′′The small work that Amruta and Prasad began is very important not just only for the village and the state, but also for the country′′ said Anna Hazare during the inaugural speech of URVEE Vastu: the first project done by this young duo from Maharashtra.
The demo project began almost a year back in January 2020. Unfortunately, the first nationwide lockdown put an immediate halt to all avenues of the work due to Covid-19. The Corona Virus slowed down the project but could not stop the team from accomplishing their first ever demo-construction. The result of consistent team effort- was seen on 5th January 2021, when the team hosted the inauguration of URVEE Vastu in the village of Ralegan Siddhi, Maharashtra.
“The demo-construction was important to showcase to villagers that mud houses do not necessarily look like a hut (Zopdi) but can also have a modern look” says Prasad.
The duo realized that today everyone wants contemporary houses with modern materials and techniques. Although they accept the environment-friendly aspect, the aesthetics of the building matter too. Especially in rural areas, they are governed with the mindset that a mud house denotes poor status symbol and they want houses as they see in cities, built with cement, plastered and polished. Villagers are ready to take loans and build concrete houses but do not want an affordable mud house.
As they see it, the only way to convince people is that we can offer both aesthetically pleasant and environmentally friendly features of the home together! And the demo has made its impact. People started approaching them for similar constructions.
Prasad grew up in a village that faced severe earthquakes and often heard stories of massive destruction caused by it. They kept on wondering, if the houses were designed appropriately the life loss wouldn’t be this enormous.
As life rolled by, disagreement about expectations set by parents made Prasad to leave home at an early age. On a journey to find himself, he was inspired by architects who worked on cost effective architecture for society. When he met Amruta in Anandwan, he saw rays of hope. Amruta Naidu is an architect with an inclination towards sustainable and eco-friendly architecture. The passion ignited in her after attending a workshop at Laurie Baker center. They started hoping that they both could do something for their villages, providing the deprived with affordable, well designed and durable houses.
And hence, ‘URVEE’ public trust was born with a vision to work for the environment and people promoting mud architecture for villages. The name ‘URVEE’ is rightly picked as it means ‘mother earth’ in Sanskrit.
Out of the 60% rural population of India, 30% does not have proper houses. Villagers are deprived of shelter because of high construction costs, lack of architectural & structural guidance and lack of awareness.
Urvee is supported by a team of junior architects and volunteers. Working on projects together, they get exposure while Urvee gets hands to work with. Different workshops and training on natural building techniques are also being organized targeting different age groups especially youth.
Currently, the team is working on the construction of a model house in Pune, which is designed to be eco-friendly, without any use of steel and cement. This house will be open to people to come and see. They are also documenting vernacular architecture in the villages of Maharashtra. Their future plan is to document and study all possible villages in India, starting with Maharashtra. The idea is to derive a sustainable construction solution for every village from the documentation.
Amruta and Prasad’s biggest dream is to design and build a research and development center (Campus) where innovations in eco-friendly architecture shall be done by architecture students and youngsters who can learn from skilled masons and labor. They plan to have a fellowship program where the fellow will be given an opportunity to design and construct a structure all by themselves through guidance from experts for execution.
‘This campus and fellowship program will be a blend of experimentation, innovation with masons and architects together’ Prasad beams.
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Photo Courtesy: URVEE
Website: https://urvee.org/
