Nadukuppam Women’s Center


This was a project part­ner­ship with Archi­tec­ture For Human­ity and the Pitchandiku­lam Bio-Resource Cen­tre of Auroville, India, for a com­mu­nity build­ing for three local Women’s Self-Help Groups (WSHGs), located in Nadukup­pam Vil­lage, Tamil Nadu, India.

 

The struc­ture is con­structed out of com­pressed sta­blized earth blocks (CSEBs), which are ecologically-friendly because they are made from soil dug from the imme­di­ate site, and pro­duce none of the car­bon emis­sions and defor­esta­tion asso­ci­ated with kiln-fired bricks. I was the archi­tec­tural designer on this project, work­ing closely with design archi­tect Purn­ima McCrutcheon. Total cost: $5,711.

Check out the project info on the Open Archi­tec­ture Net­work.

Above images: (1) Entry to Women’s Cen­tre, (2) Exte­rior view dur­ing con­struc­tion, (3) Under­side of eave (4) Auroville Earth Insti­tute train­ing course: dif­fer­ent earth types, mak­ing mor­tar, com­par­i­son of mor­tar, blocks dry­ing, (5) the AURAM 3000 com­pressed earth block (CSEB) press, test­ing for strength, mak­ing an earth lin­tel, earth arch

 

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