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Four days to go this year. Time for a little reflection, perhaps? Maybe not.
Went to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park this morning with Kedar Gore. I was making this visit after a gap of many months and I was thoroughly out of touch. Haven’t yet sat down with a list, but can safely say that we saw 30+ bird species and 20+ of butterflies. Smelt a leopard too, on the way back, but saw no sign of the animal.
Posted: Saturday, 27 December, 2003 @ 8:15 PM IST
Today, I received an evaluation copy of CADian Arch which is a low cost drafting package based on IntelliCAD. The “Arch” part is a set of routines for architectural work. All 2-D of course.
Since it runs for 30 days, I should know in a little while whether I want to buy it or not. At first glance it seems quite good, but it will need further testing for stability and ease of use. They claim full support for lisp files and custom menus. Well, we shall have to see.
Was in Pune today meeting potential contractors for a bungalow that I’m designed there. I guess I should have a page that describes the project but, for the moment, here is an outline:
It’s a single family residence where we will harvest the rain, recycle the water and have solar panels for heating. The site is located on the top of a hill in the Kondhwa area so, budget permitting, there might even be a windmill to run the pump.
High energy materials like reinforced cement concrete – RCC – are going to be avoided as far as possible. The structure will be load bearing with a foundation made from local basalt and the superstructure will be brick masonry.
The client wished the design to be done as per Vastu principles and hired a consultant to vet the drawings for conformity. All’s well at the moment. People don’t often think of Vastu and ecological or green architecture together, but there is a significant overlap of principles; not always, I have to admit, but to a very large extent.