Bhoomi, an Eco-Friendly Home is the later addition to an existing residence, a load bearing structure with conventional building materials such as plastered walls with burnt bricks, painted door & window, mosaic flooring and R.C.C slabs. The client being a passionate nature-lover, had an inclination for Eco-friendly and sustainable living which lead us to Earth Architecture. The terrace of the existing house was to be replaced by spaces as per new requirements also considering a future extension for the client’s brother. 

Vastu Shastra played a key role in deriving the spaces of the first floor during its design process. For form evolution, the footprint of ground floor was taken as base reference to vertically extrude the walls along with few horizontal extensions so as to increase the floor area for the design. The extents of upper level go beyond that of the ground floor to get more floor area thus resulting in the juxtaposition of two different construction techniques: Load Bearing & Framed structure.

DESIGN FEATURES

It was a challenge for us to convince the client’s family for Mud Construction as it was not a conventional form of construction. To strike a balance between the two, we came up with a unique combination of Vernacular cum Contemporary design for their house. We ensured maximum use of the natural resources like the Earth, Sun, Air and Water for the Construction of the house. It is a composite structure where thicker compressed stabilized earth blocks (CSEB) were used for load bearing walls on the southern and western side of the house which also help to cuts down the heat.

The layered rammed earth compound wall and the raw pine wood gate adorn the frontage transitioning from the road. The combination of unfinished sadarhalli stone steps and exposed concrete folded plate staircase along with a Lilly pond welcomes one at the entrance leading to the upper floor. The Jaisalmer stone flooring with decorative inlay and the bright yellow main door opens to the well-lit & ventilated living area, the sky lit central courtyard and the bright colourful kitchen further. The three-bedroom house with high ceiling, tall doors, and strategically placed windows with wooden louvers ensures cross ventilation and adequate day light. The punctures in the courtyard roof allows hot air to move out constantly due to stack effect keeping the spaces comfortable.

Usage of Filler Slabs with terracotta tiles, pots as filler material replaces unnecessary concrete in tension zone, maintains the thermal comfort inside, reduces total embodied energy and enhances aesthetics as well.

ECO-FRIENDLY MEASURES

Bhoomi was aimed to be self-sustaining in all ways, (Use, Reuse and Recycle of Natural Resources). It is equipped with a Bio-Gas Plant to produce natural cooking gas and Natural Waste Water Treatment Plant.

No waste is given out to BBMP, be it the waste water or the wet waste from kitchen. The collected kitchen waste is rooted through a Bio-gas plant at the terrace level, which generates cooking gas, effectively replaces LPG at-least by 80% of it.

The Soil Bio-filtration plant purifies the waste water from shower, kitchen, utility and washing. A natural system where the filter medium and the roots of a plant purifying the water which is later used for flushing and gardening.

It also accommodates an organic terrace garden where they grow at least ten vegetables and species of flowers at any given time.