Details
Ar.Aditee Hegde-Damle
(M.Arch-Urban Design)
aditeehegde19@gmail.com
“Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist, who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India’s independence from British rule, and in turn inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi espoused an economic theory of simple living and self-sufficiency/import substitution, rather than generating exports like Japan and South Korea did. He envisioned a more agrarian India upon independence that would focus on meeting the material needs of its citizenry prior to generating wealth and industrialising.”
“Several of Gandhi’s followers developed a theory of environmentalism. J. C. Kumarappa was the first, writing a number of relevant books in the 1930s and 1940s. He and Mira Behan argued against large-scale dam-and-irrigation projects, saying that small projects were more efficacious, that organic manure was better and less dangerous than man-made chemicals, and that forests should be managed with the goal of water conservation rather than revenue maximization. Guha calls Kumarappa, “”The Green Gandhian,”” portraying him as the founder of modern environmentalism in India. British-Indian architect Laurie Baker was an ardent Gandhian who championed frugal architecture as a way to be sustainable and environment-friendly. He was a pioneer of traditional and low-cost construction in India.”
Laurie Baker and Mahatma Gandhi:
“Laurie Baker was greatly inspired by Gandhi whom he met in the early 1940s in Bombay. It was the meeting that changed his life, and his philosophy towards architecture.”
“During their meeting, Gandhiji had said, “You are bringing knowledge and qualifications from the West, but they will be useless unless you try to understand our needs here.” Gandhi gave Baker his idea of building low cost houses, saying that the materials needed to build a house should be acquired from within 5 miles of the site. This became one of the lifelong inspirations for Laurie Baker to design with low cost for the people.”
“The Laurie Baker Centre for Habitat Studies in Thiruvananthapuram, was set up in 2009 to propagate his philosophy and principles of sustainable development.”
Principles of Gandhian architecture:
• Organic
“• Low cost, quick and easy designs”
• Sustainable
• Environment friendly
• Energy efficient
• Swadeshi (use of locally available materials)
“• Local labour, local styles in construction.”
Techniques and styles in construction:
• Rat-trap masonry style that conserved as much as 25% of the construction costs by leaving a cavity between the wall surfaces.
“• Use of exposed brickwork, buildings requiring no plastering, painting and other finishing on walls.”
“• Brick ‘Jalis’ or perforated brick screens were inventive, allowing light and breeze negating the need of windows making building breezy as well as allowed light to seep through.”
“• Techniques like masonry domes to span large rooms, arches over a door opening helped in great amount to reduce reinforcement materials like steel, concrete and also shuttering material in the building.”
• Filler slabs to reduce reinforcement.
• Use of local materials and employment of local labour ultimately cut down the cost further.
• Use of salvaged or reused materials. e.g. Old roof tiles in the filling of concrete roof and application of frameless doors.
Eliminate the concept of waste in design; a good design is a sustainable design!
