Having been fortunate to have had a head start in understanding the challenges of sustainable development in the built environment, our challenge for over the last two decades has been on scaling up from individual projects to interventions on a town/ city / regional level.
The principals of Inspiration, with support and advice of planners in the team, have tried to respond to challenges posed by home state / local governments and administration in differing capacities in Kerala State Planning Board, Kerala State Finance Commission, Kochi City Master Plan Committee etc. and also through Central govt schemes like AMRUT, Swach Bharat Abhiyan 1 & 2, Smart Cities Mission, Jal Shakti Abhiyan etc.
Ente Kochi Design Concept
NMT Initiatives for Kochi Metro (KMRL)
Besides these, Inspiration has also responded to medium and large private sector Urban and regional planning and design challenges. Some examples are documented below.
Through sensitive Land Use Planning, our effort has been to contain Urban Sprawl, so that natural heritage, built heritage and bio-diversity is conserved.
Our effort often is also to encourage economic investments and land use such that human habitation is planned so as to make the project aspire to be self sufficient in essential water and energy ; solid, liquid and gaseous wastes are assimilated within the region if not within the project boundaries ; and bulk material for construction, consumption and industries are attempted to be from within nearby geographic region.
Urban Planning Projects
Inspiration has responded to the housing needs of several marginalized sections of the society such as
improvement / rehabilitation of urban slum dwellers
rehabilitation of disaster - earthquake, tsunami, flood - affected
housing for marginalized fisher people
rehabilitation of marginalized tribal communities
rehabilitation of those displaced by large projects etc.
Inspiration has also done studies, publications, project reports and policy documents supporting the needs and rights of the marginalised sections of the society.
Some of such initiatives often done in collaboration with local NGOs, are documented below.
Rehabilitation of Sultanpur Village for JSW Group
Social Housing Projects
Water is a resource getting scarcer by the day. Integrated water management for a region or a project involves
Guidance in conserved use of water for varied applications such as for drinking and cooking, washing and bathing, irrigation, flushing wastes etc.
Waste-water treatment, disposal or recycling
Rainwater harvesting.
Recharge/ drainage of storm-water.
Inspiration is a co-founder and its’ senior partner, the current President of CDD society of India (www.cddindia.org).
Focusing on an integrated approach to water and sanitation issues, Inspiration / CDD combined team have responded to a number of large and small scale projects involving Decentralised Waste water Treatment Systems (DEWATS), sanitation solutions, fecal sludge management and water body rejuvenation - each based on detailed study of soil, rainfall pattern, land use etc. of each region.
Rejuvenation of canal network of Alappuzha
Construction of rainwater harvesting Lake at SwaSwara, Gokarna
Over the last two decades, guided by Mr Vilas Gore and Mr V S Venkitachalam, Inspiration has pioneered the construction of several medium and large-scale rainwater harvesting reservoirs. Carefully channelizing rain water falling on roofs and in every part of the land, conveying it through a well-designed network of sub-surface filter drains or open drains into recharge pits or catchment lakes have become part of many of Inspiration’s projects.
Our recognitions in the sector includes Alappuzha Municipality in Kerala winning the National Swachh Survekshan Award in 2020 for Best Small City in Innovation and Best Practices for its decentralized liquid waste water management initiatives.
CGH Earth Kalari Kovilakom and CGH Earth SwaSwara have won awards from the Pollution Control Board for environment protection.
Inspiration has also participated and presented our work in this sector at various national and international fora including the International Symposium on Management of Urban Waters and Urban Planning at Berlin 2018.
Examples of few such projects are documented below.
Total Water Management Projects
With its abundant rainfall and sunny climate, the state of Kerala where Inspiration’s practice is based, has an enriched tradition of building with wood.
Being perhaps the ONLY building materials that sequester CO2 in their production (as against all conventional materials such as cement, steel, glass and metals which let out large quantities of CO2 in their production and transportation), wood and bamboo are now touted as building materials for the future world over.
Inspiration with its network partners Mr Vilas Gore, M/s KONBAC and M/s JANS Bamboo Products Pvt Ltd, have been working on developing several combinations of prefabricated building components making optimum use of bamboo along with minimal steel, ferro-cement, optimum RCC elements, treated plantation wood, roofing sheets, cementitious boards and panels to pre-fabricate entire buildings, transport to the site and assemble the structure in short time span . Such prefabricated structures can be comparable to contemporary concrete buildings in strength, functionality and aesthetics at comparable costs, saving on in situ construction time.
Holiday homes of repetitive designs, mass housing projects, buildings having large number of repetitive components including godowns, work sheds, even futuristic multi storied buildings etc. can all take advantage of these innovations.
Inspiration has built over 30 such research, demonstration and pioneering living examples.
Prefabricated bamboo panels at KFRI, Nilambur
