Housing in Wetlands: Some Observations from my PhD/TCTD Project Study
From the desk of Vitasta
Time: Irrelevant
Notes: Concept Note and Final Conclusion from my PhD/ TCTD project Study on "Sustainable Housing in Kuttanad, Kerala"
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| Notes from my Field Study at Nedumudi, Kerala. Vitasta Raina, 2019 |
Most work in “Sustainable + Housing” in the realm of Housing Studies focuses on a specific idea of what housing means. The word ‘Housing’ immediately brings out notions of ‘housing as a collective’. This is demonstrated historically in the organization of settlements, and in their respective material vocabulary. This is in contrast to the understanding of ‘housing’ in the Study Region, because this notion of housing is not present. Instead, because of the nature of nucleated homesteads, we find only the notion of a ‘house’. This is the fundamental factor influencing the choices of people on ground.
As an architect, I tend to look at Housing as an applied research (design) problem to be solved, and it encompasses contextual, community and material concerns to derive a working model. As a postgraduate in Housing Studies, I am trained to analyze the broader policies and conceptual structures that impact housing processes. In the paradigm of Housing Studies, John F.C. Turner describes these understandings of Housing both as a noun- the way an architect describes it, as well as a verb- the way a housing planner describes it (Freedom to Build, 1972). Thus, in the process of describing the notion of housing, our conception of the intended research and our approach to the literature will change.
There is an idea of continuity that stems from my approach to sustainability- that has to do with the continuous and concerted energy that is put into keeping things permanent, rather than letting them ‘decay’ naturally with nature. This aspect explores the use of CSEBs (Mud Walls) that were once used in construction of peasant homes in Kuttanad, but which have long since been replaced. This aspect also explores the understanding of ‘vernacular’, which excludes the built-heritage of lower-caste groups.
After examining the available literature, and being cognizant of the fact that I maybe looking at long term solutions for "construction on wetlands". The only question then, left for "sustainability" is whether to continue with construction at all?
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| Landuse Maps of Nedumudi Ward 3 and 5 showing nucleated settlement pattern. From my field survey. Vitasta Raina, 2019 |
Several professionals understand and engage with Housing differently depending on the many qualifiers that are used alongside it. Housing is simultaneously a basic service, a basic human right, as well as a tool for analyzing community and social structures. At the same time however, Housing exists in real-estate and is a quantifiable asset.
Housing study necessitates a qualifier, and it is only through the lens of the qualifier that we can place ourselves in Literature. For instance, I completed my Master’s Degree Thesis on ‘Affordable Housing’ under the then Draft Maharashtra State Housing Policy (2006). Because we put the qualifier ‘Affordable’ in front of Housing, it necessitated looking at Housing from an Economic lens. This is because the concept of ‘affordability’ is an economic concept.
The notion of ‘sustainable’ as climate-appropriate architecture has been picked up by local practitioners. This means that sustainable choices are also ‘contextual choices’- in the context of flooding, in the context of the economic capacity (affordability) of inhabitants, in the availability of locally contextual materials and motifs, or strategies to cope with the low-bearing capacity of the local soil.
When this notion of ‘Sustainable’ is integrated with the notion of ‘housing’ that exists in the study region- we find ourselves in the current situation that we observe in Kuttanad i.e. the on-ground scenario of annual flooding, and the desire to overcome this nuisance by building a ‘sustainable house’.
In the midst of this is the role of the State Housing providers that are promoting house building practices without paying heed to context. This is because they are following guidelines and policies present pan-India. The key initiative is the LIFE Mission- which has two phases- the first of which has the potential to better the lives of the inhabitants through Cluster/ Group Housing, but which has not been implemented as yet, since it challenges the existing paradigm. The second phase, which is on-going, fits within the existing established norms present on ground.
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| Sample Life Mission House. Plan Recreated from their website. |
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| Rehabilitation Housing by NGOs. Plan Recreated from their website. |
Thus at the onset of the study, we are faced with a challenge, because under the current paradigm of Housing in Kuttanad, the focus is primarily on "Sustainable House Construction" in the context of Wetlands. Often times in complex scenarios, the answers that we seek are the simplest. The ‘Sustainability of a House’ in Kuttanad is directly linked in the current understanding of ‘Context’; and with the implementation of the initiatives under ‘Rebuild Kerala’ by the State Govt. that also includes initiatives like ‘Room for the River’. Some of these initiatives are informed by the traditional methods of coping with the floods that were present pre-urbanization.
The ‘Sustainability of Housing’ on the other hand, is directly linked with questioning the existing acceptable notions of the inhabitants regarding their living systems. Do we continue to look at ‘flooding’ through a temporal dimension? In this scenario, we are looking at housing construction through the event of flooding, where ‘flooding is a disaster’. In this case, the literature on Housing is divided into 3 categories as enumerated below:
- Housing Construction in a Pre-Disaster Setting, which would mitigate
- Housing Vulnerabilities during Disaster Settings, and
- Post-Disaster Housing study.
‘Post-disaster Housing’ is a well-established area of literature within Housing studies. The technical and engineering, policy, design and socio-economic impacts and processes of various types of post-disaster housing models over the years has been well-researched. There is little scope of any necessary discussion or relevance to the literature that we can add to the paradigm, besides documenting and analyzing the on-ground reconstruction processes and policies on ground at case-study site. A furthering and expansion of this aspect of the literature review, however, will fundamentally change the idea of our study context. We will no longer be reviewing or examining literature for a “flooded terrain”.
While current literature looks at available resources at all three stages of the spatial-temporal flooding event, it leaves out the core question that we must first ask in the geographical context of our research area. Here, floods not only occur regularly at a time-interval, but the landscape itself is a “flooded landscape” i.e. a Wetland, which compels us to look at “flooding” beyond the understanding of “disaster”. In such a scenario, it becomes important to first define our “flooded terrain” before looking at literature, so that towards the end, we can refine the question, “Housing, but at what cost?”
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| The "two architectures" of Kuttanad. Image Source: Primary Survey (right). |
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| Traditional Mud Hutment. Plans Recreated from various sources. |
There is a second idea of sustainability that I want to bring into the current understanding of ‘house’ in Kuttanad area, is the Filtering theory (The filtering model of housing) which is well accepted in Housing Affordability studies, and which has to do with the upward social and economic mobility of people. While the research study is not aimed at providing hard solutions to the problem of ‘Sustainable Housing’, it is as per my understanding, in the first phase of the LIFE mission (Cluster/ Group Housing Model) where these above stated concepts (Local/Contextual Materials; and Sustainable-Affordable Housing) can be effectively applied, albeit theoretically to see the kind of framework of ‘what can be'.
The overall themes for literature emerging in Pre-disaster and During-Disaster settings are encapsulated in the framework presented below. This diagram allowed me to examine where I wanted place myself in literature, and also clarified the kind of research I intended to pursue.
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| Systematic Literature Review. Vitasta Raina, 2020 |
~*There is nothing greener than decay. Buildings Must die.*~
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