1414thth GREEN BUILDING CONGRESS 2016 GREEN BUILDING CONGRESS 2016 6th-8th October

� Session on Affordable Housing.

� Meeting the Challenge: What needs to change with

respect to what is being done.

� 8th October 2016

KIRTEE SHAHChairman, KSA Design Planning Services Pvt. Ltd.President, Habitat Forum (INHAF)Hon. Director, Ahmedabad Study Action Group (ASAG)

Hotel Grand Hyatt, Mumbai

Organized by: Indian Green Building Council (IGBC)

Who are the architect stars in

the green buildings lexicon?

KNOW THIS REAL ONE...

Laurie Baker

LAURIE BAKERLAURIE BAKER ’’S BUILDINGSS BUILDINGS

� 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 alienationfrom 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.

� 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 cost-

effective 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.

� 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

SEARCH FOR INNOVATIONS: Looking beyond technicians,

specialists, professionals, universities

and foreign lands –to the communities;

to the field; with traditional building

craftsmen ; with people

� 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?

� 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 18.40 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

FIRST YEAR AUDIT

RESULT OF PMAY

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?

� In last 15-20 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 vacancyselective Densification

city wide slum upgrading

� 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 thanprivate 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

� 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?

� 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

THE SUPPLY CHAIN

� 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

� 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 25000 Crore by the government.

� PMGAY plans building 30 million new rural houses by 2022. 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.

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.