The Kalpana housing project

“Satyakam and I both worked many years for the Housing Service and we have first-hand experience of the difficulties of people needing housing,” says Devasmita. “It convinced us that we needed to help, that we had to start a housing project with beautiful apartments where people are happy to live.” Kalpana was conceived and the first shovel broke the ground in March 2016. “Actually, the project had started as early as 2012, but that didn’t work out due to various reasons,” says Satyakam. “In 2013, we requested Neel and Supriti from Ovoid Atelier to become the architects of Kalpana. Neel and Supriti have strong links with both the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville. They run an architecture studio in Pondicherry.”

A second delay happened when L’Avenir d’Auroville, (the Auroville Town Development Council) decided to change the allocated site. “The initial location was next to Arati, opposite Sanjana,” says Neel. “It was a large plot, the size of two football fields, and we had planned the apartments in a ring on the outside.” Mr. Doshi, the then Chairman of the Council, did not approve. “This looks like a golf link,” he said and proposed that Kalpana be shifted to a smaller plot along the Crown Road, while housing the same number of people. “It was a bit of a shock as we had to start all over again,” says Neel. “But we also enjoyed the challenge to build a higher density project closer to the city centre.”

The new design took three years to manifest. “We worked in parallel with Auroville’s urban designers who were formulating the guidelines for urban design buildings on the Crown as we went ahead,” says Neel. Kalpana was their test case. The urban designers became sensitized to what it means to have a large construction directly on the Crown and to how it should contribute to Auroville as a city. It led to some deep thinking: on how to create a façade on the Crown, what type of units should be located on the ground floor facing the Crown – the TDC asked for shops and offices – and if a walkway along the Crown could be integrated. “It was a good process,” says Supriti. “Our designs have improved because of that interaction.” “But it took too long,” complains Satyakam.

Shaping the apartments

The shape of the Kalpana apartment buildings is unusual. Neel explains. “We wanted the design to respond to three important considerations. The first was that the buildings should be more sculptural as this project is closer to the centre of Auroville. So form became a prime criterion. The second was that the experience of living in an apartment should be as close as possible to living in a free-standing house. The third, that energy should, as much as possible, be generated on site.”

The energy requirements were the easy part. Each apartment block has its own rooftop solar panels and UPS, and a solar hot water system to eliminate the need for geysers. The other considerations fused when the architects studied how best to meet the needs of privacy, sound insulation and ventilation.

“We designed each apartment block in a modified star form, where the apartments do not face each other,” says Neel. “That took care of the privacy requirement and the noise pollution from neighbours. Contact noise has been avoided by building ledge walls between the apartments on which the plumbing is running, so the noise from someone’s toilet flushing can’t be heard.” To minimize visual pollution as requested by Mr. Doshi, each apartment has a roofed open utility space where the laundry can dry invisibly from the outside.

“Climate control was a more difficult issue,” says Supriti. “Here we took the advice of Chamanlal and Shipra from the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and of Toine and Helmut. We jointly decided against air conditioning for a few reasons. It has been proven that air conditioning is bad for health; it is addictive; it requires too much energy; and even though modern air conditioners now use HCFC, they still contribute to the pollution of the ozone layer. As Auroville wants to show innovative solutions, we wanted to design the apartments in such a way that air conditioning would not be required, not even in mid-summer.”

The solution was to maximize the air inflow, insulate the walls and roofs and provide as much shade as possible. “To promote natural ventilation and benefit from changing wind directions, 90% of the apartments have windows on three sides. For the walls, Aerocon autoclave blocks were used as they have the highest insulation value of all building materials now on the market. [Aercon blocks are lightweight stabilised cement blocks containing fly ash, cement, lime, gypsum, aluminium powder and water, eds.] The walls are plastered on both sides. Each apartment has a large shaded verandah or courtyard, covered by a 4.5 meters cantilevered RCC roof, which is insulated with a layer of 8 cm vermiculite and reflective tiles. The walls are juxtaposed, so that there is a lot of shading. Only 15% of the walls will be exposed to the sun. Where there is too much exposure, we will plant creepers and have a system which goes with the ethos of the place,” says Neel.

Will it work? “ Kalpana’s model apartment was cool in high summer,” says Devasmita. “We felt comfortable with only the fan running, while it was 40+ degrees Celsius outside. So we are convinced it will work.”

Community interaction is another important design parameter. Each apartment block has an open area on the ground floor with a sitting arrangement. “It is also a passage,” Neel explains. “Residents, including those from other communities, can use the passage to go to the large garden area in the middle of Kalpana, cross the bridge over the swale – a water harvesting device that runs through the centre of the compound – and walk to the Crown Road to visit the nearby Solar Kitchen, the Santé health centre, the Neem Tree restaurant or the library.

Eco friendly?

Over the years, a small army of concrete mixer trucks have driven into Kalapana to supply the required concrete. “We have been criticised that Kalpana is not eco-friendly,” says Satykam. “But the fact is that Kalpana is very much eco-friendly, even though we don’t use earth block technologies.”

“The problem is how to compare building technologies,” explains Neel. “Housing projects should be evaluated using a common set of parameters. We suggest that the TDC develop a protocol to share numbers before and after construction, and once again after three years of occupancy: this is what was projected, this is what has been achieved, and this is how the project has worked over the years. Such a protocol would also show the ecological footprint of each construction – e.g. how much of land has been consumed per resident; how much built-up area each person has; how much steel per person was used; how much wood, how much cement, how much electricity, how much solar, and what the costs per person were taking into account the built-up area, the height of the apartment blocks and the size of the plot. Only then can you make a comparison and judge the eco-friendliness and the successes and failures of a particular project.”

“We have often been asked if our designs weren’t very costly,” says Supriti. “We have made a cost comparison with three of our other housing projects in Pondicherry that have 50, 100 and 350 apartments. We found that the costs of Kalpana are not higher than these, at approximately Rs, 22,000 /m2 based on super built up area. The higher costs are caused by the extra’s Kalpana provides: solar panels, solar hot water systems, fully equipped kitchens and bathrooms, and super efficient fans in each room to name a few.”

Objections

Kalpana has the dubious honour of having been one of the most disputed housing projects in Auroville. The project was publicly presented in March 2016, and once again in April that year at a well-attended General Meeting. The immediate reason for the large attendance was the cutting of a number of trees, which was permitted in the building approval but objected to by some Aurovilians. Other objections were to the perceived ‘luxurious’ nature of the project, as compared to the low cost, simple lifestyle of the neighbouring residents of Vikas. Last but not least, the neighbours feared noise disturbance during construction.

“Much of the animosity has gone, but we still do not always enjoy a warm and friendly neighbourhood relationship,” says Satyakam. “The main complaints are about noise pollution after working hours, which we try to minimize as much as possible. But sometimes a cement mixing truck arrives late. These trucks come from 30 kilometres away and are sometimes held up in traffic congestion. But you can’t wait till the next day, the cement has to be used immediately.” Koodam’s mediation efforts have helped to create more understanding, but some resentment lingers.

The financing

The Kalpana project will cost about Rs 15 crore (US $ 2.5 million) and could take-off as Satyakam and Devasmita could arrange the finances to get the project started and ensure its continuation and completion. All the four offices and most apartments have meanwhile been allocated against donations. “As part of our personal contributions, we also make sure that about 10 persons who cannot financially contribute towards the actual cost of the project can live in Kalpana. We also contribute towards the costs of the caretaker apartment, the gym and a small guesthouse.” says Satyakam.

Kalpana will be completed by July 2018. It is no small achievement.