In 2004, Odisha’s Ashish Panda were given married to his school sweetheart Madhulika whom he met at BITS Pilani, Rajasthan. Like several newly wedded couple, their forage for a candy house began quickly after. On the other hand, they didn’t wish to reside in typical cement brick properties.
Local to Bhubaneswar and Vijayawada, the couple made up our minds to settle hundreds of kilometres away in rural Rajasthan, clear of the hustle of metros. And there, they constructed their area from lime and stones as a substitute of going for a concrete construction.
From the root to the interiors, the couple utilised native fabrics like lime, balwada (slate), and ghughra (phyllite) stones, giving their sustainable area a definite persona.
As a substitute of cement, they used stone slabs for the stairs, roof, and balcony of the home. Stones have been additionally the main construction subject matter for the partitions, whilst lime used to be used for plastering, masonry, and the roof.
Right here’s how their dream house got here to be.
From cosmopolitan towns to rural tranquility
Whilst Madhulika (43) is a pc science graduate, Ashish (42) pursued civil engineering. Over time, they labored with a number of non-profit organisations when their pursuits shifted to rural construction, social, and environmental fields.
Madhulika, who pursued a grasp’s in telecommunications from the USA, tells The Higher India, “After our marriage, we’ve got lived in several towns and nations as neatly. However we had made up our minds to settle in Rajasthan whilst we have been nonetheless in school.”
Sooner than settling within the small the city of Dungarpur in South Rajasthan, they lived in numerous towns like Anantpur, Udaipur, Chittorgarh, Bhilwara, and a couple of villages. “We’ve all the time lived in state capitals, so we would have liked to discover a quiet position with out visitors noise. We came upon this the city to be non violent,” Ashish, who recently works with an NGO Sambhaav Agree with, tells The Higher India.
In 2012, the couple bought the land and started researching techniques to create an environmentally pleasant and sustainable area. They spent 10 months in this analysis, right through which they consulted with a number of architects and studied properties as outdated as 150 years.
“We needed to be told concerning the conventional fabrics utilized by the local community. We came upon that during Rajasthan, outdated properties, palaces, and mansions have been constructed with stone and lime. Those constructions, in spite of now not the usage of cement and metal, have persevered for a very long time and outperformed RCC-built properties, which continuously go to pot in only some years,” he says.
So Ashish and Madhulika hired a conventional roof development manner. They combined lime, jaggery, fenugreek, and ropes for this function. “This makes the roof cool and water-proof,” says Ashish.
Built in a space of three,200 sq. ft, the two-storey area options two coated verandahs, a eating house, an open verandah, 3 bedrooms with two connected washrooms and one commonplace washroom at the floor ground.
At the first ground, there’s a storeroom, a balcony, a coated verandah, an open terrace, and a bed room with an connected pantry and washroom. Moreover, the valuables features a parking house with recharge pits, a black water remedy tank, and a gray water remedy tank.
And after 16 months of development, the couple in any case moved into their house in 2017.
Construction a inexperienced oasis in Rajasthan
Throughout the development, the couple made certain to have just right air flow and lighting fixtures. They put in home windows within the West course to let in plentiful gentle. For the reason that South course will get essentially the most daylight, the couple located their bedrooms within the North-East and South-East instructions.
“Rajasthan stays scorching during the yr aside from December and January. So, keeping off warmth used to be our number one fear. The temperature inside of our room stays 5 to 7 levels cooler than the out of doors. We should not have air conditioners in any respect. In the meantime, in iciness, we bask within the daylight in our South and South-East dealing with balcony and verandah,” provides Ashish.
Moreover, the couple has planted many bushes within the house to control the home’s temperature. In addition they domesticate over 200 types of seasonal greens and culmination — corresponding to bottle gourd, tomatoes, chillies, sour gourd, lemons, grapes, bananas, and pomegranates. Those supply 80 p.c in their vegetable and fruit necessities.
Taking it a step additional, the couple collects all of the rainwater that falls on their area and retail outlets greywater. Ashish informs that they use a non-hydraulic water air purifier to clear out rainwater, which they then use for ingesting and different family functions. Because of this, they arrange to preserve 2.25 lakh litres of water annually.
“Of which, we save 1.35 lakh litres of rainwater and 90,000 litres of greywater. This meets our water wishes for cooking, ingesting, cleansing, and gardening functions during the yr. We save this water for emergency eventualities as neatly. For instance, when our borewell dries up right through warmer months like Might and June,” says Ashish.
They additional percentage that they have got additionally put in sun panels of three KW capability. “We depend on solar power right through the day, the additional gadgets are funnelled into the grid which we utilise right through the evening. Now we have contributed a web of three,068 KWH gadgets to the electrical energy grid, that is after subtracting what we’ve got ate up over the past 25 months,” he provides.
Ashish mentions that their area development and completing works value Rs 1,800 in keeping with sq. foot. Their house has impressed 840 other folks from far and wide the rustic to hunt steering from them.
“Our function used to be to not get any consideration. We simply invested our time and effort to construct the home of our desires. These days, we’ve got helped many households construct sustainable properties as in keeping with the in the neighborhood to be had subject matter and climatic prerequisites. It offers us immense excitement so to lend a hand other folks adapt to an approach to life this is environmentally aware,” he says.
Edited through Pranita Bhat. All footage: Ashish Panda.