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Low cost, high utility — a house for the times

A refuge: An exploded view of the ground floor, left, and top floor of the design of a low-cost house by Jonu John Thomas , a final year architecture student of the National Institute of Technology, Calicut.

The skyrocketing price of land and building materials has prompted more and more people to opt for low-cost houses. But in the present scene, when the construction sector is caught in a price spiral, how cost-effective can a low-cost house really get?

Jonu John Thomas, final year architecture student of the National Institute of Technology, Calicut, answers this simple question and sets a new standard in low-cost housing through his innovative and thought-inspiring design of a house that costs just Rs.1 lakh. The design bagged him the first prize in a house-designing competition organised by the Kerala State Nirmithi Kendra as part of the World Habitat Day celebrations recently. The same design bagged the third prize for the all-India “Housing design for the urban poor” competition organised by the Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council under the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation. The stylish and cosy low-cost house designed by Mr. Thomas achieves its objective by primarily using alternative cost-effective building materials and decreasing the labour cost, the time of construction and the need for skilled labour. The two-storey single-bedroom house occupies 432 square feet and has a roof made of bamboo, walls of laterite blocks and interlocking mud block floors. “Basically, I tried to avoid the use of high-energy embedded materials such as cement, glass, aluminium and steel. Bamboo, for example, is a great alternative building material. Treated bamboo has a lifespan of 30 years and is sturdy, water-repellent and suited to our climate. The market value of treated bamboo today is Rs.25-30 a metre, whereas one kg of steel costs around Rs.60,” Mr. Thomas says.

The use of bamboo in the design has been extensive and well- thought-out. It is used as purlins to hold the aluminium-roofing sheets instead of steel pipes, as joists to hold the hollow mud blocks for the first floor instead of RCC and as bamboo slats instead of glass windows and to replace wood for the staircase.

“Thirty percent of the construction cost of a house goes into the wall, especially structural walls that take the load of the house. In this design, I have reduced the load-bearing walls to two on the sides and used laterite blocks for them in place of cement and bricks,” he says. Laterite is also used as foundation for non-structural walls, while granite is used as foundation for structural walls. Interlocking stabilised mud blocks are used for non-structural walls. Interlocking mud blocks are used for the first floor by placing them over the bamboo joists instead of the normal RCC floors. Mr. Thomas has minimised the use of sand by minimising the use of cement and bricks. “When we reduce the use of cement, the use of sand is naturally reduced. If we use laterite blocks, we can replace cement mortar with lime mortar, which is also a very strong material. Old houses, which have lasted centuries, primarily used lime mortar,” he says. Making judicious use of available space, avoiding wastage during construction and obviating the need for skilled labour are the other important aspects of the design. “Skilled labour becomes indispensable when we extensively use materials such as wood for a house. This is also what makes traditional Kerala architecture expensive today, as carpenters and other skilled labourers demand high labour charges. However, in such a simple design, most of the construction work can be done by unskilled labourers,” he says.

He reiterates the fact that popularising the use of bamboo in construction can make a huge difference in the cost-effectiveness of a house. “As of now, the demand and supply for bamboo is low. If the government can strengthen the bamboo industry and start more outlets and supply chains of bamboo, it will also develop as a great small scale industry, providing employment opportunity to many, especially women,” he said.

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