We talk of recycling, reusing, reducing. And we talk of green architecture. How about now extending these ideas to their logical conclusion? Architect Yatin Pandya of Footprints E.A.R.T.H has done just that by using municipal and domestic waste to construct his centre in Ahmedabad.
Today, the centre is a showcase of just how effectively waste can be used in construction. Pandya conducted extensive research for over three years on the various ways in which waste, both industrial and municipal, could be used in construction. He figured that it would not only address environmental issues of waste disposal but also be a low-cost way to address rural and urban housing requirements. And the buildings are aesthetically pleasing too.
Pandya uses not only rubble from landfills, fly ash, metal scrap, discarded wooden crates and broken tiles, but also glass and plastic bottles as well as digital waste such as monitors, keyboards, and CDs. His centre in Ahmedabad shows just how recycled municipal waste can be incorporated in a way that is aesthetically pleasing, efficient and economical.
Recycled glass and plastic bottles filled with fly ash and waste residue are used in the same manner as bricks for walls. Mould-compressed bricks made from landfill waste, cement-bonded fly ash bricks, and stabilised soil blocks are also used for walls. Discarded vegetable crate planks serve as wall panelling or window louvers.
The roof uses filler slabs made from glass and plastic bottles, cement-bonded particle boards, and a light conduit pipe truss with G.I. sheet covered with clay tiles. While bricks and stone slabs find their way to the floors, doors are panelled with shredded packaging wrapper and coated paper waste that serve as substitutes for Fibre Reinforced Plastic.
Discarded vegetable crates find their way to doors as panels and as ventilation frames in toilets. Discarded oil tin containers are ripped to form blades that become louvers in the ventilators, replacing glass. Oil tin containers have also been used as frames for the doors.
Fly ash and waste moulded tiles have been inlaid with ceramic waste to fashion china mosaic. These are used in patches to create pretty patches of colour. Likewise, scrap metal has been salvaged and used to create a set of spectacular gates, literally creating a unique piece of art.
Says Pandya: “The objective was to make use of the abundant waste lying around in construction. It is a green solution and offers a low-cost construction technique that local people can learn with minimal training.” Pandya’s multi-purpose activity centre has not spared anything — from soft drink cartons, packaging boards, and cloth rags to gunny bags and CDs, everything finds a use. “The local women and men who pick up this waste for recycling were roped in to contribute to the process,” says Pandya.
The architect believes that if the process was taken up on a mass scale, where items like fly ash bricks are made available in large quantities and local labour is trained in the methodology, there is immense potential for this technique to address the issue of low-cost housing.
“NGOs and the government can play a key role. It would in one stroke take care of housing needs, safe disposal of waste, as well as the environment,” says Pandya.