Table of Contents
Abstract
Kerala, named as the god’s own country, tagline first created by Mr. Walter Mendez, have the rich cultural heritage. The name God’s own country is because which have an extra ordinary land with almost all elements of nature. The Kerala’s architecture style was evolved from the peculiar climate and long history of influences of its major maritime trading partners like Chinese, Arabs and Europeans. Kerala’s traditional style of architecture was unique in India. It was a combination of Dravidian and Vedic architectural science. This architectural style is most suitable to the climatic and environmental conditions of Kerala. But the modern building construction methods and styles changes a lot from the olden style.
The modern construction techniques and materials cause harmful effects to the environment and same time unhealthy to the people living in them. The deforestation, exploitation of the resources and unhealthy waste disposal methods leads to unsafe, unhealthy living conditions. The population growth is the major problem to changing the historical concept of buildings. The tremendous growth in population increases the housing needs and which results to construction of buildings without considering the environmental friendliness and sustainability of considerations. But this is the time for rethinking. The god’s given gift, natural beauty of land, climatic conditions, greenness and other facilities should be retained.
Considering this in mind we can build a future more sustainably. Sustainability should be considered for the next generation. The green concept is one modern concept which trying to aware and guides the people towards ecofriendly sustainable development. This earth is not only for us. It is for the future generations too. Hence we have to think about the sustainable development plans. This paper is trying to study the Kerala’s traditional and modern construction styles and measure the awareness and perception of people towards green concept. The literature survey and questionnaire survey are the tools selected for the study. 463 people’s response was taken from different locations of Kerala of age group of 21 to 65.
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Keywords: Kerala traditional architecture, modern building styles, green concept, people awareness and perception towards green concept
Introduction
Kerala is situated between Arabian sea and Western Ghats to the east. Kerala is roughly divided into three climatically distinct regions. This include eastern high lands (rugged and cool mountain terrain), the central midland (rolling hills), and western low lands (coastal plains). Kerala is tagged as God’s own country by Mr. Walter Mendez because which have the extra ordinary land with almost all elements of nature. Kerala have the rich cultural heritage characterized by the asymmetrical topography. Land forms are undulating, subdued hills and steep scarp slopes. Kerala which lies in tropical region is mostly subjected to the type of humid, tropical wet climate. Meanwhile its extreme eastern finches experience a drier tropical wet and dry climate.
The most common natural hazards faced by Kerala in past were, landslides, flooding, drought, lightning, coastal erosion, earthquakes, Tsunami and windfalls. The Kerala’s architecture style was evolved from the peculiar climate and long history of influences of its major maritime trading partners like Chinese, Arabs and Europeans. Kerala’s traditional style of architecture was unique in India. It was a combination of Dravidian and Vedic architectural science. This architectural style is most suitable to the climatic and environmental conditions of Kerala. The selection of land and construction methods is very different. The traditional concept was retaining the natural beauty and sustainability. The healthy indoor and outdoor air quality, climatic conditions maximum utilization of naturally available materials and environmental friendly designs are always leads to sustainable construction practices in those days.
The Nalukettu, nadumuttam, chuttuvarandha, aambal kulam, sloping roof, Mukhappu etc are the proof for such for sustainable considerations of traditional houses. The sree padmanabhapuram palace represents the most classic and domestic architecture. It is also the world’s largest wooden palace made on sloping roofs, granite and rosewood-teak wood work combinations. But the modern building construction methods and styles changes a lot from the olden style. Population growth rate of Kerala is high. As per the 2011 senses, Kerala is the 13th largest state in India have high population rate. The state is home to 2.76% of India’s population. Our land is almost three times densely populated than the India’s total density.
Living standard also changed. These changes mirrored in building construction methods too. The sustainable concept of building construction is changed. The housing needs also changed. As like food and water shelter is another important need of man. Hence maximum utilization of available land and exploitation of natural resources like forests, agricultural land (paddy fields), rivers etc. leads to unhealthy, unsustainable building practices. The greenery and beauty of Kerala is losing. Our heritage and historical culture changed. Kerala now, losing her tag name of God’s own country.
Improper waste management, blinked eyes towards eco-friendly culture in modern world is found to be in unsustainable era. Hence the sustainable development actions taken and practices started in different parts of the world. Here in Kerala to, we have to think and practice such green practices. Actually this is not a new concept to us. It’s just a go back to our traditional culture with the help of modern technologies and inventions. This leads to an environmental friendly and healthy atmosphere to us and delivering our culture to the new generations. Sustainable development is one of the important concepts which widely discussed throughout the world. It means fulfilling the needs of present generation considering the necessities of future generation.
We have limited resources to satisfy the needs. Higher number of people more will be the resources needed and this makes the resources depletion faster. Sustainable development is global agenda. This study related to identify the traditional and modern building construction methods and assessing the people’s awareness and perception towards sustainable green building concept in nowadays in Kerala. The importance and necessity of green concept and its relevance is Kerala is measured in this study. And suggestions for improving sustainability are also included in this paper.
Relevance of the Study
Kerala is situated between Arabian sea and western Ghats. It is a tropical region of total area of 38863 sq.km. It consists of 1.2% of total geographical area of India. It has 44 rivers and good soil conditions. The climatic conditions of Kerala are also good. In all the sense we can call Kerala as God’s own country. The traditional building concept was attracts foreigners to Kerala. It’s a combination of Dravidian and Vasthu Shastra concept. The proper utilization of land, natural materials, designs collaborating with heritage, climatic and topographical conditions etc are the main features of traditional buildings in Kerala.
The CO2 emission rate, efficient waste disposal methods, energy wastage, water wastage and exploitation of resources are the problems faced in the modern world. The global warming and its effect affect the climatic conditions. The emission of contaminated gases and other pollutants to the atmosphere want to be controlled. The deforestation and destroying natural vegetation are the major reasons of global warming. The construction industry plays very big role in destroying the sustainability of nature. Sustainable building construction wants to practice to save the environment. The population growth and life style changes in modern days lead to forgetting the historical heritages and environmental friendly concepts in all living conditions.
It is most dramatically mirrored in building constructions. The economical, ecofriendly, low energy, less waste generation concept in buildings are changed. Maximum exploitation of land and resources are the modern concept. This leads to unsustainable practices and cause damages to environment and unhealthy atmosphere to people. The data from the senses 2011, houseless people in Kerala is increasing in every year. The plot below shows the number of house holder and houseless people in different districts of Kerala.
Kerala state’s housing scheme, LIFE Mission (Livelihood Inclusion and Financial Empowerment) for all the landless and homeless people in the state. Housing being the very basic requirement that holds the key to accelerate social development in many ways. The target of the mission is to provide the safe housing to nearly 4.30 lakhs of homeless in the state with in a period of 5 years. The study has the relevance to promote a sustainable building future of Kerala. This will be used as a guiding tool to the buildings which will construct in Life mission projects to convert the conventional building methods to an economical and ecofriendly green concept project. And thus build Kerala a green state for the future generation.
Objectives
There are two objectives for the study. The objectives of the study are listed below:
- Understand the concept of sustainability and its relevance and significance in Kerala.
- Identify the current pattern in respect to awareness and general level of adoption of green buildings practices from dwellings to high raised buildings.
Problem Statement
The sustainability in buildings can be achieved by considering the small things in designs as series matter. Ignorance of small things in design will case economical and series problems. The future building practices should be more careful for environment and health aspect. Goback to traditional environmental friendly and sustainable concept of buildings can be achieved easily by using modern technologies and innovations.
Methodology
There are two types of data collection methods are used for the study, primary data collection and secondary data collection. Primary data is collected from the sample of 462 people from different locations of Kerala. The questionnaire survey was conducted. The questionnaire was developed to know the people’s response on green concept, their awareness level and perspective on green building concept. The questionnaire was developed by the systematic literature reviews and conducting expert’s discussion, brainstorming and group discussion on the topic. The developed questionnaire was conduct a pilot study of 30 samples and made modifications on questionnaire.
Finally the Google form of the questionnaire were sent through email to people (architects, students, agriculturalists, business people, bankers, contractors, engineers, non- professional) in different parts of Kerala. The variations in green concept can be measured easily by collecting this data from different districts and different people by this type of random data collection. The secondary data is collected from the literatures, senses data of India, Kerala sustainable development mission planning division, life mission sites, CII, IGBC annual reports, Kerala budget 2018-2019 by Dr. Thomas Isaac (finance minister of kerala). The methodology for the study is shown diagrammatically.
Results and Discussion
The data collected from systematic literature reviews and questionnaire survey was analyzed and result is interpreted from the obtained data. The variations in the observations are due to manual error during data collection and sampling techniques. Here the questionnaire survey was conducted in different districts of Kerala. The random sampling technique is selected for the study. The population is taken as the people from Kerala from the age group of 21 to 65. From the population of 19924608 (53.4% of Kerala’s total population is between this age group) (source senses data 2011), 462 people is the sample size obtained. (Confidence level 99% and confidence interval 6 is considered). The data collected was analyzed using spss 20 software and excel. Reliability study, descriptive analysis and factor analysis were carried out. And results interpreted from the analysis.
Concept of Sustainability in Kerala
The green building concept was emerged from 1980’s. The developed countries were thought about the sustainable construction methods and its necessity for the future generations. The modern era of unsustainable, less eco- friendly concept on constructions were rooted in Kerala state, for the past few years. Now, the Kerala government and IGBC promote green concept and green building mission in Kerala. The sustainable development is necessary in now a day. The state government and central government support green buildings and give awareness programmes on green building concept and guide people towards green concept. IGBC chapter in each state control the green building programmes and projects in India.
Here in Kerala IGBC chapter at cochin is controlling and measuring the green buildings in Kerala. State government have branch to ensuring and promoting green concept. They incorporate with IGBC and make measures to rate and improve sustainability in building industry. As a result there are many buildings in Kerala is rated under IGBC in silver, golden and platinum. This rating certifications give more promotion to the buildings and also provide motivation to the people in the industry. The IT parks, shopping complexes, convention centers are rated as green buildings. The domestic dwellings also can be rated under green buildings. The Metro stations in Kochi are now green rated by IGBC as platinum certification. These examples shows that green concept in Kerala is accepted and promoted by the Kerala government and people for a sustainable future.
Current Pattern of Green Building Concept in Kerala
IGBC (Indian Green Building Council) is a part CII (Confederation of Indian Industries) from 2001 is work as a green building promoting and measuring committee in India to promote green concept in whole sense in India. The motto of IGBC is “Enable sustainable built environment for all and facilitate India to be one of the global leaders in sustainable built environment in 2025”. The key achievements of IGBC as per 2017 annual report are: a)green building projects of 4289 numbers, b) green products of 170 numbers, c) IGBC accredited professionals of 2662 numbers, d) 4.68 billion sq.ft registered green buildings (2nd country in the world with this much registered green buildings). The survey conducted by the IGBC on the green buildings registered under IGBC to measure the impact of green buildings on occupants well beings, conducted in 25 green buildings in 7 major cities in India. The responders responses in the survey is listed below:
- 80% respond as they experiences thermal comfort
- 84% physical fitness (sports and meditation facilities provided in the buildings helps this)
- 89% are happy with visual comfort (good working environment and no glare lighting)
- 78% are happy with acoustic comfort
- 93% people support green buildings.
Questionnaire Survey
The questionnaire survey conducted in the study to understand the awareness and perception of people towards green concept. Sample size is limited to 462. Random sampling technique is selected for the study. Awareness and perception of people towards building green building concept was measured in the questionnaire survey.
Awareness
From the analysis, it was observed that 83% of the responders are aware about green buildings and 17% of the responders are not aware. 23% of the responders aware about the green building through internet, 19% through magazine or newspaper, 17% were understood through home shows conducted by different programmes to promote green building concept, other 17% known through attending workshops on green buildings and sustainable concepts, 16% known through training programmes and 8% aware bout this concept through other mediums like education system, from friends, and other ways. Only 22% of the responders is working or living in green buildings. And those are IT professionals.
78% people are not living or work in the green buildings. This leads to interpretation as the green buildings in Kerala is comparatively small. Most buildings are conventional types. 75% of the responders respond that they thinks green buildings are environmental friendly, energy efficient, have indoor air quality and have high life cycle savings. 17% responders support Environment friendly concepts of green buildings as the main reason to promote green building to others. 19% supports energy efficient concepts ,18% supports healthy indoor air quality 46% supports life cycle saving. From the responses it was observed that all the methods like internet, magazine, newspapers, home shows, training programmes, workshops and education programmes helps to promote green concept to the people effectively.
Perception
Reliability of the questionnaire was obtained as 0.83, the value is greater than 0.7 interpret that the questionnaire was good. The responses were analyzed in spss and the descriptive analysis result is shown below. The factors are arranged in the dissenting order of the mean value obtained. from the data analysis, it was observed that the green buildings are ecofriendly, less waste generation, low water usage and wastage, high indoor air quality, less life cycle cost compared with conventional buildings, less energy usage, have safety, better image of green buildings and have better resale value.
Conclusion
The construction industry has been labeled a non-sustainable industry due to its high energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but low productivity. Statistics show that the building industry consumes 40% of energy, emits almost 40% of CO2, 20-45% GHG emissions etc. from the construction industries. The acute housing shortages in Kerala are due to the fast increasing density of population. According to estimates of the Indian Green Council (IGBC) in the next twenty years building sector in India is projected to grow much higher than the growth witnessed in the past fifty years. The green building concept is a sustainable building concept in modern world. Actually in Kerala, this is the go back to the olden sustainable practices.
‘A green building is one which uses less water, optimizes energy efficiency, conserves natural resources, generates less waste and provides healthier spaces for occupants, as compared to a conventional building”. From the analysis it was obtained that the people are almost aware on the green building concept. But the green buildings are very less in Kerala. The Kerala government and IGBC plays a very important role to promote green building concepts and make a sustainable development in our state.
