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Sustainable Architecture at EartHauz

20 July 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At last, sustainable architecture does not need to be introduced, in fact, it has become mainstream - Eco Friendly, fashionable and trendy - even among the urban dwellers and the power brokers. This year has seen President Obama, for instance, sponsoring awareness projects and famous "green architects" in the USA. However, as the field becomes well received by the many, it also accommodates to the pressures of large corporations and other less than friendly economic power brokers. Legislatures tread cautiously among the diverse pressure groups, and produce controversial and sometimes meaningless regulation for construction and planning, under the brand name "green architecture". Some of these laws are beneficial by all means, like those encouraging solar heating, where possible, or reduction of pollutants. Others only increase the cost of building, namely, going at cross purposes with what "sustainable" should mean. Other branches of "green architecture" still maintain adherence to the original fundamentals, and create a counter weight to the wasteful and harmful construction of our time. These are the architects who erect mud huts, and solar powered capsules for people who are willing to renounce all the comforts and amenities of our modern era. Somewhere in the golden mean between ascetic fundamentalist green architecture and the "steel-cement-glass" construction, we find Manu Gopalan, an architect from Auroville who operates through Earthauz  and the international student pavilion, studying totally new building techniques that tap into local traditions, materials and needs, and calling for the participation of the end-users, inhabitants and experts of the region. I am sitting in an office building which is a model of such teaching, right here in Auroville, next to the dormitories of the international pavilion.

 

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 Manu walks me through the office, a two story building made mainly of Bamboo shoots, and covered with what looks like galvanized tin, but in fact is a new building material, made in India by GangaDaman -  out of waste (mainly used soft drink cartons), creating a very solid, strong and insulating material.

 

 Outer and inner

The look from the outside is somewhat misleading - as the unit appears almost unfinished and transitory, but once inside - the feeling is of comfort and spaciousness, and a great precision in usage of space and materials - the building has electricity, toilets (with drainage), showers and several living rooms, and balconies. This striking contradiction between inner and outer appearance is not coincidental, in fact it is one of Manu's principles, inspired by vernacular Indian urban planning. Later, Manu will tell me all about the resourcefulness and resilience of the urban slum dwellers, who managed to build quite comfortable housing units out of scraps, in what appears to the outside viewer as chaotic ruins. Following the rule of affordability, as essential part of being sustainable and "green", Manu preserves the priorities of the local, native users, for which he plans his houses.
The entire office unit is placed on a mobile platform, and can be moved around with little effort (the roof has to be dismantled and some other preparations are needed). The entire process of evolution of this unit is described in details and photographs in the slides prepared by Manu and his time (link, and pics). This is a prototype for "light" residential construction in a foresty area, but the other model is more permanent and can be adjusted to any rural or even suburban areas
The look from the outside is somewhat misleading - as the unit appears almost unfinished and transitory, but once inside - the feeling is of comfort and spaciousness, and a great precision in usage of space and materials - the building has electricity, toilets (with drainage), showers and several living rooms, and balconies. This striking contradiction between inner and outer appearance is not coincidental, in fact it is one of Manu's principles, inspired by vernacular Indian urban planning. Later, Manu will tell me all about the resourcefulness and resilience of the urban slum dwellers, who managed to build quite comfortable housing units out of scraps, in what appears to the outside viewer as chaotic ruins. Following the rule of affordability, as essential part of being sustainable and "green", Manu preserves the priorities of the local, native users, for which he plans his houses.
The entire office unit is placed on a mobile platform, and can be moved around with little effort (the roof has to be dismantled and some other preparations are needed). The entire process of evolution of this unit is described in details and photographs in the slides prepared by Manu and his time . This is a prototype for "light" residential construction in a foresty area, but the other model is more permanent and can be adjusted to any rural or even suburban areas

 

 

 

Adjacent the dorms is another newly build model house, this one more solid, made of a special "light" cement, and other techniques developed on site, which are described in detail in the website. Manu explains that he does not belong to any ascetic school of architects, but is building for "real" people who want to enjoy a comfortable living space. His aim is to make use of existing resources, improve them, add the "modern knowledge", and mainly to reduce adverse impact on the environment, not only in the locale of the buildings, but in India at large. So, any harmful materials are either replaced by others, or are used in minimal expedience only. (cement, steel, glass, petrol derivatives, forest trees etc). A pillar of his method is the issue of affordability, and the larger goal of alleviating housing shortage in India (and worldwide), and in Tamil Nadu (and the vicinity of Auroville, in particular). If possible, Manu Gopalan will seek waste materials to be used, in the same ways that local inhabitants of low means are doing, when they build an abode from scratch. One of his examples is coming from the urban slums of Mumbai, where entire streets are waste made huts, that residents scrap from the landfills.

 

The means are part of the goal- participatory process

The two model units Manu shows me, here at Auroville, were created jointly by volunteer students who come from all over India and worldwide, and local workers who master indigenous methods. The team had to erect the buildings several times, to actually create and learn by doing, new methods of buildings, which they can now conceptualize and pass on to others, everywhere. This is a "learning by doing" method that Manu uses for his teaching and work, and in which he believes.  His view of the role of architects is different from the traditional western one, and is well grounded in holistic life.
Indeed, and through the process, when students, professional workers, and potential buyers were joining hands to build the units, they found out new discoveries, for instance the use of palm tree wood and coconut tree wood, which were considered un-usable by most people in the trade. Or, the use of Styrofoam to "fluff" and dilute cements, ending with a special material which is both light in weight (requiring less foundations) and very insulating. Used tires can serve as window reinforcement instead of steel or wood.
When we speak the students are having their noon break, after lunch, laying in hammocks and looking at the rustic pool they made nearby

 

 

 

 

 

 
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