PROJECT #:

95-051

PROJECT NAME:

MFL Housing Colony

ARCHITECT:

K. S. Ranganath
Srinivasan Ranganath & Associates
21, Chockalingam Nagar, Madras-86
Madras, Tamil Nadu
INDIA

NARRATIVE DESCRIPTION:

The design brief required the designing of a housing colony of 90 houses of four area types: 400sf (One bedroom), 600sf (Two bedroom), 900sf (Three bedroom) & 1500sf (Three bedroom) in a three acre site located in a developing New town on the outskirts of Madras.

The evolved design, attempted to achieve the following aims:

• To articulate & define territory and levels of social activity by structuring the development with a hierarchy of open spaces ranging from the community open space to the cluster open space to the individual open space.

• To plan the layout in a manner so as to augment identification of personal territory within the overall complex by avoiding generation of a monotonous grid iron pattern of roads and by borrowing from the angles of the site to create interesting shifts in views and vistas.

• To design a relationship between the built form and the open spaces in a manner that initiates social interaction. This is achieved by grouping the houses as clusters of six to nine units flexing themselves around open to sky courtyards.

• To vary the design of almost each house so as to enhance individual identity besides generating interesting variations in exterior form and interior space.

• To design each house with open to sky areas like the service courtyard & entry courtyard.

• To design the spatial relationship between rooms and service areas such as toilets & verandahs to suit the topical pattern of living.

• To effectively modulate the micro climate by: (a) providing open to sky courtyards interspersed between rooms ensuring cross ventilation, vital to the local climate; (b) adopting hollow clay blocks with reinforced clay joists for most of the roofing; c) adopting brick domes, vaults, pyramids, which have a lower U value than concrete for the other roofs; (d) providing adequate shading over external openings; (e) designing cluster type of compact grouping thereby minimizing exposure to direct sunlight.

• To be sensitive to the energy/ecology dimension by adopting cement stabilized mud blocks made with hand-operated presses at the site for all the load bearing walls.  Adopting hollow clay blocks supported on reinforced clay joists for most of the roofs and employing brick domes, vaults and pyramids for the rest.  Further minimizing use of steel and concrete by using brick flat for segmental arches for all openings.

• To enliven the exterior form beyond its plastic variation by patterns/motifs cut in plaster and delineated by colour.

Madras Fertilizers Limited
Manali, Madras - 600 068
Madras, Tamil Nadu
INDIA

We, Madras Fertilizers Limited are the owners of the housing colony constructed for accommodating personnel from Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) who are the security watch & ward for the security for our Madras Fertilizers complex at Manali, Madras in the state of Tami Nadu, India.

Housing colony is the mandatory requirement to be provided by the company concerned to CISF personnel.  Hence the colony was developed primarily with the following objectives.

• To provide all amenities of modern living for the CISF personnel.

• To give a cosmopolitan atmosphere for the CISF personnel who are deputed from different parts of the country.

• To achieve an aesthetic and a very cost effective construction to provide the above.

Based on the above requirement, the colony was developed with the following features

• Using unconventional stabilized mud blocks for construction instead of regular brick works and use of bamboo reinforcement and tile rafters instead of RCC beams resulted in a saving in construction cost by more than 15% as compared to the conventional construction.

• Provision of specialized shapes reflects the old Indian heritage gives aesthetic look but at the same time provide all the amenities for modern living.

• Provision of an auditorium within the colony, shopping arcade etc. to make people from different parts of the country feel at home.

The colony has been completed and has been in use since (1) one year and four (4) months and there have been no problems about the conditions of the structures, or their functions.

The houses have been serving the needs of the families for the purpose they are intended for.

1995
KBDA
Honorable Mention