Chandigarh Experiment with Low-Cost Housing

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Chandigarh Experiment with Low-Cost Housing

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·?????? Jit Kumar Gupta

·?????? j[email protected]

INTRODUCTION

Housing, as a sector, is known for its criticality in promoting economy, generating employment and ensuring quality of life for any community, state and nation besides providing identity and security to individuals. Accordingly, nations are committing itself to provide appropriate housing for all its inhabitants. Housing remains resource and cost- intensive, requiring large?physical, social, material, technical and economic resources. Considering the backlog and large gap between demand and supply of housing, nations are searching for options which can make housing both cost-effective and affordable.

Low- Cost Housing as an issue, option and strategy is assuming critical importance in achieving the global target of providing affordable shelter for all. Considering criticality of shelter as a major determinant of quality of life with majority of housing shortage falling in the EWS and LIG categories, low- cost housing appears to be the only option for creating, augmenting and expanding the housing stock in the country. Considering the prevailing high cost of land, materials, labour etc., most of the housing stock remains unaffordable for majority of urban dwellers. Urban migrants, pushed out of rural areas due to poverty, find it hard to secure minimal shelter due to prevailing high land, labour and material cost, which makes housing unaffordable. Accordingly, it becomes important that housing costs are minimized, reduced and rationalized, to make it affordable and accessible to even poorest of the poor residents of any city to lead a dignified life.

?Housing Cost

Low-cost housing options call for looking at the entire gamut of housing including identifying various components which make it unaffordable. Studies have shown that major determinants of housing cost include Cost of land; Cost of materials; Cost of labour /machinery; Cost of designing; Cost of structure; Cost of approvals; Cost of money (loan ); Cost of services; Cost of?contractor; Cost of transportation; Taxes, levies, duties ; Cost of site development; Cost of machinery/ Construction technologies ; Cost of managing Construction; Cost due to wastage of materials; Cost of time for construction; Specification adopted etc. All these factors cumulatively add to make the cost of housing.?In order to minimize the impact of various factors, it is important that these components are, individually and collectively, studied, analyzed and evaluated.

?Achieving economy in housing is the most challenging task which Architects/Engineers face while designing & constructing the low-cost housing. Creating low-cost housing is not a new concept. Cutting cost is not limited to only private sector. In fact, public sector is the major contributor to the creation of low-cost housing options. This concept has been followed on a large scale by various parastatal agencies while designing public and private housing. Numerous Development Authorities and Housing Boards, operating in the country, have also taken up the challenge of creating affordable shelter for slum dwellers, EWS & LIG categories. HUDCO has contributed substantially in the area of innovative building materials, building technologies, housing designs, etc. to create low- cost housing options in the country. Charging lower rates of interest and establishing Building Centers etc.?have also been used as mechanism for promoting low- cost housing by HUDCO. However, the major focus has been on reducing the upfront/ initial cost of housing without taking into account their life-cycle cost involving operational and maintenance cost. Since buildings are known to have life spanning over 7- 8 decades, sometimes more than the life span of human living, accordingly the operational and maintenance cost component remains very high- in the range of?90% of the life cycle cost as against only 10% which goes into making?of the building. Thus, it becomes critical that if housing has to be made cost-effective in real sense of the term, we need to look at the life- cycle cost rather than the initial cost. In fact, we now need to graduate from cost-effective housing to cost-effective living in order to make housing affordable. For searching innovative options to make housing both qualitative and cost-effective, various innovative strategies used in the capital city of Chandigarh?in the early fifties, immediately after the partition of India will be relevant and useful. Chandigarh, is known for its experimentation in the area of built environment to make it both qualitative and cost-effective, considering the fact that state had limited resources to create large stock of housing for its employees.

Chandigarh Experiment

Known for its contribution and excellence, in the art and science of architecture, Chandigarh was conceived and conceptualized as the new capital city for the state of Punjab, which lost its capital city to Pakistan during partition of the country in 1947. Known for architectural and planning excellence, Chandigarh is largely ignored for its contribution and innovations made in the parlance of cost-effective built environment known by the name and style as Chandigarh architecture.?Considering the financial and technological constraints, Chandigarh has the distinction of making enormous contribution to the low-cost housing through innovative design solutions. Stringent budget and strict adherence to accommodation defined besides climate were the major determinants of Chandigarh Architecture, urban form and housing design, which made Chandigarh a low density and low-rise city with government housing forming bulk of construction. Economy in housing was achieved through the use of locally made inexpensive brick as the main material for construction; minimizing wood work and glazing, which were seven and eleven times more expensive than brick; keeping window sizes minimum; standardization of doors, windows and sanitary fittings besides using pre-cast roof battens and tiles for economizing on time, shuttering, labour, steel, concrete and using minimum machinery during construction.

?Since Chandigarh was built on a new site, greatest challenge in city development was to provide large housing stock for the government employees who were to be shifted to the new city. Accordingly, state government accorded highest priority to the construction of houses for its employees. In the initial program it was envisioned to house more than 20,000 people within 3 years of start of construction of the new capital. Initially 3208 dwelling units were to be constructed to which 4000 units were added in 1956 when PEPSU was merged into the state of Punjab. Out of 23,000 residential sites carved out in the first phase of development of the city, as much as 30% residential sites were earmarked for the government housing, which formed majority of the accommodation in the first two decades of city development.

Housing Program

Housing program envisioned for the capital city comprised of 13 distinct types of housing with Type 1 being the largest and Type 13 being the minimal house. Type 1 house was meant to accommodate the Chief Minister of Punjab whereas Type 13 was the smallest house, accommodating the peons and officials drawing salary less than Rs. 50/- per month.??Subsequently Type 14 house was also added (cheap house) to accommodate sweepers, washer-men and other low paid employees who were not included in earlier program. In the approved housing program, specification, site area, accommodation to be provided and cost of the house were already fixed /defined by the government. Based on these considerations, houses up to Type 6 were designed as detached two storied bungalows, Type 7 was designed as semi-detached duplex houses whereas rest (Type 8-14) were designed as single/double storied terraced housing.

While designing the housing program, commitment was to provide minimal house to even poorest of the poor comprising of 2 rooms, a private compound, an independent kitchen, bath, W.C. with piped water supply and water-borne sanitation. Considering the stringent norms of housing defined above, initial team of Architects working on the project struggled to evolve innovative design solutions meant to accommodate lowest income groups which constituted 80% of the total government housing. Besides designing state of art high category housing, Chandigarh today has emerged as the role model to showcase the mechanism to create low cost housing without compromising with the quality of construction, quality of housing and quality of architecture. In fact, low- cost housing of Chandigarh has emerged as the major contribution of the new city to the architectural vocabulary of housing in India. With team of three committed foreign Architects including Pierre Jeanerette, Jane B. Drew and Maxwell Fry under the leadership of Le- Corbusier, taking charge of city planning, designing and construction, high degree of economy in the housing cost was achieved through; Innovative and?efficient architectural design solutions; Structural simplicity; Functional efficiency; Economy in layout of housing clusters; Small and limited?openings; Using local building materials in natural form ;Using improved building technologies; Adopting Pre-cast?options?for?roofing; Using Brick jallis on large scale; Clustering of services;?Terraced/row housing; Optimization of building heights; Exposing brick work; Minimizing use of wood, glass, steel and concrete besides sharing walls and clubbing of services. In order to showcase and detail out the salient features involving design, services and construction adopted in Chandigarh to promote cost-effective/ low -cost housing, design/construction solutions followed in lowest category housing of category 12, 13 & 14 have been taken up as examples. Most of the features remain common in these housing but variation in designs have been used as the mechanism for cutting down the cost and making housing low cost in reality.

Housing- Type 12

Type 12 housing was meant to accommodate government employees drawing salary between Rs. 50-100 per month. Accordingly, these were meant to be low- cost housing. These houses formed bulk of the housing stock created initially, considering large number of employees in this pay bracket. These houses were planned in two broad categories i.e single and double storied housing. Both these categories have been planned as row housing providing for a living room, 2 bed rooms besides kitchen and toilet. Bath & WC have been planned separately in order to cater to multiple use. All services including kitchen, bath & WC have been clubbed in the design for individual as well as adjoining houses in order to cut down the cost of services. Position of services has not been changed in upper floors in case of double storied houses for reasons of economy. Single storied houses have been designed in a number of variants including compact unit and in split design, where planning revolves around a courtyard. In all the houses, brick remains the major building materials with pre-cast battens and tiles creating the roof supported on parallel load bearing walls. Air, light and ventilation in the houses is ensured through perforations made in the brick wall and extensive use of brick jallis. Staircase is supported on shared structural walls and is meant to serve the adjoining houses in case of double storied houses. Windows remain small for reasons of economy and are properly shaded through an innovative system of sub-breakers to cut off the harsh sun. Cost-effectiveness in these houses has been the outcome of strategy involving-- Adopting design solutions providing for optimum utilization of space with high degree of design efficiency; using row housing as a strategy to minimize the area under walls; using mechanism of common walls between adjoining houses to economize on space and cost; using most economical building materials for construction. i.e bricks, locally available at that time?;using modular system of design based on most optimum grid of 8’-3”; using walls as the structural elements to support the roof; using pre-cast battens and tiles for the roof (12”x 6’ x 2”); clubbing of services within house and of adjoining houses to minimize the cost of services ; extensively using brick jallis for perforation to ensure air, light and ventilation; minimizing size of openings to economize on cost of wood and glass; using standard battened doors with cross braces; bringing large area under exposed brick work to minimize cost of maintenance; variety in design achieved through recessed entrances, small square windows, projecting structural walls, exposed roof battens ;using pre-cast gargoyles?for draining rain water instead of cast iron rain water pipes; variation in heights of building with maximum height of room placed at 9’-6”; using simple floors made of plain cement; maintaining high quality of construction using quality bricks ; minimizing?use of steel ,concrete and shuttering.

Housing--Type 13,

Type 13 was meant to be the minimal house to be provided in the earlier program in the category of government housing, to which Type 14 was added subsequently. The house was provided in two variants i.e single and double storey. Designed to accommodate employees with salary less than Rs. 50/- per month, houses were designed with focus on economy, efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Two rooms besides kitchen, bath and water closet constituted the total accommodation. Row housing was the pattern adopted with each house sharing its external walls with adjoining houses. Large courtyards catered to outdoor living. Considering the Indian customs, toilets of 4 houses were combined and placed at the end of the courtyard for reasons of economy. The bricks were projected to act as louvers and provide protection to the openings besides minimizing the impact of western sun by the shadows created by projecting bricks. In the double- storied variant of the houses, single stair-case was used to serve the upper units to economize on the cost, space and materials. Portion of the verandah and kitchen were kept at lower height to reduce the quantity of materials and cost of construction. The entire design was based on a grid of 8.3” which permitted pre-cast batten and roof to rest directly on the structural walls. Number and size of openings were kept minimum in order to cut down on cost of expensive wood and glass. Major openings were provided with brick jallis to replace the glass and wooden windows. Major features providing economy included: adopting a cluster approach for designing and planning houses; making houses compact with minimum space under circulation; grouping houses on the pattern of row housing with common /shared walls; replacing roads with paved streets for providing accessibility to individual houses; rationalizing height of rooms with lower heights allocated to baths/WCs; clubbing kitchens, baths and WCs for minimizing cost of services; providing open to sky baths in case of single storey houses; minimizing/rationalizing size/ number of windows?to cut down the cost of wood; using brick jallis to cover?large openings for providing adequate light and ventilation; restricting number of doors?and using batten and?brace type doors for reasons of economy; making walls?as structural elements to support the roof; using cost-effective bricks as the key material in construction; creating shading devices by using bricks in a variety of manners to cut down on lintel costs; using pre-cast gargoyles for rain water drainage instead of cast iron pipes; using differential wall heights considering actual requirement, usage, privacy etc. ; minimising use of steel and cement; promoting standardization and pre-fabrication instead of in-situ construction.

Housing - Type 14,

Planned to accommodate all left out categories below the rank of peons, Type 14 was introduced subsequently to be lowest category of housing in the government sector. Focus of the designing was to achieve high degree of economy besides making housing cost-effective, without compromising with the quality of construction/services. Accommodation provided included norm of 2 rooms, made applicable for the first time in Chandigarh, besides providing separate independent toilets. Objective of low-cost housing and economy in this category of housing was also achieved through: adopting a cluster approach for planning and designing; making houses compact and space efficient with optimum area under rooms, walls and circulation; shared common walls for economizing on space, material and labour; adopting most efficient?grid considering the most economical spans of pre-cast battens; using walls as the structural elements; sharing of services, i.e. clubbing toilets and baths of 4 houses to economize on service network; adopting pre-cast technology of battens and tiles for roofing; supporting roof battens, directly on load bearing walls avoiding cost of shuttering etc.; eliminating use of steel, concrete & R.C.C; Using locally available cost-effective brick as the major building material for construction; limiting size/ number of openings and doors/windows to minimize the quantity of wood; making extensive use of ethnic brick jallis in large openings for light and ventilation and avoiding expensive glass and wood; restricting height of rooms (9’6”) and providing lower height for Bath/WC block (7’6”), for economizing on quantity of material/labour ; replacing metalled roads with paved streets to minimize cost of external infrastructure; creating multipurpose verandah for cooking/eating and other family needs; using pre-cast gargoyles to drain off rain water instead of cast-iron pipes;?standardization of doors, windows and other structural elements and using cost- effective specifications requiring minimum maintenance.

Conclusion

Even after passage of more than seven decades, when majority of these low cost house were constructed( between 1950-58), they still stand testimony to their quality and cost-effectiveness which have made them brand ambassador of the art and architecture of the city beautiful. These houses have amply demonstrated that?construction cost can be rationalized and scaled down without compromising with the quality of built environment by?adopting innovative design solutions; making housing compact; using?locally available building materials; using materials in the natural form; making innovative use of materials; evolving climate responsive design; avoiding costly materials;?using innovative building technologies involving pre-cast and pre-fabrication; using ethnic brick jallis for spanning large openings; adopting efficient structural grid; rationalizing heights; standardizing/ mass production of components; clubbing and sharing of services/walls; adopting, cluster approach for grouping of houses; and?economizing on external development etc. These concepts hold high degree of validity and potential even in the present context to achieve the cost rationalization and creating low- cost housing options for making housing for all a distinct reality.