Green on the home turf

Green on the home turf

Do you want to live in harmony with Nature? Try Chandrashekar Hariharan's eco-friendly T-Zed homes coming up in Bangalore.

If you've ever used coconut fibre to scrub your dishes or taught your children to use the back of a used paper for their drawings, then you might be at home at Bangalore's T-Zed Homes. By next summer, in all probability, the city will have the country's `first set of 95 homes that will make a difference to the world.'

According to Chandrashekar Hariharan, Director of Biodiversity Conservation India Ltd, "T-Zed is for people who believe in a lifestyle that celebrates life and their role in the larger scheme of things." The company has embarked on the first-of-its-kind `green homes.'

With T-Zed, Hariharan is rewriting the rules of building homes. In his opinion, green homes are affordable and sustainable. T-Zed Homes, BCIL's fifth project, will attempt to prove that engineers can meet people's needs without actually destroying the environment. "It is a socially responsible investment," says Hariharan. He's the only developer with a built-in supply chain of environmentally sensitive products, services and resource people.

Chandrashekar Hariharan, Director, Biodiversity Conservation India Ltd.

A chartered accountant-turned alternate technology expert, Hariharan has spent 20 years working on what he calls the `green' subject. He founded BCIL in 1995, with the ideal of taking a market-led approach to achieve sustainable development and the use of appropriate technology. And this ideal has already given Bangalore and its surrounding areas four projects that are models of sustainable construction.

Trans Indus, BCIL's first project, took about three years to complete and now has 50 families living on 42 acres of lush landscape. Town's End, Wildgrass and Little Acre have all used these first principles of conservation, in some way or the other.

But what is different about T-Zed is that it will integrate and combine all the technologies used in earlier projects. To begin with, a T-Zed home will generate the power needed to meet home and campus needs, recycle the waste it generates and harvest the water on the campus. Another interesting feature is a built-in refrigerator that relies on a centralised refrigeration facility. There is just one compressor and motor and two pumps to cater to the entire campus.

"Besides being CFC-free and therefore eco-friendly, these refrigerators cut down energy costs by more than 40 per cent," says Hariharan.

The homes come with air-conditioners that use water as a refrigerant as well as a medium . The campus will have up to 250 kVA of genset-supported power that is fuelled by bio-diesel or diesel. For a backup, T-Zed will obtain a bulk sanction of 500 kVA, single meter, single-point power supply from BESCOM at domestic tariff.

But what is unprecedented will be its total self-sufficiency for all water needs, thanks to recycling technology. Says Hariharan, "We are not taking municipal water supply. However, we will get the water connection some day in the future if the Zed water plan does not provide adequate water."

There is more to come: solar water heaters with cluster-based servicing and backed up by low wattage heating elements; built-in energy efficient lights; recycled grey water for flushing; intelligent electric switch controls that reduce power bills, fresh organic vegetables grown within the campus and gas banks on each floor to eliminate the presence of gas cylinders inside the homes. And, all the material used is natural, eco-friendly and cost-effective. "But there is no compromise on style or quality," says Hariharan.

Floors are natural Kadapa stone polished to a shine, combinations of blue-grey Kota stone and a mix of burnished sandstones. Wood used would necessarily be of plantation variety such as rubber, casuarinas, pine and eucalyptus.

"We don't use forest timber at all," says Hariharan. The campus will have eco-scaping, which is what the earth needs, and not landscaping, which is what man needs, he explains.

Interestingly, alongside abundant science and technology, the principles of vastu also find a place. "We have followed all the usual guidelines: No home will face the South; all kitchens face Southeast or Northwest and master bedrooms are towards the Southwest," explains Hariharan.

T-Zed will have a built area of 80,000 sq ft on a total expanse of 2.32 lakh sq ft. It offers the safety of living in a gated community with all the modern conveniences such as centralised intelligent security systems, panic buttons in every home and a central laundromat to scale down washing at home. "Another concept we encourage is community living; that's why we've put up facilities such as a conference room, a club house, a gymnasium, a theme restaurant, an ozonised pool and a convenience store."

Taking his `green' ideal further, Hariharan also plans to equip the campus with bicycles and electric cars that can be hired by residents for their use. "Why would families have two cars when there are some available on a pay-for-use basis?"

Hariharan has rounded up the best talent in the industry for his dream project. Among them is Sanjay Prakash, heading the team of architects.

For 25 years, Prakash has worked on architecture that employs energy-efficient systems. His projects include the Mirambika Free Progress School and the TERI Retreat Building, both in New Delhi.

The sewage and waste disposal system will be put in place by a team headed by Tency Baetens, an Aurovillean. The Auroville Building Centre is a HUDCO-recognised centre for excellence and has developed and perfected the system. Lyle Lopez, who will offer advice on electrical energy and intelligent lighting systems, is an energy and safety audit expert.

BCIL's innovative approach has not gone unrecognised. TERI chose Trans Indus as an example of sustainable development for its Best Corporate Environment Initiatives Award 2001.

The company has also won the Spectrum Foundation Award for Sustainable Architecture.

But for all the Doubting Thomases, Hariharan has this assurance: "All the technologies incorporated have been successfully used in previous projects; the innovation lies in combining all of them at T-Zed."