The 14th Realty+ Conclave & Excellence Awards 2022 - West hosted a discussion on modern design and construction that comprised experts from various fields including Deben Moza, Sr. Executive Director - Head of Project Management Services, Knight Frank India, Himanshu Agrawal, President, Tiki Tar Danosa India Pvt. Ltd. Tejwant Navalkar, Executive Director, DFX Systems Pvt Ltd. Prashant Karwe, Head of Design, The House of Abhinandan Lodha and Subhakar Rao Surapaneni, Chairman, Champion Infratech.
While the fundamentals of construction have not changed significantly since the times of Romans there have been introduction of many new techniques and technologies over time to improve the performance of buildings and bring effectiveness in the construction process. As
Deben Moza rightly stated, the term smart construction has a wide range of interpretation and applications “As a result of drastic changes in the environment, increase in population and rising awareness of mindful usage of resources, the construction industry has innovated and improved processes.”
Subhakar Rao Surapaneni spoke about his project design as an example, “In our new development, we are creating lagoons that are the new way of creating exotic beach destinations. Each lagoon is 10-acres of large water body featuring smart and sustainable construction and maintenance. For instance, the water itself is recycled water. And there is no chlorine added to the water. Telemetry is used to constantly monitor water quality and mobile boats fitted with modern water technology, clean the water in an environmentally friendly way In addition, the pre-fab construction employed is faster, eco-friendly, avoids air and soil pollution and involves lesser carbon emissions.”
Prashant Karwe was of the view that technology plays a pivotal role in the way a building is designed and later operated and maintained. “The education of latest technologies and sustainability features should be imparted at the college level so that the budding architects are sensitised to the needs of climate change and how their building designs can be in sync with the new reality. We as a company are focused on horizontal land development. In a land parcel of 100 acres we are constructing about 20,000 to 30,000 sq ft built with local materials, keeping them sustainable and low on maintenance.
Himanshu Agrawal added that India has a history of smart construction if we look at any of the ancient structures that are attuned to their natural surroundings. “Over the years we seem to have forgotten the old wisdom and vernacular ways of designing. The buildings too are getting larger in scale and complex in construction that requires modern construction techniques and novel designing methods. Today, we need fast construction involving less labour.”
Tejwant Navalkar believes that construction goes beyond just brick, mortar and cement. “While the focus of designers, contractors and even green rating agencies is on the performance of buildings, the focus instead should be on the process. For example a data centre has a huge energy requirement primarily for the server cooling requirements, but what if we create micro data centres within the building. Each rack of the server houses its own fully integrated cooling and lighting system as required for the process. This means we are providing energy only to those areas where it is required and not the whole building, thereby significantly lowering the energy consumption.”
“Post-pandemic people have become more aware of the benefits of eco-friendly structures and building materials. They are also more tech aware and realise the importance of technology driven construction and are ready to pay a premium for that when buying a property.” Prashant Karwe
“The sensitivity towards earth-friendly construction has to begin from our educational institutes. And the curriculum in our architectural and engineering colleges need to be in sync with the latest developments in the industry.” Deben Moza
“Technologies had been there even before the pandemic but it is now, they are being appreciated and adopted at a faster rate by the construction industry as well as the end user. The drivers for the change are cost saving, labour shortage and new regulations and government policies.” Himanshu Agarwal
“Monitoring of green rating certifications is a concern. Currently, the green building maintenance is reactive maintenance, which ideally should be predictive maintenance, done before a system breaks down.” Tejwant Navalkar
“There is an increasing belief that newly available technologies and work practices could bring about a real change. Not only the smart building designs save money but it also helps businesses to meet their green goals and responsibilities.” Subhakar Rao Surapaneni
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