Outreach, workshop, and housing unit design

As part of Wondergrass's outreach program, a local elementary school of 200 students recently came to our construction site, and took a tour of our guesthouse. Grades of second to fifth, all ages seemed to be amused and excited to go inside a house that was not made of cement. These students live in villages similar to the majority of families all across India. They have below poverty level incomes, and some at middle class, and the families survive on manual labor jobs, or at best clerks or business men for local villages. The target audience for our planned rural housing initiative that is currently underway. We have completed a survey of qualitative and quantitative data that will help us with understanding the ideal Indian citizen that will benefit from a bamboo house. We have yet to publish those findings, until our urban study of similar framework is completed.

Concurrently, we are trying to introduce the urban application and finds it applicability. We came at this survey with an open mind, and structured the questioning in an objective way. This study will not only help Wondergrass, but also the vast majority of rural housing developers in India. It will also help rural industries tackle problems of poverty and where the sources are. Apart from being extremely useful towards Wondergrass for it's use as a way to understand the housing client, but as well as future comparison studies, as to the effectiveness of building for a specific client in need, rather then the majority of rural citizens. It is a thin rope to walk across when introducing bamboo as an alternative buidling material to traditional rural families. We at Wondergrass know all about the positice attributes of bamboo as a better way of building homes for India. However, the perception of bamboo is a poor one.


The perception of bamboo across the building sectors is that of a weak material that is good for temporary structures, not ones that can last through generations. Undoubtly false, the stregnth of bamboo housing can be strong, durable, and stand the test of a growing family. Amazingly though, we have had alot of good positive feedback about our bamboo guesthouse. Though not identical to our new prototype housing unit that will be constructed this spring and summer, we are faithful in it's ability to last quite a while.


2nd Day of Artisans Workshop Underway

The second day of our workshop for artisans was a success, as well as fun. Some of our younger artisans had finally the time to sit down with some of the more experienced craftsman and learn the skills of sharpening, joinery, and producing a well made piece of artwork.
We have new artisans occasionally coming in, and to balance the talent is crucial in making a strong team of artists. Everything from sharpening to putting the last touches on the cement foundation should be understood by every craftsman at Wondergrass.

The second part of the workshop was lead my one of our architects, Sayali Andhare. An employee of Wondergrass for the past 2 months, Sayali has worked as an architect in India developing designs for cultural centers, housing, and several other sustainably developed projects.

And one of our interns from the United States was there to assist as well as learn the process of bamboo construction. We have a group from varied backgrounds that makes for an interesting pool of
creativity.

We will be holding our next workshop in some time, and we have several speakers scheduled to give talks on architecture, bamboo as a building source, as well as other alternative resources for building etc.
We build on this to make it a larger conference on the coming years,
and we hope to have this work site as a well known resource the general knowledge of bamboo






Housing Prototype for Rural Housing Underway

Our ongoing design for out adaptable housing that will be used as a prototype for rural housing is in some interesting developments. We are designing a small unit that will be used by small families, and as the family grows, this design will be adaptable to accommodate the change. This structure will extend up and out as the family needs develop. It's in it's infancy so we have further to develop the connections, as well as the in between spaces that add up. There will be updates on our progress, and feel free to input your feedback if you know of well known flexible housing structures in the world.