|
Building Sustainable
Communities -
Good Earth Malhar Spread over 45 acres of land, located in Kengeri, Bangalore, Good Earth Malhar is designed to accommodate 400 families. Malhar is divided into 7 groups of 45 to 90 families each. Each community has an extent of 7 -12 acres. This has enabled us to create a development which is human in scale, and is easy to manage. We have experimented with various housing typologies – from pedestrianised cluster homes and town houses to apartments, in response to different lifestyles and budgets each adding their unique flavour to the eco-village.
In any real estate project, the business plan and the
bottom line forms the b And yes, the profits - what will be the optimal profits for all concerned, to enable a quality of life that is desired by the builders and the users? At Good Earth, we have used only a FAR of 0.75, where 1.5 was possible and achieved results. The only restricting factor in this is the rising cost of land which hinders the quality of development. The master-plan evolved after understanding the natural lay of the land and the decision to conserve certain existing natural features. Engineered to harvest rain water and the levels manipulated to harvest the soil for building, the plan took the form of a central street to which all the communities are oriented. Within each of the communities, a hierarchy of open spaces is created, to allow for each one to have a different character and identity. We have tried to create an ethos of sharing by making each open space unique to the function that it plays. An amphitheatre, a football ground and large parks form the centre of community activity. A sports club, convenience store, a playschool, workspaces and many informal semi covered spaces, which encourage weekly markets, group fitness and even pottery workshops, comprise the public activities at Malhar. The landscape of the open spaces, which forms the heart of the project, is the integration of sewage treatment and recycling, storm-water design, architecture, art and horticulture. Natural resources are conserved and the design works to reduce energy consumption. Rainwater is harvested and ground water recharged. The sewage is recycled and the water used for flushing and gardening. The landscape has been planted with a variety of indigenous and exotic species, the emphasis being on edible and usable varieties, which is so much a part of the culture here. Butterfly hosts and snake repelling plants combine with guava and pomelo to create an interactive landscape, which also has prompted a vegetable garden culture in the individual spaces. The landscape has also been used to create ‘places’ within the campus, which become ‘addas’ for various age groups. Typology There are three typologies explored at Malhar. The first is the Cluster Home, which shares its car parking with the other homes and is located in a pedestrian only open space. The homes are from 1500 sq.ft to 2200 sq.ft, with plot dimensions of similar size. Each home has a private open space, usually to the rear or as a courtyard. The park in this case is of the scale of a courtyard. Densely planted and sometimes having a water body, it cools the ambient air and shades the homes around it. A large variety of house designs ensures that the grouping feels extremely organic and each home unique. The car parking has been accommodated in basements and some on the surface at a comfortable walking distance from each house. The second is the Town House, which is similar to a villa, except that it may share walls with neighbouring houses. Larger configurations of 2300 sq.ft to 3500 sq.ft, these homes have private car parks and their private open spaces are configured along the front and rear. At a completely different scale from the cluster homes, these communities feel more spacious as compared to the more intimate clusters. Larger open spaces serve as common play grounds, and the street becomes a walking track for all. The third are the Apartments with terrace gardens or balconies. These low-rise apartments are planned at the lower part of the site. A horizontal proportion, the form is made interesting by its receding terraces and brick texture. Designed in many configurations, from 600 sq.ft to 1500 sq.ft. the apartments also have an interesting atrium within, which is open to sky, and provides cross ventilation to the apartments. Gallery-like corridors and open spaces to the front and rear make the spaces light and airy, and still human in scale. Aesthetics The aesthetics evolved out of the coming together of the crafts persons like the masons and carpenters along with engineers and architects, who worked out the workability and viability of materials and techniques along with the planning. Durability and user preferences also formed part of this process. Every element that has been built has been an exercise of its own, with ideas discussed then going back to the drawing board and modifying the plan. The decision to use mud blocks, which had never before been used at this scale, their design and manufacture became our own in-house small-scale industry, which has now produced about 6 million blocks to date. The stone masonry wall, which used available skills and became a composite wall to integrate services, was tried and tested over 30 times. The wood sections to be used for the windows, doors and rafters, were worked at with traditional carpentry and modern machines, to make the process more efficient. And the resistance to over standardise and hold on to spontaneity and creativity, were a constant through the eight years. The world is headed towards cross disciplinary working - from the sciences and technology working as an integrated whole, to initiatives in the digital world, that require multiple competencies to be future ready. Architecture and planning too need to evolve with the changing times, to the inputs of many other skills and thought to make that difference. With the potential to be adapted to different contexts and influence sustainable development especially in smaller towns, we hope that the idea of Good Earth Malhar will inspire groups of entrepreneurs to initiate sustainable communities across the country. It is with a confusing mix of hope and despair that we look to the future. While we are confident that solutions like ours have the potential to evolve and adapt to different contexts, the larger issues of speculation in real estate, rising costs of land and ambiguity in government policies, threaten to wipe out initiatives like ours. Meeting the challenge of the housing crisis today through innovations in architecture and engineering is something that as a community of building professionals we can rise up to. It is even possible to create sustainable economic models which will support these activities. But meeting the broader social and economic challenges needs the collective will and vision of a wider group of people to work towards making our cities and towns more sustainable and great places to live. ■
Natasha Iype
|
ack
bone of the project, for it to materialise and be viable. The land cost
and the cost of money are the key factors in deciding the kind of
development to be done. Apart from that it is the environmental, social
and architectural factors that should be as important as the first two.
For example what is the carrying capacity of the land, the water
available, how will it nurture the living creatures on it-not just
humans, but insects, birds, butterflies. What is the ideal density of
people that can live comfortably and how do we build community
interaction yet provide privacy. How will the architectural design
facilitate care of the land, people and nature?