Laying Out the Biodiversity Garden [SomVid]

Work has begun on laying out the biodiversity garden at a local college campus. As I mentioned in my previous post, this project is being carried out in collaboration with Ladybird Environmental Consulting, and it also involves the students of the college.

It’s one kind of fun to design something on a computer, and quite another to start fleshing it out on the ground. There was a last-minute hitch when I got a call from the college ground staff saying that the grid — which I had asked them to mark on the ground — didn’t fit within the allotted space. It turned out that the survey drawing they had provided at the start had been inaccurate.

That led to a mad scramble as I had to quickly redraw some pathways and plant beds. To top it all, there was the threat of rain washing away the grid lines overnight. In the end, when I reached the site in the morning, the lines were visible — even though there had been a shower or two during the night.

The Process

In the morning, before the marking of pathways began, there was only a square grid
In the morning, before the marking of pathways began, there was only a 1m x 1m grid. Fortunately, the lines survived despite a couple of overnight showers. The soil was quite wet, though.
Placing a hosepipe to connect the marked points
A fairly stiff hose was placed to connect the points that had been marked on the grid.
Image Credit: Revathi Swami
Marking the points where the pathway edges intersected with the grid
To begin with, we marked the points where the pathway edges intersected with the grid. Some lilies in this section will have to be transplanted.
Image Credit: Revathi Swami
The hose was then adjusted, until I was satisfied that the curves on the ground matched the ones on the drawing.
Image Credit: Revati Vispute
Marking the pathways with chuna (powdered lime)
Finally, the pathways were marked using chuna (powdered lime).

All this was yesterday. Today, the ground staff began removing the topsoil from the pathways, and will transferred it to the plant beds and plant mounds. And yes, everything is going to be done manually.

Digging the pathway to save the topsoil. Image: Dinesh Pradhan
Digging the pathway to save the topsoil. The rusted gatepost is to be replaced by a living archway.
Image Credit: Dinesh Pradhan

Biodiversity is all around us

Tiny spider on a sprinkler head

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention. The morning got off to a really wonderful start, when I spotted this tiny spider on a sprinkler head. It was no more than 3-4mm in size, and I’m still trying to find out what species it is. Sadly, given that I only had my phone camera with me, I didn’t get a better shot.

Biodiversity Garden Design [SomVid]

This biodiversity garden for a college campus has been designed in collaboration with Ladybird Environmental Consulting. They meticulously worked out the locations and densities for the various kinds of flora to be planted. Students from the college actively participated in this exercise.

Although the area is quite tiny, the brief asked for a walking trail where students could roam through the garden, observing birds, butterflies and other lifeforms. Accordingly, the pathway meanders quite a bit. This maximises the distance that people have to walk, in order to reach the end of the trail.

Overall View of the Garden
Overall View of the Garden

The peripheral trees you see in the image above already exist. Unfortunately they are all Mast trees [Polyalthia longifolia] which are rather undesirable from the viewpoint of biodiversity. However, since we have them, we will preserve them — along with most of the flora. Other mature trees on the plot include a Mango [Mangifera indica] and a Peepal [Ficus religiosa]. Both these trees are wonderful to have and, to a great extent, they compensate for the others.

Central Mound
The only paved area, is around the central mound where the trail begins

There is a minimal amount of hard paving, and all the pathways will be of compacted earth. There will also be a small bird-bath, a patch for butterflies to mud-puddle, and a bug hotel.

Quite a while ago I posted an article on planting a garden for biodiversity. Much of what I wrote there has been implemented for this project.

Work begins only the monsoons recede completely, and I am looking forward to it.

The Synopsis is Done

I have submitted the synopsis of my dissertation, “Adapting Urban Neighbourhoods for Climate Change” to Mumbai University. I’ll be handing in the entire book by April. Then, it’s a matter of waiting until they assemble a jury.

Meanwhile, in the coming weeks and months, I intend to post some of my findings on this site. I have already put a few up on Twitter, but there are many others as well.

Street network for an old part of Bombay city.
Street network for an old part of Bombay.

A Call for Permeable Paving

with permeable paving, stormwater doesn't all become surface runoff
With permeable paving, all stormwater doesn’t become surface runoff
Image Source: Flickr

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: urban dwellers have an obsession with paving every possible open space.

Housing society compound?
Pave it — we need to park our cars!

Open area where social interactions take place?
Pave it — our clothes get muddy!

Barely-used internal road?
Pave it — we get stuck in the monsoon and it’s hell on the tyres!

If we Must Pave, Let it be Permeable

Some of this paving may well be justified but, because it is done indiscriminately, it leads to a boatload of problems related to the water table, the health of the city’s trees and even the heat we’re subjected to. I’ve written all this in greater detail elsewhere on this site but this particular post is about a type of product that could help in such situations.

In late 2015, there was a buzz in the construction world as Lafarge UK showcased a super-porous asphalt that could guzzle an incredible 4000 litres of water in about a minute. Media started calling it “thirsty concrete” and truly, if you watch the video below, it does look like the water is vanishing into desert sands.

Permeable Concrete Video

I have never been a great fan of the wasteful use of concrete but, when it is required, the least we can do as architects is to try and use it correctly.  Unfortunately, at least as far as I can tell, this product and others like it are not readily available in India. In fact the only case I know of permeable concrete being used, is for a parking lot at Jaipur railway station.

Unless architects and engineers specify such products and create a market for them, there is no way that companies will manufacture them here. I do hope some of my brethren in the industry take up the call.

Indian Green Building Ratings

Magic Tricks & Green Ratings

Green Ratings and the Art of Illusion

I’ve been critical of Indian green building ratings, their basic limitations and the fact that they can and will be manipulated. Of course this is not restricted to India alone… the problem is worldwide.

Now, a study by the New Delhi-based research organisation, Centre for Science and Environment, CSE, shows that a number of buildings that had been awarded platinum status–the highest achievable rating of the Indian Green Building Council or IGBC–were in fact barely worthy of any rating at all based on the amount of energy and water they consumed. Interestingly, the study was based on building performance data on IGBC’s website itself. A defensive IGBC is now nit-picking about CSE’s method of analysis but whichever way you look at it, the fact remains that the ratings methodology looks severely flawed.

How is it possible for the difference between the theoretical consumption–on the basis of which the rating is given–and the actual consumption, to be so vast? To my mind, it strikes at the very root of the problem when the system rewards you for your stated intent (genuine or otherwise) instead of rewarding you for your actions. It is all very well to brag that your building has a fantastic green rating but this has to be borne out by actual performance.

The worrying aspect is, the gulf between ratings and reality has ramifications far beyond mere bragging rights.

Many state governments give tax-breaks and extra floor-space for green buildings so the incentive to obtain a certification can be huge.  It is, unfortunately, all too easy to claim one thing at the time of rating and then shift the goal-posts at a later date.

Now that this latest can of worms has been opened, let us hope for a positive change in the way ratings are given and retained. With so many big names and businesses involved, however, there is always a chance that they will collectively try to sweep it under the carpet; and use the old system of discrediting the whistle-blower.

Acknowledgement: image from Pixbay

TERI and USGBC to join forces

TERI & USGBC to join forcesNow that was unexpected!

New Delhi, June 7: The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) today announced a strategic collaboration to accelerate the development of high performance buildings in India and Southeast Asia.

Essentially, apart from lavishing praise on each other in their press-releases, they’re talking about making it easier for projects to have dual certification by “offering seamless pathways” to do so. However, what we still don’t know–and what they haven’t spelt out–is how they plan to reconcile their fundamentally different approaches to sustainable construction.

One wonders what compulsions made these two reach out to each other. Let’s not fool ourselves that it was an altruistic move for the betterment of all mankind. This was a hard business decision and there must be some powerful financial reasons behind it.

What will it mean for the future of GRIHA? Are they running scared because LEED certification has greater aspirational status and because India is already the third largest market for them outside of the USA? On the other hand, GRIHA is officially backed by the Indian government so, is LEED trying to stick a foot in that door now?

Time will tell of course but I can’t help feeling that TERI has made a blunder.

Press releases from TERI & USGBC

Edit: On request from TERI, the image in this post (which originally contained their logo) has been changed.

New BEE Ratings for Air Conditioning

From the beginning of 2104—and in line with past practice—the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) has updated their rating system for all appliances including lights, fans and air-conditioners. I’m only going to talk about air conditioners here because they are, by far, the biggest guzzlers of electricity.

Energy efficiency is calculated as a ratio of output Watts v/s input Watts. So, if a 3,500W (1 Tonne) air conditioner needs 1,200W to run, then the EER is 2.92.  Up to the end of 2011, that would have made it a 4-star machine. In 2012 and 2013, it would have been considered a 3-star machine. Today, that same machine will be considered a 2-starrer. So yes, as technology improves, the ratings are revised and made a little more stringent—which is how it should be. Have a look at the table below to get an idea of the changes.

BEE Rating History

BEE Ratings over the last few years

While this is good, it may not be good enough.  As this article shows, the entry level for a single star is on par with many other countries but the higher ratings are somewhat below world averages.  Also, manufacturers of inverter air conditioners have long been saying that their machines cannot be rated because they are “better than 5-star”.  Checking the specifications for the ones available in India shows that many of them have an average EER greater than 3.5 but none cross 4.0 even for minimum cooling–whereas the same companies manufacture models for other countries with a higher EER.

This could be because of two factors:

  1. There is not enough incentive to go beyond the maximum available rating since the average person (and even most architects) won’t easily be able to compare two models for energy efficiency.
  2. Models with a a higher EER are more expensive to manufacture and the Indian market is notoriously price-sensitive.

While there’s not much anyone can do about the second factor, the first can certainly be tackled by raising the bar for ratings. As more and more people resort to artificially cooling their indoor environment instead of availing passive cooling (thanks to current architectural trends) our energy situation is getting more and more precarious.

I must be an idiot

crackpot environmentalist architect

The Crackpot Environmentalist Architect

Just received a call from a gentleman who wanted to develop 9 acres of land at Nasrapur village in Karjat, very close to some of the bungalows I’ve done and am doing there. That sounded interesting, naturally.

Unfortunately he wanted to make houses entirely and exclusively out of prefab steel. Never mind that they would not be environmentally sustainable and, therefore, contrary of the kind of work I do; never mind, even, that they might look like factory sheds! Someone had obviously convinced him that this was the way to go.

I said that I could not take up a project if I felt it was ecologically damaging and urged him to at least consider other options. He was closed to such crackpot ideas but very understanding about my foolishness. His words were, “Yes, of course, everyone has their… their own…” and then his voice trailed off.

Sometimes, it’s better to lose a project before you even have it in hand.

Visit to ACE tech 2013

ACE tech 2013

Went to ACE tech 2013 at the Bombay Exhibition Centre today. To say that it was suffocatingly crowded would be an understatement. There was a time when they allowed only architects, designers and related professionals on the first two mornings and threw it open to the public in the evenings and on the weekend. That way, we could have a meaningful interaction with manufacturers and service providers and actually learn about what they were offering.

Now, with everybody allowed in all of the time, the interaction has been reduced to a bare minimum.  Also, in response to this trend, the stalls — as well as the brochures they hand out — have become glossier and mostly lacking in substance. Worse, it’s hard to get hold of someone who has any technical knowledge about the product… all you get is a marketing person who knows diddly-squat.