached the staircase which was made by somebody who had some grudge against mankind but the breeze compensated.

Then came in role the monkeys who held a man climbing before us for a ransom at a narrow landing….Geeta tried to act heroine but was forcefully asked to stay in her boots by those sharp toothed ancestors. Anyways we walked ahead and then we found our names being shouted by somebody on the hill top(pakka bollywood ishtyle) its just that there was no echoes here. Hold Behold it was Martin and Arash who had already reached the top( Yeah ….I know but its true that Arash can shout!). That was boosting and we soon reached the top.

The breeze was amazing and the view was out of this world. The monkeys were peaceful if one didn’t have and food…but they displayed a pervert ‘public SELF affection’. Naveen was so fascinated with them that he spent the rest of the time in clicking them. People were seen smoking Bidis which seemed to have a really short life in the strong wind….after clicking a few pictures spending great time and Molood scaring away a few guys with her Open Arms pose…we decided to descend. Arash was again soon lost ahead and Praveena and Naveen ,behind. After having more buttermilk, cucumber and more Amla we came back down to see the Kundas. The water body was green with algae yet the evening sunlight was reflecting dynamic waves on the steps. Then we returned back in the same style as we came, with the perpetual waiting for ‘THE STREET’ and its Riders.

The day had not ended yet as Lavanya was all ready with brilliant Gujarati dinner which we all gobbled up quickly….Rotla, Choormaani Laadoo , Sabudana cutlets , Halwa and what not.... The day was more than great. “Ganpati Bappa Morya , Agle Baras Tu Jaldi Aa.”

By Nishant Upadhyay

Biome people

2008-09-01T08:24:00.001+05:30

Olivier left us on the 23rd of August...
Photograph of many of us at the office.... peeping into the Kitchen.

click on the image to see who is who....

Cob @ Sunny's

2008-07-07T18:55:00.000+05:30

If you've ever had any doubts about houses built only in Mud......
Then we present to you Sunny's residence!

Sheel is determined to sculpt this low cost house directly from Earth.
Last weekend almost everyone at Office was at Sunny's site, molding the staircase out of Cob walls. Of course lots of play with Soil, Sun, Fun and good food by Sunny was on the cards!

If you want to be at the next Cob meet.... please do get in touch with us....

Watch Video of how it all happened....(will upload the video soon)

UPDATE: 12 July '08

The Story and the facts:

The Story:

A four storey structure was planned previously, with a basement, a ground floor as a public space, and the first second and third floor as a residence. This plan was thrashed because of a fiscal crunch and replaced with a simple organic plan which is now a 700 square feet design. The basement was already built and happened to be in the lowest zone of the half acre land so the Architects decided to use it as a Rain water collection sump and one side of it was used as the foundation for the new Cob House.

Topography and Geography:

The site is located in the Southeastern end of Bangalore. The idea was to leave most of the property for Agriculture hence the structure was tucked into one corner.
Bangalore has mostly mild temperate climate with April and May being hottest part of the year. It receives about 970 mm of rain annually. Winds prevail from East and West mostly.

Design and Climate:

Sunny wanted the kitchen (as he spends quite a lot of time there) and the Bedroom facing East and a sitting area. So came about the design, where the building borrows the East - West wind to keep the small house ventilated and the Large water tank acts as a nice water body with a sit out over the water.

We expect the winds passing over the water body to cool off before coming into the Sitting room from the West. Also the Veranda (yet to come) on the West would shade the Sitting area well.

Building Process:

Cob is a method of building walls with Soil. Soil is often mixed with required quantity of sand, water and straw or husk or gravel to build. The soil sand and water mixture are pugged initially to give the mix workability and the gravel or husk is added to reinforce the mix and to avoid cracks.

The site has 3 types of soils.
One was Sandy and Clayey: This one on experimentation with water didn't seem to crack after drying though the clay content seemed high.
The other one was Red soil, often found in Bangalore in most places (has approx 30% of sand content) and a third type of soil which didn't seem suitable for building.

Soil with 60-70% of sand content is best for building.
To modify the soil we added quarry dust to it. The mix was 1/3rd Red soil, 1/3rd clayey sandy soil and 1/3rd quarry dust. All this was mixed with water and allowed to rest for a day. The next day it was pugged to get a workable mixture. Balls of Soil were passed on and it was piled on to make the wall.

In a day around 1' to 1'6" of wall of the entire perimeter of the house was raised. The idea is to allow each layer to dry.
Chicken wire mesh was laid between each layer to help bonding of two layers and to avoid deep cracks. In 2 months and the entire Water tank was done and the walls raised to 8 feet height.

Structure:

Cob walls are necessarily kept thick. This one is about 18" thick. . The thickness also increases the thermal performance of the wall.

Sheel has designed 2 floors for this building, with the Kitchen, Dining and Living below and the Bedroom and a toilet on the first floor. He intends to make the roof of the Ground floor structure with casurina poles and mud. (How is yet to be known exactly). The roof above the First floor shall be like a large Hat ( a reciprocal roof) with deep overhangs to protect the Walls from rain.
The plinth is 1'6" to 2' to protect Cob walls from ground water and erosion.

To enable the Cob walls to take the roof above he has a single course of brick on top as the final course.

People:

~~The labor working on the project are basically from Andhra Pradesh~~ The labor working on the project are very much from Bangalore (Karnataka). 2 Masons and 4 Helpers besides help from Sunny and Sheel. And these laborers are very keen on trying out Cob themselves and look forward to bringing back the faith amongst their people of building with Cob. We hope curious individuals will want to contribute to this project in terms of manual labor. The event shall be announced here, so watch out!

Questions:

1. Where did this soil/mud/earth come from?

We dug up a large tank for storage of water and used that soil to build the house. All the surrounding sites seem to slope down towards this one and we want to collect most of the water too.

2. Why the stone in the mud? Should you reduce the wall thickness as you go higher?

There is little gravel in this Soil mix and hence the Stones were added in randomly for better bonding (as mentioned earlier). The thickness can be reduced as one goes higher. Ideally if the structure is higher than 2 floors, the walls at the lowest level could be thicker to be able to bear the load above and the thickness could reduce on consecutive floors.

Biome Environmental Solutions Pvt Ltd.

2008-07-07T18:50:00.000+05:30

Biome - an Ecology; was born recently of coming together of Chitra Vishwanath Architects and Rain water club.

Biome intends to take on all works that constitute Ecological and Sustainable living and services. From appropriate Land use and construction using appropriate technologies, Water use and its reuse, Biodiversity mapping and knowledge, to Energy and its best use on a said site, Biome Environmental Solutions Pvt Ltd has pledged to assist in all sorts of Ecological consultations for all sorts of projects....Wish us luck!! :)