Hosur Awesomeness!

The title of this post itself gives away the amazing time we had in Hosur. Since we didn't make it to the Crocodile Bank this weekend, we went to Jackson and Arzu's Farmhouse in Hosur, Tamil Nadu. Needless to say it was a brilliant experience.

Being not very fond of road trips and on top of that being in a cramped car,I was thankful to reach in one piece. The journey was of a few hours and we had a few breaks for fuel and food. When we finally arrived, we were overwhelmed by the place. It's been designed by Arzu's mom and is really incredible. It really encompasses the idea of innovative design. Every aspect of it seems well thought of and all of it has been brought together to form a great house. After a brief recce of the house and some food we got to work.

So to plaster we need to mix soil, sand and cement in 1:3:1 ratio. So we sifted our ingredients and mixed them in this proportion, added water and proceeded towards the oven that needed plastering. Jackson showed us how to do it, and so with little plastic pieces we started on the structure, sometimes maneuvering with our hands. We filled in the gaps and tried at the same time to maintain the relief design on the oven. The oven had been lighted a bit, to dry it up completely.After that we painted over it with mud and water,thus restoring it's natural colour. After this dries off, a final coat of plaster will be put on it. We finished fairly quickly, within an hour I guess, may be because there were so many of us and also because the pool was calling out to us. And that was it. Work over.

We jumped into the pool and the rest is history. It was total epicness. We swam, played, tried to touch the bottom of the 14 feet pool and what not. After a couple of hours we  finally began our journey out of the pool, with some difficulty I must add. We dripped into our rooms, and one by one took our baths. Finally clean (somewhat) we proceeded into an evening of music and singing. Trying to remember every song that we could remember, we sang to Devasheesh's guitar and Arnab was the star of the night.

Some food down and more music later, we were ready to fall asleep, but we kept ourselves awake. We lit our bonfire and brought out  a farewell cake for Arnab. After some epic mimicry from Shail and lots of appreciations for Arnab we got  a little sentimental, as it was Arnab's official last class with us. So with that and the fire crackling behind us, we danced the night away, with Xavier's car belting out one song after another.But we weren't done of course and the next round in the pool began at some 1:00 am in the night. The water was incredibly cold and somehow we managed. After an hour or two of fun, we got out and went to our burning out bonfire which felt so good against our freezing skin. We roasted potatoes and sat by the fire and ate them, all the while really living the term, 'hot potatoes'. We finally called it a night after that and barely had my head hit the pillow, that I was gone. It was 4:00 am at that time.

We got up some four hours later. Had breakfast quickly and started planning our trip back. Got our stuff together and did some last minute photo(and photobombing) sessions. So everyone has an ample supply of photos for Facebook now.

With a heavy heart and lots of memories we left. But Jackson let us know that we will be returning. So really waiting for that!!
See you soon Hosur!

Natural Building

Carbon Footprint. Ever heard of this word? It is the total set of greenhouse gas emissions caused by an organization, event, product or person.What are the ways that we can reduce it and give our future generations a sustainable future? Or a future at all for that matter.

One of the best and slowly getting popular way is Nature Building. This is what we've been learning about and doing for the past couple of weeks. Not only is it inexpensive, it is also eco friendly and economical. All the materials used are from the earth and can go back go the earth if anything is left. Hence there is almost no wastage at all. Thus a general earthen house construction site does not have something called a 'dumpster'. 

You spend much less than what a normal modern house costs as everything you need can be found easily and sometimes in your own backyard. It also makes you connect with the earth in a way that is not possible in our concrete homes. The materials that we use in this process include cob, clay, bamboo, fibers etc. They are easily decomposable and do not contain any chemicals at all. Also this kind of building can be done by people of all ages including elders and kids as there are no heavy objects to carry and any chance of an accident is almost nil.  

The kind of peace that you get when you live in a house made out earth is incomparable, as it seems as if it is growing out of the earth itself. 

Nature as it is not linear. The buildings of today are very monotonous, angular and full of rectilinear lines and unbroken colours. When we are in a natural place like a jungle or a park, the environment has a soothing effect of our eyes. So when we built houses out of these very substances, they also are not very geometric. Thus just being in this atmosphere, can calm one down. And when you are calm and not spending much on building a house, more opportunities open up for you as you aren't wasting money on processed industrial materials and goods.

These houses are durable and some earthen houses in India have been around for more than a thousand years and in this time almost forty generations have come and gone. So basically a house we build now will be around for a really long time and will give our future generations a clean, green future. Also the materials used are very healthy as compared to the toxins we intake whilst living in a concrete house. 

This concept is still coming up and is spreading fast and vast. Many people are switching to earthen houses and in the long run, this practice is going to be beneficial to all. So really it encompasses the idea of, "Think global, act local".

Week 6-More to come!!

August 22,2013

Week 6 is our last week at Terrapin before workshop starts and yesterday was our last day there as we have a field trip tomorrow. Yay! So it was quite a random day as we strove to finish all our work as we come back here after three weeks.
From the tool mastery component I got blade sharpening off my list and started shaving the bamboo for our basket into thinner strips to take back home as they'll get dry here. So we need to soak them in water and start weaving as soon as possible. As I speak, they are lying in a bucket of water, just soaking away.

Also, we finally finished our bigger dome. We had to make the mud mix a couple of times, but finally completed it. We put bottles on top, made two entrances, an overhead porch sort of thing for the upper entrance to stop water from coming in. We didn't fix the ramp as yet as we still fear for its safety from the rabbits and plus we're coming after three weeks, so it should look pretty for the final unveiling. We covered the structure with tarpaulin and are looking forward to seeing it soon.
Kinnary and I shall finish the basket by then. If we run out of bamboo, we'll have to wait till we go back after workshop obviously. Also there was a sculpture element in our class yesterday as we proceeded to make small mud sculptures from a rice husk mud mix. Our crew sadly couldn't join as we had to finish our structure. But it was fun all the same to see all the things everyone had made.

Looking forward to Hosur, plastering and obviously the awesome pool!!

Week 5-Terrapin Farms

August 16, 17, 2013

We came back to Terrapin to see our smaller domes relatively dry and set in search for a suitable place for our bigger one. This one has to be built in place and we found a nice, cozy spot for it inside one of the hen cages with a lot of rabbits around. As half of us set into building the dome, the other half started making the basket.
Kinnary and I were in the basket group and we started the tedious process of splitting bamboo for the basket for our smaller dome. A few grueling hours and several cut fingers later, we had our basic skeleton ready. We tied the ends together alternatively so that the basket would not lose shape as we started weaving it.
After lunch we mud painted each other's faces before working. Just when we were going to start weaving, the heavens started pouring down on us. It started raining cats and dogs. We quickly covered our structures and waited for the downpour to subside. But after a while, we realized that we were waiting in vain and the rain was refusing to go away. So after some hot tea, we called it a day.

The next day when we reached Terrapin, we were dismayed to see that half of the bamboo we had split had gotten blown away in the rain the day before. Quite a frustrating situation as splitting bamboo can take ages.
Jackson showed us some knots that can be very useful when tying or carrying bamboo. This included the clove hitch, etc. We got ropes and started practicing on pieces of bamboo and ourselves. After that we did some soil testing by putting soil in a jar with water and shaking it up. The first layer to settle is sand, second is the silt and third is the clay. We labelled the first layer and let them set.
We made a huge mud mix and started our day. We switched roles and so it was my turn to go into the chicken shelter and work on the dome. They had already finished quite a bit and also put in bottles sticking in like perches. So along with a bit of foul odor and our rabbit friends we started working on it. We finished till the cylindrical part ends and cut out the two doorways. We put in the platform inside for the second story and also made the ramp for it. As the rabbits kept biting our ramp, we covered it with the brown rope after soaking it in water. This saved it from their gnawing as well as gave it a nice look.
The bamboo has been split for the basket. We should start hopefully by next week and also finish our big structure as we have a field trip on the weekend. So looking forward to that and loads of fun as it'll be our last week before workshop. Also we somewhat start on the wall next week and see if we can start plastering. So a lot to do!

Week 4-Terrapin

Today was the only day of the week that we came back to Terrapin. The main task was to finish covering the smaller dome that was to be fired. The clay today, however was pretty grainy and to separate the rocks from the soil was another task altogether. So till we got the fine wire mesh and sifted it properly and got the mix ready, it was way past lunch time. So it's easy to say that we were moving a bit slowly today.
While we were waiting, we honed our tool sharpening skills with Jackson.

Today in our mix however we used rise husk and the usual coconut fibers, so much so that the whole mud pile (and us)smelled of rice.
Finally we got around to covering the smaller structure using the techniques we learnt in BMS. Here however we covered the surface with wet newspaper before piling on the mud. This was so that it didn't fall into the gaps and we would get a uniform form without any faults as this would hinder the firing process and possibly make the structure crack. The rice husk is good for firing as it burns easily and leaves the structure compact. The inner bamboo skeleton also burns in the process leaving a smooth dome. As firing includes no plastering, whatever designs were too be made, had to be made today itself when the mud was still wet. So we created a pattern and an alcove for the entrance as well as some windows for our chicken friends.

We have to leave the structure to dry for at least two weeks before firing. So we shall work on the other aspects of this design, that is the basket and also the other design needs to be completed, put mud on and plastered. So lots needs to happen within a small span as we've already lost a lot of time. Need to put in that extra effort now. A few more weeks in Terrapin to come.

Back to Terrapin

After two weeks we returned to Terrapin Farms, back to catering to our dear chicken friends' needs.We split a lot of bamboo, splintered our hands and got into making our dome structures.

Something I forgot about earlier was how we bent bamboo using a blow torch. Suddenly it came back to me today as we started the long bamboo procedure. Today we were told that along with the journal and the blog, we need to choose a skill that we want to better in and excel and basically hone ourselves. 

Today, along with the normal old bamboo, we also got ourselves some young, green bamboo shoots, straight from the farm itself. The green ones we are using for a raised platform for the structures that need to be on an elevation. Also they're real smooth and cut like butter, so this along with the normal bamboo makes our life a bit easier. 

After lunch we proceeded to making these domes. Now each crew gets two designs to make. Anyway we started with the inner skeleton of the dome. We used the technique that we'd used in BMS and weaved bamboo together to be made into a cylinder. The vertical lines we made with brown bamboo and the horizontal with green bamboo so that it would be easier to bend it into  a circular form. With the correct measurements we managed to this. Also for the top we are making a basket. This will come on top of the cylinder and we will interweave it together to get our dome structure. 

We looked at the other groups' progress and observed their technique as well as gave them feedback. 

It all ended with us studying our surroundings and doing some journalling. Finding a pattern which we could use later. Anything which interests us. Basically finding our zen.  

It's good to be back.

Today we worked on our structures some more.Hope to finish two designs by tomorrow. 

We completed the skeleton for the smaller dome.This will be the one that gets fired. The bigger one won't be. We also are going to complete the walls of a shed over there.