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Innovative: A housing project full of BCIL designs

BCIL’s eco-home designs emerge essentially from our fundamental understanding of the physics of water and energy. The linkage to the land and its capacity to carry groundwater and the necessity for using energy for drawing water are inextricable factors which we need to understand sensitively.

Urban planners and architects and builders of residential and commercial spaces have to recognise these two basic resources for water and energy in a way that we can reduce creatively the demand for fresh water with technologies that are reliable, safe and capable of improving quality of life.

BCIL’s eco-homes seek to address the need for water right from the commencement of a project to the post-occupancy needs of residents. This is easier achieved in an urban setting than in a village landscape because of the continuous availability of power which is necessary for treating water that will then feed nearly 70 per cent of all needs of a city’s people.

The amount of water you need for drinking, bathing or at the kitchen is under 30 per cent. What you need for your flush tanks, washing cars and floors or for your gardens is a chunk that can come out of what we call ‘loop water’ in plans that help you ‘grow your own water.’

So, you can see that water supply and sanitation are two faces of the same coin. If there is enough energy that is made available, and if the beneficiaries are able to afford the energy cost, you can grow your own water in a way that your fresh water demand falls by nearly two-thirds. So why is that good news?

In a city like Bangalore, this will mean groundwater depletion will nearly stop, because we will find ourselves water surplus with what we get from the Cauvery! Well, borewells in the non-water grid parts of the city will still run, but the amount of depletion will fall dramatically.

It has been a long journey. I have had the privilege of working with and learning from many dedicated voluntary workers in many districts.

The terrible face of poverty and of incalculable suffering that natural disasters inflict on large populations can make a searing impact on any person. I was no exception. An earthquake and the mass deaths it can cause or the helpless faces of the very poor sections of dalits and landless farmers in East Bhopal or in Aurangabad can leave an abiding impression, as it did with me.

What does it do to a person? You are right, it steels your determination to see if you can bring pragmatic solutions for people and communities in a way that they can see tangible benefits. These are, sadly, large challenges which are beyond the capacity of one individual or one organisation.

Even worse, many of these challenges of providing drinking water or cultivation water cannot be done without funds because there is no sustainable revenue model for providing paybacks and returns on investments.

Can we provide ecologically sustainable solutions for all people with an economically sustainable model? The answer is ‘no.’

If I have been defeated after about 20 years of working in the development sector, it is because I see no solution in our villages and the hinterland that can work beyond grants and funds to create good quality of life for communities with quality water supply for drinking and for cultivation.

Governments cannot be blamed. They have their limitations. People who are rich can only give so much as donations and contributions. The same is true of rich nations and the poor.

So what can one do in the face of these huge, intractable challenges? I have taken the most practical road — that of pioneering a few models of such sustainable development that can hopefully inspire many others to find their own solutions.

India’s farmers carry an infinite genius for devising solutions that are cost effective and sensitive to the lands and regions they inhabit. All we need to do is nudge the process, find them funds where we can. Take the case of the little ‘chhaanis’ (they are not villages, but little settlements) in Bhopal district, populated by the Bhils. They are poor, vulnerable, but intuitively understand the contours of land and behaviour of water.

Although they know how to dig wells and make little, localised dams that bring them benefit, each well costs no more than Rs. 50,000 of wage costs. So, their traditional knowledge of water management notwithstanding, they need just that bit of funding.

Large programmes of the government don’t work, for they provide employment but don’t address their need in a way that they can secure a livelihood. Employment strips dignity, livelihood gives them back esteem.

When the face-off between rural India and urban India comes to the fore, then the conflict becomes tragic. For the benefit of the larger common good of people in cities, we sacrifice the lives and livelihoods of a few lakhs or even millions of people. The examples of a Narmada, or a Bhilangana are sad manifestations of development which is insensitive.

From our first residential campus, created a decade ago, to our recent creations of such sustainably defined residential or housing solutions, there has been much learning.

We have now understood that we must reduce our claim on land that is fertile and provides food for making homes. In our last project, BCIL T-ZED Homes, we designed to reach 100 per cent autonomy or independence from the Municipal Water Supply and Sewerage Board.

We established systems for airconditioning homes in a way that it increased the health of its residents with treated, clean, fresh air.

We de-risked the long-term insecurity of water supply by drastically cutting down the community’s dependence on fresh water to just 30 per cent of the total daily needs.

We then designed and implemented plans to meet the reduced fresh water needs by discovering a traditional system of harnessing groundwater without having to dig deep borewells.

The features are surely ‘environment friendly’, but what is more important is that the features directly bring benefits to the residents in terms of greater comfort and convenience.

Into our most recent project, BCIL Collective, we have gone a step forward in the technology we have used for improving air quality in homes.

We have implemented what is called the Earth Tunnel Ventilation System that harnesses the earth’s subterraneous capacity for maintaining the temperature at a constant bandwidth of 24-27ºC.

What it offers therefore is more than airconditioning — it offers homes that are warm in winter, and cool in summer; a sort of ‘thermostat’ effect that is superior to conventional airconditioners.

We have blended other traditional forms of air ventilation, inspired by the Mughal architectural forms of ‘tykhaanas’ and ‘tinsakhias.’

To us at BCIL, a building is not simply an envelope of walls and roofs. Buildings are energy systems. We need to find ways of plugging in electricity and water supply. We need to plug out waste water and solid waste from each of these buildings.

We need to improve the quality of air. We need to provide comforts of hot water, cool and comfortable floors and visually appealing gardens and landscapes. Every design input is seen from the point of view of not ecology as much as human ecology.

We ask ourselves, how can we create a pleasant garden while it serves the function of preventing heat gain and avoiding heat radiation? How do we create a water body that is a swimming pool for the resident, while it is part of microclimate architecture that helps us to drop ambient temperature by 3-4 degrees C?

How do we afford the comfort of hot water with solar energy and therefore drop the demand for energy in our homes by avoiding use of power-guzzling geysers?

How do we use natural floors that offer therapeutic value for the arthritis and rheumatism afflicted? How do we avoid use of synthetic floors that consume high energy in their manufacture? How do we employ flooring materials that are available within the local region and do not have to be transported from distances that mean higher fossil fuel cost?

Our design professionals are trained in areas of mechanical, electrical and civil engineering; they are people who have worked on the physics of water, energy and building materials.

They are people who understand the need for seeking solutions that go beyond what have been used as engineering and architectural solutions in the last 50 years.

We also rely on the resources of water managers, geologists and geophysicists.

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