Hunnar Shaala Foundation for Building Technology and Innovations, Bhuj, India
(A Registered Not-for-Profit Corporation)
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Preparing for disasters
by learning from traditional building practices
DISASTERS ARE RECURRENT and devastating, affecting thousands of people particularly the poor. Over ages, people developed ways of building that have responded to the climate, using local materials in ingenous ways that resist natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, cyclones, etc. Hunnarshala is integrating this deep knowledge with modern scientific knowledge about disaster resistance.
HUNNARSHALA is engaged in developing technical guidelines for traditional technologies and mainstreaming them as viable option for housing.
Recycling sewage transforms rivulet into ‘lungs’ of Bhuj city
THIS PILOT PROJECT takes 30,000 litres of sewage every day from the municipality sump and feeds it to the micro organisms in DEWATS treatment plant and uses it to bring life to half a kilometre and transform a neglected rivulet to become the lungs of Bhuj city.
HUNNARSHALA and Municipal Corporation of Bhuj collaborate to develop an urban watershed project to ensure effective water use at the city scale. First in the series of DEWATS plants planned for the city is implemented.
Facilitating local communities to build their own homes after tsunami in Aceh
AFTER THE TSUNAMI of December 2004 in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, a community-based approach empowered 3700 families to build their own homes and other infrastructure in disaster-safe and eco-friendly ways—such as wastewater recycling, stabilised earth construction and decentralised drinking water supply. The process resulted in each house being different. Ex-rebel GAM returnees also joined up to manufacture and supply building components.
HUNNARSHALA in collaboration with UPC-Uplink demonstrated an owner driven social housing programme as post tsunami response.
Building artisans shape facilities for Kutchi craft with earth and wood
PAYING HOMAGE to the rich architecture of arid Kutch, the KHAMIR (meaning pride) craft park has been built using earth based construction technologies such as stabilised earth blocks, rammed earth, wattle and daub to create 2500 sq. mtrs. facility for promotion of crafts of Kutch. Khamir will facilitate better market access, improved designs and upgradation in process technologies for Kutchi artisans.
HUNNARSHALA in collaboration with Prof. Neelkanth Chhaya and Himanshu Parikh worked with local building artisans to build Khamir.