5) Description of housing product/service offering: Lord Macaulay’s address to the British Parliament, 2nd February 1835- I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief, such wealth I have seen in the country, such high moral values, people of such caliber, that I don’t think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if that Indians think all that is foreign and English is good and greater than there own, they will loose there self esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation. This holds good not only for India but all the countries within the tropics which do require re- evaluating all their planning systems. The Vedaville Sustainable Development is said to be the world’s largest development of its kind. This project concept is proposed for development on 1205 acres of land known as Forest Pen located on the border of the parishes of Westmoreland and St. Elizabeth in Jamaica. The existence of large number of natural springs in the site provides the source of fresh water. Due to the existing limestone deposits within the site the water is in its purest form. The Jamaicans’ buy water which is taken from their land exported to other countries for bottling and sold back in their same country at a cost more than the fuel they buy (fuel costs about 42 Jamaican dollars per litre whereas water costs around 100 Jamaican dollars per litre). The existing contoured site being filled with springs will be the appropriate land for the development of sustainable settlement dealing right from water supply and sewage disposal till the appropriate building material and technologies. The main beneficiaries in this case who are the public would receive a complete sustainable human settlement design from our organization. (Image: 1)

6) Description of innovation: The ratio of 1:2.5 has become the present day norm owing to the logic of having the minimal development costs of road and sewage disposal pipes. It seems that the priority for Human Settlement Design today rests upon the length of Sewage pipes. The rationale is self defeating. The occupant has to build his toilet at the rear end of the property thereby increasing the very same length of the sewage pipe. Let us assume a room of dimensions 20-ftx20 ft as opposed to an exaggerated proportion of 5ftx80 ft. Both measure an area of 400sq.ft. In the case of the square plot one would be building a perimeter of 80r.ft.x10= 800 sq.ft. In the case of the rectangular plot one would be building a perimeter of 170 r.ft. x 10=1700 sq.ft. One would have used more resources for the same function, but most of all one would have wrested more from nature in the form of building material. Moreover, the room would absorb more heat from the atmosphere. The micro detail of the house and the appropriate use of materials have led to the Master Plan. Conventionally one provides setbacks, with the permissible ground coverage usually being 50%. We rotated the buildable right as diagonal within the square plot in order to avoid the unusable and unhygienic negative spaces that are created in the conventional planning with setbacks on all sides. This avoids overlooking windows and allows cross ventilation. There are drops in temperatures within the courtyards through Venturi effect. The open spaces within the clusters provide safe traffic free areas for children. These also provide for decentralized disposal at the first point itself. The groups around the clusters would be encouraged to grow flowers, vegetables or run kitchen gardens. Wastewater being absorbed within the courtyards will provide moisture for healthy plants. However the solid waste with minimal water is collected in a septic tank adjacent to the road for a group of clusters, which is further sent to the tile fields. (Image 2)

7) Benefits to clients: Respecting the social fabric of Jamaica, women centric clusters propose kitchens placed facing movement areas of the courtyard to enhance the ladies’ supervision. Kitchens are located on the periphery of the innermost courtyard, also used for community gardening Boundary walls are omitted (LIG). Clustering possibilities are indefinite and rear streets are absent. Due to the clusters developed the amount of site going in the construction of roads is highly reduced. Each plot is divided into 25 squares, with any 13 as buildable, leaving central square for ventilation and allowing flexibility for future changes. Design simplification of jointing in large span structures like geodesics and ICOSA is achieved targeting mass production and ease of assembly. Construction methodology is simplified such that that it can be imparted to the local mason with 2 week training. As there is no usage of industrial material, there will be no taxes being paid on the material to the government, so the salaries being paid to the worker at the site can be increased by 1.5 times. The material used is all moulds that are reusable, saving on shuttering costs. Exterior finishes are incorporated during the making of the basic walling material block, as well as internal roofing surfaces, for a maintenance free eco-friendly product. Made of consolidated stone surface, the exterior finish avoids use of paint totally, thus reducing the negative impact on environment.Also, it utilizes a variety of locally available waste material for the non-erodable diaphragm. It also explores the mason’s own creativity. Entire construction utilizes local material and labour. “Make everything as simple as possible but not simpler”- Albert Einstein. (Image: 3)

8) Key operational partnerships: The key partnerships are the client and the architect along with the public. Sunnycrest Enterprises Ltd. has developed Sustainable Development project, Vedaville that will include residential sub-division, resort, hotel, various aspects of tourism, health, educational, spiritual, sporting village, recreational and commercial facilities being designed by us. The revenue from selling the plots will be used for the further construction activity in a phased manner. It is anticipated that the commercial areas such as the site for 5-star hotel, shopping, golf course, would attract investors however the entire urban control have been worked out at this stage itself, for instance the commercial spine with various small hotels. The hotel, a structure consists of large span triangular Icosa shells. The rooms overlook this vibrant street below, allowing the visitors to this hotel to truly live this experience out. Jamaica is a country with abundant resources but has taken its clue from the developed nations and is then presently growing its un- sustainability root. Tropics have most to offer and yet are the least appreciated. It is this area that has the largest amount of dependence on nature. It is this area that has the largest amount of Flora and Fauna, the largest amount of disease together with the largest amount of antidotes. The largest populations, the largest produce from nature. There must have been some reason behind the wisdom of Nature. (Image: 4,5)

9) Financial model: Reduced road lengths, 18-22% less roads, less development costs, less heat, and less maintenance costs. Fewer streetlights and drains to enhance cost savings. Less surface run off area during the rainy season and more area for ground water re charge. Diagonal planning results in venturi effect thereby reducing temperatures. Access points placed diagonally make for convenient splitting of the levels of the courtyards thereby minimizing the need for cut and fills. Infact multi level courts enhance the internal landscape value of the courtyards. Appropriate technologies and materials make the structures cost effective. Use of local material and labour reduce transport costs. Materials used do not attract government levies as in the case with industrialized products. (Image: 5)

          • Costs as percentage of income: NA

          • Financing: The project, so far, has steadily been receiving the acknowledgement and blessings of the concerned authorities. The Ministry of Environment, headed by the Prime Minister had initially sanctioned the plans, then the National Housing Trust agreed in principal to fund the project, and finally the Town Planning Authority sanction too has been received. The promoters are working towards refunding any resultant savings back to the occupants. Initially, to satisfy the TPA, costs for infrastructure are to be paid according to existing standards. The project is thus self sustainable with the major contribution of the beneficiaries in further construction activity at the site as the project progresses.

10) Effectiveness

          • Project outcomes: It is becoming increasingly important in this rapidly developing world that we find sustainable solutions to problems without straining this earth further. The glamour of the industrialized world has clouded our minds, making us abandon the lessons of the past. At the Anangpur Building Centre, India, we believe that the solution lies in a judicious blend of the past with the present. This of projects affects all the tropics to re-think the issues of planning so that we would take a proper leap backward to reach the future. There are around 20,000 people being benefited directly by living in this and which will make a statement proving itself in field of sustainable issues within the tropics.

          • Number of clients in past year: The infrastructure is laid and the plots are available for sale in the site. Some early investors have already bought into the project which provided the initial startup cost. Even today one hopes to influence Jamaica into adapting these practices

          • Percentage of clients that are poor or marginalized: 65%

          • Potential demand: The largest single investment that a man makes in his lifetime is the home he builds. The solution tries to contribute to the “JOY OF LIVING”, which is the right of every citizen. It is for this reason that a considerable amount of mysticism was propagated around human settlement design. Whether it is the Vastu or the Feng Shui in the far East or the Ubuntu in Africa, the main focus was sustainability as also enhancing the quality of life with total respect to natural elements. These regions which basically are within tropics who worshipped all the elements of sustainability as God, thus the relationship between human settlement and religions they practiced is very evident. If the process of rationalization is re introduced within the tropical regions it would benefit a large part of the so called developing world. It is these regions that the largest population of the world exists.

11) Scaling up strategy

          • Stage of the initiative: Scaling Up stage.

          • Expansion plan: The expansion plan of our organization over the next three years is to fully turn out this Vedaville Township project into a complete and first ever built project of this scale, in the world. There is a considerable amount of interest in the manner that we have handled this project and the whole process that we have adopted is on our website www.anangpur.org Change of strategies as opposed to the present accepted practices requires a considerable amount of effort and time and we can safely say that we have taken the first step in this direction. “We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”- A. Einstein. We on our part are mainly targeting students who we expect would be vehicles for this change. Every opportunity to address students and professionals is utilized, about the past several years I have addressed more than twenty five seminars.

12) Origin of the initiative: Our office Anangpur Building Centre has been working in this field of appropriate technologies, cost effective techniques and sustainable issues since past 30 years. John Legister, our client sent an e-mail requesting a proposal on the 1200 acres of land at Jamaica. Our clients were committed to sustainability as driving force. John has been studying our website www.anangpur.com for several years. Over a period of four months a master plan was prepared by us and sent to the client. John then suggested that I personally fly down to Jamaica to make a presentation to the Ministry of Land and Environment headed by the Prime Minister of Jamaica. After a five hour presentation the in principle sanction was received and the project moved further. For any further details please look into our website www.anangpur.org under the Projects menu with title of Vedaville Sustainable Township, Jamaica.

Contact Information:
Anil  Laul
CEO and Principal Architect
Anangpur Building Centre
(Entrepreneur Firm)
India
Website: www.anangpur.com, www.anangpur.org