Strata

Fig: 1 - An image showing a group of refugees migrating from one place to the next.

PREMISE

The biggest democracy in the world, India, is also quickly becoming the epicenter of one of the biggest refugee crises in the world. Assam, a border state in the nation, owing to its geographical location and shared international frontiers has been facing the brunt of this influx since as far back as 1951.

A National Population Register was put into effect after the 1951 Census of India, and a lengthy battle that the natives fought with authorities and migrants over the eroding identity of the state and limited resources due to large-scale migration into the state. In the first draft of the updated NPR released in September 2019, roughly 1.9 Million people have been excluded owing to wrong names, spellings, unavailability of papers, etc. Even as the region remains in political and social turmoil, the government has sanctioned the construction of at least 11 more detention camps across the state to house people excluded from the register. 

Fig: 2 - An image of the UNHCR camp for refugee rehabilitation, representative of the habitation issues with these settlements.

Issue

At present, a majority of the people whose names didn’t make it into the draft are housed in camps in existing prisons across the state. Furthermore, the total capacity of the detention camps proposed stands at roughly 14000 people, clearly not enough for the number of people detained. The total projected budget for their construction alone (excluding logistic blocks) is estimated at 1000 Crore INR ($140 Million). 

Various news sources have reported about in-human living conditions inside camps and prisons, apart from overcrowding and a lack of resources. Fear and depression among detainees is extremely common owing to an uncertain future. Even with the detention camps in place, dignified living for the detainees remains an unattained target. Homeownership remains the primary concern of a number of detainees whose lives were thrown into the whirlwind following the NPR. If they aren’t deported, their lives shall still remain at a standstill with virtually no work opportunities to rebuild their lives. 

Fig: 3 - The community of 3D printed homes.

Is a Solution in Sight?

Several nations have gauged into low-cost, alternate construction methods to house their growing refugee and desolate population. 3D printing has emerged in that sphere as a dominant technology, a potential solution, that can achieve an economy of construction in record time, along with the structures being seismically and thermally resilient.

An inspiring practical application of this was seen in Tabasco, Mexico where an entire 50-house neighbourhood was recently 3D printed, with each house costing as less as $4000, and delivered in less than 24 hours. The community houses the poorest families in Tabasco who earned less than $4-5 per day. 

India’s Assam and Rohingya situation is being termed only the second biggest humanitarian refugee crisis after Syria in the world. Can the nation to employ this progressive technology to house its detainees?
Fig: 4 - A representative image of a wide nozzle concrete 3D printer that was used to print and build an entire fantasy village

Can construction technology help in the quick and dignified rehabilitation of some of these displaced people?

BRIEF OF THE COMPETITION

The challenge is to design an assembled accommodation, and thereafter a neighborhood, to absorb the rising and foreboding crisis in Assam using the principles of 3D printing construction.  

The challenge is to employ the technology to achieve dignifiable residences for displaced families. Participants must design a singular modular unit for 3D printing keeping in mind the design objectives. The same unit must then be used to design an entire neighborhood comprising 150 households on the given site. 

When employed in construction, 3D printing allows not only a continuous thermal envelope, high thermal mass, and near zero-waste, but also speedy construction, a much broader design palette, next-level resilience, and the possibility of a quantum leap in affordability.
However, as with any other technology, 3D printing also has its set of limitations that would pose the design guidelines for this challenge. 

OBJECTIVES

The following objectives can be a point of beginning to conceive this design. Participants can assume a rough context from the region’s images provided and a 4 person family demographic before initiating their design process.

• Economy of construction: The intervention must look to resources and material efficiency to achieve economic construction.
• Replicability/modularity: The design of the unit especially must look to be readily applicable in cases of such crises in the world.
• Swift construction: The intervention must fully utilise the opportunity of speedy construction offered by 3D printing.
• Dignity of living: The design of the unit and neighborhood must look to restore normalcy and dignity for the displaced.

The following objectives can be a point of beginning to conceive this design. Participants can assume a rough context from the region’s images provided and a 4 person family demographic before initiating their design process.

Unit Plan

DESIGN GUIDELINES

• The residential unit to be 3D Printed has to be 500 sq.ft. in area, including external and internal wall assemblies.
• Owing to the nature of the printing, the unit's height has to be capped at 11 feet, roughly 3.3m. Individual units cannot exceed over a single storey.
• Participants need to define the primary wall assembly that the unit would be comprised of, both in terms of material and thickness. While the technique of 3D printing can utilise multiple materials as well as hybrids of concrete along with binding agents and admixtures, polymers, thermoplastics etc, it needs to be specified.
• Furthermore, the 3D printer nozzle to be employed for these settlements has a maximum size of 2.5cm X 5cm. This implies that the machine may be able to print only 5cm thick layers at a given time, and 2.5cm in layer height. Depending on their design, participants may choose to have a composite wall with cavities or entirely solid comprised of strata.
• The design of the unit must cater to a typical 4 member demographic.
• Unit level water and electricity provision needs to be conceptually reflected in unit design.
• Participants are completely free to explore, define or assume the framework and methodology of how the 3D printing assembly would be mounted and how it would work (eg: radial, linear, row-wise etc).

 

Structural Outline

• Primary Structure: Comprising of walls and the principal elements constituting the outer shell of the unit (55%-60%).
• Secondary Structure: Comprising of internal partitions and the roof of the unit (25%-30%).
• Tertiary Structure: Comprising of doors, windows and fixtures (10%-15%).

The above divisions are to be seen as rough guidelines for the structural constitution of the house. 

Apart from the primary structural constituents, participants have complete control over whether 3D printing is to be employed in the secondary and tertiary components or not. Alternative materials including but not limited to steel, wood, wrought iron, plastic etc may be explored as long as they satisfy design objectives. 

 

 SITE PLAN

Tezpur, Assam, India
Tezpur is a city and urban agglomeration in Sonitpur district, Assam state, India. Tezpur is located on the banks of the river Brahmaputra, 175 kilometres (109 mi) northeast of Guwahati, and is the largest of the north bank cities with a population exceeding 100,000 as per Metropolitan Census 2011

The site for the intervention is located in the town of Barpakhia Jhar located within Tezpur. Site Coordinates: 26.707708, 92.750460 The town lies on the banks of the Brahmaputra river. 

Note: It must be borne in mind that even though the intervention is contextualised, participants must look to propose their design with farsightedness to employ 3D-printed homes universally. 

Within the 2.5 Ha site, 150 such 3D-printed homes/units must be placed to form a fully functional neighbourhood. Provision of greens, circulation and open spaces need to be worked out on the Masterplan Level. Areas for Community Spaces/Facilities, Services, and Admin need to be only earmarked and designated on the master plan simply by way of a boundary. Participants can assume the municipal provision of site-level services. All units are to be printed/fabricated on-site, and part-by-part prefabrication off-site may not be assumed.