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About eco-friendly construction
Even as news of the country’s capital listed as one of the most polluted cities in the world is making the rounds there are some who are working relentlessly in ensuring environmental sustainability
Meet the architect who mastered the use of sustainable and eco-friendly materials in construction
Rajendranagar: Even as news of the country’s capital listed as one of the most polluted cities in the world is making the rounds there are some who are working relentlessly in ensuring environmental sustainability by any means possible. Meet J Rupesh, a young architect whose genius of promoting eco-friendly bricks in construction for the past four years has not only erected stronger buildings, but promoted local labour and created employment among the rural community.
Rupesh has been working with National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD) along with four other people in his team. Recently, he showcased the eco-friendly bricks at the 15th Craft and Technlogy Mela organised by NIRD here. Elaborating on the concept of the bricks, the young architect shares, “Eco-friendly bricks are also called Compressed Established Earth Blocks (CSCB), which comprise of cement, stone dust and earth soil in the ratio of 1:4:8."
“These blocks of bricks are made through Aurampress machine, which costs around Rs 85,000. The major advantages of using these is that we do not burn them, whereas the ones which we get in the city are burnt,” he adds.
The use of environ-friendly materials is beneficial not only to the Earth, but also the people living in it. Affirming the same, Rupesh says, “If we start using these bricks it would create employment in the village. A skilled labour can make up to 1,000 to 1,200 blocks. So, we have been training villagers free of cost so that they can use the machine that makes these bricks.”
"Till now we trained 600 villagers in our campus in the past four years," he adds.
According to Rupesh, the Telangana State Engineering Research tested these blocks and declared that houses built with them are two to three times stronger when compared to the ones built of burnt bricks. It may be noted that the construction sector contributes to about 25 per cent of India’s total annual CO2 emissions.
“As of now we are only training people from rural areas. Later we plan to form a team of labour who can undertake projects of construction both in rural and urban areas," he signs off.
