The future of architecture

British colonial architecture

While British supremacy did not change the fact that India was becoming rapidly urbanised, it did lead to new alignments and priorities, since the controlling power was now different. A number of new towns and new suburbs were built to house the British, and the pattern of new town planning changed. India was still divided into administrative districts as under the Mughals, and the towns which functioned as district headquarters were the ones where most of the new architecture was built.

The planning and urban design policies of the British followed certain principles – a. their perceptions of the nature of the Indian city, b. the fear of further revolts along the lines of the Mutiny of 1857, c. Haussmann’s plan for Paris which had become so popular in Europe and which advocated cutting through and demolishing old city centres to make space for new construction and boulevards, and d. planning techniques already in use for Britain’s industrial cities.

In the main the effort was to physically and socially separate the Europeans from the indigenous populace – the so-called ‘White’ and ‘Black’ towns of Madras being an example. This being done an effort, though sometimes belated, was also made to enforce sanitary and developmental guidelines on the old towns, though these had little effect as in the main they failed to take into account traditional ways of community life. In some cases new urban design smacked of retribution – Delhi and Lucknow in particular, being the centres of the Mutiny of 1857, lost large parts of their historic areas to new British planning and city-core demolitions.

The economic boom of the later half of the 19^th century translated into frenetic building activity in British India. The application of urban design guidelines resulted in the unified character that old British settlements in India still possess. These urban design projects could not fail to be influenced by precedents in Britain: the Royal Crescent at Bath by John Wood, and the Quadrant in Regent’s Park, London by John Nash were particularly influential, translating into Elphinstone Circle (now Horniman Circle >>>) in Bombay. As pressure on space grew, British architecture progressed from single buildings set in open surrounding to more densely packed urban schemes, as in the cities of Calcutta and Bombay.

In addition to major urban design schemes, it was the civil lines and the cantonments which remain today a major evidence of 19^th century British presence, and which in turn have influenced much middle-class housing development in modern India. This stems from their perception as the colonies of the elite. The cantonments and civil lines both were generally laid out as gridiron planned communities with central thoroughfares (the famous ‘Mall Roads’), with tree-lined streets, regularly divided building plots and bungalows as the main housing type. Churches and cemeteries, clubs, race and golf courses, and other trappings of an easy civil life were soon to follow.

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No or Low VOC paint

Green Building Design Features: No or Low VOC Paint
by cleanairgardening

What are the elements of green buildings?

Below is a sampling of green building practices.

Siting

* Start by selecting a site well suited to take advantage of mass transit.
* Protect and retain existing landscaping and natural features. Select plants that have low water and pesticide needs, and generate minimum plant trimmings. Use compost and mulches. This will save water and time.
* Recycled content paving materials, furnishings, and mulches help close the recycling loop.

Energy Efficiency

Most buildings can reach energy efficiency levels far beyond California Title 24 standards, yet most only strive to meet the standard. It is reasonable to strive for 40 percent less energy than Title 24 standards. The following strategies contribute to this goal.

* Passive design strategies can dramatically affect building energy performance. These measures include building shape and orientation, passive solar design, and the use of natural lighting.
* Develop strategies to provide natural lighting. Studies have shown that it has a positive impact on productivity and well being.
* Install high-efficiency lighting systems with advanced lighting controls. Include motion sensors tied to dimmable lighting controls. Task lighting reduces general overhead light levels.
* Use a properly sized and energy-efficient heat/cooling system in conjunction with a thermally efficient building shell. Maximize light colors for roofing and wall finish materials; install high R-value wall and ceiling insulation; and use minimal glass on east and west exposures.
* Minimize the electric loads from lighting, equipment, and appliances.
* Consider alternative energy sources such as photovoltaics and fuel cells that are now available in new products and applications. Renewable energy sources provide a great symbol of emerging technologies for the future.
* Computer modeling is an extremely useful tool in optimizing design of electrical and mechanical systems and the building shell.

Materials Efficiency

* Select sustainable construction materials and products by evaluating several characteristics such as reused and recycled content, zero or low off gassing of harmful air emissions, zero or low toxicity, sustainably harvested materials, high recyclability, durability, longevity, and local production. Such products promote resource conservation and efficiency. Using recycled-content products also helps develop markets for recycled materials that are being diverted from California's landfills, as mandated by the Integrated Waste Management Act.
* Use dimensional planning and other material efficiency strategies. These strategies reduce the amount of building materials needed and cut construction costs. For example, design rooms on 4-foot multiples to conform to standard-sized wallboard and plywood sheets.
* Reuse and recycle construction and demolition materials. For example, using inert demolition materials as a base course for a parking lot keeps materials out of landfills and costs less.
* Require plans for managing materials through deconstruction, demolition, and construction.
* Design with adequate space to facilitate recycling collection and to incorporate a solid waste management program that prevents waste generation.

Water Efficiency

* Design for dual plumbing to use recycled water for toilet flushing or a gray water system that recovers rainwater or other nonpotable water for site irrigation.
* Minimize wastewater by using ultra low-flush toilets, low-flow shower heads, and other water conserving fixtures.
* Use recirculating systems for centralized hot water distribution.
* Install point-of-use hot water heating systems for more distant locations.
* Use a water budget approach that schedules irrigation using the California Irrigation Management Information System data for landscaping.
* Meter the landscape separately from buildings. Use micro-irrigation (which excludes sprinklers and high-pressure sprayers) to supply water in nonturf areas.
* Use state-of-the-art irrigation controllers and self-closing nozzles on hoses.

Global warming greatest in the past decade: Study

Surface temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere were warmer over the last 10 years than any time during the last 1,300 years, according to a study.

If climate scientists include the somewhat controversial data derived from tree-ring records, the warming is anomalous (deviating from the normal or common order) for at least 1,700 years. "Some have argued that tree-ring data is unacceptable for this type of study," said Michael Mann, associate professor of meteorology and geosciences and director of Penn State's Earth System Science Centre.

"Now we can eliminate tree rings and still have enough data from other so-called 'proxies' to derive a long-term Northern Hemisphere temperature record." The proxies used by the researchers included information from marine and lake sediment cores, ice cores, coral cores and tree rings. "We looked at a much expanded database and our methods are more sophisticated than those used previously," said Mann.

The researchers noted that "conclusions are less definitive for the Southern Hemisphere and globe, which we attribute to larger uncertainties arising from the sparser available proxy data in the Southern Hemisphere". The research team included Mann, Ray Bradley, university distinguished professor, geosciences and director of Climate System Research Centre at the University of Massachusetts; Malcolm Hughes, regents' professor, and Fenbiao Ni, research associate at the Laboratory of Tree Ring Research, University of Arizona; Zhihua Zhang and Sonya Miller, research associates, meteorology, Penn State; and Scott Rutherford, assistant professor of environmental sciences at Roger Williams University.

Results of this study without tree-ring data show that for the Northern Hemisphere, the last 10 years are unusually warm for not just the past 1,000 as reported in the 1990s paper and others, but for at least another 300 years going back to about A.D. 700 without using tree-ring data.

The same conclusion holds back to A.D. 300 if the researchers include tree-ring data. "Ten years ago, we could not simply eliminate all the tree-ring data from our network because we did not have enough other proxy climate records to piece together a reliable global record," said Mann. "With the considerably expanded networks of data now available, we can indeed obtain a reliable long-term record without using tree rings," he added.

The new study shows that, with caveats, tree-ring data can be used, but that even without including that data, it is clear that the anomalous nature of recent warmth, which most scientists believe to be a result of human impacts on climate, is a reality. These findings were published on Tuesday's online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .

(via Times of India.)

How much does a green building really cost?

Green building skeptics sometimes argue that it's difficult or even impossible to build green without paying a big cost premium. But real-world examples show that you can complete a LEED-certified green building project for an average of 2 percent more in upfront costs, and sometimes even below standard market construction costs. Plus, any extra first costs you pay can be recovered through faster lease-up rates, rental premiums and increased market valuation. And by making experienced green building professionals a part of your team and learning to control costs, you can escape paying any green premium at all as early as your second green building project.

A 2004 study by Davis Langdon Adamson, a construction cost-planning and management company, found that the first costs of constructing a sustainable building tend to match or only slightly exceed those of comparable non-green buildings. The study, Costing Green: A Comprehensive Cost Database and Budgeting Methodology (click here to see the report, in pdf), measured the square-foot construction costs of 61 buildings seeking certification under the LEED green building rating system against those of buildings of similar type that did not aim for sustainability. Taking into account a range of construction factors including climate, location, market conditions and local standards, the study found that for many of the green projects, pursuing LEED certification had little or no budgetary impact.

The study's findings also underline that incorporating and integrating green features into a project early is critical to the success of any green building project. "It is the choices made during design which will ultimately determine whether a building can be sustainable, not the budget set," the report concluded.

In addition, in order to accurately evaluate the impact of green building on your budget, it's important to look beyond first costs. Increasingly, architects and procurement specialists are using "life-cycle assessments" (LCA) to evaluate and quantify the economic and environmental costs and benefits of materials and products over their lives. LCA analysis methods are becoming more standardized and tools such as LCie are emerging to provide comparable product-level evaluations.

Click here for links to LCA analysis resources »

Is your home loan crushing you?

How badly is the EMI (equated monthly instalment) of your home loan messing up your budget? Over the last four years, the interest rate on home loans has risen from the bottom of about 7.75 per cent in 2004 to about 12.75 per cent now for existing customers. During the initial period of the rise, your lender bank or housing finance company (HFC) increased the loan tenure, till it went up to the end of your expected working life. Then it started bumping up the EMIs. Your total interest burden would have more than doubled from what it was in 2004 unless you have already prepaid substantial chunks of your principal.

This larger loan burden comes at a time when rising prices are putting pressure on your budget anyway. To cap inflation, the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have been tightening the screws on liquidity. The RBI has increased the cash reserve ratio (the amount banks set aside with the RBI) and the repo rate (the rate at which banks borrow from the RBI), sucking out cash. So, banks are having to pay higher interest on deposits to bring in cash. To make money on these higher-cost funds, they have had to hike lending rates. This has pushed up the overall interest rates.

The biggest impact of this increase is on home loans. Those who took fixed rate loans have been guarded against this since the rate is likely to be reviewed after five years or so. However, those who took floating rate loans have borne the brunt of the rate hike, seeing their repayment tenures and EMIs shooting up.

While there have been reports of suicides over inability to repay home loans in the US after the sub-prime crisis, we haven’t heard anything such in India yet. But the task of making ends meet without losing the roof over one’s head is stressing people out. So, how do you ease the pressure, even partially?

THE SHOCKS
To find a way out, you have to understand how interest rates are set. Banks calculate their own cost of funds from various sources. Above that, they fix the prime lending rate (PLR), a rate at which they lend money to their best or least risky customers. Normally, all banks also fix a benchmark PLR (BPLR). All loans are linked to the BPLR. When interest rises, the PLR and the BPLR increase. This, in turn, pushes up the rates for the floating home loan buyers, since the rate of interest they pay is linked to the BPLR. Then comes the increase in loan tenure and, subsequently, EMIs.

Longer tenure, higher EMIs. Take the case of a 30-year-old who had taken a Rs 30-lakh home loan in 2004. At an interest rate of 7.75 per cent per annum then, he was supposed to pay an EMI of Rs 24,628 for 240 months to repay his loan. Typically, most banks provide a loan tenure of up to 240 months. The total interest outgo over this period would have been Rs 29 lakh. So, the total cost of his home would have been Rs 59 lakh. By 2006, when interest moved to 9.5 per cent on the same loan, on the same EMI, the tenure was pushed to 26.61 years. A 1.75 per cent increase in the interest rate pushing up the tenure by 8.61 years!

Higher interest outgo. Today the same loan runs on an interest rate of 12.75 per cent. Over the last four years, the bulk of what he has been repaying as EMI is interest. So, he still has an outstanding principal of Rs 27 lakh to repay and his EMI is up to Rs 29,774. This is what the situation is: a loan, originally for 240 months with an EMI of Rs 24,628, gets rolled into one for 319 months with an EMI of Rs 29,774. The horror story does not end there. On the outstanding principal of Rs 27 lakh now, the total interest burden for 26.61 years is a whopping Rs 68 lakh, and the total cost of the Rs 30-lakh home has become Rs 98 lakh, including Rs 3 lakh that has already been paid.

Higher total cost. Every time the interest rate goes up by 0.25 percentage points, the repayment period gets longer. For instance, on a loan at 9 per cent, if the original repayment tenure was 240 months, a 0.25 percentage point increase after, say, a year lengthens the remaining payback period by 11 months to 239 months. A 1 percentage point increase prolongs the tenure by 60 months, taking the total tenure to about 288 months (see With Every Hike). With the loan amount constant, more the number of EMIs you pay, the higher the interest cost, and, therefore, the total cost of your home.

Typically, for a buyer, it is difficult to look at his home in a clinical sort of way. The emotions and other intangibles play a strong role. He’ll usually try to cut back on everything else to retain the house, even if its cost has gone way above what he was looking at when he bought it. Even though he doesn’t, strictly speaking, own the home yet, in his mind he does. Thus, selling is not really an option. So, what can he do to reduce the financial pressure?

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