Project Griha – an Introduction

In today’s times, urbanization is so constant and exponential that one could easily say, “The sensitivity towards the economy, socio-cultural aspects, and local livelihood that the rural populations once had is being pushed to the edge. It is crushed between their wants of a house, whose picture is painted in their heads by their urbanized counterparts.”

A house built with an innate knowledge of climate, human activities, like the intimate front yard, socio-economic activities, tends to push the entire settlements towards well-conceived and well-planned rural neighborhoods.

Houses were built as cookie-cutter homes, where it is believed that “one fits all.” This approach not only loses the human element of architecture but also pushes local values, new methods of construction, and other invaluable knowledge more and more towards the edge.

A well evolved, rural neighborhood used to be the result of knowledge accumulated by the community, passed through generations of children and grandchildren. A knowledge bank resulting from evolution cutting through ages resulting from life experiences and awareness of their needs. But with urbanization and glorification of the same, comes a wave of aspiration that the rural population carries- an aspiration for RCC-built homes, excessive steel, ignoring of setbacks to maximize floor area, to name a few. The well-conceived, well-planned rural neighborhood is impossible to happen, for the focus has now shifted from a larger picture to self and just the site boundary. Thanks to urbanization.

However, Urbanization could be seen as an inevitable part of human evolution and cannot at any cost be demonized. Urbanization in conjunction with industrialization has given us a plethora of alternative solutions. The technological advancements have been exponential in the last few decades in the construction industry. However, this growth in India, particularly in the rural housing sector, has been traditionally slow. The acceptance of these technological advancements, which are proven to be scientifically sound, environmentally friendly, and economically viable, by the masses still remains in question.

Any alternative (material, technology, process, or system) for residential buildings is not devoid of issues related to perceptions. The biggest among them is simply societal acceptance. In a situation where real-estate (properties containing land and building(s) is bestowed upon private individuals, the solution space lies in the perceived thought of ‘my-house my choice’ where technological alternatives are not considered in the iterative process of design. As a result, sustainability has never been achieved. Inefficient/under-use of local materials and resources has led to cost escalation in house construction. Considering the total size of the Indian engineering and construction sector, even a tiny improvement in the selection procedure of building technologies and materials would provide substantial benefits for society.

With these issues, there is also an underlying issue of lack of a research database in socio-economic, political, and historic buildings concerning architecture for every village in Karnataka. The entire setup is an endless cycle of not having this same database passed on to generations after generations. Hence, something as feeble as Urbanization can push the generations of knowledge towards extinction.

Project Griha very humbly tries to address these issues.

What is Project Griha?

Project Griha’s research approach analyzes the socio-economic, historical, political, social, climatic, cultural, vernacular, local material availability, current needs, and usage patterns of people in various zones of Karnataka. Project Griha is eventually developing customized design solutions for housing typologies that consider local material, environment, socio-cultural sensitivities & economic activities and disseminating templates to contractors, skilled workers, and the larger community. It is about strengthening the existing local ecosystem for the construction of houses.

A community discussion, of one of the Sub projects under Griha

“Here is to a day of new observations, learnings even after dawn, and very warm hospitality.

Despite arriving at the village (Itteppanahalli, the first village for today) at 10:30 am, discussions began only by 12 pm, waiting to gather the crowd for the Focus Group Discussion. But, I think it turned out good, however. 

I have always had several Whys following each answer people gave. However, I was never in a position to clearly communicate it to them. And, that was possible days. I shall enlighten you with the impact through this report”

-An excerpt from Priyanka’s report from one of the visits to A village for the purpose of documentation for Project Griha

The excerpt above is a sneak peek into the work we do under Project Griha. The project, through its research, is driven to address the lack of systematic and integrated study in the various architecture of villages in districts in Karnataka.

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A few of our community meetings for project Griha

Outcomes of project Griha,

The outcome of this research is to be used to derive design templates for housing to cater to all segments of people. The project is driven to develop a comprehensive ‘local resources’ map of the district chosen for study, which could be used as a database to develop templates for housing typologies for the region.

Udagirinallappanahalli, Chickballapura district, Karnataka

Block making for their own houses, by the local community

House under construction

A house nearing completion, the skills disseminated were rafter and panel construction, and CSEB making to the local communty

Cherkady, Udupi district, Karnataka

House warming of a house prototype in Cherkady, in Udupi

The home owners carrying out pointing in their own homes

A child plays, under a bench post move in

Kottamedu, Kanchipuram, Tamilnadu

The locals excavating foundations for their homes

A house in Kottamedu nearing completion

Community meeting with the locals

Thimmayyanadoddi, Anekal Taluk, Bangalore urban district, Karnataka

Stay tuned into this space, for updates, success stories, learning experiences and more.

The worship to the land before commencing the construction

The community making blocks for their homes

A house nearing completion

Project GRIHA so far has been extremely exciting: it brings us to new villages, and therefore new lessons every time. We are always on the lookout for different villages to explore and experience, new things to learn. Every village we have so far documented under the aegis of Project Griha has been a unique experience and, at the same time, an exhilarating one.

Stay tuned in to this space as we take our readers along, narrating the story of this amazing journey with project GRIHA!