Forum For Responsible Building

Commercial building practices today are commonly insensitive to their local and global impact. There is a need for processes where minimizing the social & economic impact is a key consideration at all stages of a building’s life cycle. We are organizing The Forum for Responsible Building, an opportunity for an invited group of committed Sustainable Responsible Building practitioners to come together for four days to collectively deliberate on what needs to be done for strengthening the practice of Responsible Building in India. The expected outcomes of this dialogue include a Policy Document outlining a plan to push Responsible Building at the policy level and creation of a National Open Platform giving a unified voice to responsible building practitioners. We are fundraising to organize this 4-day dialogue at Sambhaavnaa Institute, Kandbari Gaon, Himachal Pradesh, India.

Please read on for an overview of the dialogue, or visit our website for full details.

Why Is Responsible Building Important?

Minimizing Impact - Globally Building sustainable spaces that are sensitive to climatic conditions & socio-cultural needs of its inhabitants. Preserving Traditional Wisdom and Heritage Recognizing that there is much to learn about traditional techniques and materials from rural areas and working to stem the loss of this cultural heritage. Vernacular Wisdom + Modern Advancements = Innovative Technologies Mixing vernacular wisdom with contemporary advancements and going beyond building materials with high environmental costs, such as baked bricks, cement, iron and plate glass to focus on locally available materials, such as mud, stone and bamboo. Generating Local Livelihoods Re-generating endangered skills, strengthening local livelihoods and creating green entrepreneurship opportunities.

Why this dialogue?

Scattered Movement The Responsible Building movement has so far been very scattered and with no unified voice representing it and few opportunities for people to come together and share experiences. Dearth of Thorough Studies & Research There is a lack of sufficient comprehensive studies documenting traditional technologies which could be used to demystify many prevailing notions and to spread awareness of our rich architectural heritage, especially in architecture/civil engineering teaching institutions and government building organizations.

The Dialogue

The dialogue is a step towards creating a road map for future action and to harness the collective wisdom of the group for moving forward. It is being held for 4 days, from December 18-21 at Sambhaavnaa Institute in Kandbari Gaon, Himachal Pradesh, India.

Expected Outcomes from the Dialogue

Policy Document A comprehensive document identifying challenges to responsible building, to facilitate informed policy modification and formulation for Building & Construction in India. Open National Platform Creation of a collective open platform for promoting Responsible Building - to synergize individual efforts and exchange knowledge, skills & techniques. Dissemination & Re-Vitalization A actionable road map, emerging from the collective wisdom of the assembled group, for reviving endangered skills used in vernacular building traditions.

People

Core Advisory Group

The Dialogue is being led by a core advisory group comprising of some of the pioneers of India's responsible building movement. For detailed profiles, visit our website at www.responsible-building.org
Didi Contractor Residing in Himachal Pradesh, Didi Contractor studies traditional aesthetics and vernacular traditions. Over the past three decades she has trained many young artisans inculcating ecological values and reviving local traditional skills.
KT Ravindran The Dean Emeritus at the RICS School of Built Environment, Prof. KT Ravindran was earlier a Dean and Head of the Department of Urban Design at School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi for over two decades.
Chitra Vishwanath A Bangalore based architect, and founder and Managing Director of BIOME Environmental, Chitra is one of the few women in India with an independent practice in architecture. She has steadfastly worked on ecological architecture and designs homes, educational institutions as well as commercial buildings with environmentally sound and cost effective materials.
Sonam Wangchuk An Ashoka Fellow, Wangchuk is the Founder Director of the Student's Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL). An engineer by training, he is passionate about solar energy and has designed the buildings on the SECMOL campus in such a way that they trap the maximum amount of heat in the day and use no fossil fuels for cooking, lighting or heating, even when temperatures fall to minus 25 degrees.

Participants

Almost 30 designers, architects and engineers building responsibly all over India, and abroad, have confirmed their participation.Map indicating some work sites of participants
For a full list, please visit our website - www.responsible-building.org

Who Are We?

The Eco-Logical Foundation, a not for profit Trust set up by an open-community of social activists, naturalists, professionals and catalysts, committed towards action based on the belief that harmonious, long-term effective solutions can only emerge from the synergy between local wise traditions and modern innovation. The Foundation is currently involved in initiatives at diverse locations like Sundarbans, Santiniketan, Meghalaya, Delhi and Kolkata.

Budget