The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : An architect with a ‘green’ mission

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 18, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

An architect with a ‘green’ mission

Deepa Kurup

His buildings borrow heavily from traditional wisdom

Karan Grover

Bangalore: He declares that given a chance, he would like to retrofit the “gigantic” Vidhana Soudha to make it “green” and cut energy costs.

Karan Grover is a corporate architect who looks forward to working extensively in the public sphere. He dreams of designing a practical and sustainable green special economic zone (SEZ).

Mr. Grover, who was recently awarded the platinum LEED rating from the U.S. Green Building Council – a first for India — says awards do not mean much to him if they do not inspire others to follow suit.

Talking about his vision to disseminate ecological literacy among his peers lights up the fire in his eyes. Somewhat a heritage activist, he says that he believes in destiny.

At the age of 22, Mr. Grover met an archaeologist who challenged him to give 30 years of his life to Champaner.

The archaeologist died the next day, and Mr. Grover made it his life’s aim to get it declared a World Heritage Site.

After three decades and several more years of knocking on the doors of the UNESCO, he got what he wanted.

The Confederation of Indian Industry Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre (CII-Godrej GBC), which is the first Indian building to get the platinum LEED rating, has helped bring green architecture to the forefront.

While Mr. Grover agrees that the LEED certification is not much, he points out that it is certainly a beginning.

Energy consumption

Given that 50 per cent of the world’s energy consumption is due to buildings alone, it is high time builders woke up to this clarion call.

“A ride down Old Madras Road in Bangalore will show you the ecological illiteracy that defines the Indian architect,” says Mr. Grover.

He says that his evil plan (smiles mischievously) is to underplay the “green bit” and sell the idea to corporates as a means to cut energy costs. Mr. Grover’s believes that the answers to all questions of the future can be found in the past. His buildings borrow heavily from traditional wisdom.

He uses “Jaalis” (stone lattices) and cooling towers. When hot air comes in through a small opening and expands, it cools, he says as he explains the concept of a “Jaali.”

The wind tower draws in air and cools it as it comes down the shaft, cooling the air by 8 degrees Celsius and cutting air-conditioning costs by 20 per cent.

“By recycling all the water, I reduced total water consumption by 35 per cent,” he says, obviously proud of his achievement.

Mr. Grover clearly does not believe in wasting time in re-inventing the wheel. The committee in the U.S. pointed out that his work lacked in innovation.

“There is no point in blind innovation without deriving from indigenous wisdom, the kind an illiterate (not uneducated) old woman will have in plenty,” says Mr. Grover.

On the journey back to the airport, he points at the towering glass mansions and asks what ecological sense they make.

He believes that things will change, but preserving is as important as constructing.

Like another great architect Louis Kahn, he also believes that life is right, architect is wrong. We can learn so much from nature, he says, in nature nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous.

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