The livelihood activities in the community start at 3am to 1pm daily to avoid extreme heat stress in the afternoons. The roasting and milling of paddy, puffing of the rice, packaging and closing of shops are conducted within 10 hours. The temperatures indoors remain between 35 to 45degC at all times due to the presence of the furnaces and bad quality built materials. Extreme exhaustion and breathing in sooth and air pollutants reduces productivity in 5 to 6 hours. Rain and overheating additionally damage the finished goods.
The community leaders encourage retirement of workers in 8-9 months to avoid long term health issues. The trade is not aspirational to the community.
The new workspace/ factory is being planned with the intention to improve ergonomics and workflow. The building will be constructed with
a) Climate responsive built design to optimise natural (north) lighting and natural ventilation
b) Sustainable materials local to the context of Dharwad to reduce heat stress from the roof (with innovative cool roofs like Modroof, Hourdi(hollow burnt clay) Block Slab, Filler(clay tiles and pots) slab) and walling materials built in rat-trap bond construction methodology to improve insulation.
c) Further the workspaces will be made self-sustained by integrating solar energy to run the various applications within the space.
Architecture in practice has to address all the needs and the wants of the potential occupants. Especially when co-designing solutions with the community entrepreneurs, the approach to designing solutions encompasses all aspects from the
built environment to the
products or machineries people will use in the space depending on its function.
To give an example to our past work and design approach, the pottery community in cyclone affected Puri, Odisha were facing a lot of issues with their traditional livelihoods getting devastated by recurring disasters. Here we co-designed the (1 - building design) built environment envisioning the future of how the community will build workspaces and homes that are resilient yet reflecting their culture and heritage. Further we worked with the potters to develop an improved (2 - product design) pottery kiln and solar integrated (3 - clean energy and mechanisation) machinery for pot making, soil conditioning and kneading. Similar approach will be followed with the collaboration in the puffed rice making community.
Quantitative benchmarks:
- Zero heat loss from the appliances - 60-70% efficient fuel consumption
- Clean energy for night time activities, Natural light optimised during daylight hours - 100% renewable energy
- Passive and active ventilation and built insulation resulting in ambient 26 to 30degC and Relative Humidity to between 40-60%
Impact 1: Health and Wellbeing
- 100% mechanisation resulting in drudgery reduction
- Safe air quality levels
Impact 2: Productivity and Quality of Work
- Ease of work
- Increase in number of productive hours
- Reduction in spoilage
The intention will be to use the pilot demonstration of built spaces and products used in the trade to provide financial linkages to the entrepreneurs in the community for improvement of housing and workspaces in the community impacting 240 people directly leading to better social security and quality/ dignity of life