Planning and Design of Low-Cost Rural Housing

Civil engineers, with a diploma or degree, would have already studied in detail the properties of building materials, such as bricks, lime, cement, concrete, timber, steel, etc., and their use in the construction of a variety of buildings in the urban areas of our country. 

But planning and design of buildings, which are generally the prerogative of architects, are also being demanded from the engineers; and in the Units 1 and 2 of this Block, information on site selection and orientation of different types of buildings and certain planning principles have been presented which are bound to help the engineers who are working in the semi-urban and rural areas. 

Having reached self-sufficiency in food and clothing, provision of shelter to the millions of India has been receiving the attention of the State and Central Governments, for the past two decades. Nearly 75 percent of the people of India, live in 557,000 odd villages, and most of them are housed is non-permanent buildings of mud and thatch, and without ally sanitary facilities. The impact of our formal housing programmes in the rural areas has not been commensurate with whatever limited resources were made available to them. 

In this unit, required data is presented to highlight the magnitude of the rural housing problem, minimum standards for rural housing are specified, and unorthodox and yet-to-be proved methods of construction with mud, bricks, lime, stones, thatch etc. are described with a view to promote self-reliance and participation of the rural people in solving their housing problems with the help of engineers. 

You as a Civil Engineer can be a major catalyst in building up local technical and managerial capabilities, and this is one of the ways to solve the rural housing problem. 

Objectives 

After studying this unit, you should be able to 

• plan mass housing projects in rural areas, 
• select locally available combine them with a minimum of factory-made materials, and proportion rural housing components, 
• prepare plan, elevation and cross-sections of rural houses, 
• design sanitary system for rural houses, 
• identify activities for self-help housing and train youngmen in the villages to be self-employed in their own habitat, and 
• develop project proposals for starting rural industries which are oriented to promote mass housing.