Along with the bungalow at Pune (I still haven’t got around to making a separate page for that one), the other current architectural project is an office-cum-laboratory building at Thurbe (New Bombay) for an ISO 9001 company for whom I had also designed a logo a couple of years back. Project Architects based in the area were appointed to get the required permissions, do the working drawings and supervise on a regular basis.

All was going well until we found, during excavation, that the neighbouring industrial unit had leaked acidic water into our site. Apparently they had a a broken storage tank which was promptly removed when we pointed it out to them. However, just a few days ago when we dug another pit, we found some more corrosive liquid.

Precautions had already been taken to protect the foundation but those chaps next door should really be hauled over the coals or, better still, be made to jump into their own acid!

Was in Pune today meeting potential contractors for a bungalow that I’m designed there. I guess I should have a page that describes the project but, for the moment, here is an outline:

It’s a single family residence where we will harvest the rain, recycle the water and have solar panels for heating. The site is located on the top of a hill in the Kondhwa area so, budget permitting, there might even be a windmill to run the pump.

High energy materials like reinforced cement concrete – RCC – are going to be avoided as far as possible. The structure will be load bearing with a foundation made from local basalt and the superstructure will be brick masonry.

The client wished the design to be done as per Vastu principles and hired a consultant to vet the drawings for conformity. All’s well at the moment. People don’t often think of Vastu and ecological or green architecture together, but there is a significant overlap of principles; not always, I have to admit, but to a very large extent.