(Farm) Land Management in Urban Scenarios

"Land is a limited resource. Considering the rapidly increasing population, it is going to be even scarce if not managed properly."

This statement holds true in a number of contexts. Here, what 'limited' specifically meant is, limited cultivable land, land which gives us food is depleting fast. There are different reasons for that, few among them are; lack of sufficient irrigation facilities, change of land use from farm lands to other uses, and shift of rural population towards urban areas for new opportunities as farming being a low income job.

In spite of all those valid or invalid reasons, farming has to be done. With increasing population, demand of food grains is increasing day by day. Processed Food market being one of the biggest markets in India, is going to require more and more supply of farm products. Question is, how that supply is to be sustained.

Currently, approximately 60% of population of India carries out agriculture as their primary livelihood activity, and if we take a realistic approach, this would further decrease, considering the depleting water levels all around the country and increasing size of urban areas. So, what about the demand of farming output required?

This problem requires a multi-tiered approach for a holistic solution, that would involve efficient water management, efficient land management, efficient management of human resource involved in farming and efficient utilization of technological advancements in aid. All these are big enough issues, requiring extensive strategic work. This post seeks to discuss specifically about the issue of land management of farm-able lands and some new approach therein.

As mentioned earlier, change of land use from farm lands to other uses is happening extensively in our country. One of the prime beneficiaries of this change is Real Estate Industry. Extensive amount of land is being changed from farmland to cater for real estate industry requirements, to build housing societies, to build office complexes, to build retail hubs. Most of this is happening around already existing mega cities or new cities where development potential is high leading to huge influx of working population. There are no issues in land being used for development of real estate, in fact it is necessary, off course it has to be properly regulated. But if we see closely, there are some issues in this usage of land as 'real estate asset', which could be better managed.

Farmlands, cultivating buildings

Utilization of land for building new projects, typically involves huge chunks of land acquired at one go, to avoid any later issues in land acquisition. Actual construction, though, takes years to happen on a particular tract of real estate acquired land. Till the time construction happens, the land effectively remains as a non-utilized farmland (though land use map shows the land use as residential/retails etc). This is a common situation everywhere new real estate development is happening.

Cultivable land in an Urban Jungle

Here comes the intent of this post, why not utilize these chunk of urban lands for cultivating until their actual purpose is achieved, and the building is built. 

Some might argue that these lands form part of infrastructure development in the surroundings of the said real estate development and hence can't be used. But infrastructure development normally happens surroundings the building zone and hence, despite roads and other services there is still huge portion of utilizable land remaining. 

Another important argument could be about irrigation requirements. Construction itself is a water intensive process, and this alternative usage of land (cultivation) might actually be beneficial for the surroundings, by minimizing the erosion, minimizing dust and reducing the surface runoff. And, in water scarce areas this approach could involve rainwater irrigated cultivation, which is very common is large portion of water scarce areas of Haryana and Rajasthan.

Regarding the actual management aspects of this approach, of using 'Urban lands as Farms', following could be considered:

1. The Real-Estate owner/organisation could act as facilitator, by leasing out the said land to interested individual/parties to carry out cultivation until the stated use is achieved. Though, this lease has to be on a nominal (or nil) fee for better chances of utilization. The owner organization may try and incorporate this facilitation as its CSR initiative.
2. On administration's part, policy should be formulated/updated, so as to allow for such usage of land, for greater benefits. This could include seeds and fertilizers at subsidized rate for such cultivation purposes.
3. Actual cultivators/farmers should utilize this opportunity for better yields through organic farming approaches.

The peculiarities and oddities of this approach may be further explored. But, any such use is better than an unused barren-like land laying for years.

Portable Chajjas- Traditional wisdom Contemporary approach

Chajjas have always been an integral part of traditional Indian buildings, most prominently in the Arid and Semi Arid regions of North-Northwestern parts India. These are basically shading devices which have been explored through multitude of construction techniques and materials (like RCC, Wood, Stone etc). Apart from this, in traditional Indian architecture these have been utilized as excellent aesthetic building element, most prominently visible in Rajasthani style of architecture.

But with changing trends in Architecture and advent of contemporary style these architectural features lost a bit on their place as a standard building component. Wishing for a seamless facade, architects are now mostly ignoring the Chajjas as roof overhangs or even above windows. Simultaneously, with decline in traditional ways of planning, such as courtyard style houses etc, these related features are also declining in use.

Now the question to be asked here is, should we keep on neglecting these architectural features and let them vanish into history of architecture books. Answer is, NO.
Apart from being a legacy of traditional wisdom of Indian architects, these are as much a tool for enhancing sustainability in buildings. Chajjas installed over roof and windows considerably minimize the solar heat gain into the building. This in turn leads to less energy spent on cooling the building. So overall the building would be more energy efficient with chajjas, than without them.

The write-up here seeks to explore the ways to integrate these sustainability tools in today's buildings without compromising the contemporary outlook of the design. And I suggest, we achieve that through use of portable chajjas, which could be installed or removed from the building as and when required. This would provide necessary play to the architect also while designing the facade. Though, it would require few interventions in building facade during construction itself.

Section of a wall through window showing portable Chajja

Besides this, through effective mechanical interventions in the design, allowing for vertical as well as lateral movement, these chajjas could even be upgraded to dynamic shade control devices instead of their current static state.

Lateral movement on pivot connection ensures better shade control

Apart from portability and dynamic movement, further points which could be considered while producing the customized chajjas could be:

• Material selection- Preferably light weight and durable
• Artistic enhancements- Could be incorporated to go with facade design
• Facade fastening mechanism
• Retractable- Could be explored as a replacement of removable chajjas
• Scope of Automation 

No Man’s Roads - Curious case of Roads with no owners

If one has traveled in India through roads, he/she must have noticed this strange phenomenon of roads in completely dilapidated conditions at border of two states. Specifically, when the border crossing is through rural/village roads one won’t find any sort of roads in area between two consecutive Exit-Entries at state borders. I call those non-existent border roads in rural areas, “No Man’s Roads”.

Reason- both of the adjoining states consider these portions of roads as subject of ‘the other state’; so generous. But this generosity results in extinction of proper roads in that area. I personally have noticed this on Haryana-Rajasthan border at more than one place in Mahendragarh district. And have heard about such stretches on other Indian state borders as well. At all of those places one would find a rocky, barely charcoal, sandy stretch of so called roads (like below).

'HR-RAJ border 'No'road in Mahendragarh/Jhunjhunu districts

HR-RAJ border 'No'road in Mahendragarh/Jhunjhunu districts

It’s really frustrating seeing such 'so called' roads for years despite huge promises of rural upliftment again and again, as these missing veins are holding those promises from fulfilling. 

It is no secret that roads are first temptation for development in any region, so taking care of these missing links should be first priority en-route to development. This leads to the vital question, what can be done in this regard. Following ideas/approaches are few suggestions:

1. Mutual Cooperation- Easiest approach is collaboration between concerned stakeholders to fill the blank spaces in road network. But evidently, there is lack of cooperation between state level stakeholders causing the situation to arise in first place. To mitigate this, district/municipal level stakeholders must come into prominent role to and find ways to:
• Define Ownership- These orphan stretch of roads need to be owned first in order to restore them. The extent of ownership should be decided and agreed mutually between respective administrative councils of adjoining states, equal ownership being default share in case of no agreement.
2. Central Government as owner- Make these 'no'road stretches part of central schemes such as PMGSY and maintain them through that. And if these are already under one such scheme, then answers are needed as to why they are in such a condition. But even roads under PMGSY are in dilapidated situation. So how effective this approach could be, is arguable.
3. Special Purpose Entities (SPE) - If mutual cooperation is not feasible, another way is to establish a special purpose entity (say, Rural Border Roads Restoration Organization) for specifically taking care of these non-existent rural state border roads.
4. Panchayat level intervention- Various village panchayats along these roads are the prime stakeholders and their intervention could bring most effective solution. But considering the federal structure of our country, how effective can be the collaboration between village panchayats of two different states is worth exploring as well as debatable.

Finding solution is easy if intent is applied, but these ‘No Man’s roads’ do need to be owned now.

PS: Readers are welcome to share the pictures of such ’no’ roads at various state borders with location to include in the blog.

म्हारो गाँव म्हारो घर- A concept for Rural Tourism

Rural Tourism is a sector which has vast potential in India. Reason, India is culturally very rich country deriving much of its spirit from its rural areas. Its cultural heritage is most visible in its villages and a large number of foreign tourists who come to India nowadays want to explore its culture. Hence, rural areas and subsequently rural tourism are best are best spot to work on.

Picturesque villages- View from mighty Aravalis (Haryana)

In this post, through the concept named ‘म्हारो गाँव म्हारो घर’, I want to present a preliminary lay-out for promotion of rural tourism in state of Haryana. Though, following thought schematic has been evolved as result of SWOT analysis of Mahendragarh region (Haryana). But I think with appropriate modifications, this concept could fit well for any rural area of India.

First, there are some pre-requisites to be ensured from government/administration’s side for this concept to be realized properly, these are:

• Improved Connectivity (Roads, Internet etc.) for rural areas
• Improvised Security apparatus in rural areas
• Improved health infrastructure in rural areas

Haryana is a state which strives on its villages, both culturally as well as financially. We have more famous villages than cities, some made famous by their historical anecdotes, some made famous by their contemporary sons. But both ways these villages are with huge potential for tourism.

These villages could very well be turned into attractive tourist destinations because as mentioned earlier there are lots of tourists who want to experience India through its heritage rather than just visiting some iconic landmarks or adventure tourism spots. Those tourists could be lured to these villages, to live there, to experience their life and culture, and off course some site seeing around.

Kush grass; Dirt tracks; barefoot- Village in Mahendragarh

To do this, for a start following steps could be taken:

1. Identify and enroll villages interested in participating as म्हारो गाँव (My Village).
2. Identify and enroll villagers from above mentioned villages interested in participating as म्हारो घर (My Home).
3. Formulate common minimum standards for the eligibility, like sanitary standards, food standards, and social standards requisite for final enrollment/shortlisting.
4. Provide time to each enroller for achieving the above standards, subject to which their enrollment would be confirmed.
5. Ask each of the enrolled villages to provide a list of activities which could be carried out in and around the village as a part of this policy. Approve the list.
6. Prepare a master list of the enrolled villages, the enrolled families and approved activities for ready reference of tourists interested in experiencing Haryana through its villages.
7. Advertise about this new way of experiencing Haryana and its heritage.
8. The tourists would choose and live with a villager in his घर (home) and experience the life and culture of his गाँव (village), as sort of paying guest.
9. A rotation policy of sorts could be put in place by government administration, so that all the enrolled villages and villagers could be benefitted from this policy.

This policy, if implemented wholeheartedly, will benefit both the village and villagers in following few ways among many:

1. Economic improvement through cash inflow.
2. Educational improvement through need to cater to ancillary tourism activities such as guides, translators etc.
3. Cultural improvement through “tell and know” approach between hosts and guests.
4. Social Improvement through “competition for betterment”.

PS: I originally evolved this idea as my contribution to mygov.in, which actively seeks public participation in formulating various government initiatives and policies.  

Slopey Steps- A stride towards 'barrier free' spaces

Barrier free spaces mean spaces which are accessible to all irrespective of one’s physical abilities. In this era of increasing social awareness, it has become extremely important for Architects to design the spaces in such a way that they do not discriminate with anybody. Spaces as well as the (building) elements associated with them do need special focus while designing, so as to ensure that in achieving the ‘barrier free’, the aesthetics are not compromised.

One of the most prominent building elements in way of achieving barrier free environment ‘the Steps’, essential for vertical movement they can’t be avoided. But making them accessible for all requires interventions like ‘Ramps’. These are flat surfaces, angled at a certain slope, integrated alongside steps in vertical movement spaces, so as to allow movement of specially able people on their mechanical contraptions.

In public buildings due to government norms, ramps are unavoidable nowadays. Still everybody is not too fond of Ramps, because, one, they need more space then steps and two, to some extent they are a visual obstruction for those who love steps. So, sometimes people conveniently forget to allow barrier free environment in their (own) buildings.  

What if we design barrier free steps such as to avoid both aesthetic as well as space deterrence of ramps?

This post presents a concept for them, I call them ‘Slopey Steps’

They are an integration of steps and slope to allow for equal opportunity for both elements. Main concern areas while approaching this design concept were:

- Interchangeability (from Steps to Ramp & vice versa)

- Mobility

- Aesthetic value

- Durability & Strength

Below are conceptual plan and section of the Slopey Steps.

Additional points worth noting for further development are:

- Need of an easy locking mechanism to obstruct unwanted movement of the ramp element.

- Size of ramp element to be kept in line with minimum space requirement for specially able movement

- Space for keeping the removed ramp in steps

- Visual design of ramp surface and material variations therein.

Energy Efficiency in a Smart Neighborhood- Thoughts

Energy efficiency is core component of revitalizing the neighborhood. So, a smart neighborhood should essentially act as booster for innovation in field of Energy efficient practices.

Efficient use of energy is being achieved by minimizing use of non-renewable energy (NRE) sources and maximizing use of renewable energy (RE) sources, popular among them being, solar energy, Bio-gas energy, wind energy etc. But there are few key hurdles faced in all these energy systems while using them at neighborhood level like, (a) huge capital investment requirement & (b) less efficiency with reference to size. Through this write-up I am suggesting few methodologies which could be utilized to mitigate or minimize these hurdles.

To reduce investment requirement

In order to reduce the investment required for use of RE systems, I suggest utilizing these systems in conjunction with various existing building systems (such as façade systems, wall systems, structural systems etc.).

Logic behind this is simple, when we install a stand-alone renewable energy system (say solar electricity system), cost for that will be separate from building systems’ cost. But, if we integrate that renewable energy system with the building, in such a way that it could replace part or full component of certain building system, then the overall cost will have some amount of reduction. That, in turn, will make utilizing renewable energy system more viable cost-wise. To further understand; let’s take an example of solar electricity system and its integration with building system in a smart neighborhood to achieve better cost.

Traditionally, solar electric systems are installed on terrace area having a wide open space allowing ample direct sunlight. But this approach doesn’t result in any cost saving on account of its integration with building system. It also results wastage of usable terrace space.

Switching this with above mentioned approach, we could integrate the solar electric system with parapets (part of building wall system), by removing portions of brick parapet located on southern, Eastern & Western edges of the terraces of neighborhood buildings and replacing this parapet space with solar panels facing sun. Resulting parapet would be part brickwork and part solar panels. This would lead to cost savings on part of brick-parapet removal from building and also terrace space savings. The extent of this integration could be quantified subject to various project design considerations. 

Example schematics 1a & 1b for reference.

To increase the efficiency with reference to size of system

Typically the effective output of RE systems depends directly on its size. Larger the system better is the output. Considering the possibility of increasing efficiency of RE systems without increasing the size, through interaction of different RE energy systems with each other in common building system/systems is an interesting thought. Lets say, Interaction of solar energy & bio-gas energy in reducing the overall inefficiency  of both could be explored through designing both of these to complement each other. Can we?

O2 Planning- Optimizing Resource utilization in Sustainable housing

Resources are the major source of energy consumed in any construction project. These resources primarily include materials, machinery & manpower. It is very hard to judiciously segregate these three and then seek optimization, as there are way too many interfaces between them. That said, effective planning is pre-requisite for effective resource utilization, which itself is imperative for any Sustainable housing, because optimum resource utilization means optimum energy utilization.

Site logistics planning, i.e., organizing site and resources in such a way that right resource reaches right location in time is a complex process. It is basically done to ensure that construction process flow remains as smooth as possible during execution. It includes planning the numbers and locations for material yards (steel & shuttering yards); Material hoists; Passenger hoists; Tower Cranes; Concrete pumps, batching plants etc. It also demarcates access, approach and movement of resources in around site.

There are two major issues which can be associated with site logistics planning.

• First is, Improper logistics process flow. About two thirds of the working hours on construction sites are accounted for material search, distances, transportation and other work interruptions, directly attributable to logistics planning. This wasted time does have a cost associated with and subsequently some embodied energy too.
• Second issue is, over allocation of resources for a particular construction site. It happens primarily to make the logistics planning more effective. But while striving for better process flow, we sacrifice upon the energy efficiency of the construction project, as more resources leads to more energy consumption.

Site logistics planning is essentially outcome of site block planning or site planning. This means the planning of building blocks in the housing, that is, Number of blocks, Location of blocks, etc. defines the site logistics flow and hence their planning.

Site planning is directly affecting the resource planning for housing, hence in order to solve the above stated issues, alternatively in order to make them more sustainable, intervention is needed in planning process.

One-Origin Planning (O2) - The two basic principles of this intervention/philosophy are:

1. One- Planning should be aimed at changing the plural nature of housing into singular (One). This means that the housing should comprise of one continuous building block instead of a number of separate building blocks. The primary purpose of this is to reduce the number of resources, such as cranes, hoists and concrete pumps, required to make the building accessible for manpower and materials. Less the number of separate building blocks lesser the number of dedicated resources. 
   Furthermore a continuous building block would also increase the workability of various construction activities such as concreting, shuttering, reinforcement lying etc. as these could be planned with more options in terms of working area, accessibility etc. 
   This can be achieved either by planning the overall housing as one single large building, or incase that is not feasible then as a combination of smaller building blocks joined with each other through structural connections vis-à-vis expansion joints. If the number of blocks are too much to be simply connected as then the design could be improvised to achieve the continuation, through branching, extensions etc.
2. Origin- This means that the planning should evolve from origin, alternately we could say that the building block (prime element of housing) should be the focal point of the site instead of other elements like Green areas or community center etc. These secondary elements of the housing could be placed surrounding the building block. This is also essentially required to make the first principle more viable.   
   When we design building as/at focal center of site, we are providing scope of keeping major construction area concentrated. This means that there will be less distances between various site logistics areas like steel yards, shuttering yards material stores etc. This will drastically reduce both the time and resources required to access and utilize them.

This philosophy is a simple yet effective intervention to optimize the utilization of resources in a sustainable housing. 

In a way this could act as a constraint for designers but a necessary constraint because it would positively improve the sustainable credentials. No doubt it has to be improvised with respect to requirements of site, surroundings, project, and stakeholders.

Following are some schematics to graphically explain the above philosophy.