Category: Articles
The Potential of “Sustainability”
2014-03-05
Articles
(based on Paper presented at the Roundtable on Architecture and Urbanism in India, Mumbai, November 2003) Preamble The recent articulation in universal terms of the concepts of “sustainability” and “sustainable development” perhaps pre-sages an imminent paradigm shift in the reflexive practices of architecture and urbanism. The growing acceptance...
Starting with zero Sustainable Practices series
2014-03-04
Articles
(previously published in Buildotech, September 2010) Vinod Gupta is rare among practicing architects - he has a Ph. D. in energy studies from IIT Delhi. In some ways, this fact helps frame his approach to architecture. Among the pioneers of the conscious practice of sustainable architecture in India,...
The Gandhi of Spatial Delight
2014-03-03
Articles
(previously published in Economic and Political Weekly, May 2007) The life and work of Laurie Baker - the famous practitioner of cost-effective architecture who died on April 1 at the age of ninety in Thiruvananthapuram - is a story that can be retold from very different points of...
Green but white
2014-03-02
Articles
(previously published in Construction Guru, July 2010) We expect relatively sustainable buildings to look ‘different’. Khadke house (4000 square feet, six bedrooms), designed by Girish Doshi for Pune’s composite climate with its hot-dry summers, looks like any other elegant contemporary house designed by a very skilled architect. Built...
Craft with care
2014-03-01
Articles
(previously published in Buildotech, April 2010) Himanshu Burte Buildings can be built well without being carefully crafted. If they are crafted with care, however, they often transcend their gross physicality and become a kind of second nature. The caring may be about people or the planet, but it...
Sustainable Interiors
2014-02-28
Articles
The idea of sustainable interiors seems to be confused with LEED certification for GREEN interiors. By USGBC definition green interiors for commercial buildings are high performance, healthful, durable, affordable, environmentally sound commercial interiors. To achieve this, LEED requires: Location –public transportation availability for the building Energy Use Efficiency...
Recycling For Sustainable Interiors
2014-02-27
Articles
Some ideas that are part of the Green Interiors wrongly called Sustainable Interiors is that recycled materials, locally sourced materials and green materials such FSC certified timber ought to be used for construction. When the idea of green materials was first put into LEED, every major furniture manufacturer...