Sitting at N3 basement I always used to listen people saying how team design Earth is enjoying and playing hard with mud and bamboo:) The thought of getting into Design Earth came to my mind while I was going through the vision of Green Chakra. And yes, I agree with fact that need of designing and implementing sustainable systems is going to be one of the top most priority in coming future. The task of spreading awareness and learning, about using natural materials which has been proven equally good for building, is reaching to a level through Design Earth.
Soil and Bamboo both being natural materials available abundant in quantity can be used for building mud houses, seating arrangements, accessories, structures and many more. At Design Earth, I am looking forward to learn the technique of using these materials by getting hands on experience. The properties and limitations of these materials can be understood after I get to use them in various ways. And in long run I can say may be I will be in position to contribute little for creating change in community through natural building, bamboo craft.
Apart from creating a skill set for working on ecological designs and structure I am looking forward to get mingle with all other friends coming from different streams and having fun while working as a team. Also, travelling to places that are unknown to me and working in there that will take me close to nature, brings peace to me.
Working at BMSIT: New folks joining in
Joining the workshop at BMS college was really fun. I really enjoyed meeting new people, seeing their way of working and work environment there.
The day one started with rocking on music. Dancing along with holding pencil between two partners was really fun. I personally got to know new people and it was necessary since we were going to work with each other for next few days. We started our work by getting soil from piles and mixing water to make mud. We added coconut coir that gave binding strength to mud. Jumping in mud to mix it well was the part each member enjoyed.Then we made small mud balls to facilitate its transport and stack it at some place. Jackson then taught us technique of weaving split ed bamboo in order to make the structure that will stand. We tied the joints with cable ties. Extended length was overlapped with older pieces, and tied. We made that structure stand in the decided position by pushing the ends in soil. The space was divided into two by curving the whole structure. We then started cross weaving in order to minimize the gaps. The gaps should not be very big because while weaving with the mud, bamboo gives support. At end of the way we had completed the weaving and were ready for putting mud on structure.
On second day, we again started with making mus by mixing water, coir in soil. Bala and company were there to guide and help us about making mud, every time digging and collecting the mud pile etc. We then started weaving the structure with mud. At bottom we arranged bricks in order to give support to bamboo at bottom. We had to press the mud down at required points and make holes at top so that nest layer gets weaved into that, taking out extra mud to maintain thickness. This was technique we followed for building with mud.
Third day again started with fun games. We have to share our best and worst experience about nature with our partner. My partner told me about her horrifying experience at beach in Goa and storm that she saw at night hours. I also shared my experience. After the game we again started with making mud for structure. This time Arnab had told us about the form of walls we are going to make for better aesthetics. It was wavy form along the walls all along the structure. We continued the mud building and refined the curves. At the end we also made seating arrangement in there. We carved out some holes and windows so as to keep the space interacting with surrounding.
I also saw the seating arrangement made by BMS students with mud and other waste material. The finishing I observed was very good. And the structure made the overall space to look so beautiful, useful and also nature friendly.
The whole experience was so joyful and at the end I believe each of the team member has satisfaction of creating something with own hands, after putting actual physical efforts for three days.
Chickens as Client:
The day we all went to Priya and Yohan’s farm I was wondering what kind of work we will be doing there. The most obvious case I could think to start with was to build a wall or bench.But, then Arnab gave us some weird task of observing chickens in the cage at the farm.We all drew them, observed them walking, peaking at stuff lying in the cage.And then we had been assigned the task of making a hatching place for hens. Then we spent some more time observing them rooming around in there cage. The chickens were busy looking around for the food continuously, they were loving the game of chasing each other or jumping on whatever platforms available in cage.There were pot kept in the cage for laying eggs but there was a issue of eggs getting break by there nasty movements, Also, there was no cozy and private place for hens for egg hatching, so that they can maintain the temperature and humidity while hatching. We all came up with ideas on making hatching place for them. And ultimately my group ‘Chickenception’: we consolidate the major essential things to come up with better and implementable designs containing domes as a major part. One of them was to be hung from trunk and other one was made for keeping on floor.
The main points we took into account were to give them privacy and warmth, bamboo and mud being natural will be adaptable materials for them, to provide door for cleaning the coops, and little light that will create coziness.
Simultaneously, we all had started learning about bamboo cutting, and bamboo splitting. We learnt and performed bamboo splitting by hitting them on ground with sharp blade in between two pieces that will give the cut along the length. Also, the other method in which two people pull the ends of split ed bamboo against a strong pole at some height from the ground and on the other end third person holds the un -split ed bamboo and pushes it to the pole.
The thinner sticks of bamboo can be bent once they are dipped in water and bent afterwards. But for thicker pieces, to make it bent we need to heat it. So piece has to be hold in required bent position and at bent part one has to heat with gas flame. This makes the fibers to get heated and stay in that position.
On the same day Jackson gave us the task of making a small prototype of one of our designs. We split bamboo and tried making dome out of small sticks since we wanted it smaller in size.Though in the end it hardly looked like a dome, it was a learning experience. We later realized longer sticks would have worked better for smaller domes since it would be easier to bend them.
After this we started making our real size domes. For our first design we made a checks structure with bamboo sticks and rolled it to a circle. While trying to pull together all the upper ends, we observed it was looking more kind of a body of a hen and we decided to give it a shape by sculpting it later with mud. And for other smaller structure we made circular rings of different diameters and connected them with vertical bent sticks. We tied all joints with thread.
Once the dome structures were ready we started with mud weaving. To keep away the impurities and stones, we sifted the mud. To use it for weaving we mixed water and coconut fibers. While weaving the mud around the doe we maintained the thickness of wall equally all around to approximately 2 inches. Before putting mud, we covered the domes with newspaper sheets dipped in water so that after firing we get smooth surface inside.and also, we tried minimizing the gaps in between by putting small sticks that will support mud. Since we wanted to incorporate bottoms of glass bottles we made holes of equal size by scooping out the mud. Once the mud was dried we fitted the bottoms at places. Also, we scooped out mud to make doors. and the domes were kept for drying for longer time. The cracks those were generated were filled in with mud again. Otherwise while firing the domes, cracks would have allowed heat to go away.
Usually mud structure up to this size can be fired in kiln. But with this we tried something else. We put domes on level above ground made out bricks and covered them with coconut leafs and mud slurry. It was fired with small wooden sticks. After firing the dome was collapsed may be due to impurities that existed in sand, or unequal heating of surface.
The Wall Call:
The next task was to built a wall for storage room in the farm. We had to take into account furniture requirements also. The idea of incorporating bicycle into wall popped up in someones head and we decided to go for it. Before starting to build the wall, the base was made with bricks built with cement. also, checks type bamboo structure was made to stand through this base. This structure supported mud. We prepared mud for building first by sifting it and then mixing with water and coconut fiber. We had to keep wall thickness around 6 inches. We decided to build in niches to allow some storage. So, initially we built some base with mud and kept bicycle on it and started weaving mud around the cycle. We placed glass bottles in between to decorate niches and allow some light to come inside around them. We first kept tile as a base and gave it some support from bottom by weaving mud into wall in triangular shape. we built wall around the bottles and then scooped out mud afterward. In short everything that we wanted to incorporate we first put it in wall, weave wall and then scoop out extra mud later. 
Also, we added tiles with decorative gaps as a window on other side of the wall. Inside the room we decided to make some seating arrangement. So we made a piece with back rest perpendicular to wall. We made curves on it to give support to thighs and knees when anyone sits.
Overall I can say our journey at farm brought lots of learning and fun to me. Learning not just about mud building and making bamboo structures but it was more than that. I enjoyed working with whole class, enjoyed and learned to cook in mud oven on pizza party day, learn about firing of mud items, and lot more. Thank you Jackson and Arnab.
I would like to share some clicks taken by me taken at farm during this journey.
gosavimugdha125 