This
house was chiefly designed for climatic
comfort based on southeast orientation.
Cavity walls on the exteriors
and ferrocement fins for
regulating the glare and yet allowing the free
movement of prevailing winds was the chief
building language.
The
hollow terracotta roofing tubes, specially
made for the purpose, were assembled into catenaryvaults, a technology that
eliminates the use of structural steel or concrete,
while still providing a 'pucca' roof.
The
building, covering 450 sq.mts was completed in 1992. The
success of this technique led to a series of experiments
involving insulated and modular roof
alternatives that can be seen in the later works.
The
unfired mud structure with the coal-clay bricks
being made in the foreground.
Built using a rare technology developed by Ray
Meeker of Golden Bridge Pottery.
A
fired house typically was built with mud bricks
made on site with mud mortar, stuffed
with further mud bricks or other products, and
fired as if it were
a kiln.
The
house itself got fired as a consequence.
The fuel cost would be largely accountable to
the products inside. The strength
of brick would be achieved for the
price of mud.
One
had to only light the fire and then the
mass, structure
and products, burnt
from within with their own fuel till all the coal
dust in it was spent.
Further,
the cement in the mortar mix would become unnecessary.
Ray Meeker was the technical consultant for this project
and introduced a further new aspect. To avoid use of valuable
wood to fire the structure as in the previous cases,
coal dust was introduced into the clay mixture
itself, with which the bricks were made.
