LIFE-SIZE PLANNING AND DESIGN OF ABODE

LEARNING FROM PEOPLE

Let us get down to some basic issues, now.

Katkari Tribal hamlet in Maharashtra, India

Children play 'Homemaking'

Drawing your house with a stick or lime powder on ground yourself is elementary way to start designing. Children used to play 'ghar, ghar' (home, home) once upon a time, and find a right place. It's basic instinct. Now they play games on mobile phones (in cities).

A student of architecture was writing a thesis on topic 'Spaces for Children'. She gave one of several examples of children used ‘umbrella' for the game (in urban areas) for ‘house’. To build a shelter – a basic need – is an instinct, animal instinct.

You don't need a measure tape. You are the life-size measure and scale, both. 'Anguli, viti, haath, vaav, purush, 'foot' etc. are ancient Desi scales of measurements.

Clay is sustainable building material

You can also make a Model back at home. A lump of prepared clay for a model is excellent. A model in clay could be modified while working. Take care, when not working on it, to keep it moist and soft by covering it with damp cloth. For scale and proportion, take a paper cut-out of a human figure (picture) and fix with pin on the clay base of the clay model.

Many sculptors make 3D 'sketches' of their concepts in clay, not only on paper. See for example, Henry Moor. They believe clay, wood and stone are living materials, not POP or concrete.

(I introduced 'clay model' at Architecture College (AOA) in 1990s. Now, Malak, my friend, builds mud houses!).

I advocate self-help housing for EWS (Economically Weaker Section) projects by the Agencies - NGOs and Govt. Many people in the bracket of EWS, e.g. those living in slums, are peasants; they have skills in building and maintenance of their houses. Building by self-help, with limited budget, is most economical system.

Government introduces Third Party Intervention in Shelter

The fact is peasants practice Life-size Planning and Designing their Houses and Habitat. This practice has been going on for millennia. They are successful because they are one with Lind-Water-Life. But who could convince Agencies? They make paper plans because they want to control the resources, which are provided by Mother Nature – Srishti.
I am not an activist. Being vacationist I believe in action by self – by myself.

Remigius de Souza
(Mumbai | 21-01-15)

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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Hunger of Body and Mind & Sustainable Living

Hunger of Body and Mind & Sustainable living
by Remigius de Souza

Image - Engineer's Safety Key

(Author of this famous graphic not known; the interpretation is by Remigius de Souza)

We eat food to nourish body and also our mind by default. Hence wholesome food is elementary input to nourish mind.

Learning from books, as is mass education system, makes one dogmatic. It isn't enough also to see the world through media / Internet / books alone all the time.

We need to feed our mind also by watching down-to-earth reality under our feet, to feed and develop our perception, than merely on Virtual Reality.

With our entire senses alert, we put them to use that begins to watch self and around us; never to miss a detail as well as the whole, without bias.

Thus watching dispassionately we may witness reality as is. The Present, which is also the residue of the Past, then becomes all pervasive.

We then loose the shackles of the bygone past, as well as speculation of an unknown Future.

By actually holistic living here and Now, responsibly, we could spare a better tomorrow for the posterity, and enjoy ourselves wholesome Present. This is sustenance and Sustainable Living.

Living beyond the life of hydroponics

Food is considered our Basic Need. But like breathing, we are hardly aware of our action during eating-drinking.

We take Food for granted like Air that we breathe to keep us alive, more than our likes, dislikes and taste. This is a result of our prosperity – surplus economy – made possible by machine and market.
This also makes our thinking, working and thereby living a grand mechanical act, by default?

Are we either capable to produce even one percent of what we eat, or are we intelligent enough to perceive who produce our food? We are too busy to stop and think.

Are we not concerned about a large number of seven billion fellow humans go hungry?

Are we aware of our lifestyle on fast track that splurges resources taken from the earth on trivialities, which are actually 'external aids', particularly, in cities?

All this is in the name of “Our Lifestyle”: Indeed we live a life of hydroponics!

As Wealth and Waste grow in direct proportion, neither the rich nor the poor are spared from problems of heath – physical and mental. The rich suffer, for example, from obesity, while the poor are victims of malnutrition that cause sicknesses… Today’s story on BBC News Magazine, ‘India loses stomach for the pot belly’ gives a comprehensive picture.

Also read more on this issue: Civilization Trap In Our Era
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©Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.