Humanscapes Terms of Reference (extract)

Humanscapes aspires to:

1. Demonstrate a living and evolving neighbourhood that mainstreams sustainable development and an integral lifestyle.

2. Demonstrate the outputs of integrated planning, be relevant and forward looking for the next 20 years, acting as a bridge to the future.

3. Serve the future citizens of Auroville and meet their needs.

4. Become a prototype showing incremental models of population density with improved sustainability and affordability of public infrastructure in Auroville.

5. Apply local wisdom, culture and traditions while integrating new ideas, developments, and demonstrations, whether in the area of buildings, horticulture, or resource management.

6. Be involved in generating local employment and upgrading of local skills, especially in the building trades used in the project.

7. Transparently document the processes of design and implementation so as to act as a resource for future work.

8. Elegantly integrate closed loop systems for managing resource flows to achieve a small resource footprint, raise the bar for conservation, efficiency and sustainability.

9. Produce positive value (for society, the nation and the world) in its fields of endeavour without externalities, without unfair or unsustainable exploitation, whether of natural resources, other human beings, or of future generations. In keeping with this attitude it shall not only be a place with sustainable hardware but promote sustainable, integral lifestyle choices.

10. Institute systems of evaluation.

11. Be benchmarked to the best worldwide.

General ambient sonic performance

Protection from noise by a combination of social-cultural curfews as well as physical barriers, without losing transparency and openness.

Environmental performance

1.Near-zero net CO2 emissions

2. Significantly lower embodied energy than conventional

3. Highly reduced net water demand (from hypothetical two-way grid)

4. Near-zero runoff and erosion compared to virgin site

Health

1. No materials and systems used will be detrimental to physical health.

2. The buildings shall be fully accessible (for the physically challenged) on ground floors and for all public spaces

Energy

1. 24/7 supply of electricity and water for essential functions.

2. Electrical energy consumption for the operation of the project shall be 0.8 kWh per resident per day (exclusive of electricity used to pump water in the water supply system and energy consumed in cooking, transportation to and from the building)

3. Conservation of electricity by use of super-efficient lights, fans, refrigerators, washing machines and info-edutainment devices shall be demonstrated

4. The project shall be net zero for electricity by use of grid-interactive as well as stand-alone renewable energy systems

5. Solar water heaters and rooftop PV systems will be incorporated into the design.

Thermal Response

1. Walls will have high heat insulation

2. Roof thermal efficiency will be enhanced with roof gardens and shading

3. Building morphology will enable good cross ventilation

4. Mechanically-assisted ventilation will be strategically deployed

5. Planting of trees across the site will enable a thermally-stable environment.

Water and waste

1. The water consumption shall be 45 litres per resident per day without compromising on service quality. This benchmark represents nearly half of the current National Building Code benchmark level of 86 litres per head per day.

2. Conservation of water shall be by extensive use of low flow faucets, hand held spray faucets for ablution and yard washing, spring loaded flush cocks, all with adequate supply pressures.

3. The project will separate grey water (wash), black water (WC), and yellow water (urine and kitchen) streams.

4. All rain water shall be harvested.

5. Other than treated black water disposal, the water cycle shall be such that not a drop of liquid waste goes out of site.

6. All water entering or incident on the site shall be managed, retained or utilized within the site as needed and overflow should be connected to the open water channel system designed for the filling of Matrimandir lake.

Solid wastes

1. Complete at-source segregation of solid wastes into Organic wastes and Inorganic wastes, further segregated as: Saleable (Glass, Metals, Paper, Plastics), and Special Disposal (Toxic, Electronic, Mixed).

2. All compostables shall be composted in a scientific, safe and hygienic way.

3. The project shall be a net exporter of compost especially in the later phases, to be used in local farms.

Materials

1. The project shall not use PVC, CPVC, or UPVC pipes for the potable water distribution. For potable water distribution composite, multilayer (PE-AL-PE) pipes shall be used.

2. Use low energy materials such as rammed earth.

3. Re-use Construction and demolition waste.

Applicability

Though the above list has been developed for the Humanscapes Project Phase 1, the list may further develop into sustainable benchmarks for future low-resource consuming and affordable buildings, both inside and outside Auroville.