#65/108, Doresanipalya, Bilekahalli, Bannerghatta Road, -560 076 Tel: +91 80 2658 2970 ; e-mail: [email protected] website:gramavidya.tripod.com; facebook: Mrinmayee-Gramavidya

World around us today is really concerned about sustainability and exploring green technologies sincerely. But it was in the mid-seventies of twentieth century, the search for alternatives in building technologies was instituted at the Centre for Sustainable Technologies- CST (formerly ASTRA) and Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Simple, cost-effective, environment friendly, energy efficient technologies were developed and field tested over three decades. Recognizing the need of these technology GRAMAVIDYA was conceived and initiated its sincere efforts towards dissemination, field testing and adaptation of such alternative building technologies.

Gramavidya is a not for profit organization promoted by a group of professionals, academicians, scientists and technologists with dreams about creation of a self-reliant and sustainable livelihoods through alternative, environment friendly appropriate technologies. Promoters of Gramavidya are partners in the development of alternative and energy efficient construction technologies in the country over the last two decades and they have been popularizing various other energy saving devices for household and small rural industries throughout the country.

Gramavidya is a society registered under the societies Registration act 1960, Regn. No. 380/88-89 dated 20th September 1988.

The memorandum of the association was signed by:

1. Prof.K.S.Jagadish 2. Mr.S.Raguram 3. Prof.S.S.Lokras 4. Prof.B.V.Venkatarama Reddy 5. Prof.Vijay padaki 6. Mr.Subhas Chandra Basu 7. Mr.S.R.Borgaonkar.]

a. Develop simple and appropriate technologies, oriented towards rural development. b. Carry out field-testing and demonstration of new technologies. c. Disseminate the appropriate technologies in the rural areas including the existing educational infrastructure in villages. d. Develop alternatives in educational systems. e. Training rural youth in appropriate technologies. f. Publish books, monographs and newsletters related to these technologies especially in Kannada and other regional languages

Initially its office address was at 151, 13th cross, MT.Layout - 1st cross, Malleshwaram, Bangalore 560003. Subsequently, the office was shifted to 64 & 65/108, Bilekahalli, Doresanipalya, Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore -560076

1. Prof. K.S. Jagadish - President 2. Prof. S.S. Lokras - Vice - President 3. Mr. Subhas Chandra Basu - Secretary 4. Mr. Jagadish - Treasurer 5. Prof. B.V. Venkatarama Reddy - Member 6. Dr. M.R. Yogananda - Member 7. Dr. R. Shailaja - Member 8. Mr. J. Kanikaraj - Member 9. Mr.Ramprasad S. Hiriyur - Member 10. Mr. H. I. Somashekar - Member 11. Mr. A.V.Pramod - Member

The Society purchased about 2 acres of land in the village Sidaganahally, Kasaba Hobli, Magadi Taluk, Bangalore Rural District on 12th October 1990. This land became the rural centre for the purpose of field testing, demonstration and training of alternative technologies. Today, the society has four buildings using rammed earth and mud block technologies. One of them was built to demonstrate solar passive cooling. It has a bore well and three small tanks to improve the ground water. There are about 500 trees on the land covering about 85 species including medicinal plant varieties.

Gramavidya made a modest beginning through a CAPART sponsored project titled

The total project outlay for 3 years was 5.43 lakhs. During this project about 8 persons were imparted with training in masonry construction. Principal investigator for the project: Prof.K.S.Jagadish Co-investigator: Mr. Subhas Chandra Basu

The project was funded by CAPART and total project outlay was Rs.60,000.00 Under this project, the coconut thatch treatment implemented in Kerala and Tamil Nadu was reviewed. The status of the technology was studied and was reported to CAPART.

Principal investigator for the project: Prof. K. S Jagadish

The project was funded by the Ministry of Non- Conventional Energy sources and routed through Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology and Dept. of Civil Engg. I.I.Sc. In this project a rectangular building of about 40 Sqmts plinth area was constructed in the Sidaganahalli campus of Gramavidya. The building had an innovative brick vaulted roof with air-vents in the crown to provide for cooling through chimney effect. The roof was painted white outside to reduce absorption of solar heat. The inside air temperature was found to be about 2°C less than a normal building during summer . Project Cost Rs. 7, 92,000-00 Principal investigator for the project: Prof.K.S Jagadish

The project was funded by the Ministry of Non – Conventional Energy sources and routed through Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Science. In this project the biogas plants were constructed to demonstrate production of biogas from leaf biomass. These have been designed to produce 1.5 to 2.0m³ of biogas per day by using a feedstock of 25 to 30 kgs of fresh leafy biomass. Principal investigator for the project: Prof. K.S Jagadish

This was a collaborative project between TIDE and GRAMVIDYA, managed by TIDE (Technology informatics Design Endeavour, Bangalore) funded by Indo-Canadian Environment Facility – Duration January 2001 to December 2002. During this project three kiln designs were developed and tested: Lime Kiln, Pottery Kiln and Brick Kiln. The Kiln designs were disseminated in different places to spread technology of efficient wood burning. Prof. K. S Jagadish was a consultant to TIDE.

The project was funded by D.S.T and routed through TIDE. Principal Investigator was Mr. C.K. Kumara swamy and Co-Investigator was Prof. K.S. Jagdish and Dr. Shreekumar was a Consultant in this Project. In this project charcoal making kilns, which are environment friendly were developed. They involve a process wherein all the volatiles released during the pyrolysis are burnt to produce Thermal Energy. Charcoal becomes a by- product. Initially small Kilns to burn 10 kgs of wood were developed & the design was upgraded to burn up to 80 kgs of wood. A charcoal gasifier was also developed.

Around 2004, Prof.K.S.Jagadish invited other members and well wishers to take active part in Gramavidya’s activity to rejuvenate the organization. At this juncture, the technical team of Mrinmayee associated with Dr.M.R.Yogananda and others from old KSCST group joined together to take new initiatives. Within a few years, these initiatives become the primary activity of Gramavidya. In search of a new thrust area, the group found a strong potential in reviving the training program in alternative building materials and technologies (earlier conducted by ASTRA and KSCST and reintroduced recently). A new module of a compact three days workshop with due emphasis on hands-on activity was introduced and this opened a wider spectrum of alternative explorers without any prerequisites to join the training programme.

Initially Vistar’s campus at Doddagubbi was specially identified as the venue for a residential approach to encourage better interaction among resource persons and trainees. This program has flourished over a period of time by incorporating various ideas and options, Now training program is being conducting at Koushalya Shaale . Today, Gramavidya is identified well with this regular program conducted at least two to three times a year. To date, Gramavidya team has conducted sixteen such programs and is striving to disseminate the technology for the really unreached.

It is important to note that the core group of Gramavidya are commited to alternative building construction and research. Technology dissemination activities are undertaken spontaneously by the members of Gramvidya over the past several years. Dr. M.R. Yogananda and Prof. K.S. Jagadish interacted with Abhiyan and Hunnar Shala, Bhuj, Kutch, Gujarat in the Dissemination of Stabilized Mud Block Technology after the 2001 earthquake. Mr. S. Raghuram was involved in disseminating the SMB Technologies in Afghanistan, Orissa and Srilanka. Mr. Kanikaraj and Dr. M. R. Yogananda were involved in the spread of SMB Technology in Indonesia and Srilanka. Mr. Subhas Basu, Dr. M.R. Yogananda and Prof. K.S. Jagadish were involved in advising the Archaeological Survey of on traditional Mud structures in Chitradurga Fort. Gramavidya also extended its technical support in post-disaster reconstruction work in Tamil Nadu after Tsunami.

Gramavidya was in need of a residential staff at its field centre in Sidaganahalli. Earlier, a number of trees were planted in this plot and few experimental buildings too came up. At this stage, Mr.Mohan Nayak who was earlier working at ASTRA volunteered to stay and work with us from the village centre. It was felt that the presence of a dedicated staff would improve our relation with the community around and our land based experiments would get priorities. Another inexplicit agenda was to observe how a family can sustain with two acres of land in a rural set up. Mr.Mohan Nayak was encouraged to work on various livelihood options based on land. Floriculture was one such option, vegetable garden, propagation of plants for local farmers and also for urban landscaping, animal husbandry, rural industry like small scale charcoal production and burnt lime for construction were some of the options. Unfortunately, some of these informal experiments proved inadequate as a viable livelihood option. He was instrumental in conducting some successful events like Science teachers training program with the help of KSCST and bringing local school children to Bengaluru for a state level environment related art competition. In the process he could establish some linkages with the local schools. He also extended his service in coordinating some of the Training program in Bengaluru. Visit of two groups of school children also were coordinated by Mr.Mohan Nayak.

Bengaluru Metro presently has an iconic status in the rapid urban infrastructure development program of the fastest growing IT hub of India. This indigenous rail transport system has been planned to facilitate urban mobility in the city. The Metro has been using the most advanced construction materials and techniques for its design. But ‘Bengaluru Santhe’ a project conceived by the same metro directorate is a contrast and presents the other face of the mega infrastructure development corporation.

Two narrow strips of land below the elevated tracks and separated by a station were identified as the site for a formal craft market to encourage regional artisans to bring their functional art forms for the easy access to the people of Bengaluru. This design challenge was offered to Gramavidya team who came up with indigenous ideas using alternatives for the implementation of the project. This opportunity was used to include a wide range of alternatives and vernacular building materials and technologies blending with a cultural approach to design for predominantly urban users. Design concept was evolved around symbolic representation of two distinct geo-climatic zone of the state of Karnataka; namely, warm-humid zone and hot-arid zone in two distinct parts of the site. Local vernacular built form, planning and material resources of the respective zones were used as a source of inspiration. Modern alternatives in materials and construction, recycling of materials were combined to bind the past and present together.

Presently the santhe is operational and the second phase with dormitory and food court is under construction. Bengaluru santhe project provided Gramavidya team a great opportunity to demonstrate a wide range of alternatives in material and construction. Beside that,Gramavidya’s rural centre products like lime and plant saplings from the nursery got an effective outlet for

utilization in building construction and landscaping. The project created a good bit of excitement and educational exposure among budding professionals. ‘Udbhava’ a unique organization guided by Ar.Sathya Praksh Varanasi made this happen and nearly one hundred students of architecture in the city utilized this opportunity. We also got the children and teachers from ‘Purnapramathi’ school to participate in planting trees at Santhe premises which was provided by the Bio-energy section of Government of Karnataka.

A fair amount of the consultancy fees paid to the Gramavidya is being used for supporting other activities at the rural centre.

Post earth-quake(2001) working relation that evolved between the rehablitation work groups in Gujarat (Abhiyan and others at Bhuj) and Prof K.S.Jagadish and Dr.Yogananda further developed into a stable collaboration in the field of Alternative building technologies. Hunnar Shaala, a not-for-profit company established at Bhuj emerged from the rehabilitation work groups dedicated to alternative construction resulting into a very good training and nurturing centre for craftsmanship in building construction. It was felt that the relationship between Gramavidya and Hunnar Shaala could be enhanced further through technical exchanges to compliment each other’s work. As a part of this initiative the following projects are taken up.

The project was funded by Hunnar Shaala, Bhuj, Gujarat. The objective was to conduct relevant scientific experiments and evaluate the traditional earth construction methods. Six different types of soil from different parts of Gujarat were tested. The study focussed on using organic stabilizer for making Adobe. Project cost; Rs. 3,05,000/- Investigation team : Subhas Chandra Basu, Dr.M.R.Yogananda and A.V.Pramod. After the first project completion we debated about the utilities of research work done. Then it took some time to formulate the next project proposal based on the contextual requirement of the technology needs for the actual field conditions. The outcome was:

The project is funded by Hunnar Shaala, Bhuj, Gujarat. Training of artisans from Bhuj in stabilized adobe making using cement and lime as stabilizer was conducted in December 2013. Design and fabrication of hydraulic press for making stabilized blocks of size 300x200x150mm

is completed and field tests are being conducted to monitor the functioning of machine and identify areas where improvements/modifications are required. Project cost: Rs. 13,00,000/- Investigation team: Prof.K.S.Jagadish, Dr.M.R.Yogananda, A.V.Pramod, K.N.Sudhakar Reddy and Harish Prasad D J.

Recent ideas and future planning Working in BMRCL project and through the ongoing training programs Gramavidya has been able to inspire and encourage various resourceful persons. One of them is Mr. Jagadish who was leading the construction team for Bengaluru Santhe project. With his enthusiasm and interest in Gramavidya’s work we are exploring a renewed activity at the Sidaganahalli centre. With the last two decades of field experience, presently Gramavidya’s team strongly feels that the training of artisanal manpower is the key to the dissemination of alternative construction technologies and to upgrade the quality of construction work in general. Jagadish,who is closely connected to the network of Nirmithi Kendras in Karnataka is going to play a very important role in this context. The location and building infrastructure at Sidaganahalli appears to be very useful. Keeping in view of this potential, a detail survey of the land at Sidaganahalli has been conducted. A new farm pond has been dug under a government scheme to improve rain water harvesting. Upgradation of existing buildings to accommodate trainees is in progress. A few project proposals for manpower training and dissemination of alternative ideas is under process. Prof. Jagadish’s passion for development of local timber resources in and around the rural centre is looking for a redefinition through a proposal to investigate trends in local timber use and its potential in the future building sector.

Gramavidya now intends to develop an endowment fund so that the accruing interest may be utilized for the various activities. The fund was initiated by a contribution by Mr. Shinu Murthy of Cleveland, U.S.A. He generously provided a sum of Rs 1.25 lakhs. Subsequently following contributions were also made.

K.S.Jagadish – Rs 1.75 Lakh and M.R.Yogananda – Rs 1.00 Lakh.

The total sum of Rs 4.00 Lakhs has now been invested in Bank fixed deposits. It is hoped that the endowment will grow and provide useful long term support to GRAMAVIDYA.