5) Description of housing product/service offering: The local organization CST is expanding its activities. Because of this growth they are in urgent need of a new and bigger head quarters. The idea is to build this new head office in the form of 10 houses, that could fit in a rural setting. Each one will be built in different materials and techniques, which preferably can be ‘found or grown in the backyard’. For instance, the director will sit in the rammed earth office with filler slab roof, the administration will be housed in the bamboo structure, meetings will be held in the vaulted straw bale hall and trainings will be given in the BRICK BAG (*) house. The houses will be show cases of practical, low-cost, environmentally friendly and climatologically sound building principles and adequate detailing. On top of this we will include rainwater harvesting, sanitation solutions, waste en recycling initiatives and passive energy concepts.

This way the office has become a housing showroom and a training centre in one. We know that for most people it is difficult to visualize and to accept something new and unknown. We believe that a good way of reaching the people is mouth-to-mouth advertisement; seeing is believing! With this facility CST has an inspiring and innovating feature, where to invite as much people as possible, to show them the results for real. It will create awareness and it will promote the architectural talent in rural areas.

CST stands for Community Services Trust, and they are based in Salem, Tamil Nadu. They are involved in micro finance activities and they want to expand their activities with the construction of houses for the neediest people. They work in Tamil Nadu in India, in the districts of Salem and Namakkal, and soon projects will start in Erode.

(*) also see our entry 'Manufacturing of Building Materials out of Rejected Solid Waste.

6) Description of innovation: What makes this concept a win-win situation, is the fact that all different functions are in one building complex at the same time, and that they are specifically designed to serve the rural needs.

Through their network of blocks, panchayats and villages, CST will reach as many people as possible. The show case we offer will inspire the people and give them insight in all the levels of the building process, the different materials and techniques, and their accompanying price tags. Possibilities are compressed soil blocks, rammed earth, cob, bamboo, thatch and palm, fibers and grasses, straw bales, BRICK BAG (*) and sand bag, different tiling and roofing alternatives. We even display properly detailed brick and concrete, so the people can fairly compare the given alternatives with these.

In this housing supermarket we enable the people to make their own favorite selection, according to their needs and wishes, to the local availability of certain materials and to their budgets. People may choose to repair or to extend their present houses, to build a complete new house or to build in stages. In the end, they are the ones that make the choices!

Then we will provide for technical assistance and trainings, and so creating awareness and new job opportunities in alternative building schemes on a local level. And of course we will set up a financial strategy with the people, which will enable them to reach their goal without high risks.

(*) also see our entry 'Manufacturing of Building Materials out of Rejected Solid Waste.

7) Benefits to clients: The building complex is the main feature to attract and interest the people, and CST will invite their existing networks. Basically the whole concept is exposure and reaching as much people as possible. After that it is up to them to take the initiative for further assistance.

8) Key operational partnerships: Several architects in different fields of expertise have already shown interest to participate in this project. Such as Chitra and Vishwanath (sustainable architecture and water management), Mr. Yogananda (soil block technology) and Vaibhav Kaley (bamboo).

We need to establish more contacts with NGO's with financial expertise and with governmental departments, for setting up the financial schemes.

And as always, we are very open to cooperate and exchange information with others. We would happily invite people to think along or contribute to this concept. For instance, we could use more knowledge about building with natural fibers.

9) Financial model: see 9b.

          • Costs as percentage of income: n/a

          • Financing: During my rebuilding activities in Sri Lanka after the tsunami, we had good experience with 'People Driven Housing'. We have seen that most people are perfectly capable of building their own house, by hiring labour and purchasing materials. They knew best what their house should look like and in the end it created a nice variety in the villages.

Also here, we want to place the responsibility with the people themselves. If they decide to build a house, we will show them all different options at the head office and explain the differences in cost.

Then we will set up a financial scheme based on their budget, which could be split mainly in 3 parts: contribution of own money, subsidy by the government or other donor, and a loan given by CST through micro finance, plus some NGO funding.

10) Effectiveness

          • Project outcomes: We are in the stage of setting this project up. It will be a long-term process.

          • Number of clients in past year: In India, none yet. In Sri Lanka we built about 150 houses under the People Driven Housing Program.

          • Percentage of clients that are poor or marginalized: n/a

          • Potential demand: CST currently serves 60.000 people in two districts, and that will be more than doubled in the next 4 years. But we will not limit ourselves to the CST beneficiaries. With some good PR (media, mouth-to-mouth and the head office itself of course) the reach will be much wider.

11) Scaling up strategy

          • Stage of the initiative: Start Up stage.

          • Expansion plan: Build the showroom and ensure a good set up of the whole operation. As soon as we are ready to construct houses and train people, we will start with several pilots first.

12) Origin of the initiative: The idea came up during a visit to CST in december 2004. We visited some villages and it was difficult for me to make out, who would need a new or better house, and who was quite satisfied with his shelter. CST mentioned that they could use a bigger office in the future. I asked them if we wanted to build houses, where should we start; village A or village B?? These thoughts mixed together resulted in the combination of an office with a showroom and training centre.

Contact Information:
Martijn  Schildkamp
Architect
Smart Shelter Foundation
(NGO)
info@smartshelterfoundation.org
India
Tel: 98430 81314
Email: info@smartshelterfoundation.org
Website: www.smartshelterfoundation.org