Center for Green Building Materials and Technology

Being a renowned architect and promoter of sustainable development practices, I have been working with Bamboo as a “sustainable building material” for over two decades through research, prototyping, live projects, advocacy, skilling and " Mainstreaming Bamboo in the construction sector". I have piloted the bamboo applications successfully and popularized its potential use in India and several other countries.  However, to scale-up the application for wider impact, I would use the prize-money to further my research to solve the pressing housing problems for ensuring safe, affordable and humane building solutions in the Indian subcontinent.  

I will document and standardize my findings for its wider-use by the building sector professionals and communities. The fund will also be used to disseminate innovative technologies through education and training to the building community including artisans, masons, supervisors, designers, architects, engineers and policy makers for its wide utilization. 

The prize money will help us to set up our lab cum workshop for R&D , testing, integrate necessary technology upgrades, expand our operations while continuing our courseware development, skill upgradation and enterprise development for the rural and tribal communities.

Additionally the partnership and network of MIT-SOLVE will help us in strategy development to fulfil our goals.

I am the Principal and Propritrix of Manasaram Architects; and CEO, Founder and Managing Trustee of CGBMT. I am also World-Bamboo-Ambassador of World-Bamboo-Organisation; Chair-Karnataka Chapter; Chair, Steering Committee - Architecture and Design, Bamboo Society of India; Advisor, Karnataka State Bamboo Mission; and Key-expert in INBAR Construction Task Force ; Advisor,DEI(Deemed University), Dayalbagh

By education, I am B.Arch and have done Executive-training in Media Architecture and Charrette (GSD, Harvard University). When I started working in 1999, I was the only architect in India and one among the 5-7 architects in the world using bamboo in private-practice with high-success rate. My works have been published in over-20 countries in over-10-languages. I have presented over 100 papers in national and international forums. I am on several national and international technical committees and jury on Bamboo.

Some of my honours and awards: M-Visvesvaraya Prize (2005); World-Architecture-Festival-Award shortlist 2010; Lafarge-Invention-awards (2011); World-Architecture-Community awards (2013); World-Architecture-News-Award (2013); Archi-Design-Award for Sustainable-project-of-the-year (2013); Lifetime contribution to Bamboo-Sector, “International Bamboo Conclave” (2014); The-Merit-List 2016; Green-Building-Designer of the Year (2016) Rotary Club; Red-Dot-Award (2016); ARCASIA-Awards for Architecture (2017) GOLD; Four-Rethinking-the-future-awards: Cultural, Office building, Transportation and Housing (2017); WADe-Asia-Sustainability-Champion for Bamboo (2017); and ASADI-Vastukala-Mahati Award (2020).

A recent McKinsey report states that 70 to 80% of India in the year 2030 is yet to be built. This entails rapid urban growth that will require construction of 700 to 900 million sq. meters of commercial and residential space. It translates into 2million additional housing to come up every year till 2030. The industry relies heavily on a variety of construction materials and furniture using scarce timber. It is important to highlight that construction industry contributes to 40% of CO2.

Due to fast growth (3-5 years), Bamboo absorbs more CO2 (62 MT/year/ha) and releases 35% more oxygen than an equivalent strand of hardwood tree (which takes 30-50 years to grow). Bamboo has a tensile strength of 28,000 lb/sq. inch compared to 23,000 lb/sq. inch for mild steel, making it among the world’s best natural engineering materials and an essential component of construction and housing. Our action addresses increased use of environmentally-friendly practices through propagation of multiple product-applications of Bamboo in housing & construction industry. We at CGBMT have done extensive research and developed impact making applications which can be scaled-up in various parts of India and other economies where bamboo is abundantly available. 

Bamboo, a sustainable natural resource as a potential substitute of scarce timber and other less/un-sustainable resources, is widely found across more than 20 states in India but grossly under-utilised. The Govt. of India and these States have over two decades implemented large programmes that have resulted in increased bamboo availability, however, scaled up commercialisation through use of Bamboo in Building and potential sectors has been eluded due to lack technical knowledge and absence of integrated approach suiting heterogeneous bamboo species and complex- socio-economic dynamics of the people dependent on bamboo for their primary living. 

Our approach aims at promoting bamboo as a sustainable substitute of less renewable resources like timber and promote economic prosperity of the tribal including women in less developed regions in India. We support commercialisation of high potential bamboo applications in the building sector and other potential areas. We demonstrate success of integrated local development models by strengthening the capacities of key stakeholder groups across the value chains. We also engage with the policy makers and development institutions to build and replicate integrated and inclusive models of local development and promote bamboo as sustainable substitute.  

Symphony of the Bamboos- @ Venice Architecture Biennale 2016, Venice

29.8% of India’s population is below poverty line and majority of them dwell in forests  providing livelihood opportunities for more than 5 million people. India’s share of bamboo forests is estimated to be around 40% while global share in its products is only 4.5%. Despite rich bamboo resources, the sector suffers from insufficient utilization of bamboo for select primary processed products that use only some parts of a bamboo plant leaving over  70%  as waste. Scaled up commercialisation has been eluded due to lack of locally coordinated and integrated action suiting heterogeneous bamboo typology, socio-economic diversity and governance capacities. Through our integrated approach, these 5 million people will get sustainable-livelihoods and the sector can access green/ environmentally sustainable building materials.  

Our initiative ensures decent work (SDG 8) for poor, marginalised and women (SDG-5) by promoting skills and technical know-how. Use of bamboo ensures Good-Health and Well-Being (SDG-3); Affordable Clean Energy from Bamboo by gasification, ethanol, charcoal etc. (SDG-7); Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure-Manufacturing is a major source of employment (SDG-9); Reduced Inequalities (SDG-10), Sustainable-Cities and Communities (SDG-11), Responsible Consumption and Production (SDG-12), Climate Action (SDG-13), Life on Land (SDG-15), Partnerships for the Goals (SDG-17).

 The Maihar Project- Inclusivity with Bamboo