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on record
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on record Tribal wisdom believes in sustaining a society for six generations whereas celebrated leaders like Madame Brundtland talk of sustaining it for two generations. Our understanding of sustainability seems more sustainable.
How do you define green architecture?
The complete philosophy and content of architecture education in India is West oriented. Vernacular traditions are completely ignored. We create buildings copying western ideas, with Corinthian columns from Italy and Dormer windows from England. Traditionally, we made stone houses in Jaisalmer, used a lot of wood in Gujarat, and bamboo in the Northeast. These materials suited the local environment and were easily available. The pursuit of modern architecture made everyone use glass and concrete. When you respect the elements — land, light, air, water — and maximise their use by minimising dependence on energy, that in my opinion is green architecture. You are accused of being anti-modern. I am not anti-modern. I am not against some of the so-called modern materials like glass, but I wish these materials are used intelligently. In Indian climate if you use glass in east-west direction, it turns the house into a furnace. For us 40 per cent openings give enough natural light. We are not living in Europe. We do not need 120 per cent opening for light. More light brings more heat. Technically, green architecture can be afforded by all; the rich and poor alike. In fact, the poor adhere to green architecture because they are frugal and sensible. For the rich, it is fashionable to use fancy materials, which are not friendly to environment conservation. Design should be in correlation with our culture. With so much dependence on electronic gadgets, how is it possible? First, we should know what we want from architecture. The focus should be on the performance of a building. It should respect the elements of nature. There are ways to provide enough light even in a building that is 45 feet deep, beyond that one can use skylights. We have taken so much from nature and have returned so little that we need to conserve now. We need to make self-sustainable buildings that should save 50 per cent use of water, 30 per cent in light and 30 per cent in energy cost. We should use only 50 per cent technology. For the remaining 50 per cent, we have a lot of wisdom in our passive traditional architecture. What is the Platinum Award and why only you have received it? In November 2003, the CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre got a platinum rating from the GBC. The building uses 80 per cent recycled material. We experimented with wind towers used in Sindh. The wind tower uses a chhajja (canopy) on top of the roof from where the wind would pass through a duct, with matka on its opening. The winds passing through the duct would get moisture from the water dripping from the pitcher and get heavy. This wind would be cooler by 5 to 7 degrees. We made four such towers, which were able to bring the temperature down from 40 degrees to 27-29 degrees and then pass through air handling units. The building used a lot of jaali, etc. for cooling. The building could save 62 per cent energy. Despite the fact that they did not understand many concepts, India was asked to co-chair the World GBC and US GBC wanted a franchise. Our approach was respected. There are 197 ratings in the world and we adopted the Indian version of US GBC and called it IGBC. We need our own rating because, for example, in the US water is not the focus of architecture. For us, conservation of water should earn more points. The GRIHA rating, founded by TERI, is the national rating system for green buildings in India. You won the nomination for Champaner, a 14th century city, for India’s nomination to Unesco for World Heritage Status in 2004. How did you succeed? My Guru had done remarkable ground-breaking work on the site. When we presented our case, our dossier was three-and-a- half feet above the ground level, and the documentation was done with world class quality and precision. We have given an integrated management plan for the site and got a legislation passed in Gujarat for the protection of the site. We are not anti-development. We have to take our heritage seriously to save what we have and make it sustainable because we are stakeholders. You have worked with tribals and have learnt a lot from them. What made this project a success? We have come up with an incredible building in Tejgarh, Gujarat, over the last 16 years, but funding was a deterrent for our client — NGO Bhasha. The building is raised incorporating the tribal wisdom that believes in sustaining a society for six generations whereas celebrated leaders like Madame Brundtland talk of sustaining a society for two generations. Our understanding of sustainability seems more sustainable than of the West. How could you achieve so many diverse things? Diversity makes me grow and it makes me different. I am not saying this with any ego. When you work on several kinds of projects, each one sustains the other; the energy, the wisdom gets integrated. I believe if you are passionate about what you do, it adds purpose to your life. Then, there is delight in your work and you can work
happily.
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profile
Prof Ashoke Sen
is one of the richest professors in the world, having been conferred an award with prize money almost three times that of a Nobel Prize in physics. He is a reclusive particle physicist working from a non-descript laboratory at the Harish-Chandra Research Institute in Allahabad. He says he was surprised on being given the award since he had not heard about it until he received a call from the sponsors of the award. He was also honoured with Padma Bhushan last week. His wife is also a physicist and works at the same institute. The professor likes to walk and cook fried fish. For someone working on the frontiers of knowledge, he admits he has “absolutely no religious inclinations”, though he respects all faiths. He says he has not decided what he will do with this windfall. But unless he or his parent institution, the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), applies for a tax exemption, he could lose $1m in taxes. Ratan Kumar Sinha, a nuclear engineer and head of the DAE, says: “Since this is a rare recognition, we can try to get a special tax waiver for this award.” Prof Sen, however, says he would be happy to pay the tax. He was educated at the University of Calcutta and Stony Brook University in the US. Asked if he faced any disadvantage working in India, he says: “In theoretical physics, one can in principle work from any place as long as one has a computer and an Internet connection. So, I do not find any disadvantage of being in Allahabad.” Rohini Godbole, his batchmate from Stony Brook and theoretical physicist, quoted Sen as saying recently: “There are no excuses for theoretical physicists not to perform and deliver.” Asked what made him pursue a career in physics, he says: “There were several factors. My father was a physics teacher and when I was growing up, physics was the most popular subject. In my batch, five of the top 10 scorers in the examination studied physics with me at Presidency College, Kolkata. I got motivated to work in string theory after a discovery by Michael Green and John Schwarz in 1984.” In reply to a question if string theory can help understand the origin of life, he says: “Using this theory to understand the origin of life will be like using atomic physics to understand how an umbrella works. Of course, eventually an umbrella opens and closes by the combined effect of gravitational and electromagnetic forces between the atoms, but we do not need detailed knowledge of these forces to design an umbrella. Similarly, the origin of life should be understood using chemistry.”
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good news IN an area where addiction is treated as the norm rather than a vice and the few who disagree keep quiet fearing for their lives and families, he is the lone reformer who stood up against the menace. The Kazi Mandi-Santoshi Nagar area, known as the dirty underbelly of the city, where almost every house has an addict (dead or alive), 39-year-old Murugan is the only person who has had the vision and the gumption to dream of a better tomorrow.
This, despite the fact that he knew his fight was not with petty criminals, but the drug mafia itself. Belonging to a family of South Indian migrants, Murugan, who originally hails from Salem, was born and brought up in the Santoshi Nagar area where his mother sells vegetables and father runs a grocery store. A tailor by day, Murugan got sick of everyday feuds in the area and was distraught after some of his close friends died of addiction. He took it upon himself to reform the youths of the area, starting a gymnasium facility for them. What started as a little gymnasium (which was faced with some pretty stiff opposition) in the year 2006, is now a movement in the area that has reformed at least 200 men from the menace of addiction. At present, his gymnasium has at least 80 former addicts who are now sober. They have not touched liquor or drugs since ages. At least 10 to 15 of the members of his gymnasium are youngsters below 18 years of age who were former addicts. “They do not go to school, but they are reformed,” he says. The start “There were few families near my house who lost all their sons to addiction. In one of the families, the mother lost sanity after three of her sons died because of addiction. No one heard the cries of these people. I thought someone had to end this. My own son is 17 years old. What if he becomes an addict? Aren’t these other men someone’s sons?” Murugan asks. A full-time tailor in 2006, Murugan decided to ‘be’ the change. “I bought some cheap second-hand equipment with money borrowed from my Ustad ji (tailor) and a couple of thousands from my friends. Except these few people, all who heard of my plans either called me crazy or suicidal,” he says. In the beginning, he faced fierce opposition. The first attempt to open the gymnasium was derailed after some local goons started a liquor vend on the ground floor of the same building. Efforts to get another liquor vend in the neighbourhood closed landed him in soup, with cases being registered against him and his relatives. He also spent nights running around. But not the one to give up, he sold a property in his native town Salem and started a gymnasium on top of his own house. Words of gratitude do not stop pouring in for him. At least five to six parents come to him every day, thanking him for reforming the brutes that their children used to be. While his is not a formal or recognised de-addiction centre, he says his motivation to keep them on the right track. A milk and fruit diet and 40 minutes of gymming daily is what keeps his place going. “I have no hi-tech equipment, but my little place is considered as an oasis by many and the people who come in, say they have never experienced love like this elsewhere,” Murugan says. Committed, driven Addicts are a strict no-no. “Once a boy has joined my class, I do not let him enter with drugs or liquor on their breath or on his person. Suspicious cases are turned away right at the door. My gym members have no place for addiction,” he says. Interestingly, while Murugan is also a fierce activist who has flooded various officials with complaints about area vends and liquor kingpin, there has so far been no monetary support for him by the government, locals or politicians despite his mammoth efforts. The only source of money is gymnasium members who pay according to their financial resources. There have been times when he has had to sell household items and gold jewellery to keeps the gymnasium afloat. Though he needs a bigger space and better equipment, he cannot expand owing to financial constraints. Addicts below 18 years of age and the poor are taken in for free. About long-term solutions for the area, he says, “As long as politicians shelter the goons, liquor will keep flowing in the Kazi Mandi area.” Talking about a recent seizure of illicit liquor, he says, things are much better. “We have plans if they try to make the liquor flow again,” he quips.
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The prize was set up by Yuri Milner, a Russian Internet entrepreneur, and some call it the “Russian Nobel Prize”. In its inaugural year, it has been awarded to eight others and Prof Sen, working in an esoteric branch of physics called the string theory, is the only Indian to get it. 