Paper homes

Our culture doesn't look kindly on homes built of unusual stuff. Even fairy tales frown on them: The big bad wolf blew right through that piggy's straw house. Ditto the porker's house of sticks. And the old woman who lived in the shoe? She didn't know what to do. A house made of paper would then sound crazy, right? Hold on.

Buildings made of paper are real -- and they don't simply turn to mush in a rainstorm. The most well-known of these, the shelters designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, are crafted of cardboard tubes. Resilient and sometimes elegant, Ban's designs have housed people after earthquakes in Japan, India and Turkey.

A handful of paper homes in the U.S., including an experimental one at the University of Arizona, also have been constructed of baled wastepaper.

But perhaps paper's most promising use in home construction is as a key ingredient in what's often called "papercrete." In a nutshell, it's an industrial-strength papier-mâché that can be made by almost anyone, cheaply, formed into blocks and used like bricks.

"The interest in this has exploded in the last three years worldwide" as people look for cheaper, more environmentally friendly ways to build, says Barry Fuller, alternative building specialist and creator of the Web site "Living in Paper."

Papercrete's reach is still extremely small, but it's growing: from fewer than 20 papercrete structures in the U.S. three years ago to around 100 now, according to Fuller. He's also consulted with papercrete enthusiasts across the world, from South Africa to Great Britain.

A simple mixture

In its purest form, papercrete is simply paper, water and Portland cement. People often add sand for extra strength, fly ash to make the mix set harder or dirt in place of cement for a more earth-friendly, adobelike substance.

There's some disagreement over what type of paper is best to start with -- some say newspaper, while others claim almost anything will do. (One of the first discoverers of papercrete, a printer named Eric Patterson of Silver City, N.M., used junk mail in his original recipe.) Either way, it must first get pulped with water. Since papercrete homes are almost always built by individuals, to create this mash people build what essentially are huge, homemade kitchen blenders, often in 200-gallon tubs, with a lawn-mower blade as a stirrer.

The final, oatmealy slurry is poured into forms -- usually fat bricks resembling thick boards or cinder blocks.

The resulting blocks are "like a really light-feeling pine. They sound like wood when you tap on them," Fuller says. "And they give a little bit when you push hard on them."

The blocks' drying process can take weeks, even in hot, dry weather, which explains why most papercrete homes appear in the Southwest. And a finished home often looks like an adobe building or a straw-bale home.

Surprisingly durable

If all of this sounds a touch experimental, it should. Papercrete hasn't yet been tested for its use as a building material -- at least to the evaluation standards of the International Building Code, which is used by most of the country. In fact, there's not yet even any established means for evaluating papercrete as a building material. Only when it's been tested successfully might the IBC be altered to accommodate it. This entire process is expensive and can take years, those familiar with the process say.

Still, papercrete might surprise you in a number of ways, including its response to the elements:

• Fire. You might think a house made with paper would be a tinderbox. Not so much. "The blocks will burn, if you throw them on your campfire," says inventor Patterson. But when a flame is held to a wall, the papercrete mostly just smolders, say those who have tried it. And some who've worked with papercrete say brushing boric acid on blocks around outlets and other more fire-prone areas fireproofs them.
• Rain. Water isn't the nemesis you might guess, either. While papercrete enthusiasts say they wouldn't necessarily encourage someone to build a home in the rainiest climate -- say, in a rain forest -- structures are going up everywhere from rainy western Washington state to thunderstorm-prone Missouri. Some experts do advise using sealant on walls, though, and not using papercrete as an outer roofing material.

Overall durability seems good, too. In his search for old papercrete structures, Fuller found a large, abandoned sheep-shearing shed with wings made of papercrete north of Alamosa, Colo., built in a floodplain, that he guessed was at least 20 years old, and made by another papercrete innovator, Mike McCain. Other than some cracks in the stucco, "it was in remarkably good shape,” he says. "The wood trim on it was in much worse shape than the papercrete itself."

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Indians eye place in world's tallest residential building

The world's tallest, purely-residential skyscraper has been launched in the city that pioneered the skyscraper but the aptly-named, 2000-feet tall 'Chicago Spire' is the first time that a building destined to be iconic internationally is actively inviting - and receiving - interest from Indian punters.

The Spire, designed by one of Europe's most celebrated architects Santiago Calatrava in the city that has prided itself on its high-rise skyline for nearly 150 years, is seen to be real estate as art, right down to the individually-designed door handles and ceilings and windows combining vertical and trapezoidal glass panels in each of the 1193 exclusive apartments.

But the Spire's epic scale - soaring to a height from where the curvature of the earth can clearly be seen - does not sacrifice Calatrava's famous lightness of touch. The 150-storey building, which will rise and curl like an architectural will o' wisp from an entirely transparent cathedral-like lobby, will be the highest point to live on earth, from its 50 th storey upwards.

At least four real-estate companies from Maharashtra have already declared an interest in buying into the Spire's "penthouses-in the sky". The Spire boldly claims it is looking to become an international 'home away from home' for millionaires from around the world. Some of the Indian companies, which include one Pune firm and three from Mumbai, admitted to TOI that they are transfixed by the investment possibilities of selling an eyrie in the American sky to India's burgeoning jet-setting ranks of dollar multi-millionaires.

Unusually for an American high-rise residential complex, particularly one sure to become a mascot for a city pitching hard for the 2016 Olympics and which boasts America's busiest airport and claims it is "ideally located as a link to both Europe and Asia", the Spire is being sold globally. Dominic Grace of Savills, the British estate agent marketing the Spire across the world, says the Spire's exhibition road show will roll out in 14 key cities in south and south-eastern Asia, Europe and South Africa from January.

Mike Golden, of Chicago's local Spire-selling estate agent, @property, says Chicago's international appeal, including to Indian investors, is its status as the home of 66 Fortune 500 companies and the fact that one of its downtown areas, the buzzing Streeterville, is the world's second-highest income generator after New York's Upper East Side.

The smallest flat in the Spire, which is expected come 2010 to become a global symbol for a city on the move, will have a starting price of $750,000 f or a one-bedroom piece of art that will include a circular bed enclosure, sliding glass walls and a galley-style kitchen that can be made to disappear from view. The Calatrava-designed taps, bathroom fittings and style mod-cons are thought likely to reach the status of 'contemporary collectibles' with potential auction prices running into hundreds of thousands of dollars. Flats will have a top price in the region of $ 40 million.

Paint it right

Painting is a skill that can be mastered if one understands the medium that is being used. One must learn to control the paint and master it. There are different techniques involved in home painting . Everyone starts off as a beginner . Here are a few tips and ideas about home painting that beginners can use to learn the art of house painting.

Do not paint out of the paint can. While painting the brush picks up dust and other impurities from the surface that you are painting. If you dip this brush into the paint can then you will transfer it to the can. This will cause specks in your painting .

In an open can the paint will be exposed to the air and it will react with it. This makes the paint thicker and stickier and more difficult to paint with.

A can is bulky and cumbersome to carry around while painting. A paint can is to be used for storage of paint only.

Pour out only about ½ inch of paint into a bucket that you will use for painting. This is a very small amount and before it reacts with air you would have used it. You will have to replenish paint more often but the paint will flow freely and it will be easy to paint with.

The bucket will have only ½ inch of paint so it will be light and easy for you to carry around as you work.

If you accidentally tip the bucket over, neither will there be much cleaning to do, nor would you have lost a lot of paint.

Air dries paint. Therefore expose as little paint to the air as possible. So it is better to expose small quantities of paint to the air at a time.

The oxygen in the air reacts with the paint, making it thick and difficult to apply on the wall.

Replace cap on the lid of the paint can as soon as you finish pouring out paint. Cover the bucket from which you are painting with a tray or lid to minimise exposure to air.

Always use a clean and soft roller to finish off the painting procedure with a smooth surface.

HSBC plans $ 600-m Indian realty fund

London-headquartered financial services major HSBC is set to be the first foreign financial institution to raise an India-focused real estate fund. The banking major is planning to raise $500-600 million for the realty fund, with fund-raising likely to begin in the next few weeks, sources close to the development said.

“The bank is keen on getting a slice of the real estate market in India. However, the mandate of the realty fund would be such that a small portion of the corpus would also be invested in other sectors,” said an industry source.

An e-mail sent to HSBC Global Investment Banking director and co-head Ravi Menon did not elicit a response.

The proposed fund would be the first India-focused fund for HSBC. It has been making private equity investments in India through HSBC Private Equity (Asia) Ltd.

With real estate becoming a buzzword for investors, several companies have set up realty funds to cash in on the boom in the market. HDFC, Kotak Realty and IL&FS have set up real estate funds where international investors have put money to invest in opportunities in the India realty market. While HDFC raised a $750-million international fund in September last year, IL&FS Investment Managers raised a $502.57-million fund in May 2006. Kotak Realty recently concluded its second fund with a corpus of $400 million.

Some of the other global financial institutions looking to invest in Indian realty include — Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. However, these financial institutions are looking to make investments through their global funds.

Via Economic Times

Women architects

In the world of building design, the role of women is often forgotten. Certainly, male architects have captured the limelight with soaring skyscrapers and other high-profile buildings. Architecture is a male-dominated field; the most-sought after commissions and the highest awards rarely go to women. Nevertheless, many woman have overcome obstacles, established highly successful careers, and designed landmark buildings that change the way we see our world.

This page is your starting place for exploring the rich and varied achievements of women architects. You'll find links to information about several interesting and important women architects, followed by resources to help you discover other women who made important contributions to building and design.

Women Architects

Zaha Hadid
Born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1950, Zaha Hadid is the first woman to win a Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Her work experiments with new spatial concepts and encompasses all fields of design, ranging from urban spaces to products and furniture.

Julia Morgan
Julia Morgan designed hundreds of homes, churches, office buildings, hospitals, stores and educational buildings in California, including the famous Hearst Castle.

Marion Mahony Griffin
Frank Lloyd Wright's first employee was a woman, and she became the world's first woman to be officially licensed as an architect. Like many other women who design buildings, Wright's employee was lost in the shadow of her male associates. Still, it's easy to speculate that Marion Mahony Griffin contributed greatly to Wright's career and also to the career of her husband, Walter Burley Griffin.

Denise Scott Brown
Over the past century, there have been many husband-wife teams. Typically the husbands have attracted the fame and glory while the women worked quietly (and some would argue, intelligently) in the background. However, Denise Scott Brown had already made important contributions to the field of urban design when she met and married her husband, Robert Venturi. Although he appears to be more frequently in the spotlight, her research and teachings have shaped modern understanding of the relationship between design and society.

Susana Torre
Born in Argentina, Susana Torre is best known for her many renovations and remodelings in the United States.

Anna Keichline
Anna Keichline was the first woman to become a registered architect of Pennsylvania, but she is best known for inventing the hollow, fireproof "K Brick," which was a precursor to the modern concrete block.

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India's property boom yields high returns

Rajan Sharma bought 4,000 square feet of office space on the outskirts of New Delhi for 2,900 rupees a square foot in 2002 and hasn't stopped grinning since.

Four years later, the 42-year-old consultant regularly gets offers more than three times the price he paid for the same office space as the arrival of foreign players, easy finance and rising incomes fuel a rush for prime real estate.

"It has been a very short but a hugely profitable journey," Sharma, who now runs a property firm, told Reuters.

"Seeing these profits I feel I should have done real estate all my life."

He is not alone.

There are literally thousands of sellers and speculators who have laughed all the way to the bank because of a property boom in New Delhi and its two satellite towns -- Noida and Gurgaon. The pace has been almost as brisk in many other cities in India.

In Delhi, prices have been pushed even higher by a government campaign to close shops and offices built illegally in residential neighbourhoods, adding to already fierce competition for commercial property.

And a spreading underground rail network in Delhi, which will eventually reach parts of Noida and Gurgaon, has spurred property prices along existing and planned routes.

"There is also fundamental and growing demand for office and retail space because of sustained economic activity driven by software companies and branded firms," said Tanaji Chakrabarti of real estate firm Trammell Crow Meghraj.

Delhi and its suburbs are also home to fifth-ranked software services exporter HCL Technologies Ltd. and huge backoffice units of companies such as American Express Co. and Convergys that employ thousands of staff.

The $23 billion software services sector has been one of the biggest consumers of real estate along with changing shopping tastes that are favouring multi-brand malls over neighbourhood mom-and-pop shops, said Chakrabarti.

A New Economy

Spurring the boom, the government has slashed cobwebs of legislation by allowing 100 percent foreign direct investment in large projects. Stamp duties have been rationalised and reduced, and a policy to set up special economic zones is boosting industrial growth.

Nascent chains such as Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd. and Reliance Retail Ltd. have lined up multi-billion dollar expansion plans in which the largest component has been set aside for leasing or buying organised retail space.

In addition, companies such as Nike Inc. and Adidas are deepening their presence through franchised operations beyond India's metros to soak up demand from millions in the growing middle class.

"The demand for retail space across India will increase," said Vivek Dahiya, associate director at global property advisor DTZ India. "Certain markets seeing oversupply will see reduction in vacancies."

In Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida alone organised retail space is likely to rise to 14 million sq.ft. by the end of 2007 from 2 million now, he said.

But the sharp rise in commercial rentals in the past three years is hurting growth prospects of organised retail chains, which operate on margins as low as 3-4 percent.

"Rentals are now dramatically higher - by at least 50 percent in a lot of cities," said Kishore Biyani, managing director at Pantaloon. "At these prices we can't sign up new properties."

Biyani, who started retailing in 1997, said annual sales needed to be at least 50 percent higher to offset rising rentals.

In central parts of heavily congested Mumbai city, monthly rentals for discount stores have soared in excess of 125 rupees sq.ft from 55 rupees sq.ft about 2 years ago, said Pranay Vakil, chairman at Knight Frank India.

"This is madness and has little relevance to actual supply and demand factors," Vakil said. "Rentals are now crossing the industry norm of 12 percent of gross sales, making it extremely difficult and unaffordable for retailers."

But even after this rise, monthly retail rentals in prime commercial space or "high street" in Mumbai are low at $11 per sq.ft compared with $24 in Singapore and $80 in Hong Kong, according to data from Knight Frank India.

(via IBEF)

Royal retreat

Located in a rich traditional realm, the Oriental Palace resorts hotel is synonymous with the former, offering all facilities under one roof. Situated at the heart of the aravalli mountains, within the premises of the famous historic Champabagh, this majestic beauty is a unique blend of buff sandstone with vibrant greenery and waterbodies.

The centralized entrance gate is flanked by gardens on both the sides, that are demarcated by a low height wall carrying lamp-posts atop a traditional motif. As the main gate opens to give a glimpse of the royalty inside, you are instantly transported to the world of story books.

The beautiful stone cladded structure creates a bold impression , at the same time generates a rustic feel. The long façade penetrated by “ Jharokhas “ and “ Chattris “ is reminiscent of the grand palaces of the region. It will leave you with an unforgettable royal experience.

It comprises of – 9 deluxe Air conditioned suites and 40 deluxe rooms, that offer fascinating views through the sculptural Jharokhas. It also offers banquet and conference facilities in “Manthan”- a conference hall with a capacity of 60 , furnished with all modern accessories; a swimming pool, twin restaurants, bar and facilities for indoor as well as outdoor games.

The planning is unique to the conventional hotel designs.It comprises of clusters arranged around a central hearth”Aangan”, like the traditional homes of the region, which are in turn grouped together like row housing.An open plan providing maximum light and ventilation has been central to the design, but the division into clusters gives privacy as well as comfort, generating an in-house feel. The thick load bearing stone walls help in keeping the interiors cool. The awe-inspiring lush green-gardens offer a respite from the hustle and bustle of the city life.Inside the main block the welcome desk is positioned next to the entrance. The coffered ceiling is contained within a hand painted art work- another interesting feature of the traditions, which has been beautifully explored here. Even the doors and windows are framed within this art-work.

Huge area rugs, several seating arrangements and exotic plan- all these elements make you feel like a royal guest.

The double height atrium is lined with clear-storey windows that pour in natural light. A pair of curved staircase adorns the atrium. It rests on four circular columns. An octagonal waterbody with fountain offers a serene welcome. The staircase leads to a courtyard, which is bathed in natural light from the glass punctured pyramid. Thus all these features combine together to create a pleasant ambience inside as: the courtyard acts as a shaft, while the waterbody acts as a cooling device for the incoming air. It is surrounded by arched walls on all four sides.

Though designing on traditional lines has been the basic concept, yet the internal units have been given different types of treatment, hat lends individuality to each space.Chandeliers add a touch of sophistication to the otherwise simple ceilings.

The flooring at most of the places is done in white mosaic cast-in-situ. It offers cool, low cost as well as low maintenance interiors.

Inside the rooms, the hand painted art flows with the shape of the furniture. The furniture captures the style of “ Royal living “. The furnishings and décor are a sight to behold. The rooms are furnished to make you feel special, complete with the latest state-of-the-art bathrooms.

As the sunlight pours in from the Jharokhas, the already warm ambience becomes even cosier. The projecting balconies offer panoramic views of the setting.

An interesting feature of the façade is that the Jharokha windows double up in size at the corners- breaking the monotony at the same time also bringing in an interesting interplay of light and shade. Another unique feature is the meticulity with which each single element has been brought up. Similarly the central chattri on the top is an elongated one while it’s neighbours stand out singly. The white colour makes these details to stand out uniquely from the buff backdrop. Creepers drooping from the balconies give it an antique appeal.

The dining hall symbolizes: Eat smart and indulge in the gourmet’s delight in an appetizing ambience with comfort personified.

The conference room, provided with a separate entry maintains its own identity without interfering with the hotel’s functioning.

The hotel is surrounded by dense greenery on all sides. The trees help to shield the sound and dust. A huge corner of the garden is adorned by beautiful fountains.

Whether it is a walk around the lush gardens of the palace, the mornings with the mist swirling around is probably the best time to be here. But as the sun comes out to surround you within it’s warm blanket, you realize that each time of the day is a different experience here.

By

Rajendra Mantri, B.Arch, MCA, FIIA, FIV

Mananging Director

Rajendra Mantri Architect Pvt. Ltd.

3, Shri Krishna Complex,

Dhabhai Ji Ki Badi, Pula,

Udaipur - 313004 (Raj.)

Phone : (0294) - 2441770

Mobile : 09414167058, 09352767058

Fax : (0294) - 2441758