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.

Crowd-funding as "Cost of Sustainability"

I recently read an article on archdaily.com on the “Role of Crowd-funding in Architecture”. It was seeking reader responses regarding this query and this blog entry is an indirect response to that.

Crowd-funding is a novel yet contentious idea for Architecture projects. Government architecture projects are already funded from public money (taxes, duties etc.) so involving crowd-funding in those is a dishonest approach at the onset. It’s like asking for double taxes on a single commodity. Private projects on the other hand are most of the times profit oriented and the profits are meant for a private entity, so why public should fund for such projects.

So, while looking for crowd-funding options in architecture we are only left with an interface zone which includes, privately funded projects completely dedicated to public. Here too the scope of crowd-funding could be for part portion only.

But in my view, there is a relatively better candidate available in Architecture projects for use of crowd-funding, and that is “Cost of Sustainability”.

There is no denying that sustainable development is need of the time, and not only in architecture. But in Indian architecture fraternity there is a wide spread belief that sustainability is only a cosmetic term, which is largely an incorrect interpretation. Main reason behind this belief is peer reviews arising from the excess cost involved in executing sustainable projects. In present Indian scenario, achieving sustainability adds on to basic project cost, so project stakeholders are not much interested in taking up this burden.  And since clients are not ready to spend, so the architects too are not keen on investing their skills for it. Sustainable architecture do form part of buildings; majority of them incorporating it due to associated relaxations in FSI norms; while some do it as a building USP. But overall, this image of sustainability being an ornamental fixture in architecture is sticking.

So, in my view if we could standardize crowd-funding as Cost of Sustainability then this approach of various stakeholders towards sustainability in architecture could be changed. As mentioned above, the scope of doing this is very limited. Why would public pay for it, even if it is sustainability.

Well, this is where we should innovate. Architects have to redefine sustainability in architecture in way so that, a) The sustainable nature of the architectural product essentially gives back to society (or public) a return of investment, rather than just giving back to primary stakeholders, b) we convert sustainability from just being a building’s USP to a society’s USP.

This might be a far better approach than to cast it aside as a cosmetic term in architecture. Thence we have to consistently look for newer ideas and play our part in providing sustainability in Architecture its deserved place. 

Ad-Farms- A new approach

Most of us would've observed heaps of big advertising hoardings while travelling from one place to other in our country. Majority of these advertisements happen to stick around roads and highways. 
They divert the attention of drivers, and the attention diversion quotient of these advertisements varies from minimal to drastic (depending upon the sobriety of content). This happens to be their first disadvantage in my view, as is obvious from presence of large number of road safety signages mentioning "savdhani hati durghatna ghati". Distraction to drivers is one of top 5 reasons of accidents on Indian roads. 
Second disadvantage is as significant as first one. Being an Architect I don't like them littered here and there as they are obstructing the view to built environment. The view to buildings, as attractive as it might be, needs to be unobstructed. Only then our conscious might ask us to improve upon the face of built environment. But that’s a separate topic, let’s stick to these ads.
Both of these disadvantages are good enough to seek alternatives, but what are the alternatives? 
Well, we could take a cue from standard human behavior. When humans seek a discipline in any practice, the first thing they do is to organize. Our basic approach regarding locating these ads needs to change from unorganized to organized one.Rather than placing these ads at random hazardous places on roadside buildings, we should seek spaces uniquely organized for Ads.  
This is where this idea of “Ad-Farms” comes into picture. Despite our concerns regarding rapid urbanization, it’s not stopping or even slowing. Farmlands are fast converting into parkings, parks & compounds of housing societies, converting natural into manmade. It’s very hard to even think of retaining any farm spaces in urban areas.
Through Ad-Farms, we could seek to change that. These advertisement farms could very well be our traditional mango or orange orchards or fields, occupied with corporate advertisement hoardings. They could very well act as public spaces, where people could understand these ads without any hazards. Where natural and manmade could complement each other.
These Ad-Farms could be source of revenue owners, both through advertisements, and if properly designed then through public visiting. On the other hand these Ad-farms would be a tiny share of social responsibility for corporates. The Ad guys might even think of innovative ways of displaying advertisements if they are sure that people would stand look and appreciate it, like on TV. These Ad-farms definitely seem a better option than the existing one.
Off course drastically changing the way things are normally done is a very tough job, as human nature resists change. Success of this concept too would depend on a lot of factors, like favorable government policies, corporate awareness, desire of organic approach in people. But it’s definitely worth a try.