Affordable Habitat Project

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The Affordable Habitats project was initiated in 2011 in partnership with ACC ltd. Initial efforts were directed towards understanding housing scenarios in India. Subsequently, we have been trying to formulate an approach focusing on the role of design and technology. This presentation shares some of our ideas and is meant to serve as an invitation to collaborate with us to further this initiative.

ICoRD'13 presentation

Conflicts in the idea of 'assisted self-help' in housing for the Indian rural poor'. The paper reports some of the findings of the research work done by us as a part of the Affordable Habitat project, presented at ICoRD'13, IIT Madras in January 2013.

Ethnographic Study of Habitat in Rural Pockets around Wadi, Karnataka

About Wadi

Wadi is a census town in Gulbarga district in the Indian state of Karnataka.The Wadi railway junction is an important railway junction on Indian railways. Trains from metro cities of Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai pass through this town. Wadi is home to two cement plants of Associated Cement Company Limited ( ACC ) .The ACC has two cement plants of capacity 2.11 and 2.6 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).The cement plants are one of the largest in the country. Wadi is also famous for its Limestone mines. Main source of income is ACC, Railway’s and Working in Lime Stone Mines. The growth of cement plants(ACC) and railways in the region has brought in people from diverse regions and cultures. 

Collaborators 

The IIT team from Shenoy Innovation Studio, IDC was supported by Mr. Nand Kumar and ACC’s CSR team lead by Ms. Merine John, Mr. Niteshwar Kumar and Mr. Merline for the visit. The team looked into the newly developed flood relief houses built by ACC near Wadi for 40 families. The team then compared these houses with traditional rural houses of the nearby areas. The need for the visit was identified by Prof. Uday Athavankar and Prof. B. K. Chakravarthy during the 1st phase research presentation to ACC team consisting of Mr. Nand Kumar, Mr. A. N. Singh, Mr. P. R. Majumdar, Mr. Bipin R. Khale and Mr. Shyam Narayan to initiate the tabletop concept design as suggested by Mr. Kuldeep Kaura, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, ACC in the meeting at ACC on 6th September 2011.   

Objective of the study

Ethnographic study of  living patterns, local materials, skills, building technologies and conditions was undertaken in areas around ACC plant at Wadi, Karnataka, where rehabilitation work is in progress. The research focus was  users’ perspective  towards the new and traditional houses alongwith local materials, technology and skills.

Study Method

Two kinds of housing cluster was selected - the newly built rehabilitation houses by ACC and the traditional houses.Observational research through videos and photographs was conducted to map the spatial arrangements of the living spaces and common spaces, both inside and outside the house. Next, one-to-one interviews as well as focussed group interviews were conducted.

Affordable Habitat

Affordable Habitat in India


President Pratibha Patil mentioned affordable housing as the need of the hour during her speech speech on Bharat Nirman, a project that plans to double the construction of low cost houses to 12 million units. According to a research by Unitus Capital, the current housing deficit in India is estimated at 40.3 million units. According to 2008 Monitor Group report, around 21 million households don't have a proper home due to lack of land titles & volatility of earnings on a day-to-day basis.

The government has attempted at building houses for the Low Income Groups (LIG) and issuing loans to them. But the efforts seam to be non-fitting and inadequate. Some builders like Value and Budget Housing Corporation Pvt. Ltd., Janaadhar Constructions Pvt. Ltd. have made their own efforts in this direction too. Tata Housing has recently identified the low-cost and affordable housing segment as a significant market with substantial growth opportunities. It has, therefore, launched a new subsidiary "Smart Value Homes Limited" that will cater to houses in the Rs. 5 - 35 lakh range.

With all these positive developments coming across, we are reminded of the Tamil Nadu Government's building project for LIG. The establishment was for squatters who made a living by selling milk. After a ceremonious inauguration of the apartments, the milkmen were shifted to these one room homes. After a month, the neighbors were surprised to see that the milkmen went back to their old beds under the sky and the buffaloes inhabited the houses. The milkmen felt that their buffaloes were more productive when housed in comfortable conditions and hence decided to opt this way.

Why does such noble attempts keep on failing time and again?

One major reason behind the failure of low-cost housing is: for LIG, a house is a place to live as well as work. Thus the context is building of AFFORDABLE HABITAT rather than AFFORDABLE HOUSING. The next most important aspect is humanizing the HABITAT through simultaneous innovations in construction technology, design, management, socio-economic interactions, finance and sustainability.


Affordable and Sustainable Habitat

In response to the burning need of affordable housing, Shenoy Innovation Studio, IDC, IIT Bombay has entered into a partnership with Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction, Switzerland and ACC Ltd., India. Thus SIS has initiated a thorough research on all existing know-how for creating an affordable and sustainable habitat. The research topics encompass the following different domains:

As is evident from the above mind map, the research is a multi-disciplinary effort. To achieve this, a collaborative innovation team has been formulated whose composition is as follows:

 

 About the Partners

Shenoy Innovation Studio is studio at Industrial design Centre, IIT Bombay and is aimed to aid industries in crating disruptive innovation by designing methodologies tailored to their specific needs and conditions. It brings in the strong amalgamation of design, technology and management thinking from various disciplines of IIT Bombay. Holcim is one of the world's leading suppliers of cement aggregates as well as further services like ready-mix concrete and asphalt including services. Holcim Foundation on the other hand is supported by Holcim but is independent of its commercial interests. The foundation is committed towards sustainable construction. Holcim is represented by ACC Ltd. India and are one of the largest cement manufacturers in India