Design Brief:
Developing and building structural resilience for the physical elements of a home by developing systems and
paradigms based on the culture of maintenance, repair and care.
paradigms based on the culture of maintenance, repair and care.
Three Main Principles followed:
- Wayanad, Kerala
- The Idea of Home
- Maintenance
Wayanad is a District in the North-East of Kerala located in the crest of the Western Ghats. It's topographically extremely diverse with hills, meadows and paddy fields. Being 44% forest, it is a biodiversity hotspot and thrives on agriculture and tourism. True to Wayanad, 17% of the population consists of Adivasi communities who share a long and intimate relationship with their land. They earn their livelihoods through animal husbandry, agriculture and as daily wage labourers. Their relationship with the land shaped their idea of home.
Idea of Home
Home denotes more than just shelter, it inculcates security, a sense of belonging, and identity. One’s lifestyle and livelihood frame a large part of a home. For the people of Wayanad, many being agriculturists, the connection with the land itself is significant. As most people have lived in close-knit communities for years, a sense of togetherness is also a part of a home.
Maintenance:
Repairing homes proves to be beneficial when it comes to the use of resources and the cost of materials that need to be borne every time a new house is built. Building new houses also involve the need to identify and locate land that is safe for construction. This adds to the over-use of buildable land and in turn, contributes to the weakening of soil. Floods and landslides take place due to weak topsoil. Apart from this, the purchase of new resources increases the possibility of wastage of resources. Considering all these factors in play, repairing the existing structures is beneficial for the environment in addition to being cost-effective.
Rebuilding Kerala:
Nava Keralam
● Haritha Keralam (Sanitation)
● Ardram (Health)
● LIFE Scheme (Housing)
● Education Scheme
● Pillar 1: Integrated water resources management (IWRM)
● Pillar 2: Eco-sensitive and risk-informed approaches to land use and settlements
● Pillar 3: Inclusive and people-centred approach
● Pillar 4: Knowledge, innovation, and technology
● Haritha Keralam (Sanitation)
● Ardram (Health)
● LIFE Scheme (Housing)
● Education Scheme
● Pillar 1: Integrated water resources management (IWRM)
● Pillar 2: Eco-sensitive and risk-informed approaches to land use and settlements
● Pillar 3: Inclusive and people-centred approach
● Pillar 4: Knowledge, innovation, and technology
LIFE Mission:
The LIFE scheme was introduced by the Government of Kerala to provide the homeless with basic shelter and livelihood opportunities. This scheme offers funds in instalments to enable families to build their own houses. These instalments are different for the General category and people that fall under the ST category. The people who wish to apply have to be listed as beneficiaries under this scheme- the criteria for choosing these beneficiaries are different for the two categories.
Phase 1: Addressing incomplete houses, the houses built under any scheme or otherwise, that have been built halfway are located and the construction of these is completed in this phase.
Phase 2: Houses are analysed and the cost of completion of houses is estimated. The funds are provided in instalments according to the features of the structure (Advanced amount, Basement, walls till plinth, roof and electrification).
Phase 3: This phase involves directly handing over flats.
Phase 4: Suggested improvements in existing houses, the approach in this phase is preservation.
System Blueprint for LIFE Mission
Example of houses built under the LIFE Mission
How might we?
How might we design an economy and infrastructure for the maintenance and repair of houses rather than
building new ones?
building new ones?
Intent:
Through this project, I aim to develop a system-level intervention that helps to make the existing houses disaster resilient in a way that helps the community keep their houses without causing a hindrance to their safety and do not have to consider permanent displacement. This would include learning and understanding the techniques and psychology of building and repair.
The Maintenance Fund : LIFE Mission
Motivation:
WHAT is the gap: The main approach for carrying out the purpose of this scheme is rebuilding and providing interventions with completely "new" ideas and products. The focus is on monetary returns rather than helping sustain the structure for a longer period of time.
WHY is it a problem: This is playing a part in the vicious cycle of over-construction and every time a new structure had to be built, an investment in the material has to be made. Apart from this, new constructions are reducing the buildable land available.
HOW do I plan on fixing it: To build a system to repair and maintain partially damaged houses and suggest additions in disaster management measures, specific to floods and landslides in Wayanad.
Factors Drawn for the final idea:
- Choosing a particular community is not really necessary - coming up with a more scalable system will help more.
- The system should not only work with independent LIFE houses but also when the residents move to a flat system.
- A simple training system without transparency and support may not work.
- Sense of ownership was a very subjective matter.
- The authorities wanted the communities to report to them.
- We cannot expect a major behavioural change from the residents.
- Finding a seamless way to gradually develop a culture of maintenance.
Proposed System
Stakeholder Map
Final System:
The concept includes introducing a better middleman for bridging the gap as well as building a ground-level network of local vendors and residents. The basic idea is to facilitate the development of maintenance culture by directing the beneficiaries towards the required resources to help maintain the house themselves, rather than having an approach that requires supervision of any sort. In this approach, the House is chosen to be the main subject as it interacts with all four stakeholders at some point in the journey of the system. The main stakeholder being the beneficiaries of the LIFE Mission.
These are the few main aspects taken into consideration:
1. Funding- transparency of the flow of money without having to supervise anybody
2. Eradicating the need for-
- one person is responsible for the whole colony
- extra/large funds for maintenance
- uni-directional training
3. Directory- Preparing a directory of resources that includes local vendors that do menial repair tasks.
4. Accountability- Increased accountability for maintaining the structure by bearing smaller expenses that arise when minor repair work is required (eg: fixing a tap, fixing hinges, etc). The larger expenses will be borne by LIFE (as it is) via the Maintenance Fund.
5. Work Opportunities- By offering the members of the community that work as construction workers the task of constructing the LIFE houses as commissioned work, a job is created. The locals of the community know the land and the nature of the soil and other resources of the area and hence have a better understanding of how to construct structures. If the same group of people construct multiple houses of the same colony, a rhythm of the method of construction and layouting can be maintained.
6. Materials- Standardising construction materials and having certain chosen vendors for the same will ensure zero compromises on the quality. This brings back the aspect of structural maintenance.
7. Customisation- The beneficiaries can approach the workers with or for suggestions regarding the design of the house, this gives scope for personalisation and scope to inculcate measures ensuring preventive maintenance.
Tangible Benefits:
- Monetary benefits for local vendors involved
- Preservation of homes
- Bridging the Information gap from both ends
Intangible benefits:
- Developing a culture of maintenance
- Sense of empowerment
- Building a 'home', not a house by adding a personal touch
The Final System Blueprint
The Proposed Directory
xx end of project xx
