FLOOD RELIEF HOUSING

This project proposal is a design and planned implementation of post-flood reconstruction houses for
flood victims in kerala. It is a sustainable holistic built form which can be built within a specific time
frame on various kinds of soil conditions. Almost all of Kerala’s 16 districts were severely and
catastrophically affected by the floods caused due to extreme Monsoon rains in the month of August 2018
and most of Kerala’s infrastructure and economy suffered irreparable damage. The objective is to design
and build a House form, plan and building technology aims at being Sustainable, adopts Indigenous
Technology (which is time tested), appropriate for the regional climate, Eco friendly and helps to
improve the living conditions of the user group. Above all it is cost effective with regards to its low
construction costs and Time Management (specific time frame).

TKM Trust, in the aftermath of the Monsoon Flood has entrusted a task force based in response to the
letter by the State Government comprising faculties from TKMCE and TKMSOA to study and design a Low
Cost House using appropriate Technology (Low Cost + Earthquake Resistant) with the intention of building
it within a minimum time frame at any proposed site.

The Brief for the Housing Project was as follows

Sustainability + Cost Effectiveness + Indigenous Technology + Time Management + Improvement of

User Lifestyle conditions.

The proposed Design also aims at conforming to the Building Regulations and Mandatory Norms yet
delivers in its promise to improve the living/working conditions of the user group.

The questions arose to the use of appropriate materials and technology to match the thermal comfort
performance of the traditional houses with cost effective, new materials that would meet sustainable
goals. The Moral responsibility lay in finding a solution to mitigate the climatic changes in the state due to
improper planning and implementation of sustainable constructions. Another criteria was to find a
solution to and design a typical Built form which can be built in any given soil conditions.

The preliminary studies highlighted the need to adopt a Passive Solar design form ( It brings 47% of active
energy savings), Interior layout and Design to improve living conditions of the user group, Use of Pre Fab,
Pre Stressed Technology PSPF ( Cost Effective, Time Saving, Time tested, minimum wastage and accurate
estimation) , a unique Foundation suitable for various soil conditions. Various other options were studied
and analysed in terms of literature review and case studies. The important fact at this juncture was to
adopt a time tested technology if at all it had to be implemented. Such Criteria were drawn out and
eventually we finalised a viable option using a time tested technology developed in kerala and designed a
form using a typical foundation detail which can be built in various soil conditions.

Let me sum up the output of all those discussions and the reasons why this was selected above all other
proposals.

1) All the underlying technology utilised in these methods are time-tested ones. The pre-stressed
construction technology is there in the industry for more than 100 years and is common in large span
structures. ( https://www.scribd.com/document/293670901/history-of-prestressed-concrete). So is the
precast technology and raft foundation technology.
The challenge to use these technologies always been the cost and the machine/manpower
required. Engineer Eapen George, over his 20 years of research and refinement came up with the solution
suited for the common people of our society.

2) The foundation - The entire load of the structure is distributed to the entire footprint of the
building thus reducing the impact of load on the soil. This allows construction even in very low bearing
capacity soil condition. The lightness of the superstructure also allows load impact at the base. In fact, if
properly designed the building will be 35 to 45 % lighter than the normal construction
3) The superstructure- The hollow wall panels reduces the thermal massing. The thermal massing behaves
differently across different climatic condition. For example, higher thermal massing would be ideal if
strategically utilised in regions that maintain diurnal temperature variations. However, in our hot humid
tropical region using lower thermal massing would be ideal to maintain comfortable night temperature.

4) Disaster management – The foundation, walls, and roof act as a single unit making it better in
surviving a natural disaster like an earthquake, tsunami and flood to an extent. In fact, this technology is
tested for different seismic lab conditions and outperformed most other earthquake-resistant construction
technology. Of course, it does not mean that the building will not be impacted by any natural disaster.
The severity of the calamity can be reduced.

5) Construction cost – The impact of construction timeline on the cost of construction is always very
high. The prefabricated method reduces the time for structural construction by more than 90%. The
building being lighter means utilising fewer material resources thereby making this a sustainable
technology. The cost impact is also expected the reduction of material wastage (and manpower time
waste). Lower material waste means lower waste management. We can always have a non-ambiguous
estimate for the structural construction.

6) The strength and longevity – the lightness in mass don’t mean that it is impacting the strength and
stability. In fact, the reduction in the horizontal joints in the system makes this construction stronger than
the normal brick masonry construction. The factory made production helps to maintain the quality and
composition of the concrete. The precast construction means the porosity and water penetration problems
will be reduced to a degree. This also reduces the impact of the capillary rise of water which is very
common in Kerala these days (partly because of the construction methods and more due to the poor
quality of the building materials).

The following illustrations is the design of a typical prototype presently being built in Munroe Island and
will be completed by next week.