Manoj Kanase who will be the builder for the Pune Bungalow took me to meet Ranjit Ghatge, his engineer, about some structural questions, especially regarding the use of ferrocrete. At first I had some difficulty explaining to him exactly why I wanted to use alternative technology. “Ah, you want to do a sustainable design” said Ranjit after a few minutes. Then everything fell into place and it turned out to be a pretty good discussion. The most interesting part was deciding how to make use of shallow terracotta pots to reduce the weight of the slab.

Later that day, I had a second meeting with Milind Kulkarni from Hydrobiotech who will give us a comprehensive plan for harvesting rain (back into the bore-well), reusing kitchen water in the garden and recycling grey water from the washing machine and bathrooms into the flush tanks.