Reconnect with the nature

Stay close to the nature. Stay close to soil, grass, plants, trees, fruits, vegetables, food, fresh air, chirping of the birds, insects where you can interact, learn and teach. 

Fruggiescaping @ Samskruti Hoysala

Samskruti Hoysala is fast moving towards being one of the sustainable residential projects in Bangalore. As the fruggiescaping works begin at Hoysala, we are very excited.

Samskruti Hoysala will house some of the most appreciated fruit bearing plants that would provide fresh, non-pesticide fed luscious fruits and vegetables. Will keep sharing the pictures here.

The importance of utility

Very often we ignore the usability factor in our floor plans. A well designed plan would look at usability and maneuverability. Sometimes you might need a separate space for storing things apart from your kitchen.

We have seen clients who want a big kitchen, a small (cozy) kitchen, open kitchen, closed kitchen and many more such options. But there is one common factor among all - they need more space! Kitchen being one of the most frequently used spaces in a home, it is important to plan it well. Utility has its own usage and is extremely important to any house. A good storage space to keep away things that you many more require very often (you would be surprised to see how many redundant items have crept in to your kitchen and how rarely you use them).

Assigning a space for utility helps you to declutter your kitchen and have enough space to move around. At Samskruti, our designs are aimed at bringing in more flexibility, leg space and storage space along with ample natural lighting and ventilation.

To know more follow us on facebook, read our blog or call us @ 99162 17777.

Are we causing natural disasters with our actions?

Are we causing natural disasters with our actions? It seems so.
While we don't bother to save what nature provides us in its time, we rush to exploit the resources and choose to make the world a sad place for our kids. Do we have that right?

Some of the world's largest and most deadly recent earthquakes were not natural disasters at all but were caused by human activities such as mining, reservoir construction and oil and gas extraction, scientists say.

A global study of hundreds of quakes by Christian Klose, a consultant geophysicist, identified 92 large earthquakes likely to have been caused by humans.

Klose said that the Earth's crust is littered with geological faults under enormous tensions similar to those in a coiled spring.

When humans pile up vast masses of water or minerals on the surface, or extract them from beneath, the change in the weight of the overlying land can be enough to release that geological tension, causing an earthquake.

"The data specifically shows that human-made mass changes can advance the clock of natural seismic cycles and induce or trigger new earthquakes," said Klose.

According to the research, the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan, China, which had a magnitude of 7.9 and killed 80,000 people, was triggered by the construction of the Zipingu reservoir.

In Britain, the 2007 Folkestone earthquake, which rocked southeast England and measured 4.3, was triggered by the millions of tonnes of shingle piled up to protect Folkestone harbour, 'The Times' reported.

The study said the 2011 earthquake in Lorca, southeast Spain was apparently triggered by water being extracted from underground reservoirs.

Another, with a magnitude of 5.6, hit Newcastle, Australia, in 1989; 13 people died and hundreds were injured. Klose linked this with the amount of coal extracted from nearby mines.

The research is published in the Journal of Seismology.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/humans-may-have-caused-worlds-worst-earthquakes/1207945/

Samskruti Builders

Plates loaded with pesticides

Stop feeding poison to your loved ones. Choose organic terrace gardens, kitchen gardens for healthy pesticide-chemical-free food.

Probably it's time to take a closer look at what's on your platter. Cypermethrin, heptachlor, quinalphos, aldrin, chlorodane, dichlorvas, cypermethrin — these banned pesticides could well be a part of your regular diet. Okras, leafy green cabbages and other vegetables, bananas or oranges and apples that you so relish may be overloaded with some of these harmful pesticides.

A study by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India under the Union agriculture ministry threw up some unpalatable facts. Common food items contain banned pesticides in quantities a thousand times more than the permissible limits. The findings are based on random samples collected from across the country.

From the vegetable basket, brinjal tops the chart with the level of banned pesticide at 860% above legal limits, followed by cauliflower and cabbage. Wheat and rice too had these dangerous chemicals. While the level of aldrin in wheat is 21,890 times more than the permissible level, that of chlorfenvinfos in rice was measured at 1,324% above the allowed limit.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bangalore/Plates-loaded-with-pesticides/articleshow/25405174.cms?#write

#samskrutibuilders #organicgarden #thesamskrutiway

At Samskruti Builders, we provide community garden spaces for growing vegetables and fruits and look at sustainable source. Read more here: http://samskrutibuilders.blogspot.in/2013/07/community-garden.html

We also have a community kitchen to allow consumption of these vegetables by the community.

Harnessing solar power

One of the most underutilized and underrated solutions to the power crisis is depending on solar power.

At Samskruti, we have solar panels which are used to generate power to:

1. Provide hot water to all taps
2. To purify water

We also anticipate enough solar radiation to accommodate time-sharing of solar power.

Do you utilize solar power in your home?

Pool time for women!

How often do you hit the pool in your community?
Is the pool private or open?
What do you think the pool should be?

What is the use of a pool if women and elders cannot use it? No wonder most of the pools in various communities are dried up and dead.

At Samskruti Hoysala, we have a pool where women can use and so can elders. With privacy guaranteed, we are looking at more women hitting the pool to relax and exercise than men.

Speak to us to know more: Call 99162 17777 

Visit: www.samskruti.in 

Follow us on facebook for updates!

Top five plants everyone must have at home

The 5 plants That will improve your home air.

1. Areca palm: Removes CO2 and converts it into oxygen during the day
2. Lucky Bamboo: To attract health, happiness, love and abundance
3. Christmas Cactus: Gives off oxygen at night while most plants produce oxygen during the day, it is perfect for your bedroom, family room, or other spots that get a lot of evening action
4. Golden pothos or Devil's ivy: Removes formaldehyde & other chemicals from air
5. Snake plant or mother-in-law's tongue: Converts CO2 into oxygen at night

Using these plants has shown significant oxygen level improvements in real world situations. Having these plants in your home can increase blood oxygen levels by 1% in 10 hours. They can reduce headaches, eye irritation, asthma and other respiratory problems.

Hydrophonic Gardening explained!

In most of our projects, we are looking at using hydrophonic gardening to make efficient use of space, water and time! Here is a way to find out most of the info about hydrophonic gardening!

Gerrit Botha's 15 ways to reduce food costs

Found this beautiful article to reduce food costs. A must read.

How’s your monthly food bill? Is it sustainable? We’re a family of five on a limited budget from a single income, so we are hawks on food costs. And we’re living in a world of increasing food insecurity, so that it becomes more and more important to consider how we obtain our food and at what price.

1. We keep a whiteboard on the fridge and as we run out of things, we put it on the board. This is the basis of that weeks grocery list and we don't buy things that are not on the list
2. We look at the sale flyers from the newspaper for the items we use and are out of to make up the grocery list and we clip coupons
3. We make up the grocery list by aisle
4. We try to stay to the exterior of the grocery store, where we buy diary, fresh fruit and veggies, frozen vegetables in bulk. Instead of bread we buy the flour, and now the wheat to mill, and make our own bread
5. And we stay away from the processed food and the junk food aisles
6. We don’t buy anything with pretty labels, we buy the no name brands in large quantities
7. We make stuff: we make our own pasta for example
8. We eat vegetarian: it's amazing to bypass an entire aisle
9. We buy strawberries and other fruits pears, blueberry, currants in season and make jam
10. When tomatoes are in season we buy bucketfuls of plum tomatoes and can them. We make salsa, spaghetti sauce, and tomato chili
11. We use a big chest freezer to store food
12. We grow anything we can, even in containers. This past summer we accidentally grew a squash in a container full of marigolds
13. We pickle cucumbers, beets, carrots and beans
14. We make cucumber and other relishes
15. Oh, and we eat out very rarely

Food security is such a big topic and we'll come back to it regularly. But it is important to start somewhere and this is our start. We have a long way to go and much more to do. I'd be very interested in what others are doing to keep food costs under control.

Indoor Air Quality

In Indian conditions, at our homes, primary source of pollutants that cause IAQ problem -

• Smoking
• VOCs from paints
• Vehicular pollution that gets trapped in our house
• Hair from pets
• Dust accumulated on the curtains, furniture, bed
• Fungus formation/growth in utility room and bathrooms
• Pesticides used for mosquitos, cockroaches
• CO from cooking is also a bit of concern
• VOCs from aerosols such as air-fresheners and body deodorants
• VOCs from household cleaners

What we can do to address this -

• Clean, clean, clean (we often ignore the drapery and curtains)
• Get fresh air (but unfortunately, fresh air contains lot of pollutants from vehicles etc...)
• Add plants/trees around the house (these will also filter the aerosol pollutants)
• Add as much indoor plants (such as money plant) as possible
• Use low/no VoC paints, cleaners, fresheners, deodorants
• Use mosquito nets and take proper care during evenings so that you don't have to use pesticides

While constructing your home -

• design for passive air-circulation --- very important
• proper design to take care of mosquitos, insects from entering your house
• proper construct property so that radon won't enter through flooring/walls
• avoid carpet
• Use cleanable drapery
• Add internal courtyard
• Add plants, plants, and plants...

10 reasons to eat local

Click on the images to load full size.

The best dish in the world

Is it really the ingredients which matter most?

Article by our intern Michael Duspiwa from Austria.

If you ask a person, what is the best food in the world, what answers do you get? This is of course not predictable as the individual preferences largely vary. In the United States some people may say “burger”, in Italy the majority might tell you “pasta” or “pizza”, and on the other hand in India some people may say “dosa” is the best food in the world. But what do all this dishes of the individual persons all over the globe have in common? 

From the outside it looks like those dishes have nothing in common, one is with meat and grilled the other is made in an oven and the third one has a similar shape to pizza, but is something completely different. Thus without further examination those have nothing in common, and a comparison among them might not lead to proper results. 

But what the majority of the people asked, will tell you is that it is the pasta cooked by their mum, the burger grilled by their father or the dosa prepared by their grandmother which is the most delicious food on the globe. Thus we associate food with much more than just eating and the taste, it is the person who prepares it and the environment of the meal which contributes its essential part to the perfect enjoyment. It is much more important with whom you eat the meal and who prepares it than the actual meal. 

Where does your family have lunch or dinner, always together or in front of the TV? Especially for kids it is an important part in their education and essential in their way to become a grown up. Thus this has to be preserved as it sticks with every person for the whole life. The dinner together is an important place to talk about school, work, problems, feelings and all other issues. Now imagine how much information among the family members will be exchanged, while eating in front of the television. Nearly nothing, right?

As on the whole world things are getting faster and faster, also the time available which is required preparing a full course meal decreases. Who is usually cooking for the whole family? Yes, most of the time the women in the house. Now the question comes up why they do not like to spend so much time anymore on cooking. The answer is rather simple: Because the father is at work and the kids sit in front of the TV, and the only person in the kitchen is the mother. 

 

By simply not making the kitchen a closed room and by removing all the walls, people are going to enjoy cooking much more as it was in former times. The meals get better, the time is used more efficiently and the community feeling is fostered. Summarizing, by removing your walls and by making one huge room out of living, dining, sleeping room and the kitchen, the best dish of the future generations is assured. 

Remove your walls, it does make a difference, just one single person has to start doing so!

Keep it clean

Found this pic on Facebook and it stirs several points in my mind. We are blessed with beautiful nature and its our responsibility to retain them in their true glory. What will you answer when your children find out you have used all their resources.

Living sustainably is our responsibility. The need is close. The need is now. Choose a cleaner, smarter and sustainable way of living because.... The Future Begins Now.

Re-localizing the global food supply: The Samskruti Way

What we need is a network of people taking a hands-on approach to re-localizing the global food supply.

@Samskruti, we believe in producing most of the food in your own garden, terrace or on your roof. Ask us for more details about how this simple change can change your life and redefine how you look at food and sustainability.

Visit: http://www.facebook.com/Samskruti.in for more updates.

Green is our lifeline!

Green is our lifeline!

Eat Smart. Your Food Choices Affect the Climate

(Click on the image to see full size)

GHG data based on lifecycle assessment by www.CleanMetrics.com.

Roof-top garden

"What is a roof-top garden?"


"Please come here and look at this model here. You can have a small garden on your roof. You could grow some vegetable plants, fruits and creepers here."

This is how discussions at our office go. If there is a lady, then she would ask some more questions about the type of soil, plants she could grow and so on. If it is a gentleman, he would like to know if water will seep, will the garden increase the weight on the ceiling and so on. But people appreciate the concept.


Rooftop gardens can also help absorb heat and act as insulators, reducing the energy needed for cooling or heating; provide low-cost food and also a refuge for bird, bees and insects. These benefits are clearly transferable to your locality and urban agriculture can play an important role in strengthening the resilience of cities and their populations against the impacts of climate change. According to the UN Population Fund, about half the world population already lives in urban areas with the number expected to reach some five billion by 2030.

Being able to supply their own fruit and vegetables is clearly an advantage in a time of food scarcity and rising prices. And it’s also not impossible. Hong Kong and Singapore, for example, both produce more than 20% of their meat and vegetables within the city limits. As well as the environmental and economic benefits, rooftop gardens also bring a much needed splash of colour to our rather grey concrete jungles so lets get gardening!

All the villas in Samskruti Maurya have access to a small garden, most of them being roof-top. Only the ones who experienced it will know the joy of eating something from your own garden. It not just tastes better but also is an healthier and smarter choice. If you could grow only 5-10 kgs of vegetables depending on the space you have after allocating a small space for the good old Tulsi, you could still save around 700-1000 rupees a month.

What do you think?

Samskruti Builders

Established in 2006, Samskruti Builders was founded by a group of likeminded individuals. We believe that the way to a brighter future is through resource conservation, recycling & regeneration.

Samskruti Maurya has been designed by renowned architect Ravindra Kumar, the principal architect of Pragrup Architects-a well known architectural firm in Bangalore.

Samskruti Builders has partenered with McDBerl, a sustainability and engineering consultancy services company, in order to build a green community.

The landscaping for Samskruti Maurya has been designed by P.T.Wijaya Tribwana International. Wijaya has 25 years of combined work experience in over 700 hotels, luxury residences and apartments across south east Asia & India.

Wipro EcoEnergy, the renewable energy services arm of Wipro, is responsible for all renewable/alternative energy needs at Samskruti Maurya.

Eco friendly homes