Wednesday, August 22, 2007

 Presentation on Solar Power as a Renewable Energy Resource by Mr Suhas Ghotikar – August 2007

Mr S. Ghotikar gave an excellent synoptic background to the relevance on renewable energy sector in India. The presentation looked at various advancements in the solar power technologies in India and abroad, and spoke at length about how the sector is still in a flux and evolving technologically.

He gave a detailed lecture on integrating the solar power technology into architecture, focusing on the solar water heating application, which is to date affordable than the Solar Photovoltaic (PV). Mr Ghotikar elaborated on the saving in Carbon emissions at the national level with use of Solar power and gave excellent presentation on the case studies in and around Pune.

The lecture ended with an overview of the latest technological advancements in Germany, which spearheads research in renewable power sector of the world. This included foldable and rolled solar PVs and integration of solar PVs into building materials such as flooring tiles, roofing tiles and wall panels.

 Interaction on ‘Environmental Design’ with Ar Madhav Joshi – Focus ICC Tech Tower, S B Road, Pune, July 2007

Ar Madhav Joshi, one of the principal architects involved in designing and executing the Tech Tower in the International Convention Centre (ICC) interacted with students of M.Arch Environmental Architecture on his experiences while designing an energy intensive and a corporate image building. Ar Madhav Joshi’s work, till before ICC, has been diagonally opposite in design philosophy, thought and innovation. Hence the students, through a two hour long discussion, hoped to get an essence of the contradictions and compromises that the architect may have undergone to make the tremendous shift in his architectural style.

Technical discussion with him also ensued on understanding the constraints and parameters underlying the design of an energy intensive commercial centre. Students got a wonderful insight into understanding the influences on the choice of materials and technologies for this sensitive architect.

These post graduate students will, in their Design Studi, attempt to tackle the redesign of the ICC Towers and have gained a lot of crucial inputs through their interaction with Ar Madhav Joshi.

 Presentation on ‘Sustainability Assessment’ by Mr. Mandar Parasnis of E2KM, Pune on Thursday July 19, 2007

Mandar Parasnis is a Civil Engineer and Environmental Engineer by profession. He has worked extensively in the international environmental arena for the last 12 years. He worked with Asian Productivity Organization (APO) in Japan and in Thailand and has developed training modules and assessment frameworks for Environmental Technologies.

Mandar gave an excellent introduction to the area of Sustainable Technology Assessments and oriented his examples for architects, thereby focusing on assessment of environmental and building technologies and materials. He stressed the point that it has become imperative for environmental architects to look at developing methodologies that infuses environmental evaluation into formal economic and technical evaluation of any building technology or choice of any material.

The presentation and the following discussion focused primarily on how environmental architects can justify expensive technologies which may be more sustainable than conventional technologies.

Seminar on Mainstreaming the Alternate – Sustainability in Architecture by Architect Sayee Deodhar, INANTIS, Bangalore, Monday, July 16, 2007





Ar. Sayee Deodhar, working in an architectural firm called INANTIS, Bangalore, shared her thoughts, design ideas and innovations through her two path breaking projects in a half day seminar with M.Arch Environmental Architecture and Fourth Year B.Arch students. Sayee’s presentation was an eye opener for students, where they got an opportunity to see sustainable planning, eco friendly construction methods and environmental technologies integrated into a mass housing project. Her design thought and the structured process in which they have approached the sustainable design of housing was truly exciting to see.

M.Arch Environmental Architecture students also interacted with her on a one-to-one basis to try to understand the way the designs are impacting on the lifestyle of residents, the economics of the project and the viability of marketing the ‘Sustainable’ concept to citizens of Bangalore.
Sayee also presented an exciting case study for a city of Bab Zaer in Morrocco, where their company has developed an Environmental Plan for the new city development. All planning was based on availability of natural resources, particularly water and energy, two most prominent requirements for development of a city.Accordingly, areas were zoned based on the carrying capacity of environment, thereby ensuring a direction for sustainable city development.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Post graduate students win Second Prize in National Level Design Ideas Competition for “Eco-Tourist Cottages” organised by Karnataka Government

The students of M.Arch. Environmental Architecture have won the second prize for designing a "Eco Cottage" in the all India Competition announced by the Karnataka Government.
This all India level competition was organized with the idea to create awareness with a strong commitment to use tourism as a genuine tool for conserving the environment and wildlife.

The proposed design had to be applicable anywhere in the State,at varied location i.e. Beach,Santuary etc.
The space, entirely in tourist’s control, was aimed at for the purpose of designing an eco- cottage.
The concept basic form, selected for design is complete in itself, organically originating in nature and is of utmost geometrical importance: A Circle.

The cottage built up area of 325-350 sq ft comprising of living-sleeping area, toilet, dressing area, and a covered sit-out. The elevated cottages with green materials are cost effective and environmental friendly in all respects with a sustainable functional facet. The cottages are demonstrative and create awareness in living practices amongst the common man, tourists etc. Making tourism a reason for better preservation and protection of our natural resources, environment and ecology was aimed. The structure is deliberately designed in such a way to suit different set of locally available materials. The climate responsive design will reduce energy consumption . The above six considerations are effectively utilised for perfect eco friendly working. To act as a self sustained unit, technologies like water harvesting, waste water and solid waste treatment, renewable energy like wind power for electricity generation are incorporated into design.
Encouragemnt by Pricipal Anurag Kashyap and motivation by the faculty Prof.Anagha Paranjape and Prof.Poorva Keskar kept the winning team focused to achieve this success.Sujata Kodak,Anshul Gujrathi and Prajakta Dalal's initiative and hardwork was remarkable.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

E-Waste Management Workshop by PMC

Saturday March 24, 2007
Prof Anagha Paranjape-Purohit participated in the workshop on Solid Waste Management in Pune – E-waste. This workshop is a part of a series of workshops organized by Pune Municipal Corporation and UNEP IETC. The workshop was hosted at PMC Main Building in Capt Vadke Hall at 2:00 pm. These workshops are targeted to include all stakeholders so that there is a participatory approach towards evolving a plan for solid waste management in Pune.
This workshop on e-waste management focused on the issue of growth of IT sector in Pune. The presentations included a talk by Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) who has recently conducted a study on estimating e-waste in Maharashtra. This was followed by stakeholders discussing the issue of informal recycling sector in Pune and the hazards of manual e-waste recycling. This was followed by a presentation by a technology provider, INFROTEK, who are developing a recycling plant at Taloja which will recycle about 25% of Mumbai’s e-waste. Currently there are no plans for Pune’s e-waste recycling.

Election of BNCA Professors to the Committee of Energy and Environment of Promoters and Builders Association of Pune (PBAP)

Report on the General Body Meeting and discussions for this position

Promoters and Builders Association of Pune (PBAP) is a consortium of Builders and Developers in Pune, with a strength of about 150 members operating their businesses in the larger Pune metropolitan area, including Pimpri-Chinchwad and such fringe areas.

This body has various committees formed under its umbrella to promote and provide assistance to its members at various levels and in different new and emerging arenas of development. One such committee is Energy and Environment, headed by Mr. Sanjay Deshpande. Although memberships to these committees were restricted to PBAP members, PBAP has granted permission to the Energy and Environment Committee to take on board experts in the area of Eco Housing and Environmental Planning.

With this as the background, PBAP chose to invite Prof Poorva Keskar and Prof Anagha Paranjape-Purohit to its Committee for Energy and Environment. A General Body meeting was conducted on March 24, 2007 where approval for the two invitee members was granted.