The #GC2022 finalists are out! Read more.

search
×
menu
login
donate
CASA RANA
Tamil Nadu, India
Written by:
follow
share on:mail linkcopy link to clipboardShare via LinkedInShare via TwitterShare via FacebookShare via Facebook
Casa Rana is a foster home for fifteen HIV-positive children and

image: Made in Earth | © all rights reserved
i
Category:
housing
Phase:
in use
Updated:
24 August 2015
introduction

Architecture must be designed for people. This principle, apparently banal but too often disregarded, drives the team of Made In Earth since 2010. In the same year, MiE started collaborating with the Indian NGO Terre des Hommes Core Trust. The goal of their collaboration is to create an integrated network of buildings and activities for the children of local communities in need in the Tamil Nadu region, following them from early childhood and continuing through their education and beyond.

Little girl in Casa Rana

image: Made in earth | © all rights reserved
i
read more >
< read less
cultural and social context

The project considers the local context in terms of resources, building materials, workers’ knowledge as well as social and technical costs. Working in third-world countries, architects need to forget bucolic visions and deal with complicated realities where, for example, concrete is sometimes more affordable and readily available than bamboo. Therefore, Casa Rana matches traditional building techniques with products of the modern market.

The construction phase has involved local labor and expertise as well as local community members to foster their autonomy and achieve social inclusion.

Projects of MiE are part of a system of small-scale interventions that can be managed by the community. This ensures a sense of ownership and strengthens local identity. Besides the stimulating opportunity offered by each project, MiE endorses local integrated programs and assists in other community-driven projects. MiE’s mission is to combine ethical and aesthetic values in order to protect people’s dignity, with a real attention to their needs. In this way, architecture becomes a chance to pursue bigger goals - this is our idea of sustainability.

The ongoing design program aims to gradually restore and revitalize traditional materials and building systems to preserve cultural diversities. MiE offers architectural services for humanitarian projects and acts to connect beneficiaries, local organizations and donors willing to fund projects of development cooperation. MiE finds resources, coordinates activities, and blends local skills and its professional expertise to assist community-driven programs.

materials and building techniques

STABILISED EARTH PLASTER FOR WATERPROOFING PLASTER

STABILISED EARTH PLASTER FOR WATERPROOFING PLASTER
This technique was developed with the aim of finding an alternative to traditional cement plasters to waterproof roofs. Earth is mixed with sand and stabilized with cement and a paste made of lime, tannin, alum (Ammonium sulphate) and water. Tannin is extracted by soaking broken seeds of an Indian tree, Terminelia Chebula, named “kaddukai” in Tamil Nadu, in water. The lime paste is prepared by mixing powdered alum with lime and tannin juice and extra water. Cement gives strength to the plaster and contributes to sealing the roof, but it is the combination of clay, lime, alum and tannin that gives the plaster its waterproofing qualities.

Three coats of plaster are applied with different proportions of these components. The last coat, which is the most waterproof, is done with a 5 mm thick plaster composed of soil, sand and lime paste with no added cement last layer.

01

image: Made in Earth | © all rights reserved
i
02

image: Made in Earth | © all rights reserved
i
03

image: Made in Earth | © all rights reserved
i
04

image: Made in Earth | © all rights reserved
i
05

image: Made in Earth | © all rights reserved
i
06

image: Made in Earth | © all rights reserved
i
image gallery
Casa Rana

image: Made in Earth | © all rights reserved
i
Interior

image: Made in Earth | © all rights reserved
i
Interior 02

image: Made in Earth | © all rights reserved
i
Little girls in Casa Rana

image: Made in Earth | © all rights reserved
i
Exterior 01

image: Made in Earth | © all rights reserved
i
Exterior 02

image: Made in Earth | © all rights reserved
i
Exterior 03

image: Made in Earth | © all rights reserved
i
technical drawings
Territory

image: Made in Earth | © all rights reserved
i
Ground floor

image: Made in Earth | © all rights reserved
i
Roof plan

image: Made in Earth | © all rights reserved
i
East - Front

image: Made in Earth | © all rights reserved
i
North - Front

image: Made in Earth | © all rights reserved
i
Section - longitudinal

image: Made in Earth | © all rights reserved
i
Section - trasversal

image: Made in Earth | © all rights reserved
i
Detail

image: Made in Earth | © all rights reserved
i
Location
show earth plate boundarieshide earth plate boundaries
Explore more inspirations
Keyword:
bamboo (68)
color (6)
development cooperation (44)
local resources (100)
low budget (66)
prev
  •  housing
    Open Source House Pilot
    Cape Coast, Ghana
  •  education
    JAHMAZING Bamboo Lab
    Marley Coffee Farm, Blue Mountains, Jamaica
  •  education
    Bamboo Alternative School
    Bogor, Indonesia
  •  meeting place
    BE friendly space
    Mao Khe, Vietnam
  • finalist 2016
     education
    ModSkool
    New Delhi, India
  •  education
    Tipu Sultan Merkez
    Jar Maulwi, Pakistan
  •  education
    Okana center for change
    Okana, Kenya
  •  meeting place
    Community Center in Jatimulyo
    Yogyakarta, Indonesia
  •  infrastructure
    Community Bamboo Footbridge
    Davao City, Philippines
  •  housing
    PHOOLNA - teachers accomodation
    Sunderpur, Raxaul, India
  •  recreation & sport
    Rural Sports Center
    San Pedro Apóstol, Oaxaca, Mexico
  • play
     meeting place
    Casa Comunal de la Isla de Portete / Ecuador.
    Portete, Ecuador
  •  education
    Colegio de las Aguas Montebello
    Cali - Montebello, Colombia
  •  meeting place
    BES Pavilion
    Ha Tinh city, Vietnam
  •  housing
    Net-Zero Self-sufficient Home
    Bafoussam, Cameroon
  •  work & business
    Bamboo factory Bali
    Bali, Indonesia
  •  meeting place
    Farmers' Innovation Center (BLF)
    Angangba (Nagaland), India
  •  recreation & sport
    Sport City
    Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico
  •  meeting place
    SBNAI Davao Social Space & Landscape Project
    Davao City, Philippines
  •  religion & memorial
    Ise Grand Shrine
    Ise, Mie prefecture, Japan
  •  housing
    Co-housing Project at Ciliwung Riverfront
    Jakarta, Indonesia
  •  meeting place
    wNw Bar
    thu dau mot, Vietnam
  •  emergency shelter
    Mud-Structure
    Kermanshah, Iran
  • play
     education
    Community Center for Indigenous music/ environment
    Tuba, Philippines
  •  education
    Wadi Abu Hindi Primary School
    Wadi Abu Hindi Bedouin camp, Palestinian Territories
  •  meeting place
    Chamanga Cultural Center
    Chamanga, Ecuador
  •  housing
    Courtyard House
    Trapang Angchang, Cambodia
  • play
     recreation & sport
    Plot ABC - phase 2
    Yangon, Myanmar (Burma)
  •  agriculture & fisheries
    Community Greenhouse
    Quito, Ecuador
  •  education
    La Salle University
    Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico
  •  emergency shelter
    Bamboo Dome Structure
    Ramsar, Iran
  •  education
    Senior Citizen’s Library
    Bhatpore Village Surat, India
  •  emergency shelter
    Temporary Dormitories for Mae Tao Clinic
    Mae Sot, Thailand
  •  meeting place
    Pondok Tagal
    Kampung Maligan, Malaysia
  •  education
    Bamboo Manta Ray
    Koh Kood, Thailand
  • play
    GC2021 finalist
     education
    Taller Tropical Moravia 2.0
    Medellín, Colombia
  •  education
    LA VIEJA
    Montebello, Cali, Colombia
  •  religion & memorial
    Bamboo chapels
    Jama, Ecuador
  •  housing
    Black Bamboo Community Center
    Yogyakarta, Indonesia
  •  meeting place
    CASA ENSAMBLE CHACARÁ
    Pereira, Colombia
  •  meeting place
    CICADA
    Taipei, Taiwan
  •  education
    Majuli School / GENERATING RESILIENCE
    majuli, India
  •  recreation & sport
    Jade Bamboo Cultural Plaza
    Shenzhen, China
  •  housing
    OA Bamboo House
    Various locations, Malaysia
  •  education
    SAL Exhibition Pavilion/Learning by Making
    Ahmedabad, India
  •  education
    Deyalkotha
    Dhaka, Bangladesh
  •  meeting place
    Custody House Of Memory
    Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia
  •  education
    Wadi Abu Hindi Playground
    Wadi Abu Hindi Bedouin camp, Palestinian Territories
  •  education
    Bamboo Kindergarten
    Tasikmalaya, Indonesia
  •  infrastructure
    Bamboo Bridge in Solo
    Solo, Indonesia
  •  emergency shelter
    SBAM.it 2011
    Massarosa-Stiava (LU), Italy
  •  religion & memorial
    BAMBOO CHURCH
    yogyakarta, Indonesia
  •  education
    PLAYSCAPE
    Koh Rong Island, Cambodia
  •  education
    MOVING school 001
    Mae Sot, Thailand
  • GC2022 finalist
     housing
    KuNa, Construyendo Sueños
    El Astillero, Tola, Nicaragua
  •  meeting place
    El Tr3bol de Ciudad de Cali
    Bogotá, Colombia
  •  education
    Bamboo Panyaden School
    Chiang Mai, Thailand
  •  work & business
    Sembalun Bamboo Youth Development Centre
    Lombok, Indonesia
  •  housing
    BAMBÚ SOCIAL
    El Rama, Nicaragua
  •  education
    EDAYA indigenous crafts and design school
    Baguio, Philippines
  • play
    GC2022 finalist
     education
    KAKR BULUH AWAR
    Deli Serdang, Indonesia
  •  education
    Safe Haven Library
    Ban Tha Song Yang, Thailand
  •  education
    METI school
    Rudrapur, Bangladesh
  •  education
    MOVING school 002
    Mae Ramat, Thailand
  • play
     education
    Mallki Wasi - Education for the Amazon guardians
    Kosñipata, Peru
  •  education
    Habitat initiative cabo delgado
    Cabo Delgado, Mozambique
  •  education
    Pani community centre
    Rajarhat, Bangladesh
  •  education
    Canteiro Móvel | Mobile Hands-on
    Botucatu, Brazil
next