Appropriate Technology for Up-Market Buildings
Anil 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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