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You are here: Home / Archives for Affordable Housing

Are we Building a Plastic World?

August 2, 2016

Have you seen wonders of the world? Let me show some of them to you –

The Great Pyramid
The Great Pyramid

Built with 2.3 million stone blocks that weighed around 2 – 10 tons (each) the Pyramid was built on 13.1 acres of land in the Egypt desert. The marvel of this structure is such that even today people wonder how an ancient man lifted such heavy blocks of stone without the aid of modern machinery and nor can we fathom the purpose of such a magnificent structure.

Stonehenge
Stonehenge

Britain’s national icon Stonehenge was built almost 5000 years ago and it still stands tall symbolizing mystery, power, and endurance.

 

Machu Pichu

A 15th-century citadel of Incan empire, Machu Pichu was built using large dry stones that were not fitted together with a mortar!

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Pyramid of Sun and Moon

Largest pyramids of Mexico, even today no one knows who built these wonderful structures and they have survived the wear and tear of time and nature with such resilience that belies wonder.

Why am I taking you on a history tour now?

My point is simple. The ancient man built huge megalithic structures using stones and they are a source of great wonder and repositories of history and culture that existed once. We look at them with great wonder and speculate various theories about how they were built. They are looked upon as heritage symbols and are protected with life and arms because they are precious remnants of an era that cannot be replicated, not even with modern machinery.

That said let us look at some of the wonders that we will be leaving this world with –

These giant sculptures are made from plastic found in sea and shore in our beaches.
These giant sculptures are made from plastic found in sea and shore in our beaches.

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Someone once said right that, “Nothing on this earth lasts forever. Except maybe plastic.”

It was a funny quote but the idea behind is certainly not hilarious by any measure.

Are you appalled?

We should be. Ancient man built splendorous wonders that stood for eons. What will our contribution be to the world? Plastic?

How did we get here?

A century ago the first plastic was invented and since then it has held us in thrall. Plastic boxes, containers, bags, toys and what not… By the time we realized the fact that we are contaminating our environment with this baneful invention we had created enough of them to cover entire continents under it.

Dangers of Plastic

Plastic is an imperfect product and it negatively impacts not only our environment but also our health. A municipal nightmare, plastic is a man-made disaster that is destroying our fragile eco-system.

Today we see plastic everywhere… all around us. It does not biodegrade and it sits and accumulates in landfills and pollutes the environment for years to come. Plastic is used everywhere and in all industries and our dependence is such that it would be very difficult to imagine a life without it. Our dependence stems from the fact that it is a durable product with incredible longevity and little did we expect that these very factors will prove it to be the bane of the environment.

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Take a walk down the road and tell me what you see… garbage dumps full of plastic covers. Where do you think they end up finally? They end up in our oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers polluting our waters. We eat food that is packed in plastic containers and in the end we imbibe it within our body.

Do you know our blood and urine contains measurable amounts of plastic?

Plastic pollution may not be evident as air or water pollution it is nonetheless a sad reality today. While microscopic plastic particles are polluting the air today, animals, bird, and fish are consuming big sized plastic bags that they find littered everywhere.

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What is of great concern here is that the mass of plastic that contaminates world’s oceans exceeds that of Plankton (small microscopic organisms that are a source of food to sea animals). What is appalling is the fact that there are patches of garbage in the ocean that are as large as the state of Texas!

The magnitude of what we have done is a bitter pill to swallow. Today 300 million tons of plastic are being produced every day even while we scratch our heads and wonder what to do with the plastic of yesterday!

Countering the Plastic Mania

For years we have been gripped by this plastic mania. Steel has given way to plastic in all our households. Thankfully the awareness against these has set in among the people and we are learning to say ‘no’ (albeit slowly) to plastics. One of the first measures that had me excited in India was the extra charge on plastic covers. An average middle-class Indian would think twice before paying Rs.5 for a plastic cover.

Nowadays, I see people shopping around with cloth bags in the supermarket and that’s very gratifying to see. It is a small wee step towards a plastic-free environment.

I recently read about a zero-waste grocery store that was opened in Germany and would be very happy to see something like that in India.

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When you step into this supermarket you will find food kept in bulk bins from which you can select the products. You will need to carry a bag of your own if you wish to shop here because nothing comes in a disposable bag, plastic cover or tetra packs here. You will not find endless shelves of overflowing products here, as everything is unpackaged.

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In many ways, shopping like this takes me back to simpler times of my childhood when milk can be bought in bottles and one needed to carry a cloth or wicker bag to get the groceries.

When an abandoned Futon sparked a great idea?

In the University of New Hampshire (US) a student named Alex Fried was moving out of his dorm after his freshman year. That’s when something near the dumpster caught his eye. It was a futon that in a reasonably good condition. Like any other student short of cash he was excited because he could use it in his new apartment. To his surprise when he opened the Futon he found that it was full of usable items! When he looked around the campus he found many such futons stuffed with items that were thrown out by its owners as waste.

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Alex soon realized that millions of students pass out of the University leaving behind tons of stuff that are deemed useless but in reality, only a very small fraction of it actually belongs to the dumpster and the rest like the futon can be reused.

This sparked a beginning of a campus organization called Trash2Treasure. The basic premise is very simple. The members of the organization collect usable items that would otherwise end up in the dumpster from the students who are moving out of the campus and sell it back to students who are moving into the campus.

How cool is that?

The money that they make from this program goes into organizing the sale for the next year… so and so forth.

If some of our own enterprising students can start a program in our Colleges and Universities how cool will it be?

I like the motto that they run their organization by – ‘When the only solution is a dumpster, everything looks like trash’

If we think beyond the dumpster umpteen possibilities open up for us.

Alex Fried didn’t stop with this innovative organization he thought beyond the scope of his own University, which is very commendable about this young man. Working with Trash2Treasure he salvaged more than 100 tons of material, recycled more than 2000 electronics and donated more than five tons of food and clothing to local shelters. That’s not all he saved his University more than $10,000 in disposal fees and raised money towards more sustainability programs.

Next, he started an organization called PLAN – Post Landfill Action Network a national expansion of Trash2Treasure that would help students in other Universities to develop similar recycling and reusing programs in the campuses.

This is a huge undertaking and it all began with a futon in a dumpster!

Mindboggling wouldn’t you agree?
Ocean Cleaning

Trying to clean up oceans is quite challenging. It would be like trying to remove water from a tub using a thimble while the tap is open! Plastic debris poses a great threat to the sea animals as it gets entangled with their digestive tracts and thus introducing dangerous chemicals into the food chain.

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Boyan Slat was a high-school Dutch student when he once went on a diving expedition. What he found under the ocean had a profound impact on him? He found more plastic than fish under the water, choking the fragile ecosystem of our oceans.

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Soon this Dutch inventor came up with an inventive design that would help clean the garbage patches in the ocean using the natural currents to sweep the debris into a fixed collection vessel that would be anchored to the sea floor. Today the prototypes of Slat’s invention are being tested in the ocean to clean plastic from the water.

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The way forward

Plastic pollution is a menace of our creation and unfortunately, it is our children who will suffer from it unless we consciously stop manufacturing it and say ‘no’ to it. While many cities and countries have adopted this adage we are still grappling with the original problem of how to dispose of it.

Thankfully science came up with an answer to it with Mealworms. Yes, there are worms that can eat plastic! These small bugs can apparently make a meal of Styrofoam and polystyrene plastic that were previously thought to be non-biodegradable and clear the landfill of these pollutants.

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When scientists fed 100 mealworms were given 34 – 39 milligrams of Styrofoam they converted half of the plastic into carbon dioxide and then excreted the rest in the form of biodegradable droppings that were deemed safe enough to be used as soil manure for crops!

Though more studies need to be conducted to see how these worms were able to ingest the plastic I am now optimistic about our future and hope that we do not leave a plastic world for the future generation.

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Can Solar Power rescue us from Greenhouse Effect?

July 26, 2016

A Solar Company wanted to build a solar farm in a village last year. The idea was to power the lights using solar energy.

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Unfortunately, the idea met with stiff opposition from the people in the village. They said, “Solar farms would suck up all the energy from the sun.” and a retired school teacher went on to say that the solar panels would prevent the plants from photosynthesizing and thereby stop them from growing!

In the end, the plan for the solar farm was dropped and the company moved on to other locations to set up the facility.

What is surprising is that this incident didn’t happen in a village in Indian states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh or Bihar where illiteracy is rampant. It happened in a village in North Carolina, US.

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Are you shocked?

Well, I guess many were. It totally brings home the fact as to how unaware people are about renewable energy and the means to use it even in a developed nation like the US.

Dangers of Climate Change

Sustainable energy is definitely the need of the hour and the recent Climate Change Paris Summit brought the focus on the basic fundamental issue that all countries had chosen to ignore for a long time. Energy resources are getting depleted and the planet is heating up.

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Earth’s average temperature has risen by 1.5°F during the past century and what is alarming is that it is slated to rise from 0.5 to 8.6°F in the next hundred years. Though the rise in temperature is small in scale, it i

s a grave cause for concern as its repercussions are of mammoth prop

ortions.

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Changes in the climate are already evident as they are resulting in unprecedented floods, intense droughts and severe heat wave in all parts of the world. Last year’s floods in India, UK brings home the fact that this change is happening faster than anyone anticipated.

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Greenhouse Effect
We studied about the Greenhouse Effect when in school and it is sad that we will witness its devastating effects first hand if we do not reduce our carbon footprint. Greenhouse gasses such as carbon-di-oxide traps the energy within the earth’s atmosphere resulting in an increase of temperature. Deforestation and burning of fossil fuels have resulted in an unprecedented rise in CO2 levels. If you see this chart published by NASA you will know the gravity of the situation.

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Extreme weather conditions are becoming the order of the day.

Oceans are warming up at an alarming rate. A new study of the oceans has reported that half the increase in global ocean heat occurred in the past two decades! Studies have attested to the fact that 35% of additional warmth is present deep underwater and extra heat is reaching depths of 2300ft now.

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Why does this matter?

It matters a great deal because warmer oceans means a rise in the sea level, powerful tropical storms, disappearing habitats and a disruptive ecosystem for plants and animals.

Measures to counter Greenhouse Effect

There are many ways to counter the greenhouse effect –

1. Planting more trees
2. Reducing the usage of plastic
3. Reducing the usage of vehicles
4. Using energy efficient appliances
5. Going solar

Planting trees are of paramount importance to preserve this planet. We have been saying this for decades now. A few months I read an article that brought a smile to my face. The King and Queen of Bhutan celebrated the birth of their Prince by planting 108,000 trees across the Himalayan Kingdom.

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What could be more heartening than this?

The Prince of Bhutan could have had the most fabulous party to celebrate his birth but his parents thought that it would be more prudent to give him a promise of a green world instead of a battered hot planet when he grows up.

I was much more happy to read this other news item too. An NRI couple Anil and Pamela Malhotra who were passionate about conserving forest and preserving wildlife bought over 300 acres of barren land in 1991 in Karnataka.

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Today you will not see a barren land there. It is a verdant forest home to many native wild animals and a wildlife sanctuary!

We certainly need more people like them on this planet. Wouldn’t you agree?

Solar Power

I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.
– Thomas Edison

Sadly, we are at a point where we are well on our way to exhaust coal and oil. Solar power is one of the best renewable energy sources left for our planet today. This non-polluting clean energy is not only reliable but also poses zero risks to the environment today. It doesn’t release harmful gasses into the atmosphere and nor does it need any extra fuel to produce electricity and there is no question of transportation of fuel, storage of radioactive waste involved here. Solar energy is a constant source of power that can be tapped anytime and the Sun is going to available for the next 5 Billion years according to science.

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Why are we not tapping this?

Tapping Solar Energy

To harness the solar power one needs photovoltaic cells, which utilizes a semi-conductor to absorb radiation from the sun. When the semi-conductor absorbs this radiation it emits electrons that are harnessed as electricity. Solar Panels require very little maintenance and they silently go about storing the sun’s energy without any hassles.

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Did you know the energy that the sun provides to the entire Earth for one hour can meet the global energy needs for an entire year? The saddest part of this statistic is that we are able to harness only 0.001% of that energy.

Save on Electricity

Kelly and Tom Hippler in Sharon, a small suburb near Boston, Massachusetts opted for Solar power to try and reduce their electricity bills. They installed solar panels on the roof of their Colonial-style home in 2015. Thanks to the US federal tax credit the installation of solar panel cost them around $31,500 but it was well worth the investment because their electricity bill was zero as the sustainable energy of solar power took care of their power needs for their 3500 sq feet house! That’s not all! They were able to save up enough solar power to give it back to their company earning them a small credit on top of the savings.

 

Solar Appliances

There is a whole host of solar appliances that can be used as well to reduce the greenhouse effect – Solar Lamps, Solar Air Conditioning, Solar Charger, Solar Cooker etc. What more you even have solar panels on space crafts to derive electricity from the sunlight!

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I was very excited to learn that Solar Air Conditioners have come into the market. Come summer air conditioners start buzzing in all our homes and offices so much so that people start saving money just to pay their electricity bills. The electricity that air conditioners consume is 30% to 40% higher than the total electricity used in a household. By switching to solar air conditioners, you will be saving on astronomical electricity bills and will also reduce the load on the electricity grid.

Solar lights are yet another thing that makes a great lot of sense especially in a country like ours. Solar street lights are easy to maintain when compared to traditional lights and there are no external wires involved here hence no chance of accidents. These lights work through the day to gather the solar energy and then work during the night illuminating the streets.

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It is very heartening to see our country moving ahead on the sustainable energy lane to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and electricity. On the heels of historic Paris Climate Summit many meaningful measures have been undertaken by the govt. to bring in sustainable energy to our cities and villages. This is evident from the smart city proposals that they have floated, wherein 10% of the energy requirement of the city would be met by solar power. This is but a wee drop in the ocean but I am glad to see that we are at least initiating it in our country.

Solar Powered Cars

Have you heard of Bridgestone World Solar Car Challenge?

No?

In 1982 Hans Tholstrup and Larry Perkins took out their home-built solar car for a ride across Australia from west to east and this inspired many others to explore the boundaries of solar-powered transportation. Since 1987, World Solar Challenge has showcased the advanced automotive technology that harnesses solar energy as an alternative to conservative fuel-driven vehicles.

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This year an all-star team of 17 Michigan University students raced a solar car that took them two years to build. Aerodynamically designed this lightweight solar-powered vehicle can reach speeds up to 100 miles per hour raced through 1900 miles of the Australian outback and came fourth which is remarkable considering that their solar car was built by students.

How awesome would it be if we all could drive a solar powered card? No more pollution… smog… or smoke. No need to pay for petrol or diesel! Just get some sunshine and be on your way!

While this is exciting to contemplate I am right now happy to see India trying to introduce solar buses! An initiative of the government, which will soon be launched in Pune, Mumbai and Bangalore, will certainly reduce the dependence on fossil fuel and reduce the carbon footprint.

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World’s Largest Desert Solar Plant

Do you where the world’s largest desert solar plant has been installed?

It went live in Morocco in the desert of Sahara near the city of Ouarzazate. According to researchers this solar power plant is capable of powering over one million homes by 2018 and will reduce the carbon footprint by 760,000 tons per year.

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That’s a massive undertaking and this is exactly what we need in our country as well. Apart from creating a cleaner environment it will also create a new job market and improve the quality of our life.

I feel that awareness is lacking in most of us where renewable energy is concerned. If a village in the US can go ahead and reject a solar farm I am worried as to what our own villagers might do. While the technology to tap into Solar energy is in place we need more people who would take the leap and implement it boldly.

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From Fracking to Solar Power – An Inspirational Journey of a Sussex Village

July 19, 2016

On July 25, 2013, Balcombe, a sleepy village in Sussex (UK) woke up to protests and demonstrations by 100 odd protestors who were trying to block a lorry from entering a test drilling site.

Protestors at Balcombe

These young protestors were on the streets because Cuadrilla, an Oil and Gas Exploration company in the UK were attempting to drill 3000 feet (900 meters) vertical well to test for oil.

Cuadrilla Drilling Site in Balcombe

Are you wondering as to why this is such a big deal? They are just drilling to test for oil… why should that spark a protest? Let me explain why…

The vertical well that was being drilled at Balcombe is called Fracking. It is a process where a hole is drilled into the earth and a high-pressure water mixture is directed into the rock thereby releasing the shale gas (natural gas that is trapped within rocks). When water, sand and chemicals are injected into the rock at high pressure the gas that there are within the surface gets released and new pathways are created to release this gas.

Shale Gas Extraction

Why is the UK government keen in Fracking?

In the UK, two large reserves of Shale gas have been identified in Northern England and more than 100 licenses have been awarded by the Government to many firms encouraging them to pursue oil and gas exploration activities. Fracking has significantly boosted the domestic oil production in the US and has reduced the gas prices.

Shale Gas Reserves

I am not surprised that the UK too wishes to tread the same path, as it would contribute significantly to its energy needs. Apart from the obvious advantage of procuring energy reserves, the industry bodies in the country have also predicted that this would create thousands of jobs – an enticing prospect for a country that has been in the grip of a recession.

Dangers of Fracking

While Fracking helps to tap into natural gas reserves on the surface of the earth there are many environmental concerns related to the process –

•    Groundwater contamination

Jessica, Justin, and Joshua Ely hold bottles of water at their house in Dimock. The one at center, is contaminated water from their tap.

•    Methane pollution
•    Air pollution
•    Toxic chemical exposure

Carol French of the Pennsylvania Landowner Group for the Awareness and Solutions (PLGAS) holds a jar of contaminated water from the well that supplies her home in Bradford County. French, a mid-size dairy farmer, leased land to the gas industry but found information about the impacts of the hydraulic fracturing drilling process on land, water and roads is lacking. French has spoken at public events in the eastern United States to inform local residents about her experience with the new technology and local impacts.

•    Dangerous blowouts due to gas explosion
•    Waste disposal

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•    Large water requirement especially in water deficient regions

If these concerns weren’t enough Fracking is also known to cause tremors in the earth when the fluid is injected into the shale rock under high pressure. A precedent for this happened in the United Kingdom when the first well to be fracked near Blackpool in the county of Lancashire was abandoned after it triggered an earth tremor. This resulted in an 18-month ban in the United Kingdom!

Now that I have given the back-story behind fracking and shale gas tapping, the fact about protests in Balcombe must be making sense to you now.

No Fracking!
                           

The protests began on July 25 and spread intensely throughout the country. Many notable human activists joined the protests and on July 31, 2013, they formed a ‘human lock’ to block the work at the test-drilling site. UK’s green MP Caroline Lucas got arrested for protesting along with the others.

Test drilling began at the site despite the protests and continued for the better part of the year costing the Sussex Police four million pounds!

By 2014, Cuadrilla scrapped the drilling process after they discovered that the rocks at the site contained natural fractures. The protestors moved away and the village of Balcombe was relieved if not happy that their area would be spared but there were many concerns that worried the residents.

One of the residents said, “The threat of fracking elsewhere in Sussex has not disappeared, with applications for drilling in Fernhurst and Wisborough Green by Celtique Energy. With mounting evidence of the threat climate change poses to our environment and economy, we should be developing clean energy solutions, not more dirty fossil fuels.”

Though these residents won the battle against the fracking, they lost the war to govt. policies.

The residents of Balcombe after successfully combating the threat of fracking process at their village decided to utilize nature’s clean energy to power their electricity. Working on a proposed 5-megawatt (MW) project the residents needed 18,500 solar panels to be installed to power the electricity.

Solar Power in Balcombe
              

What saddens me the most was the fact that despite the good intentions of these villagers to utilize clean energy in their village, they had to shelve their solar power community project. Ironically, days after the historic Paris Climate Change meet UK government cut 65% of financial aid to householders that have installed solar panels.

Despite these legislative changes, the Balcombe village went ahead and installed the solar panels in three sites, which continues to operate today. The community mega project is still a dream that they pursue with the hopes that a private investor might take an interest in it.

Innovate & Prosper,
Krish Murali Eswar.
murali@brickeagle.com

Filed Under: Affordable Housing Leave a Comment

A Dream Modern Green Affordable Village Home You can Build in just 3 Days

July 12, 2016

Building a Shire of my own…

I had been to a friend’s house recently. It was stylish and beautiful, filled with soft carpets, comfortable furniture, state-of-the-art utility equipment and glass walls that let in the wonderful view of the valley… but unfortunately, it was sweltering hot inside.

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Sure it will make a great photograph as it is attractive and pleasing but if you intend to live inside, you will need the air conditioning on all the time. Now that isn’t the most efficient means of conserving energy, is it?

The need to go green is no longer an option but a necessity. With the planet heating up, climate changing and energy resources depleting, the need for green building is upon us

Sadly, we sacrifice energy efficiency at the altar of style, beauty, and aesthetics – soaring ceilings that collect heat, ceiling to floor glass walls that gives a great view of the surroundings but increases the temperature within (especially if it faces west). The most common perception is that what is green cannot look good and what looks good cannot be energy efficient.

Let me break this conundrum for you.

Have you seen Lord of the Rings and the village of Hobbits where Frodo Baggins lives? (If you don’t do fantasy, then let me show you how it looked.)

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Won’t you call it an idyllic village with lush green grass, flowers, trees, fruits, lots of sunshine, serene breeze and peace?

What if I told you that we could build hobbit homes for real, that is energy efficient, sturdy, durable, flexible and needs very less maintenance, not to mention earthquake resistant, hurricane resistant…. Does it sound too good to be true? Check out this green building conceptualized and developed by Green Magic Homes.

Green Village Homes

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Green magic homes are built from Fiber Reinforced Polymer. Fiber Reinforced Polymer (Plastic) is a composite material made of a polymer matrix reinforced with fibres that are usually glass, carbon or aramid.

FRPs are extensively used in Aerospace, Automotive, Marine and Construction Industries. Off late FRPs are being increasingly considered as a substitute for infrastructure components such as concrete and steel. You might ask why? That’s because FRP Composites are lightweight, non-corrosive and have high tensile strength and specific stiffness that makes it easy to construct homes such as these.

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Built entirely with FRP Composites, these hobbit homes are waterproof, mould and pest resistant. They are naturally illuminated and they use the oldest and cheapest sustainable building material available with us – our earth.

The basic structure of green magic homes can be set up within just three days as they are made of individual Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) that can be bolted together to make different types of watertight rooms or modules. The basic 400 square-foot structure is capable of housing a small kitchen, lounge, and a dining room.

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Building these homes is an easy DIY that doesn’t require any special skill set. You can build it small or big depending upon your requirements. If you don’t want to use it as a home it can also be used as a – man den, guest room, garden room, a cave to meditate etc. The possibilities are endless.

Once the structure is put up, a layer of soil is used to cover it as insulation and the natural covering makes it possible to grow vegetables or foliage. Apart from the aesthetics (which is undeniably Tolkienesque) they help to keep the home warm in winter and cool in summer. In other words, you would literally be living under the ground!

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How durable are these Green Homes?

The components of Green Magic Homes come with a perforated flap that allows you to screw and seal the vaults together. It helps to anchor the structure to the ground enabling faster insulation. With these components, you can build a single man den or a series rooms, as they are totally flexible to build.

What excites me about these homes is the durability factor. These green homes come with a high stabilization index that can withstand earthquakes, tornadoes. According to the manufacturers, these hobbit homes can withstand an earthquake with a magnitude of 10 on the Richer scale!

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They are also known to resist the strong gale winds of a hurricane and what more they provide UV radiation protection too which makes these homes totally relevant to live in.

How to build a Hobbit Home?

I need to borrow Malcolm Wells’ (a pioneer of earth sheltered housing) to describe how an ideal green home should be – “A building should consume its own waste, maintain itself, match nature’s pace, provide wildlife habitat, moderate climate, and weather and be beautiful.”

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As I explain how the magic green homes work, you will see how well the above maxim sits with these structures. Each of the hobbit homes comes earth berms on the side of the structure and the roof is fashioned to lend stability and strength.

The technology behind these magic homes is a combination of various methods of earth construction that lends stabilization to the structure through superadobe and geotextiles and helps to keep the living earth and vegetation covering of the structures. The earth embankments that are also known as buttress helps to keep the insulation in place and makes the structure a part of nature. After covering the structure with soil, the embankments and the top layer are wrapped in geo-textile fabric.

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Geo Textile fabrics are used while building driveways, pavements etc. as they help reduce ruts and potholes. They also help reduce cracking and prolong the life of the road

The Geo-textile fabric helps to stabilize the earth that is deposited on top of the structure and nurtures the rooting action of plants and vegetation that makes this, a true hobbit’s home from the Shire.

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The beauty of this green home is that wherever these homes are built they become one with nature and blend with it seamlessly – be it a desert, ice capes, rivers or gardens.

The structure of these green homes utilizes vault geometry and curves and the earth berms and roof cover adds to the thermal mass of the structure thus providing carbon recycling, oxygen production and also helps to remove airborne pollutants!

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Easy to assemble, a basic hobbit home can be put up within three days. Once the components are assembled to form the basic shell, composite ducts, channels for electrical wiring, water pipes, and mechanical ventilation ducts can be added to them.

Solar and Wind Energy

The green magic homes are designed to be energy efficient units, therefore I was not surprised to learn that it was easy to fit in solar panels and wind turbines. And let me ask you this question? What could be more idyllic than living in a house covered by plants with your energy being powered by the ever shining sun and the wind?

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Sustainability

I feel that the word ‘sustainable’ is being thrown in quite a lot these days and just by fitting in a solar panel or a wind turbine, the house doesn’t necessarily become a green building. True sustainability is made up of many different facets. It begins with the building materials that we use, the planning of water enabling complete reuse, renewable energy sources through solar panels, wind turbines, and rainwater harvesting.

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I have seen many experimental green homes that have been built with sustainable materials but most of them have delivered questionable results. In most cases, the resultant structure was expensive which proves that they were not sustainable, to begin with.

I feel that these magic green homes cover all aspects of sustainability and the fact that we would be literally living underground in close proximity to nature makes this a very appealing prospect.

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One of the best things about these hobbit homes is the infinite opportunity that it provides us. They can be used as a meditation retreat (if you know me, you will not find that surprising), playroom, green room, workshop, study room, garden room, office (I would like to build one) and a holiday home.

Connecting with Nature

I think that somewhere along the line, we lost the ability to live among nature. We started living in buildings and our surroundings soon became concrete jungles that don’t even offer us a glimpse of the day unless we stare through a glass wall. How often do you see the stars in the sky? How often do you step out to enjoy a gentle breeze?

I can hear a resounding ‘no’ for most of my questions and I am not surprised.

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Today everything that comes from nature is dealt with great scepticism and suspicion. I pick up a fruit at the market and before I can take a bite out of it questions come swirling towards me,

“Is that organic?”

“Do you know that you have to wash that fruit for at least for half hour before you eat it?”

“Can I interest you in this wonderful product that has been invented just to wash off pesticides from the fruit that you hold?”

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I lost my appetite and can’t even blame these people for it. In our quest to make things beautiful, stylish, lovely and wholesome we are actively destroying the very thing that makes it so – our planet.

We build beautiful homes that suck the energy from their surroundings. We grow fruits and vegetables but poison it with chemicals just so that they are insect free. I yearn for the day when I can just pluck a fruit and eat it without any of these questions coming my way and if I have to build a Shire to get my heart’s desire, I might just do that.

Innovate & Prosper,
Krish Murali Eswar.
murali@brickeagle.com

Filed Under: Affordable Housing Leave a Comment

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