Affordable mass production: mass production technique for EWS housing:

        Everyone these days talk about affordable houses and caring for the poor, but the result is always pitiful. Sometimes I feel that it has become a cliché and the term affordable is used very liberally. Just like how food and shelter is just not the only necessity of human kind, a cheap shack is not the only requirement for the poor. I’m quite sure that our designers are forgetting the “empathy” part involved in design when it comes to affordable houses!

Various mass production techniques for rural housing

The initial study and the necessary information required to carry out the project was provided by the affordable housing project team, shenoy innovation studio, IDC,IITB. On the basis of these information and case studies, the problems and the possibilities were identified. A lot of work has already been done in this direction and the team already had collected a lot of data in this direction. Enough emphasis was given to the parallel development and innovations happening in other parts of the country and outside. Even though money constraints and affordability was major concern, the end emphasis was always on providing a good standard of living and a durable yet affordable shelter.

This started off when I was given a repeat for my Project 1, which was the professional training project during my masters. I badly needed a topic and I couldn’t leave the campus at that point, that is when I realised that IDC innovation studio is working on affordable housing and I could work with them as a trainee on the same project. Well but the affordable housing is done by a lot of people and places, and the particular project at IDC was no different and it didn’t interest me. So I decided to think in a different direction, incorporating the idea of modularity in to cheap and affordable houses to mass produce such houses. If mass production is carried out for various house components then standardisation of such projects will be easier and efficient. This what led to selection of this title and I worked on this project for 30 days. The idea is to use recyclable materials, with high technology for mass producing the components or parts required for putting up a low cost rural house. During this project I have also taken in to consideration the development and experiments that are taking place in places like IIT Madras. The GFRG panels IIT madras came up with also is a very promising material for future. The fly ash bricks and other alternatives of ash with gypsum also is a very innovative material.

Even though during the course of this project, which was a brief period of course, the idea was in to look in all possible components and domains that is related to rural housing. Even though this could only briefly address the issue and possibilities, on a superficial level of course, the main idea was to address the huge possibilities and potential in the field. The work shown here is not detailed to the full extend, nor is it tested in this regard. The idea was to explore the options and since the time was also limited, the work has to be seen as exploratory and conceptual and not final.

Here each element has been considered differently and detailed differently. Various possibilities in terms of materials, design and installation details has been considered and then is applied to a residential template to understand the feasibility and overall compatibility with the topological language. Manufacturing methods and the material library is not explored to the full extent as that would take time and in the meanwhile, emphasis was on to touch upon all the possible components and option.

The idea here was, a template house or a sample house was setup and its each and every structural elements and basic utilitarian components were identified based on virtual model. These elements were visualised and the installation method was looked upon by doing role plays and the number options were considered using brain storming technique. A single unit or dwelling was further divided in to various components, namely; footing, foundation, roofing, wall, storage, joinery etc. based on this. General arrangement pattern of spaces and options for further growth was also considered and tested upon using cad models.

Apart from affordability, the factors like durability, easy installation and easy maintenance and replacement is also given priority here. The design is also done in such a way that local material and local labour could be employed in this process. New technology and materials can give us more flexibilities and options.

Special and new materials like ACC special wet joining cements are also to be used in this. Geo textiles can also be used, in foundation and wall panels, and techniques like compression bonding has to be addressed too. These might not always be cheap if the new technologies are used. But it’s going be efficient, durable and quality controlled, and this would above all ensures, mass production techniques can be successfully used in housing, to an extent, in which it has never been used before. Tata bluescope steel also has variety of options and products that can suit the context.

Geotextiles are permeable fabrics which, when used in association with soil, have the ability to separate, filter, reinforce, protect, or drain. Typically made from polypropylene or polyester, geotextile fabrics come in three basic forms: woven (looks like mail bag sacking), needle punched (looks like felt), or heat bonded (looks like ironed felt). Geotextile composites have been introduced and products such as geogrids and meshes have been developed. Overall, these materials are referred to as geosynthetics and each configuration—-geonets, geogrids and others—-can yield benefits in geotechnical and environmental engineering design.

Introduction

Affordable housing has always been a dream for an average Indian. A demand which was never properly met. The business and the opportunity this field or demand offer designers like us, is a huge chance to make a difference. A consumer community that will never go dry. The field is a near virgin in terms of good design and has enormous opportunities for the designer. Another important factor would be the poor state of already existing affordable houses and inefficiency of its design.

This is a field for which every designer must feel responsible for and this project is about some design ideas which might fall in to this category and can come handy for further development in the field. Even though the design are not detailed out to the pin, they holds good for a concept level and sincere effort has been put to make it near flawless at least in terms of design. This here is an effort to understand the issues involved in the present approach and design and to come up with new concepts for affordable rural houses along with mass production as a main constrain. Here a template model is considered and based on which individual components involved in a rural dwelling is identified and analysed and designed, keeping in mind the requirements of Indian rural community.

Design brief

To apply the technique of mass production in rural housing to bring about affordable, cheap and yet durable and aesthetically strong houses for the needy, that can be put out in minimum time and can be maintained and installed and repaired by local labour, which can also project vernacular architectural nature of an area.

Scope of the project

The project has enormous scope in terms of providing affordable housing for rural India, especially because of the condition of such projects in the country. Apart from that this approach and design can also come in handy were temporary shelter or calamity relief shelters are required. The process of fast installation can also be utilised in case of setting up of resorts etc.

Limitation

Major limitation here is the lack of availability of such constructions, which might fall in this domain. Also the time limitation makes it difficult to visit places or projects which are located in far apart places

Affordable housing in India

The housing shortage in India is enormous. 28 million homes are projected to be required by 2014 to meet existing housing need, and 99% of these homes are needed by households in the economically weaker sections (EWS) and lower income group (LIG)1. India is witnessing increasing levels of urban population. Nearly 28% of the country’s population lives in cities and urban areas -double the level of urbanization at the time of Independence in 1947, and is expected to rise to 40% by 2020.

Poverty, the sheer scale of population growth and the huge rates of urbanisation as people move from the countryside into the cities will add to the housing shortages. Faced with the prospect of housing that the poor cannot either afford or access in formal housing markets, millions of households around the world turn instead to the ‘informal’ sector, resulting in slums having become an inevitable part of the Indian metropolis landscape.

 Given the magnitude of the housing shortage and budgetary constraints of both the central and state Governments, it is clear that public sector efforts will not suffice in fulfilling the housing demand.

(Source: http://www.ricssbe.org)

Hence the need here is not only an affordable or low cost dwelling solution, but a faster and easily buildable one too. This insight would change the approach towards affordable housing for once and for ever. Is should also be user centred, cost effective and above all, mass producible. The approach will also have a major future in catering a yet bigger community of temporary shelter needs too. Based on these the concepts here are developed so that, it is not only cheap but also faster at installation.

                Each and every components that would make up the structure of a dwelling, here is considered separately keeping in mind its flexibility towards mass production. And here the focus is more on standard, good quality and durable, low cost housing solution which can only be guaranteed my mass production technique.

Building components

There has already been some local, yet big innovation happening in the field. This is an effort to look at what is already happening the market and how good are they, at tackling the general housing problems. Another reason behind doing this is to understand, what are the elements that goes in to a rural house and the general utilitarian areas and the basic furniture involved.

Initial ideations :Ideas explored here are based on the initial ideas that came to my mind and are not based on detailed study or references.

The idea here was to understand the use of interior and exterior spaces in Indian context, and the basic structural and aesthetic character.

 ideas

Column or pillar ideas:Interlock able “X” shaped columns and interlock able cross shaped pillars and various combinations possible with those components are shown here.

Images shown here explain how an “X” shaped column can be stacked over one another and the main images shows, how concealed duct and shading devices can be incorporated in to the unit.

Footing and foundation:Images here explains various explorations on footing to cater faster and stable footing needs. The image on the left is a normal column footing and the area acquired by it and reinforcement required for it, is enormous compared to this new option.

For better stability and grip, the same footing explained before can be further modified like these.

                       

In case of poles and fast structural system setup, all you need a solid modular precast foundation. The pole then can be inserted in to the receivers. The idea is explained here with the casting shutters. The precast footing has to be inserted in to a trench and the poles can be inserted. And if it is cast-in-situ, then you can cast it inside the trench.

                        

Images here shows easy joint footing options and how introduction or tie beam reduces the stress on individual footing.

Foundation:Images here shows cheap and effective foundation solution to prevent dampness and to provide stability in loose soil conditions.

Walls and partitions:

1.Incoperating used plastic bottles or pet bottles in to clay or thatched walls to provide lighting

2.Transportable masonry wall solution.

Walls and partitions:This is modification on existing technique to replace it with fiber wall panels. This eliminates the need of plastering and reinforcing the walls. The construction can also happen much faster.

Walls and partitions:This is a solution were clay and framed concrete structure can be merged. The second idea is to approach the wall by using same template every were.

Using a frame work of concrete as template, we can add any filling material to give a vernacular touch to the buildings. Shown here are the various configurations possible in this.

Storage cum joinery panels:This idea is to explain how can a simple, transportable shelf unit can be open up to form a wall or window, door and storage unit.

Roofing:Mansard roofing has the advantage of having an intermediate sitting position which can be used to provide a grip over the rafters. It can also be modified with integrated truss works as shown here.

Truss integrated roofing panels seems a promising idea since it can be transported and assembled at site easily. This can also be locked together and extended as per required.

Normal thatched roofing is a promising idea, if they can be made in to panels with water proof joints. Here it can also be industrially processed and made in to panels.

Concrete framed slabs with hard filling material can also be a viable solution for flat roofs. It can also be replaced by cheap sandwich panels of various materials.

General typology:Even if the walls and the partition are to be thatched initially because of financial reasons, they can still do it with the same frame work.

When the finance is available the person can replace those thatched outer walls with concrete slabs and still leave the inner partitions thatched. As the strength is not a major issue in that case, it can still do.

The same components and frame work can be maintained and still account for more space and flexibility with a dynamic wall. The open able wall can account for future extensions.

The typical unit can be extended as in the image here, and can still stay a unified unit. This shows that the designs can be developed in such a way that they can account for future extensions, and still not compromising the aesthetics.

The idea is to replicate the vernacular architecture of an area, while sticking to the panel/modular concept. The image on the right shows the detail of how units are locked together without using a wet/weld joint.

The typical unit with all its details is shown here. The kind of foundation and the joinery details are shown here. All the components involved in this units are shown exploded here.

Shown here is a different unit with all the typical requirement with modular external toilet as an added feature.

This module can also be extended like the unit explained before. The exploded view on the side defines the various components involved in it.

Space management:The idea here is to utilize the normally unutilized areas and negative spaces for storage. This will eliminate the requirement of lateral storage spaces and will also provide thermal insulation.

Toilet based units:Toilet based units are very useful when time constrain is more and the requirement is to setup a decent low cost residence in minimum time. This is very suitable in case of calamity relief situation. It is also good for emergency camping and rural housing. This can eliminate the requirement any skilled labour at all, in a rural context. This approach will only require and outer wall and roofing, the rest is offered by a single open able unit.

Conclusion

The approach has proved that the possibility and design opportunity that this domain can offer to designers is enormous and it has to be dealt with passion and responsibility. It is also the call of time to come up with good and durable solutions in this field as the demand is not even half met. The situation and the demand is going to get swollen up and the condition is getting worsen with the present system and design.

The technology and the materials are already there, all what is needed is good design. With better understand and smart solution, this need can be catered properly and will ensure that the demand is met. These projects are not to be approach as architectural works, rather this is product design problem, and it has to be dealt as products. Industrial level mass production technique is inevitable if this demand is to be met. This ia a small approach, and the designs explored here are superficial and not detailed out properly. But all it did is, proving a point that, material and technology alone can’t account for these problems. Good designs and empathy for the user is what is missing.