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Long live MUD!
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Cob houses are eco friendly, made from recycled products and are familiar to vernacular architecture.
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MUD IS THE WORD: Elke Cole uses cob, a mixture of sand, mud and straw to build houses.
WE LIVE in times of accelerated change. There are rapid changes in almost every aspect of our lives, that are influencing our living, working patterns, and further architecture and culture. The process of globalization indeed gives flexibility and encourages cultural exchange between various parts of the world. But it has also led to homogenization and cosmetic commodification in the most bizarre manner. In the last couple of years, we have seen paradigm shifts due to technological developments and these changes are reflected in our aspirations and aesthetics. So, we see curtain wall in any part of the world regardless of climate and culture. The fetish of a Spanish villa in Mumbai or a Laurie Baker style house in, say, Patna!
Native materials
However slowly, but steadily the attitude of the people is changing and they are opening up to ideas using native materials. Bearing testimony to this fact was the workshop held on natural building by Elke Cole, a Canadian Architect. Elke Cole works on cob, which is a mixture of sand, mud, and straw.
"The need for shelter is basic to man but transcending this is a set of overriding values intrinsic to human condition- a concern for life for community, for beauty" was the motivating force behind the construction, using cob. Mud is undoubtedly one of the most ancient construction materials known to man. Since time immemorial, it been used to express man's deepest creative impulses. Ranging from small dwelling units to buildings of huge proportions such as forts, palaces, cathedrals, mud has successfully been adopted to suit the most diverse kinds of climate. The lecture showcased some of the houses designed by her in Vancouver Island, which is where she resides. The slide show of the works subtly brought to surface the rich and diverse culture that India is endowed with.
Cob houses
Through centuries man has created his habitat through intuitive and instinctive process. Whether they are the houses of Kutch or bamboo houses in Assam, there is an underlying deep structure that has generated this habitat. The cob houses undeniably tend to the fashionable concerns of environmentalists-balanced eco systems, recycling waste products, and indigenous technology but are no great innovations in building technology, especially in comparison with vernacular architecture in India.
Ironically, there are about 20 different techniques of building with mud the world over. In India, about seven methods are commonly used. Cobwall, wattle and daub, adobe , and rammed earth are to name a few. Walls of mud lumps are kneaded with some reinforcing material such as ash [Karnataka], straw [Punjab] etc and the wall is shaped by hand without mould or formwork.
In the wattle and daub, mud and straw are plastered over panels of wooden bamboo or reed.
However, the success of Elke Cole and the forum, `Design & People', which brought her to Kochi, lies in the fact that they were attempting to break the image of mud being a material not just for the masses but the classes as well.
Mud apartments
This was the point that Architect Laurie Baker was trying to drive home almost a decade ago. In an interview he said, "my dream is to get hold of some industrialist who will produce a piece of land and allow me to put up a mix of housing in mud and rent them out. I'm keen to develop the idea of a rental mud apartment".
It is indeed true that mud buildings are not allowed in urban areas but there is a school in Bangalore, which is a big complex and approved by authorities.
From Polynesian islands to Mediterranean hill towns to the jungles of Assam , for thousands of years, people have been building incredibly beautiful habitats which are a blend of balanced eco system and indigenous technology. What we need today is an urban context in which these solutions are viable.
SHWETA RAO
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