BCIL Homes That Offer You Coolth and Warmth

BCIL – Homes that offer you coolth and warmth...

They dug over 12 ft. deep and 5 ft wide to excavate nearly 200 truck loads of earth and buried a network of five kilometers of pipes inside the earth! That was before they started construction on a cluster of 110-plus homes that are distinctly defined to be sustainable and green.

Biodiversity Conservation [India] Limited (BCIL)'s unique low-cost, low-maintenance, low-energy-use air-conditioning system is quietly making history in the picturesque setting of a low-rise apartment block that is coming up in Yelahanka, to the north of Bangalore. The engineers on the project have set out to create the world’s largest natural air-conditioning system in a unique property called BCIL Collective -- no 'sick building syndrome' that comes from regular AC's that circulate stale air through the day with only 8% fresh air intake. Here is a system that works on 100% fresh air 24x7.

With work rapidly under way, the 3-floor apartment looks like any other, but the rooms will be warm in winter, and cool in summer; the system uses night air to cool your rooms, and hot afternoon air for active ventilation. “This blend of 3 natural low-energy systems is the very first of its kind in the world,” says Mr. Anup Naik, a Senior Architect at BCIL. “Besides, this is the largest earth tunnel ventilation system reported in India so far." This saves energy and offers ‘coolth’ [as against warmth] to a house. "Do you recall, every summer, you find it hotter inside your home than it is outside? That’s because of the heat that conventional concrete blocks trap in your rooms,” he says.

The benefit for the resident families is obvious: at a fraction of the cost of regular air-conditioning, you get the comfort of cooled and warmed rooms, depending on the time and season of year. This natural AC system is ozone-friendly and 100% CFC and HCFC-free. Implementing this rare technology costs about Rs.200 per sft. for a property of the size of BCIL Collective, but offers comfort in homes that is unparalleled.

BCIL has been known for many such innovations in green building technologies in the past. BCIL T-Zed Homes in the Whitefield area has won discerning acclaim for being the largest such green residential building in India at nearly 300,000 sq feet of homes that offer sharp reduction in cost of power and water; in 100% use of all kitchen waste to generate energy for the common kitchen at the community centre, apart from many other features.

At BCIL Collective, the professionals working on the project chose not to use a single brick, clay tile or block. The reason: such blocks use precious food-giving topsoil, and consumes high energy in manufacture. While BCIL Collective has used an energy-efficient variant of concrete blocks, BCIL is one of the largest on-site makers of compressed stabilized earth blocks in the country today.

Biodiversity Conservation [India] Limited is an alternate technology enterprise dedicated to creative ‘green’ solutions for urban living. BCIL has grown from Rs. 20 million in 1995 to Rs. 800 million in 2008, offering housing solutions that are pioneering, and demonstrable models for the future.

BCIL is more a prototype company, with building innovations that raise environment thresholds with every new project it creates. From 20 homes in a year, BCIL has grown to 150 houses a year in 2007, all of them with no compromise on the green values.

“Mainstreaming sustainability is the challenge before all of us into the future,” says Mr. Chandrashekar Hariharan, CEO of BCIL. “We believe, BCIL will be an example for the industry to emulate, in creating sustainable urban settlements”.

BCIL mainstreams ecologically sustainable real estate options for urban home-buyers — with focus on localized energy generation; water solutions that reduce/eliminate dependence on State infrastructure; waste management systems that ensure residential communities take responsibility for responsible disposal or reuse. BCIL is also into creation of green tourism destinations that are grid-free on energy, water-positive in the long term, and built with building methods and values that are energy-efficient and offering the best in urban convenience.

A for-profit company, BCIL is managed by professionals with all earnings going entirely towards sustainable projects that drive solutions for urban living, with affordable homes offered to the public.