India Republic Day & Waterless Toilet Construction Update

The Republic Day of India commemorates the date on which the Constitution of India came into force replacing the Government of India Act 1935 as the governing document of India on January 26, 1950.[1] The date 26 January was chosen to honour the memory of the declaration of independence of 1930. It is one of the three national holidays in India, and while the main parade, Republic Day Parade takes place at the Rajpath, in the national capital New Delhi, where the President views the parade, state capitals also have their state celebrations. This is one of the most important dates for the country of
India. Flags were held high, and so were the
smiles from all of the festivities.

We also had a great introduction to the local village of our waterless toilet conducted by our site foreman Vasante'. Families took the Sunday afternoon to look around and learn about the positive attributes of a waterless toilet. Working similar to a close system, this package integrates a design that allows the user to separate the solids, liquids, and waste water into three different disposal areas. This allows the user to conserve water, use valuable human manure for farming, and or organic fertilizer, as well as improve the envirionment of their area. This idea is a new one, and we are not sure how this will be viewed quite yet by the rural masses. Although it is a good design, it all depends on the user to see it's success. As for the bamboo part of things, we have the bamboo structure setting on the three foot stem wall that encases the waste chambers, and the bathing area.
We are going to learn a lot from this trial latrine, and feel this is necessary before investing it as a package with the bamboo home. We fortunately have the work crew at the site to be our water less toilet Ginnie pigs. They will probably have a lot of valuable feedback, that we might not of thought about. Also the cost of the system needs to be reduced drastically. Being a system for affordable rural housing, it has to fit into a families financial abilities. Our main concern is to alleviate the unnecessary habit of defecating in the open fields and by/in near by water sources.This poses sanitation problem of contaminated water streams, and spreading of disease. If we can concentrate the solid human waste, use it to our advantage and reduce water consumption, we have made leaps and bounds. This also gives us the opportunity to experiment with new types of building systems that can be used for our housing projects, and building schemes for future use. Because this structure is such a tall one, we are bracing from the fall and spring winds that can easily push such a broad structure over. On either short ends we have put some "x" bracing that will preventing from falling over like a deck of cards, as well some newly designed knee bracing that extends from the over head beams. Simple 1' deep open web bamboo beams are laid long ways, and smaller 7'deep open web bamboo beams are inserted into the beams running long ways. The building's dimensions are 4' x 8' and that makes it rather small to design for. However, we have tried to bridge the designs that we have developed with the existing housing designs that Indian rural citizens have been using for well over 80 years. On top of the latrine there will be a
concrete slab that will be used to store dried firewood, be a floor for drying grains, vegetables, and spies, as well a nice to be on a hot night.
If this systems seems appropriate then we will be using it for many applications. Recent posts give more detail of the structural systems that I am referring to .

We have also had the opportunity to develop more metal joints/connector systems for our waterless toilet and future prototype house. Our designer from the U.S. has put together over 6 metal joints that work well, and have different applications. We will be using two for the system of the latrine, and the rest have been giving us new ideas about the structures that can now
be created easily. Made from scratch out of sheets of 2mm and 3mm
sheet steel, these gusset plates, brackets, clips, and connectors are
easy alternatives to rope, nut/bolt, and resin composite joints. This will
also take bamboo's applications to a higher level in terms of assembly
and load bearing capacities. We have show two here to give an example of how bamboo can be supported using age old techniques used traditionally for masonry and wood. First one is a column gusset plate that will anchor the bamboo columns to the concrete foundation. This type of connections has been used extensively in the past for modern construction, but now it's purposes are making more of a lasting effect on the construction industry since now they are holding bamboo up. The advantage of this system is that is uses little metal, supports it quite
well, and serves as a quick assembly trick, that is user friendly. The user friendly part is extremely important to our R & D. We then painted it with a rust repellent primer, and it came out looking quite good. Considering that we made it from a sheet of steel with only hand tools, gives us the confidence we need to evolve some more sophisticated joints. Our aim is to have a catalog of structural metal/composite material joint connectors. They can be gusset plates, joist hanger, cross clips etc. The point is to provide the same structural variances in building and easability that concrete and wood currently have in the worlds housing industries.

The second one down is a a side bracket for outer bamboo columns that will help take the loads but not have any contact with the ground or sill.
It will be anchored to the side of the foundation, and will have a "v" profile that will hold the bamboo, so that water and condensation has a place to
drain down to and collect.

We have several other designs, however they are still in development and need further testing. We are happy with these results, because they can give the perception of bamboo as a modern building option instead
of a wrongly conceived week building style popular with indigenous
groups around the world. Strong and resilient the buildings of bamboo
villages in the jungles of India, Indonesia, Thailand, China, and South America
have with stood earthquakes, floods, and typhoons far exceeding that of
concrete/brick. Our solution lies in innovating with modern tools to resurrect natures intending housing techniques. A challenge worth exploring here at Wondergrass.