Frequently Asked Questions

Another myth is that natural buildings are high on maintenance. There are many ways to look at this “problem”. We must begin by questioning what is “maintenance”. While purely mud buildings may require human interface more often, it is easier to maintain them ourselves as opposed to relying on specialized labour from the city.

Traditionally, maintenance of these buildings was ingrained in the socio-cultural life of the villagers; one didn’t need to specially “maintain” them. Festivals and rituals developed around these practices.

Having said that, it is also possible to make natural buildings “maintenance-free” in the modern, urban sense of the term. Using more of lime based finishes or treating mud finishes using sealants are a few ways of doing so.

While speaking of natural buildings, it is important to bust one more myth that is slightly of another nature. One may also tend to over-romanticize everything about tradition without questioning the same. We believe this is fundamentally wrong.

While it is necessary to appreciate the benefits, we must also bring down certain aspects of traditional / vernacular architecture that we observe. For example, women and lower castes were considered unequal to their male or higher caste counterparts. This lead to certain spaces such as the kitchens, temples, toilets and sewerage systems to be designed in a particular way. It is important to look at these spaces with a progressive lens now, instead of blindly aping them just because they are tradition. One must analyze every aspect critically before deciding to utilize it as relevant, or discard it as obsolete.

Vastu shastra, for example, is a set of guidelines that have developed over a long time for a certain climatic condition. Therefore most of the concepts themselves are logic and not mere superstition. However, most people unfortunately have picked up rituals and tried to replicate without thought to context. We are against this fundamentally. The "Vastu shastra" of each location must be unique and a direct result of physical, cultural and climatological contexts.

Cement-free eco homes cause least amount of damage to the environment, hence they are eco-friendly.

Besides sustainability, they have added health benefits too. We use all natural resources with minimum processing. We tend to avoid chemically processed materials like paints, polishes etc but opt for natural alternatives. This prevents respiratory disorders and promotes a healthy lifestyle.

Besides, these homes are breathable, owing to materials such as mud and lime that are used to build them. They have higher thermal comfort and therefore require lesser energy as you do not need to use Ac’s or coolers. In summers, the homes behave like an earthen pot. The mud or lime absorbs moisture early in the morning and lets it out in the afternoon, therefore cooling due to evaporation. Conversely, in winters, the walls trap heat in the day and let it inside the house at night, maintaining ambient temperatures inside.

Also, we opt for local labour to build these houses. This helps the local village economy and generates local jobs. Crafts that flourished during times when the “Baara Balutdaar” system worked in the villages – are dying out today. We see skilled labour like stone breakers, potters, blacksmiths, carpenters etc leave the villages and undertake unskilled menial jobs in the city for a livelihood. In the process, these crafts are getting extinct and replaced by the standardization that is a part and parcel of the new cement homes.

Time taken to build a natural building, like the costs, is difficult to generalise. It depends on many factors like size of the structure, number of floors, design and special details, labour availability and pace of work, site conditions, climate etc.

To get a better understanding, let us take an example of a medium sized home (up to 2000 sq.ft. in built-up area) on a relatively flat site, somewhere around Pune, Maharashtra. Typically, it would take 3-4 months to make multiple design options, deliberate and arrive on a final design, make detailed drawings, models, quantities etc and be ready for starting construction. Care must be taken to start the construction at the end of the monsoons, which is around September to October near Pune. Having started in October, we aim to finish the civil work (wall, roof and external work) before the onset of the next monsoon (that is, before May next year). Finishing, depending on what techniques and materials one chooses, may take anywhere from 2 to 6 months more for completion. So, overall it shall take a year and a half from conception to finishing the house.

This timeline will change with the above mentioned variables.

It gives us great happiness seeing that every year, we get exponentially more number of project enquiries. However, we have to take up only about 6-7 design+build projects every year. With a heavy heart, we are forced to ask many of our prospective clients to wait till the next year if possible, or approach another agency for their project.

The reason behind this is our way of working. We prefer to give personal attention and dedicate enough time to every project we undertake. We also believe in working with a small team, forging long term relationships with the team members as well as with the clients. So, delegating our work to others is not an option!

Due to this, we have to set a limit depending on how many sites can we physically visit every week, once construction starts.