Like many of us, Arun KS, a Chennai-based financial consultant, was tired of the city life and longed for some peace and quiet, away from the maddening chaos of urban concrete jungles.
“I was born in Chennai, and after living most of my life here, I couldn’t take the traffic, noise and air pollution anymore. My daughters had grown up and on their way to pursue an education, so I decided to finally make a move,” says the 50-year-old.
To this end, he bought a 1800 sq ft plot of land at Ayappakkam, about an hour’s distance from Chennai, in 2017.
He wanted a simple, functional home, but the builders he contacted were unable to understand his vision. To make matters worse, the prices they were quoting were prohibitive.
“The ideas and inputs I received from these builders did not include any sustainable building processes nor were they functional keeping the sustainability factor in mind,” he explains.
Where sustainability meets functionality
When Arun began to research alternatives that would meet his requirements, he read about glass fibre reinforced gypsum (GFRG) panels that are used in the construction process, and was impressed by their properties.
GFRG panels are made from recycled industrial waste gypsum or natural gypsum, and their use substantially reduces the amount of cement, sand, water and steel during construction of buildings.
“Armed with this information, I started looking for sustainable builders in and around Chennai who could employ materials like GFRG panels and help me build my dream house. This was when I came across Cityrene,” he says.
Cityrene is a Chennai-based sustainable construction startup founded in 2016, by Dilipan Bose and A Nivethitha.
“Now that my house has been constructed, I know that 75% of cement and plaster that would’ve been used otherwise, has been saved. Also, since the house has been made from materials like GFRG, it is almost 4 degrees cooler than a house built using bricks,” says Arun.
Resource-saving aspects were also kept in mind while designing the house in addition to using sustainable materials in the construction process. In Arun’s case, his home has a bio-digester which disposes of waste and recycles water.
Meet The Founders of Cityrene
Dilipan and Nivethitha are civil engineers and design engineers, so taking notice of how homes are constructed comes naturally to them.
However, it was a devastating natural calamity that urged them to make a mental note of how sustainable practices in the construction process would be beneficial for home dwellers in the long run.
“In 2015, Chennai saw unprecedented flooding as a result of heavy rainfall, leaving many homes, including mine, severely affected. The walls of my home had cracked and water was seeping inside because of which the house was partly submerged. All lines of communication were cut off, and there was neither electricity, drinking water nor food supply,” recalls Dilipan.
At the same time, Dilipan was also volunteering in the rescue operations and helped flood victims with food packets, water cans, blankets and clothes.
“During the rescue operations in a locality called Saidapet, I saw that people were rushing to take shelter in a solar-powered house. The house was sheltering about 20 people in the locality. That’s when it struck me that if one could provide shelter to so many in such a catastrophic situation, how helpful would it be to have more of these,” asks Dilipan.
This was a turning point for him, and during the process of rebuilding his house, he started researching alternative construction technologies.
About eight months later, Chennai running out of ground water made front page news. The borewells were dry and the paucity of water wreaked havoc in the city.