KNOW THIS REAL ONE...

Transcription

1 14 th GREEN BUILDING CONGRESS th -8 th October Hotel Grand Hyatt, Mumbai Organized by: Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) Session on Affordable Housing. Meeting the Challenge: What needs to change with respect to what is being done. 8 th October 2016 KIRTEE SHAH Chairman, KSA Design Planning Services Pvt. Ltd. President, Habitat Forum (INHAF) Hon. Director, Ahmedabad Study Action Group (ASAG) Who are the architect stars in the green buildings lexicon? KNOW THIS REAL ONE...

2 LAURIE BAKER S S BUILDINGS Laurie Baker

3 In a manner of speaking, Mr. Baker is to the local architecture what Mahatma Gandhi was to India s freedom struggle. Both lead to the liberation, both believed in simplicity, both drew their strategies from the culture and tradition of the place, both had a vision of the society they served, and both had implicit faith in the common people and their wisdom. Mr. Baker in the field was the true leader, which has hardly produced a leader of merit. His contribution and inspiration is not in form of technology or style alone. It is in the form of change of mindset, in the philosophy of work, and in the attitude to architectural design, practice and problem solving. He made architecture belong to the place -to the soil, to the culture, to the tradition and, most importantly, to the local people. And that is no small contribution in a country where architecture, in the hands of the foreign trained and influenced architects, is losing its roots, and where alienation from the people, from the roots, tradition, culture, climate, soil and from the local challenges is the order of the day. And, in a way, it is a paradox, as Mr. Baker was a foreigner.

4 Mr. Baker believed in cost reduction, not a fashionable phrase among the modern day architects and building professionals. He gave a new respectability to local materials especially brick and clay tiles. His architecture merged with the surrounding landscape, rather than standing out. It is not in competition with the nature but in harmony with it. Working with the fellow professionals, he improved and popularized technologies: be that rattrap bond or filler slab, which saved material, reduced cost and created new aesthetics. He challenged conventional engineering design, practice and wisdom by using 9 and 4.5 thick brick walls as load bearing structures for the buildings taller than a single storey. And, most importantly, he gave a new status to the traditional construction artisans, especially the masons, by working with them in inventing and popularizing alternative construction methods. He professed that the architects could learn from the artisans, the mason and the carpenter--. Something we had not heard or thought before. The most lasting contribution of Mr. Baker is his attitude to architectural design and practice. He sought to simplify and demystify it. He made people---the common people-- relate with it. If you see it this way, you would find my comparison with Mahatma Gandhi not very odd, misplaced or exaggerated. Laurie Baker is known for his initiatives in costeffective energy-efficient architecture and designs that maximized space, ventilation and light and maintained an uncluttered yet striking aesthetic sensibility. He promoted revival of regional building practices and use of local materials; and combined this with a design philosophy that emphasized a responsible and prudent use of resources and energy. He was a pioneer of sustainable architecture as well as organic architecture, incorporating in his designs, even in the late 1960s, concepts such as rain-water harvesting, minimizing usage of energy-inefficient building materials, minimizing damage to the building site and seamlessly merging with the surroundings. Due to his social and humanitarian efforts to bring architecture and design to the common man, his honest use of materials, his belief in simplicity in design and in life, and his staunch Quaker conviction in non-violence.

5 This is Laurie Baker s Centenary year. Fortunate to have been invited to deliver the key note address on the inaugural of the centenary celebrations. He is as much needed in the cause of sustainable architecture and green buildings as Mahatma Gandhi in tackling the vitiated and violence infected political and social environment in the country. His buildings were green and his architecture was humane not only because they saved energy but because they were correct in every respect. Design, material use, detailing, people centeredness, artisan respect, soil attachment, resource conserving, nature blending, local with capital L Both are more or less forgotten faces. Both need to be reinvented. I suggest that the Green Building Congress devise a program of taking Baker to the designers tables and the building sites

6 SEARCH FOR INNOVATIONS: Looking beyond technicians, specialists, professionals, universities and foreign lands to the communities; to the field; with traditional building craftsmen ; with people

7 Where are we looking for green technology practitioners and whom are we awarding for their innovations and contribution? Have you heard of this man called George who has built this building in a nondescript Kerala village in Waynad? He is one of thousands unknown who have technologies and ideas sustainable in true sense of the word; genuine low cost; local How do we find them?

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9 Area 1800 sq.ft. approximately 900/sq.ft. including all Predominant material: low cost variety of bamboo Designed and constructed by a civil contractor. He is himself a civil engineer. 4 bedroom house with high ceilings, double heights in the living area and complex curved surfaces has cost Rs lakhs to build including bamboo furniture. Most of the house has wooden flooring (type of palm). Was built three years ago. Very good workmanship No cracks, no water leakage Used only 200 kg of steel for the entire house. Mostly in the foundation and corner strengthening. No r. c c. anywhere in the slab or roof

10 FIRST YEAR AUDIT RESULT OF PMAY

11 FIRST YEAR AUDIT RESULTS OF PMAY Are so many houses really needed? Is the equation correct? Should they be built so fast? Can excessively high ambition and targets create distortions? Can quality suffer? Can the natural forward backward linkages in employment generation, skill training, institution creation, economic growth be achieved? LAND ISSUE AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING Are slums poor s solutions and city s problems? Is it something to build on or bulldoze?

12 In last years whereas the cost of construction has gone up by 3 times that of the land 30, 50, 100 times in big cities especially. Can this trend be reversed? Affordable housing is mainly for the low income. 99 percent of the deficit is for EWS and LIG Can a urban poor or low income entre the land or apartment market? Is a city without slums possible? In sabotaging the City without Slums through its instrumentality of property rights to the slum dwellers and citywide in-situ upgrading have we missed the bus? DISCOVERING THE EXISTING AND EXPLORING POTENTIAL: 3 Strategies that would reduce housing stress Handling vacancy selective Densification city wide slum upgrading

13 Affordable housing is a game of cricket. A run saved is a run scored. Is this wisdom in use? Are we using the available city resources optimally? Vacancy rate of the buildings in big cities range between 12 to 15 percent. That is a huge number. Is anyone trying to understand what it is and what can be done to bring that housing stock in the market? Can we be innovative and creative for a public cause rather than private profit and examine the potential of selective densification? We probably can reduce the housing stress by half without much construction and using any extra land. Can Green Building Congress fund investigation in 10 cities? AFFORDABLE HOUSE: UNIT, BUILDING, LAYOUT

14 Affordable houses are for people: Where are they? How do they count? Do they matter? Is it a liveable size for a family? Is the size an issue? 230, 260, 320 sq. ft. Is quality of construction, quality of family life, quality of community life an issue? Is low cost equated with low quality? What is being done? Who is doing what? THE SUPPLY CHAIN Architect: Faceless Client, Large projects without client. contact, consultation, feedback study research Builder: Selling Sq. ft. Cost per sq. ft. Profit margin Corner cutting Government: Beneficiary Number Target Problems of quality as quality is no one s concern Public sector - systemic inefficiency and corruption Private sector - Profitability Concerns

15 Story 1: Sri Lanka Story 2: A Builder office set up How do you make a house behave bigger, function better? Can an architect do something? How do you make it incremental in an apartment building? What can a designer do? Three 500 sq. ft. houses instead of one 1500 sq. ft. house means three times more people, three times more kitchen. How do the building bye laws respond to this situation? They remain the same? AFFORDABLE HOUSING: RURAL

16 On no one s radar though an area of high potential and acute stress.. It is big. 3 times more people live in villages than in cities. 870 million to 370 million 7900 cities and towns. 6,28,000 villages No that nothing is happening in the field. It is vibrant. But the interventions of all kinds are missing; except for the government. 30 million houses under IAY in 30 years World s largest and longest lasting public housing program in the rural sector. 3 million get every year under IAY and the state housing program for the poor at an investment of Rs Crore by the government. PMGAY plans building 30 million new rural houses by First 3 year target is 10 million hoses Poor performance on all count. Poor housing, bad investment, little impact on employment, skill upgrading, institution creation. There is a great need to view rural housing in a broader, systemic, macro, non-project context to Review and design policy and institutional arrangements To see rural housing not in terms of numbers but as a process To create an environment for investment Enhancing its role in employment generation, poverty alleviation and economic development, and Removing blocks against and creating support for peoples housing actions.

17 QUALITY OF GROWTH IN CITIES Cities, we know, are engines of economic growth. It is clear now that they not only produce growth, they are also produced by growth Quality of growth (not only quantity) Means by which we achieve growth (whether in ecological harmony or in a polluting manner), Nature of growth (whether exploitative or just, whether creative or destructive), Texture of growth (whether equitious or imbalanced), and Substance of growth (whether leading to contentment, durable happiness and peace or greed, strife and violence) Determine, to a great degree, the nature and quality of our cities.