Owner-driven social housing in Gujarat and Auroville

On August 15, the new architecture office of BuildAur / Dustudio was inaugurated in Swayam community. It’s an attractive building. A part of its rammed-earth façade is decorated with large calligraphic signs. In front is a small Japanese-style stone garden, designed in collaboration with Jyoti and Isha. “Jyoti got most of the boulders from the Kangra valley in the foothills of the Himalayas,” says Dharmesh. “The white pebbles are from Gujarat and the other stones from Tamil Nadu.” He smiles. “It’s kind of a symbol of unity in diversity.”

Dharmesh has been working as calligrapher, engineer and architect ever since he joined Auroville in 1992. “I first initiated the architecture studio Kolam, together with Raman and Anupama. In 2000, I moved on and started the unit BuildAur, an abbreviation of Build Auroville. I worked from a temporary office in Kala Kendra, the circular building of the Pavilion of India, which I administered and managed. But the name is Auroville-centric and we are increasingly working elsewhere in India. We decided to keep BuildAur for Auroville and create a new unit, Dustudio, for outside work.”

With Dharmesh and Dhruv, who joined Auroville in 2002, as the two Aurovilian architect executives, Dustudio is now the largest architects office in Auroville. “We employ 10 architects and, on average, 10 interns for 6-12 month periods. We try to provide them with an interactive, academic and learning based set-up. Some may eventually join Auroville, but most will work here for a few years before they start for themselves,” says Dharmesh. “In fact, we don’t encourage anyone to join Auroville – if it happens, fine, but if they prefer starting their own company, we’ll help them by passing on an outside project. We have just started a kind of an incubation centre which will help them set up and continue working with our design principles in their own cities.”

Those design principles, says Dustudio’s website, ‘take their inspiration from the ancient Indian wisdom and art of building, where form is the creation of the spirit and draws all its meaning and value from the infinite spirit. Our attempt is to achieve a synthesis between traditional ways of designing and building, while responding to the contemporary context that is climatically appropriate, energy efficient and creates a conscious space for artisans to participate in this process of creation.’ Accordingly, BuildAur’s specialty is ‘building with earth’, particularly rammed-earth, and the use of local materials. “It’s a niche market,” says Dharmesh. “We are conceptually very Indian in design; we try to take into account the local ambience of the area where we are building, and employ and build the capacities of local artisans as much as possible.”

Owner-driven social housing

For more than a decade, BuildAur / Dustudio has been actively participating, as part of a network, in post-disaster rehabilitation programmes with government and non-government agencies. Presently, it is particularly active in Gujarat, Dharmesh’s home state. The main project is for social housing, which Dustudio does in collaboration with three other organizations: the Bhuj based Hunnarshala Foundation for Building Technology and Innovations, the People in Centre in Ahmadabad and the Thumbimpressions Collaborative. Each contributes its specific capacities.

Dharmesh explains. “As per its Indira Awas Yojana programme, the Gujarat Government wants to build 250,000 ‘social houses’ in the next two years in the 33 districts of Gujarat. The term ‘social housing’ is used to indicate housing paid for by the government and allocated to people who live below the poverty line. The houses are no bigger than 250 square feet (25 square meters).

“The Government initially proposed to build a single type of house, even though there are large differences between these 33 districts in socio-economic structures, climate, environment and even culture. But such social housing projects, where the government builds a brick or concrete house for the poor, have proven to fail all over the country. Over the last three decades the Central Government has spent over 70,000 crores (US $ 1200 million) on social housing, but you’ll hardly find any housing which qualifies as ‘best practice’.

“We felt that this narrow interpretation of the original scheme needed to be expanded to be more people-inclusive, diverse and culturally appropriate and take into account the changing realities of India. If you give appropriate financial assistance to the people and build their capacities, instead of providing them with a ready-made house, they build in a very different way from the government schemes, in a way that is often culturally-appropriate and which offers them very high levels of satisfaction. That formed the basis for our approach.

“The Gujarat Government had asked for open bidding through the internet, which is now the norm in all government contracts. Our consortium submitted a very elaborate tender and we won the bid. We were elated: our owner-driven social housing proposal, where the owner of the house decides what he wants, was accepted. In future, money will be given to the owner directly, which will allow him or her to build a basic house according to the core design. They can later expand that design according to their own ideas and needs.

“After we had won the bid, we studied hundreds of villages in all the 33 districts: how people build in each district, the traditional technologies they use, their socio-cultural realities, their needs and aspirations and their local techniques and skills. We then determined each partner’s responsibility. Gujarat has been catagorised into five zones, each with different geographical, social and climatic conditions. Dustudio received charge of coastal and in-land Saurashtra, a very challenging and interesting area with a huge social, cultural and economic diversity. Our studies resulted in three huge reports and a basic design of a core house that people could build themselves.

“All these designs and the technical specifications have meanwhile been vetted by a national technical committee appointed by the government, headed by renowned experts. We now have to build a prototype core house, prepare the entire technical training manual and train the government officers in how to facilitate this process, help people build, how to supervise the construction, etc.”

An unexpected new development is the interest the Central Government has shown in owner-driven social housing. “In May this year India got a new government at the Centre,” says Dharmesh. “They mean business. Within 15 days after his appointment, the new Secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development visited Gujarat. Our collaborative consortium was asked to come for a 40-minutes meeting to explain our project. Instead of 40 minutes, the meeting lasted 4 hours. The Secretary was very interested to see if the Central Government could promote such a scheme all over the country. The new government has promised a house for every family by 2020, with water and electricity. They say that is the minimum a developing country can do. This means that they want to build 45 million houses for the poor within the next 15 years.

“As a welcome move, plans are now being developed to merge a number of government schemes for the poor. One is to make it possible that building one’s own house is considered ‘employment’ under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. This Act guarantees 100 days of employment in a financial year to any rural household. Effectively, this means that the house owner could earn Rs 15,000 constructing his own house. The Gujarat Government is also merging other existing schemes at state level and some water and sanitation programmes, thereby increasing the assistance given to below poverty lines families from Rs. 70,000 to Rs. 95,000.”

However, social housing, in India, is the State’s responsibility. The Central Government can propose, but the final decision will be made by each State. Some state governments have already shown interest, but others, including Tamil Nadu, have their own schemes for social housing funded by state and central resources.

Housing in Auroville

The commitment to the owner-driven approach is echoed in BuildAur’s work for the now almost completed Swayam community in Auroville. “We made a basic house plan, a core house, which is similar for all houses. But within similar plinth plans, there is a large variety. The residents have taken a lot of time interacting with our teams, in the process discovering what they want and communicating that to us. For us it meant a lot of extra work as well as getting to know what Aurovilians of diverse backgrounds need, while detailing the particulars of each house. But the results are very satisfactory, both for the residents and for us. When Dustudio was officially opened in August, the residents too opened their houses for public viewing. Visitors were amazed at the variety of the finishing and the individuality of the spaces, and the harmony of Swayam’s overall planning”

For Dharmesh this is the way for Auroville to proceed. “We shouldn’t give people identical houses which they cannot adapt. Residents should as much as possible be involved in the planning of their communities. People come from different nations and cultural backgrounds, they have different needs and making uniform structures doesn’t make sense. They are already giving up everything by donating the major part of their financial resources and not owning anything; not even allowing them to be involved in the design is asking too much. We should build core houses, and let people develop them as and when they need, by adding a first floor or balcony or whatever. Of course the design capacities of our residents need to be developed, as most Aurovilians have not built prior to their Auroville adventure. But that will make people happier than having to fit within an organized structure.”

Swayam community is now finished, with 18 houses or apartments designed for approximately 52 people, and the office of BuildAur / Dustudio. It is a mixed-use design for a living and working community, not a place where you only find workers in daytime. Most residents use the ground floor as working space and the first floor for living.

“The Swayam project has been well received,” says Dharmesh. “We have had many enquiries, so we have already met with L’Avenir d’Auroville, Auroville’s town planning department, to discuss our next housing project – and we have asked them not to waste time this time.” He would also like to create a common office or studio space to attract young innovators and entrepreneurs and a public square somewhere in Auroville, for example near the Solar Kitchen.

His reference to wasting time is based on his battle convincing the Auroville authorities to accept Swayam. “When we first submitted this project, we were told it didn’t fit within the Galaxy. We proposed low-rise high density which fits today’s Auroville needs, they wanted high rise. But in the subsequent years we saw all kinds of developments coming up which also did not fit within the Galaxy concept. Still, we were kept on hold. It took us eight years before Roger Anger and the planning group allowed us to build.”

But mistrust was slow to die down. In spite of all difficulties, BuildAur has managed to complete Swayam within budget. “We went through quite a fuss last year, when malicious rumours were spread that we were having cost overruns. Unprecedentedly, the Funds and Assets Management Committee (FAMC) demanded a statement that the project would not exceed our estimates. We gave it. But then our commitment to Auroville was once again questioned when an enquiry was instituted about how we had managed to build our new office, which we had paid for from our savings.” He sighs. “The FAMC was discriminatory. It had not taken such an attitude when Maitreye II, which has been built by an Auroville service with a grant from the Central Government, was running into cost overruns; in fact, it requested the Governing Board to allocate Rs 55 lakhs to finish the building of Maitreye II [The Governing Board approved the request, eds.] But those responsible for the cost overruns were never questioned as we were. Our decision makers need to be more responsible, fair and transparent.”

This brings us to a discussion of the usage of government grants in Auroville. The recent apartments built with government grants are all but cheap. “Frankly, I consider it unacceptable that Indian tax payers’ money is used for building what I consider to be luxurious apartments in Auroville,” says Dharmesh. “Government grants should only be used to create affordable community housing which include the costs of infrastructure, such as connection to the water supply, the electricity grid and the waste water treatment.

“Auroville is attempting to raise large donations for housing. If these attempts are successful and 10-15 crores could be fundraised, we should build 100-150 core houses and Auroville should ask a number of architects for their proposals, to be evaluated by an independent and competent group. Afterwards, there should be competitive bidding for the construction of the selected proposal. The construction should not be done by an Auroville service and clear policies for allotment have to be developed.”

He expresses his concerns about Auroville’s development. “I was touched reading your interview with the parting Secretary of the Auroville Foundation, Mr. Bala Baskar. When I joined, in 1992, Auroville was extremely progressive in its products, design, concepts, people – everything. Auroville, at the time, was a step ahead. But I do not feel the same now. Are we missing the train? Are Aurovilians indeed becoming self-centered, with only 33% of them being fully dedicated to Auroville, as Mr. Bala Baskar surmised? In Dustudio we are working with organisations all over the country, and we notice that that cutting edge Auroville used to have seems no longer to be there. India is changing very fast, and Auroville should keep up.”