Providing Low Cost Eco Sensitive Housing

Trivandrum!! I have only been in the coastal city of Trivandrum for a week now, but because of the intensive course, Eco-sensitive Low-cost Housing, I feel like I have been here for a month. The class takes place in the southwest state of Kerala.
View Larger Map When I first came here I thought India had one common language, but the country is actually broken into 28 different states and most of them speak completely separate languages. Trivandrum is unique for many reasons. Most of its residents attend school, there is a 100 percent literacy rate, and most people are employed. However, everyone is still relatively poor, a situation one of my classmates calls an economic phenomenon. The class, Eco-sensitive Low-cost Housing, concentrates greatly on the efforts to provide affordable and eco-friendly housing by a non-profit organization, COSTFORD, founded by Laurie Baker. Baker was an English architect who recognized the importance of affordable housing and was personally asked by Gandhi to come to India to help provide homes. The homes include a number of environmentally friendly features. Gandhi believed that building materials should come from within 5 miles of the home, thus COSTFORD uses only local materials and local labor, which reduces the need for transportation. Bamboo is used for the housing foundation because it is local and renewable because of its ability to grow quickly. Many homes have indoor courtyards, a technique used by ancient palaces in Kerala, to capture natural lighting and cool temperatures by allowing any warm air in the house to rise and flow out. Other features include, rainwater storage tanks, biodigesters and low flow toilets. The first part of the course is called Low Cost. Good quality housing is a basic need for humans and COSTFORD takes this into consideration by adopting low-cost-construction practices. Brick walls have jali patterns, designs created by leaving open spaces between bricks. This is pleasing aesthetically and reduces the amount of bricks needed for construction. A similar approach is taken with roofing. Manganor roofing patterns leave part of the underlying brick exposed, which reduces the need for cement. COSTFORD homes also make great use of passive solar lighting with jali bricks and indoor courtyards. By reusing and collecting rainwater allow homes to save money as well. The biggest social problem that COSTFORD aims to improve is the uplift of women in society and in the workforce. Women in India have traditionally been sheltered from society and forbidden from work. In the historical visits we have taken, we learned that women used to not even be allowed in public. Thus COSTFORD is trying to make a difference by hiring women and providing work for women. Women work as on site engineers in many construction projects, do computer work in the COSTFORD office, and help draw out blueprints for homes. We have visited two local businesses that are currently being run by women. SEWA, Self Empowered Women’s Association, owns a small shop where they sell a variety of cards, notebooks and paper that they personally make from trash. We also visited a group of five women who purchased an acre of land to grow rice and bananas that help their families by providing additional cash and food. COSTFORD has also played a big role in the improvement of education by creating eco sensitive campuses and allowing women to run the schools. Asa is also blogging for the UI Winterim program: http://asaindia19.wordpress.com/