A sustainable symbiosis between man, nature & design

Today, curtain glazing is considered environment friendly and dependence on air conditioners inevitable. There are also innumerable and conveniently flexible definitions of 'Sustainability' and 'Green'.

In such a phase, it may be worthwhile to examine a design resolution that relies on common sense and traditional wisdom to create comfortable built environment without mechanised services or energy intensive devices. We are talking about Environmental Sanitation Institute (ESI), Sughad that, on its campus, exhibits sustainable symbiosis between man, nature and architecture.

The built form of ESI Sughad, epitomising and demonstrating understanding of environmental sustainability, is a veritable showcase of an effort to maintain the ecological balance and harmony with nature in hot and dry climate.

Orientation to regulate breeze and reduce solar gain are responses to macro-climatic conditions of the site. Increased massing towards the south-west exploits shaded areas to the north-east by accommodating activity areas, courts and streets along them. Terraces facing north in upper floors, decks and open to sky plinths provide multiple use probabilities. Fenestrations regulated to enhance convective heat loss and optimise day light are features integrated with
the design.

Ventilated cavity walls in brick insulate the interiors from high ambient atmospheric temperatures and incoming solar radiation.

Subterranean built form along with shared adjacent walls prevents excessive heat gain from exposure to the sun. Massing is selectively configured to provide mutual shade, maximise shadow, and break up continuous surfaces, thereby reducing reflected glare. Overhangs determined by shadow-throw studies and sun angle analysis over the year control solar penetration. They also help in reducing atmospheric glare in the interiors.
Landscape design facilitates and fosters microclimate control.

Local shading by trees is used to an advantage in situations with south-facing walls. Landscape, as renewable resource, is edible with fruiting and herbal trees. Land management and landscape treatment in terms of cut and fill on the flat site for solar passive design like berming, evaporative cooling and sunk levels also create spatial and visual interest.

Orchards and kitchen gardens are active and productive means of optimising available resources like land in the setback margin, treated sullage for irrigation, mulched organic waste from the kitchen as manure, etc. These features, not only absorb these effluents, but also participate to sustain the system and actually add value.

The combined water requirement of the institute for drinking, sanitation and gardening purposes has been met by rainwater harvesting. Twenty lakh litre of water are collected from roofs and open grounds and gardens. The clearer and unsullied water collected from the roof is stored in an underground tank.

Controlled amount of the surface runoff is stored in an open air tank. This is a major feature in the landscape of the garden and also supplements water for gardening.

Ground water recharged from percolating wells is combined with sullage treatment by root-zone tanks to the ecosystem in a natural and harmless fashion.

Solid organic waste is use to make biogas which fuels the kitchen. Lavatories designed with minimised water-borne carriage system enhance performance of these techniques. They, at the same time, maintain high standards of sanitation.

In addition to solar passive, solar active systems are also installed to pump water, heat water as well as to cook food. This balance of priorities, from energy to ecological sustainability, administrative ideology to design philosophy, all come together to create a high quality, low energy, sustainable environment that reflects the ideals it stands for without compromising on its international, contemporary outlook as a premier educational institute.

Where centrally air-conditioned malls consume 565 kilowatt hour energy per square meter per year, the institute's electricity consumption, over last six years, has remained a thirtieth of the present day malls and about half of a typical non air-conditioned residence.

Magic does not depend on devices. It relies on common sense and conviction in an idea.