Housing Planning: Building Centre

BUILDING CENTRE

A building centre is an organization to use cost effective materials and techniques in construction by taking into account strength, durability, comfort and elegance of any building. The building centre forms low cost technologies with very good quality in construction. This low cost technology reduces the cost of construction without affecting the quality.

Cost effective technology is a collection of methods or strategies that use innovative materials and techniques to construct building at a cost less than a cost of current methods of construction. The main aim of such technologies is to save the money and time without compromising on strength, durability, comfort and elegance of any building. So building centre is an organization to implement cost effective materials and techniques in construction by taking into account strength, durability, comfort and elegance of any building. This building centre form low cost technologies with very good quality in construction. Low cost technologies reduce the cost of construction without affecting the quality.

Objectives

The Setting up of Building Centres is an institutional development approach for the extension of improved low-cost building technologies through skill upgradation of local artisans and training of urban and rural youth, at State, district and block levels.         Low-cost building technologies to be propagated through           these Building Centres will have to be carefully identified on the basis of local needs, resources and environment, The following will be the broad areas of action.

(a)  Upgradation of traditional technologies will be one of the major concerns of the Building Centres. Development and manufacture of established mud- blocks by using small quantity of lime and cement, making the traditional thatched roofs in the rural areas proof and fire resistant by adopting various methods and such other measures will be propagated by the Centres.

(b)  Development of skills for pre-fabricating low-cost building components with efficient utilization of steel and cement, like RCC sanitation rings and ferrocement water tanks, hollow blocks, stone blocks, channel roofing system, fibre concrete tiles etc. would be the major thrust area in these Centres.

(c) Encouraging building components using wastes and recycled materials would be another major concern of these Centres.

(d) Various manufactured low-cost building materials like asphaltic roofing sheet, Sulabh Sanitary wares, siporex components etc. can be stocked by the Building Centres and sold to home builders at reasonable prices.

(e)   The local artisans and unemployed youth will be trained in the use of low- cost building

components and improved tools and equipments developed by building research institutions etc. so as to' upgrade their skills.

(f) The Centres will also promote low-cost house designs which relate to the life style of the local people.