What does the "E" stand for?
Electronic Savvy Homes:
Switch on air conditioning on the way of your home. Intelligently supervised parking and automatic security barriers with wireless car identification ensure smooth entry and exit. Remotely control your apartment's lighting. Stay connected, your apartment has its own inbuilt communication server and Hi speed wireless Internet is available in all areas of the complex. You can even get messages on your mobile phone and remain updated about your apartment's status, wherever on the planet you are. E-letter boxes will intimate you instantly about new mail through the intelligent network. You shall be safe in your e-home, there is a digital networked security force working 24x7 specially for you with Digital Card Locks, Biometric safety systems like fingerprint, photo and video recording of all visitors as well as e-surveillance and weather proof motion recording. Forget about those bulky vacuum cleaning machines, E-Homes have provision for piped vacuum cleaning with no need to carry heavy machines. Your e-home, with comprehensive Home automation, can make life so much simpler.
Environment Friendly Homes:
Stretch your legs to your own garden, relax, no matter on which floor you are, you can have your own sky garden. It will completely redefine the way people live in apartments. Walk to the lush greens outside and let the scenic beauty of the Japanese and Ayurvedic gardens engulf you. Aesthetically designed children play areas, intervening jogging tracks, picturesque water bodies and green corners, may be a feast for your eyes. Water management and recycling of water for gardening along with drip irrigation and well-planned garbage disposal techniques help in maintaining his standards of hygiene and health. The use of fly ash blocks and other green building procedures ensures less energy consumption. It also enhances productivity of occupants much more than a conventional building. The homes can be designed as per green building concept.
Earthquake Resistant Homes:
Structural design as per latest IS codes, use of shear walls, flexible method of foundation, richer mix of concrete and carrying out all mandatory quality tests to achieve high quality standards can make numero uno in the field of earth quake resistant construction. The use of international standard materials as well as electricity and water saving systems ensures minimum wastage. Digital integrated fire fighting panels, automatic fire detection sensors and sprinklers on every floor can be planned for better safety standards. Use of high performance materials ensures you overall safety and building strength and longevity. Vastu based layouts, designs on the basis of green building concept and apartments loaded with world class features are a total advantage.
Entertainment Features:
With an ayurvedic center for meditation, yoga and natural healing, you live longer and happier. There can be a special club with swimming pool, gymnasium, indoor & outdoor sports areas, banquet hall and television lounge. The leisure facilities & club offerings of international standards rejuvenate your soul to the core along with a commercial hub within the complex for convenient shopping. Discover how nature and technology are in perfect harmony complementing each other to create better standards of living. There is Hi-speed wireless internet in all areas of the complex, just sit in the greens and surf the internet on your laptop, stay connected. Intelligent building management systems make life classy and full of comforts.
Green Building Concept comprises of four components:
Energy Saving:
By designing better buildings we can save electricity. For example by having the right kind of passive design strategy, one can affect building energy performance drastically. These parameters include building shape, orientation, passive solar design and the use of natural lighting. Using foam concrete blocks made of Flyash, thereby reducing dead loads on the structure and also ensuring evenly distributed cooling and heating of spaces, Energy efficient pupms, sensor lighting, CFL tubes to minimize electric loads from lighting and appliances are also used. Solar photovoltaic cells are used as a source of alternative energy.
Water saving:
Use of dual type flushing cisterns in toilets, waterless urinals, recycling of water, i.e water from shower, wash basins and kitchens, water can be collected and after treatment in ETP plant, can be recycled and used for flushing and gardening with drip-irrigation system. The rain water is collected in a recharge pit and ground-water is recharged.
Better indoor air quality and hygienic conditions:
This can be achieved by using indigenous raw material which has been recycled and has low toxicity and by using devices that improve indoor air quality and hygienic conditions. For example, Garbage management systems.
Reduction of construction material waste:
Use of flyash, broken tiles and waste rubber for rubberized flooring.
What makes a green building?
A green building is also known as sustainable building, is a structure i.e design, built, renovated, operated, reused in an ecological and resource efficient manner. Green buildings are designed to meet certain Objectives such protecting occupant health, improving employee productivity, using energy water and other resources more efficiently and reducing the overall impact to the environment. A particular selected plants that have low water, pesticide needs and generate minimum plant trimmings and use of compost manures/mulches, this saves water and time.
A green building may cost a little more initially, but saves through lower operative cost over the life of the building. There are many benefits, such as improving occupants health, comforts, productivity, reducing pollution and land fill waste.
Ar. J.K. Jain (B.Arch., A.A.I.A., F.I.I.A., F.I.V., F.I.C.A., M.C.A.) 1984 - Batch.
Chairman, Designarch Gardenia E-Homes Project, Vaishali, Ghaziabad, India.