“ASRAYA” (Sanskrit word meaning Shelter)
The aim of the proposal is to create an alternative design solution to cater to the climatic and contextual needs of the affected community in the Southern Coastal Region of the Sundarbans, West Bengal, India.
Primarily residential units catering to the inhabitants who lost their homes to the repetitive cyclones the coast has been witnessing. We are providing a resilient solution which is easy to build and affordable with endemic resources. The design evolved from an exhaustive study concerning the tangible and intangible interface between the built and the unbuilt environment, respecting the ecological sanctity and habitat diversity of the location.
The solution will lay the foundation of development planning for a robust community housing cluster- to be replicated for wide-area application.
The problem we are attempting to solve is an integral part of the ‘living-context’ of our region of intervention, South 24 Parganas (Latitude: 22° 31' 48.00" N / Longitude: 88° 19' 48.00" E) - the sixth most populous district of India, that contains the riverine villages in the labyrinth of tiny islands, called the Sundarbans, part of the UNESCO declared biosphere reserve. The region is severely climate vulnerable, perennially prone to cyclones, environmental calamities and flooding.
As the world struggles with climate change, the frequencies of cyclones developing on the Bay of Bengal are on the rise. The region of Sundarbans, situated off the easternmost coast of India, in the Bay of Bengal got repeatedly ravaged under the severity of tropical cyclones- Aila (May 2009), Bulbul (Nov 2019), Amphan (May 2020) and Yaas (May 2021), year on year, inflicting mounting material and collateral damages.
For the hapless inhabitants here, referred to as the ‘climate refugees’, safe shelter and livelihood are the main survival issues to avoid the trend of rampant migration.
In this situation, without thinking of taking resilient measures to buttress against the future shocks of natural calamities, there can be no hope for survival.
In our initiative titled ASRAYA – the main initiative remains to establish a site specific, affordable, innovative, eco-adaptive solution to provide for cyclone resilient modular residential unit for the inhabitant households. The approach deals with an alternate construction technique without interfering with functional spaces and community interaction, while keeping in mind traditional practices.
Experimenting with the built form, the clockwise and anti-clockwise cyclonic wind pattern is considered. It led to the East-West orientation of the block. The built form is designed keeping a courtyard in the center – where every room opens up, thus eliminating windows on the external facade, essential for protection against cyclones.
A sustainable, low cost and easily implementable method of recycling PET bottles filled with mortar instead of mud walls, using bamboo in place of steel reinforcement for the Tie beam – bamcrete, and a superstructure composed of bamboo columns and roof structure with woven bamboo mats instead of asbestos sheets ensures a traditional, yet resilient and affordable solution.
A repeatable module with a holistic approach towards sustainable ecological living- functional elements like solar power generation, bio-fuel from domestic wastes and rain water harvesting is included.
“I have become a beggar now. All I had was a small hut, God snatched even that from me,” 63-year-old Shabitri Midha of Pakhiralaya village in the Sundarbans said. In the last 30 years, Midha lost nine bighas (60,840 square metres) of ancestral land as the Bidyadhari river engulfed parts of the delta. Pointing to the waters, Midha said, “This river took almost everything we had. Now, this storm has just finished us.” THE WIRE (https://thewire.in/environment...)
Similar examples are galore, thousands of inhabitants voice their abysmal distress year after year as cyclones repeatedly wash out the entire shorelines. Reference Pictures : https://www.impact-360.co.in/u...
Due to the economic status of these families, a large part of their meager earning is spent rebuilding their shelters as disaster strikes each year. This calls for a more permanent and resilient solution through a regulated vernacular building practice.
Low cost, readily available materials like locally grown bamboo, clay and reused PET bottles are the raw materials for the solution. Moreover, the architectural and climatic data from existing research guides us throughout this whole process. In an inclusive way, the technical design will accommodate inputs, feedback and requirements of the inhabitants and indigenous knowledge of local artisans and labor.
Apart from technical details, numerous visits and surveys held to understand their living conditions and needs both the tangible and the intangible.
The tangible part is primarily how a family owning an agriculture land lives on the property. Typically, it includes a small courtyard, with non-cultivated land surrounding the house. A garden patch to grow vegetables along with various natural ponds and paddy fields that lie beyond. It has living quarters with kitchen, detached toilet, “thakur ghor” (a place for keeping family deities for worship) and storage rooms for keeping harvest.
On top of it, each unit has a shop or workspace as an alternate source of income like a tailor shop, blacksmith’s shop etc. This makes each unit sustainable in their own.
The intangible part is how community interaction takes place within the cluster community neighborhood. Congregation spaces,faiths, beliefs and traditional practices that shape the construction techniques and planning decisions.
Our aim is to curate a conscious building practice that takes into account all their needs, structural, environmental and habitat requirements without losing their ethnographic essence.
- Aggregate local projects to enable access to financial capital for ecosystem services such as natural hazard mitigation, water quality, and carbon storage.
As highlighted in the Challenge Overview ‘Resilient Ecosystems’, ecosystem management draws from indigenous knowledge and traditional practices. The communities along the southern strip of the Sundarban Region mostly thrive on a fragile set of livelihood occupations making migration a forced choice, oftentimes.
With Climate change and subsequent impact on its population, an entire community is on the verge of near extinction. The solution of residential units is aimed at restoring, sustaining and benefiting from the surrounding ecosystem understanding. To an extent, it provides economic opportunity to the community utilizing self-grown local building materials strengthening agricultural systems, in becoming self sustainable.
- Prototype: A venture or organization building and testing its product, service, or business model.
The prototype stage of our solution development is crucial in testing our design concept and solution impact assumptions in real-life context of time-space–place, before hitting ground for larger implementation.
In the process we will be able to test-proof our solution :
• Validate the various innovative work components modeled in our solution approach.
• Track and synchronize data-sets and establish goal-oriented impact indices for bench marking.
• Identify motivation, impediment factors and work to de-risk the anticipated barriers in the implementation process.
In having a demonstration model with established concept in-situ,would also help us to garner assistance for fund capital from different sources, collaboration and institutional tie-ups.
This would make replication to scale possible and help aggregate substantial outcomes in the process– amplifying the beneficiary-net progressively from a few vulnerable individual households to communities to larger human settlements in providing resilient and sustainable housing solution for transformational change.
- A new application of an existing technology
Our solution is based on two-pronged innovations – Technological and Systemic
Technological innovation comes into play with our proposition of cyclone-resistive residential solution out of more effective scientific methods, morphology and materials of construction addressing the need of safe residential housing to buttress against future shocks of natural calamities.
Our low-cost module, of locally sourced material, easily implementable, involves recycling PET bottles filled with clay instead of mud walls.In place of steel reinforcement,it uses bamboo (BambusaBalcooa) which can be grown on site for an eco-adaptive way.
We believe, the inhabitants are well accustomed to traditional building materials, but lack the technological and design knowledge for structural resilience. Our solution provides a union of the two.
Simultaneously, replacing building materials like cement and steel that are pollution emitters in production, with naturally available bamboo that sequester 1ton of carbon/ton of its produce, our solution, through efficient sustainable consumption contributes to ecosystem resilience,climate care and environmental justice.
Our solution also attempts to catalyze a Systemic change innovation process in the form of prioritization of work for pre-disaster resilient solution than spending on post-disaster relief and recovery in the aftermath. Our study of the post disaster community settlements, reveals, the efforts of rebuilding lives and livelihoods prior to the cyclone, so far has been a case of missed opportunity. Due to conventional rebuilding, the efforts don't make the situation less vulnerable when the cyclones arrive next. Resilient rebuilding involving more effective scientific methods, remains to be addressed for more virtuous impact.
- Materials Science
- Rural
- Poor
- Low-Income
- India
- 11. Sustainable Cities and Communities
- 12. Responsible Consumption and Production
- 13. Climate Action
- India
In the in-situ prototype project under the proposal, we are looking at constructing 3 (three) such houses for demonstrating and disseminating its utilities and efficiencies in the target communities. It will directly benefit only 3 families- that is 15 persons approximately.
But once the model is proven and established, rolled out in pilot, its replication and scaling up in the affected areas shall impact thousands of families. Over a timeline of 5 years, post the pilot, we can expect at least 1000 such units to be set up, covering 5000 persons in 1000 families, on a very conservative estimate.
In our solution goal implementation, with effective performance of task-activities, delivery of impacts will be forthcoming over time.
Methodology of measure - the empirical value of respondents’ post-disaster, feedback evidences against chosen indicator will give index measure by comparing between groups of ‘solution-recipient’ vs ‘unexposed’ and at a larger perspective vs the available, aggregate ‘community agglomeration unit’ data. The analysis, plotted over time will identify differential changes of progress.
Our goal achievements will contribute across UN-SDGs and their relevant action targets.Therefore, results will be amenable to progress assessment in a framework of indicators of global standard.
• SDG 11: Make Cities and Human Settlements Inclusive, Safe, Resilient and Sustainable -Action target 11.5: Reduce the Adverse Effects of Natural Disasters.
• SDG 13: Climate Action -Action target 13.1: Strengthen Resilience and Adaptive Capacity to Climate Related Disasters.
For both SDGs, progress to be assessed by appropriate indicators to measure‘towards betterment of’ - Affected by natural disasters and Direct economic losses.
• SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production - Action target 12.2: Sustainable Management and Efficient Use of Natural Resources.
Progress to be assessed by appropriate indicators to measure ‘reduction in footprint of’ -Source material extraction/ production and Domestic material consumption of the solution.
Measurement will also take into account -
• The benefits derived by introduction of ecological living practices out of domestic solar-powered electricity generation, water saved in recycling and bio-fuel in disposal of waste.
• And, the result attainment in self-sustainability including financial stability in our solution.
- For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
Full-time - 3
Part-time - 2
Our team is well positioned to deliver the solution as we are a set of professionals that combines energy, passion, freshness of ideas and innovative look-out from the young team of entrepreneurial engineers and management professionals with depth of knowledge and experience from the senior members of academia and social development practices.
We believe in the strength of collective wisdom and responsibility, but nuanced, with individual ownership of the project deliverable and business visions.
In addition, our team shall build alliances with expert institutes like university/ technical institutes, specialized agencies as well as engage with local implementation agencies, inhabitants, artisans and stakeholders to create a conducive, synergistic ecosystem for delivering on this innovative and sustainable housing solution for the well-being of disadvantaged communities.
We believe in leadership ‘without titles’ and also ‘leading from the front’.
Instead of having A person as THE leader we rather envision a ‘leadership team’that is diverse in composition to encourage multiplicity of perspective and cross-learning with a mix of women and men; senior and younger professionals; engineers, managers and social practitioners and above all which will include only the deserving persons- based on their professional merit and commitment, not on any other consideration.
And this leadership team will be transparent, participative and engaging with all other members of the team as well as stakeholder constituents- small or big, thereby inculcating in our management of functioning the practice of equitable style and inclusivity.
- Individual consumers or stakeholders (B2C)
Solve gives us a platform to voice concerns about the marginalized population and bring positive change through our innovation or concepts. Apart from funding which would help us in building our prototype, it offers us guidance and mentorship.
Being associated with MIT Solve, it gives our solution momentum to gain exposure and be visible to potential partners or collaborators who excel in their field.
We will be able to access software and climatic data which needs accuracy and credibility from Strategic Experts. Constant monitoring and evaluation Support to build our solution and promote the practice is necessary, which would be provided in Solve's 9-month programme.
- Financial (e.g. improving accounting practices, pitching to investors)
- Monitoring & Evaluation (e.g. collecting/using data, measuring impact)
- Technology (e.g. software or hardware, web development/design, data analysis, etc.)
1. Financial Support: Involving pitching to investors and looking for funding support.
2. Monitoring and Evaluation: Climatic Data and Simulation Study
3. Technology: Data Analysis during impact and subsequent measures.
Already answered under Section "About your Team". Apart from that, we would love to seek mentorship from the MIT faculty with prior experience in this domain.
- No, I do not wish to be considered for this prize, even if the prize funder is specifically interested in my solution
- Yes, I wish to apply for this prize
As stated under Solution Overview, the problem we are attempting to solve is an integral part of the ‘living-context’ of our region of intervention, South 24 Parganas (Latitude: 22° 31' 48.00" N / Longitude: 88° 19' 48.00" E) - the sixth most populous district of India, that contains the riverine villages in the labyrinth of tiny islands, called the Sundarbans, part of the UNESCO declared biosphere reserve. The region is severely climate vulnerable, perennially prone to cyclones, environmental calamities and flooding.
The communities there mostly thrive on a fragile set of livelihood occupations, like marginal farming, fisheries, collecting traditional forest produce making migration a forced choice, oftentimes.
The solution of residential units is aimed at restoring, sustaining and benefiting from the surrounding ecosystem understanding. To an extent, it provides economic opportunity tote community utilizing self-grown local building materials strengthening agricultural systems, in becoming self sustainable.
The prototype stage of our solution development is crucial in testing our design concept and solution impact assumptions in real-life context of time-space–place, before hitting ground for larger implementation. We are submitting the solution for funding of the prototype. But, the GM Prize will advance it into a pilot stage.
This would make replication to scale possible and help aggregate substantial outcomes in the process– amplifying the beneficiary-net progressively from a few vulnerable individual households to communities to larger human settlements in providing resilient and sustainable housing solution for transformational change.
- No, I do not wish to be considered for this prize, even if the prize funder is specifically interested in my solution
- No, I do not wish to be considered for this prize, even if the prize funder is specifically interested in my solution
- Yes, I wish to apply for this prize
As stated under Solution Overview, the problem we are attempting to solve is an integral part of the ‘living-context’ of our region of intervention, South 24 Parganas (Latitude: 22° 31' 48.00" N / Longitude: 88° 19' 48.00" E) called the Sundarbans.
In our solution titled ASRAYA – the main initiative remains to establish a site specific, affordable, innovative, eco-adaptive solution to provide for cyclone resilient modular residential unit for the inhabitant households.A repeatable module with a holistic approach towards sustainable ecological living- functional elements like solar power generation, bio-fuel from domestic wastes and rain water harvesting is included.
Simultaneously, replacing building materials like cement and steel that are pollution emitters in production, with naturally available bamboo that sequester 1ton of carbon/ton of its produce, our solution, through efficient sustainable consumption contributes to ecosystem resilience, climate care and environmental justice.
We are submitting the solution for funding of the prototype. But, the ServiceNow Prize will advance it into a pilot stage along with workshops and regular interaction between communities. We are trying to introduce a new building practice which will be passed along generations.
For example, our idea to use PET Bottles and bamboo as a primary building material are prevalent in some communities across the globe, but not in our target location, Interactions and workshops between these communities can help their traditional practices grow into a more resilient solution.
- No, I do not wish to be considered for this prize, even if the prize funder is specifically interested in my solution
- Yes, I wish to apply for this prize
As stated under Solution Overview, the problem we are attempting to solve is an integral part of the ‘living-context’ of our region of intervention, South 24 Parganas (Latitude: 22° 31' 48.00" N / Longitude: 88° 19' 48.00" E) called the Sundarbans, part of the UNESCO declared biosphere reserve. The region is severely climate vulnerable, perennially prone to cyclones, environmental calamities and flooding.
As the world struggles with climate change, the frequencies of cyclones developing on the Bay of Bengal are on the rise. The region of Sundarbans, situated off the easternmost coast of India, in the Bay of Bengal got repeatedly ravaged under the severity of tropical cyclones- Aila (May 2009), Bulbul (Nov 2019), Amphan (May 2020) and Yaas (May 2021), year on year, inflicting mounting material and collateral damages.With Climate change and subsequent impact on its population, an entire community is on the verge of near extinction.
In our initiative titled ASRAYA – the main initiative remains to establish a site specific, affordable, innovative, eco-adaptive solution using unconventional building materials to design a resilient structure, by studying the climatic data: wind speed/direction, water table, storm pattern and letting it guide the morphology of the residential units.
We are submitting the solution for funding of the prototype. But, The GSR Prize will advance it into a pilot stage amplifying the beneficiary-net progressively from a few vulnerable individual households to communities to larger human settlements in providing resilient and sustainable housing solution for transformational change.
Co-founder
Founding Member, Impact 360 Foundation