House That

In 2015, Shreeram Ravichandran, Gobinath P and Jawahar Rajasekar were students at IIT-Madras when the city was hit with catastrophic floods that affected over 40 lakh people. The trio was out distributing relief material when they were confronted with an existential question. “We wondered what happened when people lost their homes in natural disasters,” says Shreeram. They did a quick study of the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the deadliest in recorded history, and saw that it took at least five to seven years for the government to allocate funds and rebuild homes for the displaced. “That’s when we realised the need for transition shelters.”

- By Kathakali Chanda

Shreeram Ravichandran (29) Co-founder and CEO, Modulus Housing

Gobinath P (29) Co-founder and COO, Modulus Housing

Jawahar Rajasekar (27) Head of operations and founding team member, Modulus Housing

Set up in 2018, the year they graduated, Modulus Housing is a one-stop shop for constructing prefabricated, low-rise buildings in quick time—even in a few days, say the founders. The building blocks are prepared at their factories— the foundation from proprietary concrete and the super structure (walls, roofs etc) from alternatives like PUF panels or the concrete again—and assembled on site. “Just like Lego,” says Jawahar. “If it’s a smaller cabin, it will come as a whole. If it’s a bigger structure, we will put together multiple smaller cabins in a pattern. Imagine how a telescope folds and unfolds. Our basic concept is similar.”