School of Engineering
留學生房屋工程dissertationCollege of Engineering and Computer Science

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Existing factors regarding the culture, people, and current housing situation in Devikulam, Tamil Nadu, India

Name: Anna Boyden
Student ID: u5011097

Practical Group: 10
Practical Co-ordinator: Tony Flynn
Team name: The A Team
Team members:
Anna Boyden
Perry Forsyth
Taeho Jung
Chun Liu
James Mitchell

Team’s design topic

For the 2011 Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Challenge, our team chose the topic of housing design for the rural Indian village of Devikulam, Tamil Nadu. People living in mud thatch houses stated they would like better houses with more protection from the rain (EWB4, 2011). Hence the team’s aim is to find a way to solve the problem of inadequate rain protection in mud thatch houses, without reducing the benefits that mud thatch houses provide. The team plans to solve this problem by identifying what different aspects will affect the design, and then combine them to create a list of user needs before beginning the concept generation stage. The research tasks were broken up into the following sections: identification and evaluation of four potential roofing designs, identification and evaluation of potential construction techniques, resources and labour skills available to Devikulam, climate and environment of Devikulam, and the identification of significant existing factors regarding the culture, people, and current housing situation in Devikulam.#p#分頁標題#e#

Research task

This report will focus on identifying existing elements of the village that will be need to be considered in the team’s final design. These aspects will include the significant cultural traditions that the people in the community follow and how these might restrict or affect the design of a new dwelling. This report will also look at the people who make up the community, and how their way of living may influence the design of the house. The current housing circumstances of Devikulam will also be taken into account, as the existing housing situation will need to be considered in the final design. Using this background knowledge of the village, a set of user needs relating to these elements will be defined. From these user needs, a set of recommendations will be listed. These recommendations will aid in the concept generation and concept evaluation stages of the project.

People of Devikulam

There are approximately 358 people living in Devikulam and the surrounding area (Buzza, 2011). The people are divided into three major castes: the most backward class (MBC), the backward class (BC), and the scheduled class (SC) (EWB1, 2011). It is accepted among the villagers that the castes do not associate with each other. Members of different castes will attend each other’s functions, but will not enter their houses (EWB1, 2011). Between the castes, there are no major differences, but subtle deviations in income, housing type, and occupation are present.

The three classes are roughly separated into three different areas of Devikulam. The scheduled class live in an area known as the colony, the backward class live in an area slightly separated from the village called the ‘thopu’, and the most backward class live in the village (see Current Housing Situation, pg 6). The major religion of the people of Devikulam is Hinduism, and the people speak Tamil. For recreation, the younger people in the village play volleyball and cricket, while the adults play a board game called carom (Buzza, 2011). Nick Buzza has been a volunteer for Pitchandikulam Bio-Resource Centre, a branch of Pitchandikulam Forest, which is an associate company with EWB for the EWB Challenge. The information provided on his website is first-hand and is therefore a reliable source.

The amount of land owned by the people in Devikulam varies depending on where they live. According to the Devikulam survey (EWB2) the people living in the village own on average three acres of land, while those in the ‘thopu’ own one acre and only four of the twenty two families in the colony own any land. The amount of land available to a family could potentially affect the design of a new house. Those currently living in group houses (see Current Housing Situation, pg 6) do not own any land so the design will have to accommodate for large groups. The number of people living in each house ranges from 2-11 people across the village (EWB2, 2011). This will also need to be taken into account when considering the size of the house design.#p#分頁標題#e#

The average annual income of each household in Devikulam is approximately 19 000 rupees, with some people currently unemployed. These people receive 400 rupees from the government each year. This means that the houses will need to be cheap to maintain. The most common occupation of the people of the village is in the agricultural area. This means that if new construction techniques are to be required, the cost of labour or training for the locals needs to be taken into account.

The above elements relating to the people of Devikulam will potentially affect the design of a new dwelling. The team will need to take into account the fact that the amount of land owned by residents varies among different households. It is also important the team considers the range of number of occupants in each dwelling. The amount of money that the people in the village earn may not be enough to cover extensive maintenance costs. For this reason, the proposed structure will need to be cheap to maintain relative to the income of the occupants.

Cultural practices

What is considered acceptable within a community can vary greatly between different cultures, races, and countries. It is important in this project that assumptions are not made about the culture of the people in Devikulam. In order to prevent this from happening, any significant aspects of the culture which may affect housing design must be identified and considered before the final design. Significant aspects regarding religion and cooking techniques have been addressed in this report.

In the subject of housing, there are some religious traditions which may have an influence on the design of a house. For example, it is daily common practice for the Hindu women in Tamil Nadu to draw kolams outside the fronts of their house (Buzza, 2011). Kolams are patterns drawn to welcome the goddess of prosperity into the home, and to ward off evil spirits (Cultural India, 2011). They are drawn using rice flour on damp surfaces out the front of houses.

There are also religious ceremonies surrounding the construction and maintenance of dwellings, so that residents can feel secure against natural forces. Tests and rituals are performed in most parts of the country for selection of a good site (Knapp, 2003:46). There are also propitious days on which the foundation should be laid and the first construction begins (Mitra in Knapp, 2003:46). Although these sources do not indicate which days foundations should be laid, or how the site is chosen, the team will still need to be flexible and respect these traditions.

The customs regarding cooking in Devikulam may have an effect on a new house design also. According to a publication titled Exposure to air pollutants from combustion of cooking fuels: A case study of rural Tamil Nadu, India, led by Jyoti Parikh, 85% of people in rural Tamil Nadu do their cooking in enclosed areas. See Figure 1. This journal is a credible source because it is a published paper which is appropriately referenced. However, it does not provide a date of publication, which means the data may not be relevant. The information is also not specific to Devikulam.#p#分頁標題#e#

“Combustion of bio-fuels in poorly ventilated kitchens can lead to the release of very high concentrations of suspended particulate matter and noxious gases. Exposure to these pollutants has been shown in several recent studies to be linked to several health effects especially in women who cook with these fuels and young children” (Parikh et al, n.d).

The fact that there is a health risk associated with cooking inside does not relate directly to the team’s aim of providing better rain protection to the community, but is something that can be considered in addition. Although sufficient roofing is the team’s priority; if a new dwelling is to be constructed, it is more efficient to look at any other problems that can be fixed at the same time.

The ritual of kolam drawing will also have an effect on housing design. The patterns are made on a washed surface, which means dirt floor would not be appropriate for the kolams. There would also need to be a flat area at the entrance to the home where they can be drawn. It is difficult to find out if the Devikulam community follow the rituals surrounding site selection and accepted days of construction; but these will still need to be taken into account by the team.

Current housing situation

As mentioned in People of Devikulam (pg 3), the village is divided into three sections of houses. The area closest to the lake is known as the village, the area east of the lake is known as the colony, and the area north of the lake is known as the thopu. See Figure 2. These groups are not necessarily designated to individual castes, but the average income of each group varies. The village has the highest income, then the thopu, then the colony (EWB2, 2011). The town includes two general shops, a tailoring centre, multiple temples, and two lakes.

留學生房屋工程dissertationThe types of houses vary slightly across the different regions of the village. According to the Devikulam Survey, in the village a majority of the houses are huts, which have mud or cement flooring and mud or burnt brick walls. A few families in the village own ‘pucca’ houses. ‘Pucca’ refers to a solid, permanent house of high quality (Knapp, 2003:43). The roofing materials vary between thatching, palm leaves, and concrete, with some houses using cement sheet or tiles.

This is also true for the houses in the ‘thopu’ area, except here some houses also use plastic or metal for their rooves. In the colony, approximately half the people live in group houses supplied by the government. The other half live in mud-thatch houses, using either palm leaves or grass as the roofing materials. The Devikulam Survey is a reliable source as it is supplied by Engineers Without Borders and contains first-hand information. Approximately 8% of households in Devikulam have a toilet (Buzza, 2011), though the people in the colony would prefer improvements to their houses rather than inside bathrooms (EWB4, 2011).

At the moment there are different levels of satisfaction regarding the current housing situation. It is commonly agreed that the concrete group houses provided by the government get too hot to sleep in at night (EWB4, 2011). People in the colony state they would like ‘better protection from the rain’ while people in the village are satisfied with the standard of their houses (EWB4, 2011).#p#分頁標題#e#

The current housing situation in Devikulam shows that although some people in the community are satisfied with their houses, others have serious issues. The group government houses in the colony are made of concrete and hence get so hot that the occupants must sleep outside. The mud thatch houses, however, provide insufficient protection from the rain. This information indicates that the team should focus on improving the houses in the colony, rather than the houses in the village and ‘thopu’.
 

Final recommendations

After evaluation of this research, it is clear that there are several aspects regarding the people, culture, and current housing circumstances of Devikulam which may affect the design of a new dwelling in the village. According to the user requirements defined in this report, a set of recommendations must be considered in the final design. The qualities of the people in the village that need to be considered in the final design are:
-The average income of the people may not be enough to allow for maintenance costs.
-The number of occupants in each house varies, so the team’s design will need to have different sizes depending on who the houses are built for.
It is recommended that the potential maintenance costs of the house be kept to an absolute minimum, and that the house design is capable of change in size to cater for different sized families. In regards to the culture of the people living in Devikulam, there are also aspects which need to be accounted for.
-Kolam drawing is a common practice in Devikulam.
-A majority of households cook indoors without sufficient ventilation.
-There may be restriction as to where the houses are built and on which days they can be constructed.
It is recommended that a veranda or outside flat area is included in the design of the house. It should be made from a material such as stone which can be easily washed and drawn on. The design should also incorporate a ventilation system, separate cooking area, or sufficient space for outdoors cooking area to reduce the risk of illness. The team must also comply with requests from the community regarding site selection or time of construction. The current housing circumstances of the village also need to be considered.
-The people of the village require adequate protection from the rain, as well as houses cool enough to sleep inside
-The people do not wish the design to include bathroom facilities
It is recommended that the roofing design of the house ensures complete protection from the rain, the materials used to construct the walls keep the house at a comfortable temperature, and that a bathroom is not included in the layout. These recommendations should be considered when the group begins the concept generation stage of the project to ensure the cultural traditions of the community are respected, the people are satisfied with the results of the project, and the problems with the current housing situation are fixed.#p#分頁標題#e#

References

Buzza, Nick 2011 Devikulam Information

Cultural India, 2011, Kolam, last accessed 1/4/11

EWB1, 2011, Engineers Without Borders, Interview with Lourdes (video), last accessed 31/3/11

EWB2, 2011, Engineers Without Borders, Devikulam Survey, last accessed 31/3/11

EWB3, 2011, Engineers Without Borders, Devikulam Households (map),last accessed 1/4/11

EWB4, 2011, Engineers Without Borders, http://www.ttc-switch.com/dissertation_writing/Engineering/2012/0307/1075.html Pitchandikulam Bio-Resource Centre Innovations Report, Nadukuppam Panchayat, Vilupuram District, Tamil Nadu: Chapter 3 Extract last accessed 1/4/11

Knapp, Ronald G, Asia’s Old Dwellings: Tradition, Resilience, and Change, 2003 Oxford University Press, New York, USA

Parikh, Jyoti; Balakrisnan, Kalpana; Laxmi, Vijay; Biswas, Haimanti (n.d) Exposure to Air Pollutants from Combustion of Cooking Fuels: A Case Study of Rural Tamil Nadu, India for publication in Energy, the International Journal