: Built With Zero Cement, Our Eco-Friendly Home Has Natural Rocks as Chairs #IndiaNEWS #Architecture In Powdikonam, located on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, a two-storeyed house distinct

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Built With Zero Cement, Our Eco-Friendly Home Has Natural Rocks as Chairs #IndiaNEWS #Architecture
In Powdikonam, located on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, a two-storeyed house distinct from normal structures can be spotted. Built amid many trees and rocky terrain, the house blends with the surroundings and is beautiful to look at. It belongs to popular Malayalam writer Echmukutty and her architect husband R D Padmakumar.
It was in 2009 that the 20-cent land was bought by the couple. Being an architect aware of the real estate scenario in his state, Padmakumar had no interest in constructing a house of his own. “The state already has a huge number of surplus houses and apartments in an area. On the contrary, this doesn’t bring down the number of homeless people. We didn’t want to increase the count of structures but eventually surrendered to societal pressure of ‘living in one’s own house’. Even then, we were certain that it wouldnt be a concrete building. That’s how ‘Geet’ was built,� says the 58-year-old architect.
This 1400 square feet house is full of surprises and specialities. There are three major sustainability principles followed by the architect in its construction.
First, the advantage of designing and building for disassembly.
Whenever it occurs that the structure has to be dismantled, almost 95 per cent of the materials can be salvaged and reused. This includes wood, bricks, stones, steel rods, mesh, bamboo ply and glass.
The side-view of Geet.
Second is the use of second-hand materials. Almost all the items used to construct the house are reusable materials. For example, the grills are made of rods collected from a dismantled house in Ulloor. Glass from old cars and auto rickshaws is placed in certain areas to enhance day lighting inside the house.
The third is the fact that not even a sack of cement was used for the construction. Instead, lime and mud did the job. It consumed more time, effort and money but at the end of the day, it’s completely an eco-friendly house with an extremely low carbon footprint. Special care was taken to reduce consumption of water during construction, thereby reducing the water footprint also. Another equally important aspect is that every bit of construction generated waste was segregated, documented and dealt with responsibly.
The house consists of two bedrooms, bathrooms, and a common space which has a living area, dining area, library and kitchen on four sides. It took around 4. 5 years to complete the construction. “Procurement of materials and accomplishing skilled work with just a mason, helper and carpenter took time. Also, if the process goes too fast, we might lose control over the project and end up compromising the much valued sustainability aspects.

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