300SqM

Want to know what can be built on 300square meters? How about this beautiful house?

Back Waters

South India happens to contain one of the most bio-diverse regions of the world. We had the extreme pleasure of taking a day out and seeing it from the deck of a surprising luxurious river boat. The pictures will tell the rest.

 

Redevelopment

I think this was the best visit of the trip for me. After years of reading about slum redevelopments, hearing the lecture, and seeing the pictures; I finally got a chance to visit one. This project is amazing in the fact that local residents are completely involved with the process. Their primary wants and needs are taken into account when making the design. This is also not a "hand out." People living in the slum do pay for their new unit in the development. While we were visiting, we actually got to talk to and ask questions of the elected leader of the community. Seeing her positive assessment of the project and eagerness to move in was very heartening.
The new structures being built.

Past the green in the center is a picture of what the residents are still living in.

Sajan's Place

We got a chance to see the house two of the longtime members of Costford are building for their family. Their house is being built with bricks from the local clay with mud walls for most of the filler. They are using recycled wood for all of the wall fixtures and portals, while replacing the use of rebar with treated bamboo shafts. The house will also feature a 70,000L rain water reservoir and use a bio-waste chamber to harvest methane for cooking.

 

The Food

I have to stop and give a moment to the food. This whole trip I have constantly had my taste buds titillated by some of the best meals. Traditionally in Kerala, food is served on a banana leaf. Each food has its place on the leaf, the bitter pickled food start on the top left and as you go right they get sweeter. The bottom half of the leaf has a bed of rice placed on it with the more liquid dishes poured on top. There are no utensils, only the right hand.

Built From Mud

I’ve finally been able to overcome my constant frustration from trying to upload pictures and decided to create more posts.

One of the most impressive places we visited was the Institute for Social Entrepreneurs. First the structure is inspiring. The design is not only attractive, but highly functional. True to Costford design, there are a lot of passive features that keep the interior of the structures comfortable. Additionally, the site collects most of its water by capturing rain and a lot of power from photovoltaic. You wouldn’t believe it by looking at it, but most of the material used for building was from the site. There are bricks created from the clay that form part of the structural backbone. In-between is filled with mud that is also taken from the plot. You can see that the final product is nothing short of amazing. The second reason this is so impressive is what the organization is able to accomplish. They have created a community for blind people from around the world to come and learn the skills they need to create social profit projects back home. Also, the design is not meant to be enabling for the blind, but rather have them function in a normal environment that they will confront in the real world.

 

The past 2 Days

The past two days have been quite something. We started by driving to a 461 year old temple, Padmanabhapuram, with some incredible wood work and structural design. The building was built in such a way that it was passively ventilated and remarkable comfortable inside while being close to the 90s outside. After this, we continued our travels to the southernmost point of India for a one night sojourn. According to Jerry, this area is one of the largest tourist destinations for Indians, but not so visited by other countries. One thing that is unique is the fact that you can see the sunrise over one major body of water and set over another. It is also unique because it is the confluence of three major water bodies; the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal, and the Arabian Sea.  After a night watching the sunset and navigating the throngs of people around the beachfront shops, I was ready to go to bed. The next morning we woke early to be on the roof of the hotel before sunrise. The vantage was incredible; there were no other structures to obfuscate our view of the coastline. Before heading back to Thiruvananthapuram, we spent some time at Kanyakumari. I’m sick of trying to get the internet here working long enough to upload pictures, I will add them later.

The early morning view from our hotel.

The view tower and the sunset we viewed.