contacts

reason of selection

the role of Habitat in the Total Housing Scheme

Design, technologies and construction process

The evolution of plans itself took 6 to 7 months, with the analysis of needs and discussion on the arrangement of the houses. 3-D models were prepared for explaining the design. The layout was organized as two rows of twin houses parallel to the shore, with a common passage and community space in between. The plots were not separated by boundary walls to keep passageways for circulation between the twin house units.

Each twin house was of 630 square feet, making a single house to be of 315 square feet. The cost of one twin unit was 90,000 rupees and that of a single house, thus being 45,000 rupees, giving a rate of 115 rupees for one square foot of construction.

The actual construction took another 6 to 7 months. The structures were constructed as load bearing single storied buildings made in burnt bricks and covered with a Mangalore tile filler slab. The roof was kept flat to allow for a future vertical expansion. The foundation was laid in dry random rubble masonry. The external walls are 9” thick, laid in a rat-trap bond, with mud mortar and cement pointing. The internal walls were half brick thick i.e. 4.5” laid in a simple stretcher bond. The flooring was made by casting a layer of lime and cement slurry over brickbats. The internal wall surfaces were lime washed. The common wall between the twin houses helped save space and reduce costs. The plan consists of a main hall with a small, attached kitchenette which leads into a bedroom. There was earlier a provision for erecting a brick jail in between the living and kitchen space, which was later avoided to make the space look big. A common toilet and bath are placed outside the house. The doors and windows are constructed with concrete frames and wooden shutters, with an RCC weather shade over them.

The government formed a monitoring committee with the coordinator of poverty alleviation as the nodal officer and with representatives of the community, religious groups, political parties and NGOs. This committee undertook the responsibility of purchasing building materials at a very comparative rate and supplying it to the site. A big black board was erected on site showing each days progress and daily consumption of building materials, thus ensuring transparency. 25 women were trained to make concrete door and window frames, which could later pursue as a livelihood option. The beneficiaries were paid for the labour they contributed for their own houses. The people were involved in the construction process as much as possible. However, Nandan, an engineer who supervised the project points out that it is not possible for absolutely unskilled people to build good quality masonry work and hence, there are limitations to how much the house owners can actually participate.

The entire project cost was estimated to be 61 lakh rupees, of which half was to be contributed by the Tourism department and the other half by the corporation of Trivandrum, under the people's planning campaign. The money sanctioned for the houses was released in 5 stages, namely, after the submission to the panchayat, at the start of the work, after completion of the plinth work, after completion of the roof slab and finally at the start of finishing of work. From the grant given to the people, Rs. 175 was deducted and invested in an insurance policy and an additional 0.5% was deducted as tax.

As Habitat is a charitable trust, though its role was to design and construct, while tendering it did not include a contractors profit. It only charged for the stipulated architectural fees i.e. 10% and took a labour rate contract for paying the labour charges.

The construction of the houses is now complete. So are the construction of infrastructure such as the approach road and pedestrian pathways, protecting boundary walls, storm water drains and local plantation. The future plan is to build a community hall, a community vocation center, a children's nursery and a traditional restaurant for tourists coming to the Veli beach. However, there is yet no piped water and hence the toilets are unused. Even the electrification for the houses and the streets is yet to begin, the process of approval being pending in the Kerala State Electricity Board.