Two months ago architect Neelam Manjunath took up the construction of a 1,940 sq. ft bamboo guest house in Amritsar as part of a community workshop and completed it in 18 days’ time! After the devastating Nepal earthquake and Prime Minister Modi’s ‘Swach Bharat Abhiyan,’ Neelam took upon herself a social responsibility through designing and building prototypes of pre-fabricated toilets using bamboo that can be replicated in large numbers for easy portability in earthquake-hit areas.
Her project, ‘Farmer’s Centre’, a design-build workshop in Tiruchi, has been nominated for the President’s medal instituted by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), U.K.
Neelam Manjunath of Manasaram Architects & Managing Trustee of the Centre for Green Building Materials & Technology (CGBMT) in Bangalore, is perhaps the only designer in the construction world to be spearheading the cause of bamboo, especially in structural applications. She says, “Don’t suspect this modest material’s steely strength. In Assam, the century-old houses built with bamboo stand safe.”
Neelam uses bamboo in walls, beams, columns, doors, windows, thatched roof, railings, grills, pergolas, fencing, bridging, staircase, boundary wall and furniture. “It can be used as composites in various industries, apart from bamboo lumber being useful in corrugated roofings, partitions, veneers, ply, and block floorings,” she says.
Neelam Manjunath spoke to The Hindu-Property Plus.
Excerpts….
How did you get the order for building a bamboo guest house that was completed in 18 days flat?
CGBMT has been working with Dayalbagh University, Agra, for more than 10 years to start a nationwide skill development programme for the bamboo sector through their 90 plus distance education centres in India and abroad. In 2005 CGBMT had constructed a bamboo structure in Dayalbagh University campus as a proof of concept for starting structured courses for the bamboo sector. Last year CGBMT and Dayalbagh University signed the first tripartite agreement with Madhya Pradesh Bamboo Mission for running various courses for the bamboo sector; and modular courses were started from six centres by the university.
The Amritsar campus of Dayalbagh Educational Institute (DEI), Agra, is a 13-acre site of a 100-yr-old textile mill where a guesthouse had to be constructed. On April 18, 2015 it was decided to construct the guest house for a dignitary visiting the campus and staying there on May 9. It was decided by the university to do it in bamboo as that was the only material with which work could be completed in time including designing, material sourcing, human resource sourcing, site management, interiors, furnishing and landscaping! We completed it on the morning of May 9!
The guest house has an area of 1,940 sq. ft. with two rooms with attached toilets, kitchen, multipurpose dining hall and a common toilet.
The specialty of this structure, using 500 bamboo pieces sourced from the local market in Amritsar used in roof, walls, columns, beams, railings and furniture, is its construction process that was a fully controlled one. It had bamboo for walls, in combination with traditional mud-track construction methodology.
The workshop had me leading the team from CGBMT apart from spearheading an approximate 100-member team of the university staff (Dean, professors of engineering college also!), students of Electrical Engineering of the campus, and bamboo modular course students from Rajaborari, Madhya Pradesh.
We used unskilled labour to do skilled works. Even the local community of doctors, engineers, farmers, and women pitched in. The techniques of the region for plastering, flooring and tile cover were done by local women. Bamboo was used for the roof structure with eco board and terracotta, furniture and fittings; its lightness helped us use the material in plumbing, electrical fittings etc. The building foundation has been built from bricks sourced from old demolished mill buildings on the campus itself.
The entire building runs on renewable energy. It can be a successful model that can be implemented where conventional construction fails. The whole cost of construction including furnishing, landscape etc., was about Rs. 18-19 lakh.
In India what is the statistics available for the use of bamboo in buildings? Why did we stop using it if there was a lot of bamboo used in olden days?
The potential of bamboo has increased several fold due to its increasing application in various fields today, to the tune of Rs. 15,000 crore.
Colonisation and use of industrially produced materials were the major factors responsible for the decline in use of bamboo for buildings and other uses.
Building standards are not elaborate and convincing enough now for architects and designers to use the material conveniently. Lot more R & D needs to be done on bamboo structures to build confidence of the public in the material. At the moment it is labour-intensive and graded bamboo for construction is still not available easily.
What are the maintenance factors involved? Doesn't it attract fungi in rains?
The first rule of using bamboo in a structure is that it has to be treated. There are various methods of treatment. Exposed bamboo requires sanding and painting/PU coat once in 3-4 years depending on several factors. Apart from this a good detailing of the bamboo structure will assure longevity.
Give us details on your collapsible toilet done in Bangalore. Can this be used in public toilets?
CGBMT has come up with FlexiSanShell collapsible toilet, made of bamboo. It is light-weight and a collapsible module for easy portability.
Assembly on site is quick and easy and up to 50 toilets can be set up by unskilled labour in one day! In view of the devastating Nepal earthquake and PM Modi’s Swach Bharat Abhiyan, CGBMT has tried to fulfil its social responsibility through designing and building pre-fabricated toilets. This prototype structure (costing Rs.16,000 and measuring 3'x4'x8') would be on display during the ongoing three-day Bamboo Building Workshop.
This sturdy structure is collapsible and has an advantage of being converted into a permanent shelter when required. The interim shelter proposed is of tarpaulin which can be replaced by appropriate panelling for a permanent structure.
These units can be manufactured and stored with authorities, ready for emergency use during disasters.
