The talk will focus on the Vernacular Building Systems of India, which are part of a valuable heritage of the country. These systems have fulfilled one of the three basic needs of human beings in a sustainable manner over generations, and are closely linked to the culture and economy of the villages. But during the past century as urban centers evolved, the character of buildings steadily changed owing to the need to go vertical. This has brought in completely new construction systems and materials. But the last few decades, unfortunately, have seen an unchecked entry of these modern urban building systems in the rural areas of the country. As a result with non-local modern materials and skills entering the scene, rural housing is fast becoming unsustainable. A number of factors are responsible for this disturbing phenomena that is adversely affecting the life of the masses in rural areas. This is robbing the rural communities of their scarce resources while failing to create local employment and constraining the easy access to affordable housing, a situation contrary to Gandhi’s Gram Swaraj. This demands actions to stop and reverse this process. In the past few decades noteworthy work has been done by different government and non-government bodies as also individuals, presenting some excellent examples of interventions that give a reason to be hopeful, and could be undertaken on a more sustained basis in this direction.
Rupal Desai and Rajendra Desai, commonly known as Rupal Rajendra in their circle of NGO friends, are an architect - structural engineer couple. Rupal graduated in 1968 from Sir J J College of Architecture in Mumbai and Rajendra in 1970 from IIT- Bombay, India. Rajendra pursued his post graduate studies from 1970 to 72 at Rutgers University in New Jersey while Rupal at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, USA. After finishing their studies they lived in the USA until the end of 1984, working with variety of mainstream engineering and architecture outfits. During their years in the US from 1970 till 1984, as their concern for energy conservation and environment preservation became stronger they decided to return to India to devote their time and energy towards building construction and architecture that is environmentally friendly. In the course of four decades they worked in different parts of India on the improvement of the vernacular rural building systems used by millions of households, especially in the aftermath of major disasters, for increased safety against disasters such as earthquakes and cyclones. These systems are most viable, sustainable, affordable, and replicable for the locals, and have very small carbon footprint. Their efforts have been focused on training the local people so that they themselves are able to build safer, longer lasting, disaster resistant vernacular houses with minimal external help. They recognized the paramount importance of upgrading the practicing building artisans, especially the masons, through training to build safer and longer lasting vernacular buildings. During this time they have been involved in the training of over 15,000 masons in different parts of India. Their work took them to the remote border areas of Kashmir, distant mountain villages in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Nepal in the foothills of the Himalaya, in addition to Gujarat and Maharashtra. In the course of their work they have produced several publications including manuals and guidebooks as well as videos for raising awareness as also for education and training on behalf of agencies like UNESCO, UNDP, and the Governments of India, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Kashmir and Nepal. These are in several different languages including English, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Urdu and Nepal. All their work has been on non-profit platform, and at personal level in honorary capacity without any kind of monetary compensation. They have been recipients of a number of awards and honors including University of Roorkee- A.S.Arya Disaster Prevention Award 2000, HUDCO Design Awards of 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016, and Jamanalal Bajaj Foundation Award in 2018 for the application of science and technology in rural housing. Rajendra also received the IIT-Bombay Distinguished Alumni Honor 2012.