ENHANCING LIVES

Construction process on a water logging-prone area is no simple task. It needs special attention and care while designing the foundation and it all depends on the characteristics of the ground as the structure will have to deal with the outside pressure of soil.

The headquarters of Action for Social Advancement (ASA), a nonprofit development organization whose mission is of ensuring livelihoods through development services with an emphasis on natural resource development, in Bhopal stands on a former agricultural land.

When the clients approached Biome Environmental solutions, a Bangalore-based design firm focused on ecology, architecture and water, their demand was simple that space should be inclusive and foster collaborative working culture.

Land available for the building is situated at the lowest level of a plotted development and tends to get waterlogged. Added to it the nature of black cotton soil (low water percolation rate) and the inadequately designed outflows made the water stagnate for a long time. So to overcome the drawback instead of filling and raising the land the team decided to make better use of the water logging problem by raising the floor. The ground area was thus converted into a wetland and a stepped well which according to the client brief becomes a common space for social gatherings.

BIOME ENVIRONMENTAL SOLUTIONS

It is a multidisciplinary firm working on ecological architecture and intelligent water and sanitation designs since its inception in1990. It is the coming together of people with varied competencies that has made the firm a leader in ecological thinking and action in our country.