In this IG Live, I delve into the factors involved in taking A Site Positive Approach. I speak about how design can contribute to the land it stands on as well as simple measures that can be taken to ensure the site is preserved and that resources are managed well during and after construction. Over the Live, I explain the importance of the water management systems at our houses in Goa, and the natural systems we have implemented such as a pond and bioswales. I also answer questions about site positivity in the rural and urban contexts, speak about the opportunities offered by certain materials and the feasibility of creating a positive impact. Tune in to watch the entire session.

To know more about taking a site positive approach, you can read our blogpost on the subject which looks at the strategies implemented at The House With Three Pavilions.

I was invited by Architecture + Design magazine to discuss Green Architecture, its nuances, realities and myths.

It is pertinent now more than ever to create buildings with minimal architectural intrusion and the conservation of natural resources. In this session, I speak about conscious architecture based in context and the little steps that we can take in our pursuit for ecological balance and sustainability.

To the jaded, the mention of green buildings implies a marketing gimmick, and to an idealist, it conjures images of buildings built with mud and bamboo with compostable toilets. Invoking a strong response either ways, we recently concluded a Q&A session on Green Buildings on Instagram. The session had over 300-people join over the course of a 30-minute session. 

The first question that we tackled was, ‘What is a Green Building’? My answer, ‘A green building is one where you’re trying to reduce the impact of the building on the environment.’ It is about making the right choices at every stage of the project, with the ultimate goal to minimise one’s footprint on the environment. To make a building green, the architect must treat the environment as a key design criteria from the first step of the design process right until the occupancy stage. 

It is our commitment to build sustainably and we green certify all our houses in Goa. Our first home, Nivim was the first green certified residence in Goa. It received a gold-level certification and our project Navovado has recently been awarded the platinum-level certification by the Indian Green Building Council. Platinum being the highest level available in the ranking system.

While a building can absolutely be green without a certificate, a green certification is a great way to stay accountable to oneself throughout the design and construction process. It provides the involved professionals with a detailed list of checks and balances with specifications and design criteria that need to be considered and incorporated at every stage of the design and construction process.

In India, TERI (home-grown) and IGBC (offshoot of USGBC) are the primary agencies that issue green certifications. Both these organisations use a credit based system for the evaluation of green building design and performance. The credits fall under the following categories: Site Planning, Water Efficiency, Energy Efficiency, Indoor Air Quality, and Materials among others. Throughout the process, extensive documentation with detailed calculations are required which is then reviewed and tested by the certification body on site. While the system is elaborate, it proves effective as a way to stay true to one’s goals of sustainability. However, it is important for architects to avoid incorporating design elements or features, just for the sake of securing points and focus instead on strategies that are feasible for that specific project life cycle and use.

Demystifying Green Building

I would like to cut through the clutter on this topic. Specially as I would like to demystify the concept and express that green building design is not necessarily a specialized science, nor is it forbiddingly technical where only certain qualified professionals can build green buildings. On the contrary, it is my strong belief that a building built with the basic principles of good architecture would do very well on the green scorecard. The process of green building design starts with a deep understanding of the site, local climate, wind patterns, local materials and resources. Once a building is sited to take advantage of the sun and wind to maximize daylight and cross ventilation, is designed to be responsive to the weather patterns and is built using local materials, then that in itself is a great start towards making the building green.

In the predominantly hot and humid climate in India, one can further think of reducing the heat gain through an informed design of the building envelope. This will have a tremendous impact on the thermal comfort within a building and hence reduce the energy use in the building. Water is another key natural resource that is dwindling with increased human activity on our planet. Rainwater harvesting provides a simple (sometimes ‘no-brainer’) solution to this problem. The idea is simple, instead of allowing rainwater to drain away from your site, one can design systems to either collect it and reuse on the site itself, or feed it back to the earth to recharge the underground aquifers. In addition, a simple introduction of dual flushes can reduce water use by 50-60% and aerators to taps, which can reduce the water use by upto 70% percent. Aerators mix the water from the taps with air, and as a result the water pressure feels the same even when the amount of water flowing through the taps are reduced.

When it comes to building materials, it is wise to use local materials. In most cases, the vernacular building techniques and the local labor would be well versed with the local material. The green quotient of buildings can be further increased by choosing materials with a higher recycled content, higher recyclability, reusing salvaged materials and materials that are rapidly renewable such as bamboo.

The choices to go green are not always straightforward. Cement for example presents a big conundrum in the building industry. The production of cement produces large quantities of CO2, a greenhouse gas with a lasting impact on global warming and climate change. In fact, the production of every kilogram of Portland cement produces an equal amount (one kilogram) of CO2. This presents a huge challenge for our industry where the widely accepted structural material is cement. Wood is another material that presents a difficult choice with sustainability. On one hand, it is a naturally renewable resource and is biodegradable, and wood can be used and reused multiple times. But at the same time, we are cutting irreplaceable virgin rainforests at an alarming pace with long lasting disastrous impact.

Finally, a green building doesn’t have to cost a lot more. Majority of green building strategies are common sense and based on sound architectural principles, which do not come with an additional cost. In addition, there are simple systems that are available at extremely reasonable prices. The aerators mentioned earlier are a free addition offered by most companies that sell sanitary fittings. The difference is for the architect, client and the vendor to be aware of these systems and integrate them into the building design in a timely manner. 

We must as a community of architects pledge to make green building design as important as aesthetics in our projects. A simple change in the thought process can have a long lasting impact on the quality of life for our future generations, which is a cause worth fighting for.

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What is a green building?

A green building is one where you’re trying to reduce the impact of the construction on the environment. It is about making the right choices at every stage and  looking at every possible way, to optimise resources during and post construction and to minimise or offset one’s footprint right from the design stage to the occupancy stage. Right from positioning the building on the site, being mindful of the solar and wind orientation, looking at the existing resources on site to incorporate them into the building, preserving the underground water table - the environment is part of the design criteria from the very first step of the design process.

Here are some tips for an architect to design a green building

• The building should be designed for its local climate and weather

• The design should be site specific

• The natural features on the site must be preserved whether it is the trees, the underground water table, the contours and terrain, etc

• Plan openings for maximised daylight and cross ventilation

• Reduce the urban heat island effect 

• For landscaping, use lesser amounts of non permeable surfaces like concrete and more permeable surfaces like grass that allow water to percolate and recharge the underground water table

• Reduce concrete exposure because concrete tends to absorb a lot of heat

• Enhance thermal comfort by thinking about all parts of the envelope - the walls, the windows, the shading devices, the roof, etc - to reduce energy expenditure

• Conserve water and collect or harvest rainwater

• Use aerators for taps and dual flushes for WC

• Use solar water heaters

• Use solar panels if the site allows for it

• Compost using house and site waste and feed it back to the garden

• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Every little detail helps.

Links to our previous Blog Posts on Green Building:

• GREEN CERTIFICATION

• WHY BUILD GREEN

• GREAT ONLINE RESOURCES FOR GREEN BUILDING

• GREEN FEATURES AT NIVIM

As our company policy, we certify all our development projects with green certification from the Indian Green Building Council.

Green Certification often gets a bad reputation as it is a standardized platform of measuring sustainability across various cultures and geographies. We follow the system as we find it to be a good way to keep ourselves accountable to the various aspects of sustainability from the very start of the design process. Certification forces us to keep detailed accounts, and make accurate calculations such that our sustainable efforts are not only in name but are real with measurable impact.

That said, certification is usually the starting point for us in our journey into sustainability. I firmly believe that ‘sustainability is common sense’. In architecture, it involves following sound design principles, respecting the land while planning new buildings and responding to the local climate and conditions.

To pursue sustainability,

• we must try to conserve the natural resources within our own site (through rain water harvesting, renewable energy use and grey water recycling),

• use materials and employ design ideas that keep the building interiors cool or warm (and reduce the use of air-conditioning and heating),

• allow for ample daylight (to reduce the energy use for lighting during the day),

• use half flushes in bathrooms along with aerators to reduce the water flow in bath and kitchen fittings (to reduce water-use),

• maximize the use of materials that are produced locally, and

• use materials with a high recycled content.

These strategies for me are the low-hanging fruit that are easy to achieve with minimal cost escalation in the process. It’s also key to understand the lifespan of materials (regardless of their green features). If they have to be replaced in a short period of time, then they fail the test of sustainability. Finally, to achieve actual impact, we have to think about sustainability at every stage and factor it in every decision during the design and construction process.

LINKS TO PREVIOUS BLOG POSTS:

WHY BUILD GREEN

GREAT ONLINE RESOURCE FOR GREEN BUILDINGS IN INDIA

GREEN FEATURES AT NIVIM

While designing our buildings to have a minimum ecological footprint, the first and foremost planning principle for us is to ‘not cut trees’. We value trees as an irreplaceable resource on the planet. The conservation of trees has to be the starting point for any conversation on sustainability.

Often times, the existing trees on the site become the primary drivers for our site layouts and house designs. At the House of Three Pavilions, we utilized an existing ‘Kokum’ tree as the central feature in our building layout. The tree is part of the Kokum tree courtyard that connects the main house with the guest annex.

The recreation block at the House of Three Pavilions is positioned amongst the coconut grove and the windows are designed in a way that it feels enveloped by it.

Navovado had 5 mature mango trees on its periphery. The home was built such that it is enveloped by the trees adding a green screen for privacy. The trees also further shade the house making it cooler in the Goa summers.

Nivim had as many as 13 trees all around the site. 4 were bang in the center. A mix of a sculptural Tamarind and towering Jungle trees, these 4 giants set the stage for a house that was built around these trees.

Click to read a previous blog post on ‘Building with Trees’.

I recently read an article on how the wettest place on earth, Cherapunji in the east of India is experiencing water shortages. The news was not overly shocking, as we have all heard about the water woes in Bangalore (where it is believed that the city would have to be evacuated by 2025), Delhi, and all other major cities in India. The slightly shocking part with the Cherapunji story is that it has an abundant source of water in the form of rain, and the reason for its water shortage is simply the ignorant management of resources on the ground.

The story is not much different in Goa as well. Goa receives 300 inches of rainfall during a 4-month monsoon season each year. Inspite of this abundance of rain, there are frequent water shortages in Goa, and the water level in village wells across Goa are dropping at an alarming rate. This makes the significance of rainwater harvesting in houses in Goa of paramount importance.

In addition, I strongly believe that all new construction in Goa must manage its rain water discharge. We often experience that during the monsoon the excess run off from built areas result in flooding of low-lying areas. As responsible builders, we must accept that the public storm water drainage system is just not equipped to handle the pressure of new development and we must manage our rain water independently and ideally, use the rain water to recharge the underground water table. In Goa, the rain water drainage is closely linked to the cycles of paddy agriculture. These systems have been working for centuries and are the lifeline for paddy agriculture, an important source of livelihood and lifestyle for Goans that must be protected.

As a standard practice across all our projects, we harvest all the rain water from our site as well as from the roofs of the built structures and allow it to percolate back into the ground in an attempt to maintain the underground water table for our site and surroundings. This practice directly supports our larger design intent where we wish to minimize the impact of our building activity on our site and the environment.  

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At the House with Three Pavilions in Goa, we have taken rainwater management many steps further by designing a comprehensive water management plan for the entire site. The objective is to retain most of the rain water within the site and to recharge the underground water table, minimizing the impact of the new construction on the land. All the roof rain water runoff is captured and along with the site surface runoff, it is directed into the central seasonal pond. The pond is connected to a newly planned system of bio swales that spread the collected runoff water over a larger site area increasing the rate and extent of percolation on the site. These beauties utilize no cement in their construction and can absorb water through the walls and the base. The bioswales are designed as gabion walls, stone walls within a GI frame, hence are perméable to water. 

The water management system furthers the connection of the home and its residents to nature as the water will ebb and flow with seasons, will encourage the growth of wild grasses and flowers, and retain the land as a home for the diverse insect, reptile and bird life that we encountered on the virgin land prior to construction.

(Water Management Plan in consultation with Pallavi Latkar and team at Grassroots Research Mumbai.) 

READ ON

Landscaping is an important aspect of the design process at Grounded. We usually populate the landscape with native local species to reduce water use for irrigation. Our landscape design aims to blur the lines between the two textures- the verandah flooring, the green cover, and the soil. We pick local species that can co-exist and help give the landscape a naturally verdant look, rather than an unnatural manicured one. 

Image of ongoing project House with Three Pavilions. Photography by Sanjeet Wahi.

Image of Navovado. Photography by Sanjeet Wahi.

Image of Navovado. Photography by Sanjeet Wahi.

Image of Navovado. Photography by Sanjeet Wahi.

Image of Navovado. Photography by Sanjeet Wahi.

Image of Navovado. Photography by Sanjeet Wahi.

Read On

Welcome ! This is the view from the main entrance door towards the pool and deck at Nivim

Ever wondered why the house is called 'Nivim' ?

'Nivim' is the name of the land the house is built on. We found it on the historic land records for the house and it only made sense for us to continue to use it as our commitment to the history and legacy of the land and our love for the inherent beauty of Goa !

In simple words any new construction specially on a greenfield site (where there were no buildings before) has a negative impact on the environment (scroll down for why?). But the reality is that we need buildings and implementing green building practices help us in reducing the impact of the building activity on the environment.

How does building activity impact the environment:

• Buildings consume large amounts of material and energy during construction and generate waste

• Buildings continue to consume energy, water and other resources during their lifetime along with continualy generating waste (domestic waste, solid waste and water waste)

• A building on a previously vacant greenfield site changes the land and its relationship to the surrounding environment:

  • buildings change the natural landscape of the site by reducing existing vegetation, changing natural topography, and water flow patterns

  • buildings create concrete barriers to absorbtion of water back into the earth thus increasing storm water runoff (leading to flooding of low-lying areas and additional burden on existing infrastructure) and fall in underground water table (due to reduced recharge)

  • Loss of natural landscape also results in the loss of habitat for animal and bird life

  • Materials used in a building have a direct correlation to the health of its residents

Most of the above reasons are fairly well understood in the building community then what are some of the reasons that green building practices are relatively inaccessible to the everyday builder? even when they are driven by common sense and reflected in many traditional construction practices. We have found that:

• There is increasingly a lot of superficial jargon surrounding green buildings that needs to be shed

• It may be easier to start from our backyard rather then wait for top-down government led infrastructure development and policy formulation

• There are available green certification processes than can offer a system of checks and balances but sadly the industry is disillusioned about them or find them too tedious and expensive

• Project planning is the key to success. It is vital that at all stages of design and construction; the builder makes choices that minimize the impact on the land, reduces use of energy, optimizes use of water resources, prioritizes reuse and recycling instead of use of virgin materials and reduces waste.