Natural Building

Even though I have a vague idea about what natural building deals with, this reading(I mean the reading which we got) helped know more about natural building. For instance, how natural materials has been defined.

I found natural laws very interesting and true. In the lessons from conserver culture, Understanding that straight lines, flat surfaces and right angles are ecologically expensive was something I hadn’t given much thought to. The simple example of round wood losing the strength of its inherent geometry explains this point very well.

Natural buildings are eco-friendly but very few. It is strange how even after knowing the drawbacks of modern buildings we still have majority of them. There is an adverse impact on nature and the health of people associated with modern buildings and it is much more expensive too. I would love to stay in a natural building but I stay in a modern building.

 In Kenya, corrugated steel roofing was a result of “not wanting to look as if they were backward” and the people there faced a lot of problems but considered those problems the “price of progress”. What kind of progress?

The power in our ideas and collective action is capable of influencing the way our society thinks, talks, and acts regarding building and resource use.

BMS-IT Tensile Bamboo Mud Structure

 Second week, we worked in BMS college and built a tensile structure in collaboration with BMS students. We took bamboo pieces which were already split and weaved them together, securing the joints with zip ties. 

We experimented with the bamboo structure placing it in different ways and created different forms with it.

Later we weaved more peices and sharpened one edge to put it into soil.

After fixing the tensile bamboo structure, we started making cob.

To support the structure we placed bricks around it and then started weaving mud/clay.

 
we added a mud bench inside our structure to make it more comfortable...

Then we worked a little on the curves for aesthetic reasons...

Finally we cut out small windows and a door. This was the best part....

Final touch.....

Later we cut bamboo off the door opening..

 
We didn't really complete the structure as we didn't have enough time... plastering etc was left..

Chicken Client

Our first client were the chickens. 

Our brief was to design a place for hens to lay eggs and incorporate the shape of the dome in our design. We started with observing the hens and understanding their behaviour and reaction to different things.

 So our clients are inquisitive by nature and seem playful. They enjoy their own space and are very sensitive to sound and light. They move a lot and never walk straight.. they keep touching the ground with their beaks and also move their neck forward with every step they take. One thing which we found interesting is that they enjoy different levels.

After observing the hens we realised that we need to build a space which is not very artificial, but organic in nature. We also got to know that they enjoy raised platforms or surfaces so we tried incorporating that in our design.

We were curious about how chickens react to mirror and eventually found out that they go kind of crazy looking at their own reflection…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esbJAa1LG6g

Initially we were considering an underground chicken coop but then we got to know that hens are claustrophobic so we dropped that idea. It’s interesting because our clients can’t really talk to us and convey what they exactly need. It’s on us to understand their needs and comfort and design something accordingly.

Chickens aren’t very demanding as they get comfortable on dust or a stack of hay or even newspaper. Even if they see torch light at night they think it is morning time and start making sounds.

While designing the hen coop we tried not to make it fixed and design it in such a way that it becomes easy to clean and maintain.

Expectations

“You will absolutely love designEARTH”, Aakriti said. I wasn’t very sure then. Now, i.e after two weeks (precisely 6 days) of this course, I feel I made the right choice. I have always enjoyed learning new skills (or techniques) and hands-on working. Initially I thought this course would be a challenge for me because I have never worked with mud or bamboo neither do I have any experience with natural building but later I realised that teamwork and interaction is also important.

I think I will learn a lot from this course, both specific (splitting bamboo, bending bamboo, etc) and general skills. I expected to have lots of fun while working, which I guess is happening. The best part of this course is that you learn a lot from others. Try, fail, learn and then try again thing is also great.

                          clicked at Terrapin Farms

In the project brief it was mentioned that we might get to participate in a large scale natural building project, so I am looking forward to that and the field trips. I expect this course will help me grow as a designer and individual. According to me, it’s not just about what the course has to offer but also about my own approach that will help me learn and explore more.  I think the combination of work and fun has worked very well so far and will definitely continue to.

Initially I hadn’t thought much about what to expect from this course but after the course started it raised my expectations and met my expectations in a lot of ways. In this course, it’s very interesting how each and every individual contributes in their own way, the mood and the spirit, all of it…. creates a very positive work environment.