The story of a couple who is living a sustainable life and building an eco-friendly mud house in Bangalore

Mud House in Bangalore

Namma Bengaluru is a city of Technology. Once called the garden city has become the IT Hub and the concrete land. It feels like we are running in a fast-paced progressive city. It’s good, but only until mother nature supports us. In the past few years, we are already seeing some of the impacts of extreme technology makeovers, cutting the trees and many more to name.

Everyone wants a house in Bangalore, with all the amenities including the greenery, but no one thinks of the adverse effect we are creating on the environment. The post below is about how a couple in Bengaluru constructed mud from scratch and lived a sustainable life. We will see how the couple is leading a life in a mud house in Bangalore, especially in a city like Bengaluru.

Inspired by the living style of the hilly rural areas and the feeling of enough living in Delhi, The couple Reva and Ranjan Malik, decided to live a minimalist, sustainable, and eco-friendly simple life.

They choose Bengaluru to lead their sustainable life and settle down here. They bought 3000 sq ft of land on the outskirts of Bengaluru and started organic farming on the land until they decided to construct a mud house in Bangalore and start a new way of living altogether. Many of you think, how is the house even reliable and sustainable in the long run? Yes, even I thought the same. ” Gramavidya ” is the organization that promotes and gives ideas about alternative, energy-efficient technologies for people who want to build sustainable and eco-friendly houses. Yes this 770 Sq Ft single roof house, is built on a mud concrete trench foundation.

Since we are talking about mud houses, I will take you through the detailing of how the house is built using naturally available materials like mud, gravel, chalk and limestone. The commercial construction sector currently uses the construction method with the lowest environmental impact of all the techniques.

The couple explains, the construction of rammed earth walls involved “ramming” a mixture of materials between flat, movable panels known as “formwork.” Typically made of wood or plywood, the panels are clamped around the earth to prevent bulging when it is compressed. Gravel, mud and a small percentage of cement are used to increase the stability of the structure. The process is continued until the desired height is obtained. It is not an easy and quick process, as it involves a lot of work, and it took about 8 months just for the construction of the walls. Not only the walls, the materials used in the construction of the entire house include sustainable and eco-friendly materials in the era of luxury.

They have used Mangalore tiles for the roofing and terracotta tiles for the flooring for the natural transition of the environment, which keeps them warm during winter and cool during summer. The steps and the small furniture are made up of recycled or discarded wood from the packaging. The house has minimum walls inside, which makes the house look big enough and very breathable. They have spent around 25 lakhs to build this eco-friendly, sustainable, mud house in Bangalore.

1. There are a lot of interesting facts that will shock you, and some might even think, how is it even possible to live like this?

2. The house doesn’t use electricity. They just light up the lamps in the whole house.

3. They don’t use gas cylinders, instead, they use old-fashioned mud stoves, using fossil fuels.

4. No taps in the house, they use the borewell and use the groundwater when they are out of Rainwater.

5. They have very less to no petrol for their needs, again which is a great thought.

Conclusion

Both Reva and Ranjan Mailk believe that life is more about connecting to nature instead of collecting all the materialistic things. They say that the house we live in breathes along with us. Initially, before moving in, they thought life would be difficult, living without so-called luxury, but now they say that they are living consciously and mindfully.

A couple who is living a sustainable life and building an eco-friendly mud house in Bangalore