Conservation Revelation

(Alice) I have seen the future of green building, and it is more holistic and less mechanical than the American approach. It is also a uniquley Indian adaptation that would be problematic in some regards if applied in the US.

The American shade of green advocates using locally-sourced materials. But the husband and wife team of Nimish Patel and Paral Zaveri take things up a notch in their unwavering inclusion of local human resources and cultural conservation as part of their scheme.

Patel and Zaveri founded their firm Abhikram (Sanskrit for "initiation") upon their return to India in 1979 after studying in the US at MIT and with Paulo Soleri at Arcosanti. Their design and consultancy empire now includes Paninka Crafts and Technologies for conservation project management, the Virasat Foundation for research into the use of traditional materials and technologies and the Kanineeka Foundation for the development of holistic education. Their attractive office/ studio is a rehabilitated and re-purposed old house in a leafy residential Ahmedabad neighborhood.

Patel wowed the APA visitors with a presentation that included high-end resort and commercial projects and low-cost restorations of heritage buildings using only materials found on the project site. They are deeply involved with sustainable contemporary architecture as well as craft-dominated interior design.

Patel and Zaveri will only work with clients who fully agree to their conditions of local labor, local materials and lime rather than concrete. Patel explains that lime continually breathes and begins its life at 70 years. Finishing an exterior with lime can be done for 1.5 cents per square foot.

They have an unwavering mission statement by which their enterprise has been guided "from day one", according to Mr. Patel. These principals include conservation of every kind, the necessity of innovation and creative input at all levels of project implementation, designs that reflect the continuity of Indian traditions and technologies with a holistic approach to context.

The Torrent Research Center in Ahmedabad is Asia's largest passively-cooled contemporary building. Patel declares that it is a myth to assume that buildings in a hot, arid climate require air-conditioning and large amounts of artificial lighting. They designed the Torrent Research Center to utilize passive downdraft evaporative cooling so effectively that a comfortable interior temperature is maintained with no AC in a climate where the daytime temperatures can top 110 degrees for months. Function informs the design with a roofline of soaring chimney-like structures; it is starkly modern yet evokes a sort of tribal feeling. Since construction a few years ago, the cooling, fresh air exchange and tenant satisfaction (which is high) has been closely monitored. The electrical energy savings will pay for all costs of construction within 13 years.

After 30 years in practice, Patel still has a playful gleam in his eyes. This might be due to to the firm's enthusiasm for exploration into unknown territories and their openess to innovation and possibility at every level. They are explicit about this with clients, who must buy into the notion that mistakes, lessons and unanticipated outcomes are potentially part of the process. One large house was built around multiple trees and tree limbs with nothing removed, and one gets the sense that it was the fun and challenge of doing so as much as concern for tree preservation that drove the project in that direction.

In America, the domains of green building and historic preservation are not mutually exclusive, but do not necessarily converge. But at Abhikram, even their projects of modern design incorporate elements of traditional craftsmanship as a material statement of committment toward the sustainability of the traditional "genetic" knowledge handed down through generations of artisans and builders. Preservation is not only about restoring heritage structures and sites, but also about enabling the continuity of traditional skills and methods "so as to conserve centuries of knowledge". To further quote from Patel and Zaveri's promotional brochure, "We also attempt to acheive a balance between a continuity with the past without fossilizing it, and a change for the future without making it incongruent with its contextual surroundings". In his presentation to our group, Patel made it clear that they were comfortable with allowing traditional craftsmen and builders to carry out most of the decisions for the construction phase of a project, relying on their specific knowledge. It appears that they view their own role as empowering and learning from the workers to an extent that may be rather unique within the ego-driven world of architects. As an example of what they value in this approach, Patel speaks of how when a truckload of stone is delivered to a site, a worker taps each slab with a hammer, puts his ear to the stone and listens to determine its suitability. He says "you can only learn this when it is passed from father to son."

Implementation by craftsmen doesn't just introduce the aesthetics of tradition into a new structure, but it is also Patel and Zaveri's belief that the traditional methodologies get the job done less expensively, are energy efficient and create structures that will last. So indeed it is an approach that is sustainable of heritage and site context along with the conservation of energy and materials.

While there are highly skilled traditional crafts workers and builders in the US, it is hard to imagine this approach working as well and acheiving the same level of quality as would happen in India. There are fewer long generational links to the same body of skills and aesthetics, more egos and more bureaucracy to get in the way. Would any client really let the construction workers make key decisions? Still, it is thrilling to see such a comprehensive view of conservation and sustainability, so creatively employed.