Goodearth Malhar Footprints Owners Association Owners and Residents Community

Good Earth Malhar-Footprints is the first community at Malhar. Spread over 7 acres, it has been kept free of vehicular movement, with homes arranged around a network of streets and landscaped courtyards.

This offers many advantages to the residents,while ensuring that the car is within a short walk from the home. The cluster spaces and interconnecting streets are exclusively pedestrian, offering a safe place for residents to walk and children to play.

The community of 96 homes evolved out of a process which explored the idea of an urban village. The intention was to evoke the vernacular, the organic, within the rigid requirements and weave concepts of sustainability seamlessly into the design. The spirit of innovation and prevailed across various realms.
Planning:
• The cluster plan emerged as a basic unit of the layout. A group of 9-16 houses around an open space, with a shared parking lot at one corner. The open space in the cluster was of the proportion of a large courtyard, rendering the cluster human in scale and a pedestrian-only space.
• A hierarchy of spaces was used to create a sense of place within the layout. The variations of levels created interesting transitions, and the relationship between levels, broke the scale and monotony of the layout.

Architecture and Landscape

• To counter the “cookie cutter” effect, a variety of type designs have been worked, which meet the challenges of logistics, and yet retain the need for individuality.

• The Spaces respond to the requirements, but encourage multi use, and are culture sensitive. They prompt values of conservation and economy of design.

• Landscape: The emphasis was on creating awareness about the plant and animal life, and natural processes, through the design of the landscape. Creating biodiversity through the planting of indigenous species.

Sustainability

• Materials which were low in embodied energy were given a priority over others. The main building material was compressed stabilized earth blocks. The soil for these was obtained from the site. The use of Steel and cement was reduced, and replaced by stone, mud and timber.
• Climate – The scale of the cluster parks, and the proximity of the buildings, shaded most of the walls, reducing the heat absorption by the walls. Air corridors created in the transitions between clusters, drew breeze into the layout, keeping it well ventilated.
• Open Space: The total open space in the project was 60% of which the soft-scape comprised 48% of the total site area.
• Water management -The design of the water supply, treatment and recycling focused on the optimal use of the resources available and the ease with which they could be maintained. Rain water was harvested from the rooftops and collected in sumps or allowed to percolate through pits. The waste water recycled for flushing and irrigation.
• Sewage treatment: The sewage is treated using a DEWATS (Decentralized waste water treatment System) unit, which is an environment friendly and low maintenance waste water treatment option for treating the domestic black and grey water.
• Passive solar: The buildings have been designed with adequate light and ventilation, and do not require air conditioning. The indoor air and light quality is sufficient and eliminates the need for artificial light during the day, and the need for artificial ventilation (fans) for most part of the year.

The choices made in the design, through planning, management of the infrastructure and choice of material, have created a campus, with a reduced impact on natural resources and the environment, a comfortable microclimate and one which inspires the users to continue and extend the principles of sustainability into their personal lives. A variety of spaces, in the courtyards, streets and plazas, have created an intimate and rich ambience. Children using the cluster parks to cycle, elders sunning themselves in the park, and hands waving as you pass by some verandahs, are all the elements that have made this a modern mohalla.