Thursday, December 2, 2010
Beach - Front restaurant at Goa
A complete Housing Unit - Typology for Rural areas
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Rural Housing Unit - Progress as on 26 Sept'2009
As we have described in some of our earlier posts, this housing unit is being developed as an incremental system, which means that the technology should allow expansion of the housing unit in an incremental fashion.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Product Development - Roofing panels
We are now in the process of developing a new range of panels at our Belgaum center. Udayan,. who is also part of the new team at Wonder Grass is developing a new range of panels which cann potentially be applied for variouos applicatons in a typical urban market.
The roof-panel, we are developing may not really work as full-fledged roofing alternative due to various inherent problems, but can certainly be used in varous other small-scale applications.
Interios Panels - visual barries
We are developing a seperate range of panels which are self-standing, can be movable and are available in some standard lengths. these panels can be used for various applications in and outside the building, from offices, residences, hotels etc.
Workers Housing for AB Rolling Mills, Bhilad
Wonder Grass has been working on what can at best be described as semi-permanent housing for workers, artisans and labours staying in premises of Large industrial units, construction project-sites and similar projects spread across the country and many parts of the world.
There are various design solutions available for such housing-living requirements in a European, Middle East or US markets. In Indian context, there is a need to develop products - solutions which will help provide a decent living spaces for artisans and workers. In a typical scenario, the living-units built for workers-artisans, are just a ramshackle arrangement of casuarina poles and GI Sheets. Workers stay in these conditions sometimes for 12-18 months, braving monsoon, heat and winter, with GI sheets proving an accomplice in torment under all weather-conditions.
Bamboo and composite structures can provide for this gap in the demand.
Taking our clues from the modular standardized building systems, we are developing a simple living-unit for the industrial workers, which will be cost-effective and yet give its occupant a better living conditions.
The efforts are on to design system, such that the unit can be assembled and erected on site at ease. On completion of the project, the living-unit can be dismantled and carried to another project site. The idea is that the structure can be used for about 2-3 project-cycles giving a better, while workers enjoy better living-conditions than a typical casuarina + GI sheet unit.
Wonder Grass artisan team could erect the primary structure for about 7 lining-units, each about 200 Sq Ft built-up area, in a span of 15 days while monsoon is still in full-swing. One of the sample-units is already finished.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Wonder Grass on the cusp of new beginning
Work on the first phase of the construction of large-span inverted arch is nearing completion. Simultaneously we are working on a vaulted structure which is also coming along well.
The whole process of constructing a single structural member of 80 feet span has been exciting. It has helped us develop some simple but very interesting ‘systems’ that help us construct a large structural member. Development and construction of a curved element of arch, using multiple bamboo-poles, as can be seen in the images.
Another structure that we are developing is also part of the same project. This is proposed to a vaulted roofing system which is approximately 40 feet in span. We have started putting together the ribs, which will finally support the woven-bamboo surface on the top. (image).
This has been a good start. We take this opportunity to thank our clients, specially Architects Ashok B laal, Delhi and IGH (initiatives for Green Habitats), Bangalore to have put faith in the capabilities of Wonder Grass to deliver the building system to their requirement.
The Barn Roof Vault
This is part of the first phase of the project, where we would be prototyping the primary structural element, assemble a full-scale mock-up and conduct preliminary structural tests to check how it performs under various loading conditions.
There are two different structures that we are working on, both have different design and construction requirements.
We intend to complete the construction of a mock-up of the vaulted structure towards the end of this month. The second step is to conduct basic structural tests on the full-scale mock-up of both these systems, inverted arch (80 feet clear span) and Ribbed-vault (40 feet span). Design of structural tests is going to be a ‘project’ in itself. In case of the 80 feet span inverted-arch, the dead-load of the roofing system on top (proposed ‘Galv-Al’ sheets) is negligible, but then the wind-loads will be considerable. What we are working on, is to find a way to test these systems under windy conditions.
The project has given us an opportunity to build large span structural systems using bamboo as primary building material. This has given Wonder Grass team a confidence in its abilities for providing and erecting large span built-spaces.
Deriving from these primary forms and construction-systems we can look at developing building-applications for use in urban environs. We are looking to get the first complete prototype up and test the same towards the end of month of July, learn from the tests and refine the structural system for enhanced performance.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Bamboo Roof Raising
Monday, May 17, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Wonder Grass's small scale operations
Wonder Grass artisans have started to fill our design studio with some great furniture. With the help of our American designer we have combined the craftsmanship of the Shaker style from the east coast of the United States with that of the time test skill of the Indian artisans working with bamboo. We will have some great chairs completed in the next week, and our design studio as well as meeting area will be complete to house our innovation. Below are some good photos of some of the chair. Just a sample of some of the fine work we have done.
Although this is not what Wonder Grass does
as a main product line, we can understand
bamboo as a scale that we use everyday.
Additionally, we pride our selves on using bamboo to the maximum efficiency possible, being the replacement of wood.
We will have photos of some great work coming our way soon. Our arch is coming along good, and the housing project is receiving it's first two wall, we just hope we can make it in time for the monsoon season.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Wonder Grass Becomes Finalist for Sankalp Social Enterprise Awards & Investment Forum
Friday, April 30, 2010
Wonder Grass Receives Some Special Recognition
Wonder Grass (Low-cost housing) soaring temperatures and streams running dry in Nagpur do not deter Vaibhav and Nachiket Kaley from expecting their business to yield a rich harvest. The Kaley brothers are betting on a master plan, where bamboo becomes the cure for all ills in India’s housing sector.
Two years ago, Vaibhav, 33, an interior designer, along with his brother Nachiket, 28, an IT professional, decided to follow in the footsteps of their father, Vinoo Kaley, known as the ‘bamboo man’ and set up Wonder Grass, to provide low-cost housing options using bamboo as the main construction material. The walls of the houses are sometimes plastered with cow dung and mud to give a cemented look. The structures, the brothers claim, can withstand mild earthquakes and cyclones and are good options for coastal areas. “The time has come for bamboo. The market is opening up for sustainable living solutions,” says Vaibhav, director, Wonder Grass.
With a marketing office in Bangalore and assembly line operations in Nagpur and Belgaum, the firm is looking at scaling up operations and will soon have 100 artisans working for them. To retain manpower, the Kaleys set aside 20 per cent of equity in a trust that will share profits with the workforce.
A low cost of Rs 400-450 per sq. ft, as against Rs 650 per sq. ft for a low-cost brick-mortar dwelling can be a driving factor for the bamboo houses.
Prasad Sangameshwaran
This article can be seen on the following link on the "Business World" website:
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Prototype Housing Begins!
We also have underway a project that is really taking off with some great results. We have recently taken on a project of building a 80ft long bamboo inverted arch.
This arch will reach a span of 80ft. will be made in two parts. Each part being approximelty 40ft in length. We have started to push our projects out of small scale structures into some really large extreme assemblies of bamboo that can be seen with some selective works around the world. Wonder Grass really wants to see the limits of our artisans and bamboo compliment each other to make India a great showcase for bamboo building. More to come, check back when we have the rest of the walls up and the arch complete!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Structural Testing Results In
As we progress further with some of our other projects we will
be using the results to make sure that our designs work and
don't fall down.
This is assisted by two student interns from a civil engineering
college in Bangalore. They stayed there for some time, in the
work site in Peth. Nagaraj, and Kiran gave their time and help
in analyzing the structural parts before hand, and verified it
at Geo Tech Industries.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
A visit to Auroville Bamboo research Center
As you can see in the picture below is the charcoal is kept in a barrel and heat is continually circulating through, so as not to ignite, but keep it warm enough to burn out all of the impurities. Something we at Wonder Grass feel is a great idea.
The American pavilion at Auroville also had a great structure that was a composite building with cement on the ground floor, and bamboo terrace-top with bamboo as it's reinforcement. This structure was a really good example how to use bamboo with other materials such as cement, and wood, as well as fiberglass and ferro-cement. The nice aesthetic feel of bamboo is that it is light-weight and makes a building structure seem graceful and attractive without weighing it down with heavy columns like cement structures do. It had a wonderful feel and
gave the occupant a nice view from all directions.
It is constantly a nice reminder that there are other people in the world and India that do great work and continually try to push into the serious building areas. Something that is not easy to do at all.
We hope to create an online directory or network primarily for people in India but also surrounding countries, so that progress, business, and implementation of bamboo can be sped up with more collaboration and cross communication between many fields, for example, college students to working designers who use bamboo. We hope to have that up and running in months time.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Statistical Analysis of Rural Survey
We have concluded the survey of rural Indian citizens for use in our research for the rural housing prototype. The above picture shows the current living conditions in respect to building materials of the persons interviewed for the survey. Overwhelmingly the majority of citizens live in brick and cement homes. With brick and mud coming behind and after that bamboo+composite and mud come in last.
We also conducted a study of current uses for bamboo in the rural sector and found that bamboo was used not only for housing., but furniture, curtains, and doors and window. This gave us a perception of the used and acceptable limits that people believe bamboo can do.
General Information About Housing in | |||
(2000-2001) | |||
(Rs. in Million) | |||
Particulars | 2000-2001 | ||
No. of House Holds in | | | 177.74 |
Stock of Houses in | | | 168.5 |
a. Stock of Rural Houses | 118.7(70.4%) | ||
b. Stock of Urban Houses | 49.8(27.0%) | ||
c. Constructed under Indira Awas Yojna | 5.69 | ||
Type of Houses Occupied | | | |
a. Pucca Houses (Million) | 41.61 | ||
b. Semi Pucca (Million) | 30.95 | ||
c. Kuccha (Million) | 27.44 | ||
Housing Shortage (Million) | | | 32 |
a. Rural Houses (Million) | 24.47 | ||
b. Urban Houses (Million) | 8.7 | ||
Cost Distribution Ratio of Various | | | |
Components in Building Construction | | | |
a. Materials | 73% | ||
b. Labour | 27% |
Of those surveyed 32% were below the poverty level in India.