Established in 1987 in Kerala, Habitat Technology Group is one of the largest NGOs working in the building sector promoting appropriate technologies and Green Architecture in India today. The group has taken up the work of thousands of residences all over India during the past thirteen years. In addition to this it has also built about thousands of buildings all over the country including commercial complexes, tourist resorts, public offices, schools hospitals etc. Habitat has also been involved in designing and undertaking several development projects and has played a key role in the decentralization process in the state.
It has a core group of 200 architects, engineers and social workers with a support base of 6000 trained workers. At the Head office at Trivandrum, Mr. Shankar is the chief architect, who is assisted by a group of young, similar-minded architects. These architects are in charge of carrying out the design process and client management. They work on the design based on the client's budget and his expressed needs, by calculating the amount of built-up area from the money available, based on the thumb-rule rates that HTG has been able to establish through experience. They are given freedom to design, under Mr. Shankar's supervision. However, they have to strictly limit themselves to the use of the appropriate technologies. Habitat as a mandate wants people to work in their offices and then move on to spread their experiences all around. Mr. Shankar fears making HTG a one man focus organisation and hence tries as much as possible to build in a team spirit in the organisation.
HTG is a socially oriented organisation and hence works on very low profit margins. It has hundreds of employees on its pay role. Moreover, it does not depend on any external source of funding. Hence, due to the non-competitive pay structure it finds more women architects and engineers working on its team than men, as Indian men are generally the breadwinners for their families and are forced to follow more lucrative pursuits.
Habitat Technology Group is not only confined to Kerala but also to several states in India with 26 regional offices and responding centres functioning in nine states. Through the years they have been able to build a network for consulting and building enterprises.
They have recently shifted into their new head office, made as a multi-storey structure entirely in mud blocks, in Trivandrum.
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