Design Philosophy
The conscious attempt to heal the loss of ecosystems, and craft a home in the ecosystem that is expressive of emerging ecological ethics and value.The attempt to dignify all forms of life, recognize the holistic nature of the environment and value its regenerating and self-healing capabilities. The design process has been accentuated by incorporating the local indigenous building practices in leveraging the evolution of ecological architecture.
The creation of space, form and visual characteristics inspired from vernacular traditions, incorporating local materials from the site itself such as stone, tree logs, and mud. With judiciously using fossil resources, non-renewable materials such as cement, iron girders, plastic sheets, etc.
The undulating landscape, with the quarrying, has deep pits with water logs, and caves. Loose excavated rocks of varying sizes, stumps of trees, carried repeatedly for firewood by villagers, season after season, was the vegetation and ecosystems we inherited.
The man-made contours in land were gently sloped to the lowest points of the existing points for effective drainage, which were natural rainwater collection areas to be used as 3 ponds on site. A network of swales was also made to channel the rainwater into the ponds, nourishing the land along their routes. The clay was procured from the bed of ponds with silt to make the mud bricks for construction.
Planning
The house sits in the upper corner of the landscape, and slowly evolving and constructed in parts with the emergent needs of the user. The final image of the house is like the iceberg floating in the ice water incorporating several levels within itself. The organic outlines of buildings responds to existing rock formations while utilising them as foundations. The bedrooms are placed in the crescent, overlooking one of the ponds surrounded by trees in the northeast.
Despite the subterranean structure, the bedroom received the early sun all year round, but the lower winter sun traversed deeper into the rooms creating warmth. The main narrow corridor with a staircase connecting the bedroom block to the living room is placed on the western face. The western face with bold thick walls having small jallies puncturing the wall to facilitate the breeze. The living room is an open plan extending to the courtyard and overlooks the east. The southern side of the house incorporates an array of built-in solar cookers that are operated from within the kitchen. The public areas of the house are placed over the bedrooms, commanding panoramic views of the ecosystem on the north and northeast.
A large recessed outwards opening is placed on the extreme west to catch a view of the setting sun. The utility room and kitchen are placed on a level lower than the living room. These spaces are sunk partially into the ground, and face the southern and eastern directions enabling them to act as buffer space. Due to the subterranean location of these spaces, they are cool in summer and warm in winter. The house for the staff members is placed on the southern corner of the site, adjacent to the vehicle entrance.
Passive Design Methodology
Traditional practices of using the courtyard act as cool air sinks which bring in cool air and light into the living spaces of the house. In the summer months, mechanical atomisers cool the air which is actively supplied to the living spaces by blowers having traditional wet “Khas Tati”. Inbuilt masonry ducts connected with wind catchers and ventilators aided ventilation in humid months. The pond on the northeast creates a microclimate that aids cool breeze blowing into the three bedrooms through open windows with mesh.
During the winter months, there is an artistic mud fireplace in the living room, which uses the dry and waste wood of the land and form and from which glowing coal pieces in iron containers were taken to the bedroom for the night. In the daytime, heating from the sun through glass windows aids in maintaining temperature.
Construction Materials
Building with mud makes itself a high thermal mass and a green roof also helps to moderate the effect of high and low temperatures in extreme months.
Foundations are done in the traditional method of using random stone masonry procuring stones from the site and lime mortar as adhesive material. Cement mortar with rough sandstone slabs laid in a staggered pattern in two layers to facilitate the damp proof course on the plinth level.
Sun dried, hand-moulded mud bricks were used to make load-bearing walls. The earth for the bricks was sourced from the site with the right mix of clay, silt and sand. A paste of neem leaves was kneaded into every batch of mud with cow dung, which was puddled wet and left for about ten days, before being moulded into bricks, neem leaves have anti-termite and anti-microbial properties. The bricks were sun-dried for about 20 days ensuring no water content and providing proper rigidity and strength.
Sandstone slabs supported on intermediate steel girders along with load-bearing mud walls make the intermediate floor.
Green grass and vegetation on the roof tops the two-storey structure. The roofing system of public areas consists of traditional bamboo-created on eucalyptus ‘balli’ trusses, waterproofed with plastic rubber sheets having 10 cm of earth layer yields local grass.
Craftsperson and Methodology
The construction team consisted of a group of local masons from Bihar who had worked on some of the earlier projects of Revati Kamath in and around Delhi, electricians, plumbers and carpenters from nearby Sangam Vihar. Local women from nearby villages prepared the soil and skilled old men moulded the mud into bricks and a group of mud plaster renderers who had worked on our earlier projects.
The carpenters worked on re-using and re-shaping old doors and windows into new doors, windows, brackets, cupboards, switches boards and shelves, the eucalyptus trusses and bamboo mat for bamboo-create roof was also worked it out by the same carpenters.
Stone masons beautifully carved and made the stone brackets, lintels, sills, shelves, built-in furniture, red oxide flooring and mosaic of waste marble pieces in the kitchen and toilets.
The brick masons crafted out the arches of mud brick, the ‘ jellies’ in the mud brick walls and built-in mud seats and beds.
The informal team of craftsmen and women who have been nurtured, trained and sensitised by Revati Kamath over the years, continue to work on many of the projects of the studio. The development of their skills and sustaining their life through employment and revival of traditional vernacular practices contributed to the cultural continuum of the architecture of the ecologically conscious community in the region.
Traditional Vernacular Methodology
The landscape of the site is revived ecologically by traditional scientific methods. A network of paths, steps and ramps connect the various levels of the site, interweaving with swales as drainage channels in a variety of configurations. Thus ponds and vegetation soon attract a number of species of birds, insects, reptiles and mammals. Thus ecological restoration occurs in the site bringing new plant species.
For enriching the soil whose condition was poor, as it was newly excavated, again traditional practices of vermicomposting and leaf composting were used for the same.
The devastated land has old tree stumps, now grown into tall trees that shade almost the site. The site is full of different topographies; some areas have grassland, others are filled with shrubs and seasonal plants, and others are developing into valley forests.
The invasive species like ‘lantana, and subabul’ are constantly weeded out and converted into compost by biodegradation on the site. The local ‘Vilayati kikar’ trees gradually give way to the original species of the habitat.
Twigs and dried out leaves are collected weekly and supplement the fuel requirements of the family of caretakers.
Three anaerobic digesters with rootzone digesters are located at the higher levels just in proximity to the house. The treatment of the entire wastewater produced by the occupants is done with the help of the above and the clean water into the swales which is further used for irrigation.
The house not only just incorporates ecological materials and innovative techniques, nor its hands-on, Labour intensive construction methodology, nor just in its direct and informal involvement of a team of craftspeople and workers from the community without the institution of the middleman contractor, nor its regeneration of a degraded, ecological wasteland, but in the totality of the unique ecological initiative it has promoted; and the enriching habitat and ecological and sustainable lifestyle it has created.
