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            Appropriate Technology for Up-Market BuildingsAnil Laul
 
            
            Introduction  
            Medical 
            facilities in the urban areas are becoming prohibitively expensive.  
            Though this phenomenal cost is incorrectly attributed to the 
            promoters’ unending profit motive, one of the main contributors to 
            the high cost of medical attention is the cost of the building and 
            its maintenance.  These high cost buildings have high-cost finishes 
            in order to achieve low maintenance costs but unfortunately end up 
            being hostile to the patient instead of being a user-friendly 
            refuge.  Long passages with room after room, cold and awesome 
            spaces, devoid of personality – these buildings often end up making 
            the patient more depressed than when he first came in. The few days 
            stay makes one “mentally sterile”.  On leaving, the size of the bill 
            causes the patient to skip a few heartbeats.
 
            
            
            Kota General Hospital:  Design Objectives 
            
            The objectives of the design behind the hundred-bed Kota General 
            Hospital was therefore to create a building that its user-friendly 
            and to employ appropriate building methodologies in keeping with the 
            locally available materials.  All this to be at a low cost, without 
            any compromise on the life of the structure.  As far as possible, 
            there was to be an additional bonus of permanent finishes in order 
            to reduce recurring maintenance costs.  
            
            
            Plan Resolution
 
            
            Located in the hot and arid area of Rajasthan, the first priority 
            was the design aspect in plan resolution.  The plan adopted is, 
            therefore, a combination of four circles with their centres located 
            at the four corners of a square.  Each circle is encompassed with a 
            passage on the other side of which are wards and rooms – all 
            radiating from their respective circles.  The exterior surfaces of 
            the circles therefore act as funnels for venturi action so that 
            there is a continuous draft of air throughout the building.  The 
            circular form leads to yet another advantage of having the least 
            surface area for the same covered area, thus providing the minimal 
            surface area for heat intake.  This form also reduces the passage 
            area to a minimum, resulting in more usable area for the activities 
            of the hospital.
 
            
            
            Rich Local Material 
            
            Kota is an area abundantly endowed with sedimentary stones of 
            various colours and hues.  The objective therefore was 
            to utilize the waste from the stone processing units in this 
            region.  The stone here has excellent weathering resistance and by 
            using waste flake facing with Phospho Gypsum and Lime (also 
            abundantly available in this region), nearly three lakh 
            hollow-core, pre-finished blocks were made on site which proved 
            extremely cost-effective.  Local waste flakes were available free of 
            cost; only transportation to site was required.  This form of making 
            blocks resulted in a walling material that exploited the colour and 
            texture of the locally available stones to the hilt.  The local 
            masons who have a rich tradition of colour and texture in their 
            daily lives further gave vent to their inherent talent and built 
            walls that are alive and reflect the vibrancy of Rajasthan.  With a 
            few days of training, the masons created blocks of various colours 
            and textures using their own ingenuity. 
 
            
            
            Roof: Where the Crunch Is? 
            
            Roofing a structure continues to be the main money guzzler in a 
            building.  Here again, the objective was to utilize the locally 
            available stone for its inherent qualities of being an excellent 
            building material when used in compression.  Traditionally, we see 
            the use of doubly curved shells, now known as Funicular Shells, in 
            Rajasthan.  Their use was abandoned owing to the misplaced faith in 
            Reinforced Cement Concrete, which is cast over straight timber 
            shuttering.  This results in flat roofs which are then plastered and 
            painted resulting in vast flat, mundane and sterile ceilings.  
            Imagine a patient in a Hospital looking up at a flat white ceiling 
            during the entire stay at the Hospital.  This is probably the reason 
            for traditional ceilings being ornate or having some colour and 
            textural treatment.  It is not that all developments of the 
            industrial revolution are to be rejected but re-evaluation must be 
            done and each material and process should be used for its 
            appropriateness, instead of the blind application being done today.  
            The intergrid of R.C.C. beams is therefore used in a sparing manner 
            resulting in a mixed technology.  The auditorium has a clear span of 
            16 metres made possible by the use of an intergrid of R.C.C. beams 
            and funicular shell infill. 
            
            The roofs of cast in-situ funicular shells required a couple 
            of weeks of training only and from thereon the imagination of the 
            masons took over.  The result - each panel of the ceiling has 
            different motifs and designs and some of them are so exquisite that 
            they look like carpets woven into the ceilings.  The main reception 
            area is a light-weight space frame, normally considered as a 
            high-tech space age structure, which provides for a user-friendly 
            entrance without overawing the patient.  The combination of a 
            variety of structural systems with varied finishes, colours and 
            textures weave comfortably into one other. 
 
            
            
            Waste Utilisation, Horticulture, and Water Recharging 
            
            Where local waste utilisation is the focus in walling material, 
            ground water recharge is the cornerstone of the waste management 
            system.  Kitchen and bath water is separated from other wastes and 
            on-line absorption allowed for feeding horticulture.  In addition, 
            this separation decreases the amount of sewage to be disposed. 
             Minimal sewage disposal is effectively done using a septic tank.  
            Ferrocement jaalis, normally used as ventilators in toilets, 
            are used for paving slabs in roads and paving.  This allows for 
            ground water recharge contrary to the large concreted areas commonly 
            used.  Besides, the grass growing in between the voids provides for 
            a de-dusting area before entry into the main reception.
 
            
            
            Economies  
            
            The hospital encompassing 45,000 sq.ft. has been built at a cost of 
            1.07 crore amounting to a conservative construction cost of under 
            Rs. 220.00 per sq.ft. (year of construction 1994-95, cement 
            ex-factory).  This establishes the point that low-cost housing 
            or technologies, now rechristened Appropriate Technologies, may 
            indeed play a crucial role in providing houses that could indeed be 
            called homes.  Liberty in design, dovetailed with use of locally 
            available materials which utilise labour-intensive methodologies, 
            result in these very conservative costs.  While it cannot be assumed 
            that other buildings will cost the same per sq.ft., it would be safe 
            to expect a cost saving of about 25-30% as opposed to the commonly 
            adopted construction systems.
 
            
            
            The Players and the Team 
            The 
            Anangpur Building Centre is an entrepreneurial Building Centre 
            located a short distance from Surajkund on the outskirts of Delhi.  
            Having designed and built several demonstration projects in the slum 
            areas of Delhi under the Nizamuddin Building Centre, the Anangpur 
            Building Centre, is all set to take Appropriate and cost-effective 
            Technologies into the high profile and high income sector, because 
            this is where the acid test will lie.  With several projects nearing 
            completion and quite a few more in the pipeline there is optimism 
            that these technologies will find increasing application which will 
            help deliver humane architecture at an affordable price.  
            Application of these technologies in the High Income Group will help 
            classify these in the designer category of homes and set new 
            standards for aspirations.  Hopefully, with time a re-rationalisation 
            of building practices will take place.  The motto of this centre is 
            the integration of the Architect, the Engineer, the Artist and the 
            Artisan to create cost-effective, environment-sensitive 
            architecture.  
            q 
            
            
            
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