HOW TO ENGAGE IN ARCHITECTURAL SOCIAL WORK?

ABSTRACT: Architecture as a profession has immense potential in contributing

towards social welfare. However, as students aspiring to venture into this line of
work, we are oblivious to the available opportunities, scope and prospects that
lay ahead. This research attempts to understand the workings of entities that
pursue social work and hence assess the possibilities.

INTRODUCTION:
During the course of education, architecture involves dealing with social and
policy level problems, and working for human welfare, but when we move over to
practice, subject to the kind and scale of the firm, the architect generally
becomes a service provider for clients who are willing to pay, rarely addressing
social issues which he/she is equipped to deal with.
Issues that plague todays society range from population explosion, inequalities,
sustainability, insecurity, segregation, traffic congestion, pollution, waste
accumulation, migration, squatter settlements, urban peripheries, housing
shortage as well as unpredictable natural disasters. All of these problems,
directly or indirectly, are affected by the spaces and buildings people occupy.
Architecture thus has much to offer to the society by engaging with these issues.
Why then do we see limited participation of architects in this line of work?
Some questions that this research projects hopes to address are:
1. Considering an architectural organization needs to sustain it and its
employees, at the same time doing meaningful work, how does it function
and thrive economically?
2. Also, what laws govern the functioning of such entities, and how are they
accounted for, in the Architects Act?
3. What is the process of procuring architectural projects to make a
difference to those in need?
4. Do these firms face competition from other conventional practiced to
secure tenders for large scale government projects which can highly
impact the aforementioned target groups?
5. What are the various kinds of work they are involved with?
6. What are the other kinds of firms that address social issues through
architecture?
7. What incentives are there or should be provided for architects to further
delve into the domain of social architecture?
8. What are the various other ways to and challenges faced in securing
funding for projects?

Following are the broad ways in which our profession contributes:

- Driven by philanthropic motivations, where personal interest and
availability of funds are the main criteria, certain architects cater to the
 society while expecting no profits. This path is taken by few, established
architectural firms, given the obvious lack of incentive besides a private
sense of fulfilment.
- Many large commercial architecture firms contribute to the society in ways
of scattered pro-bono projects aside from their mainstream work,
occasionally.
- CSR corporate social responsibility, is another way to involve architects
in this work.
- There are also organisations, who only deal with these projects and
research related to them. These are NPOs (non-profit organizations) whose
work in the field is their full-time occupation. The livelihood of the
employees depends on this job, although the compensation provided is
minimal. The profits from any of their projects can only be invested
towards the cause and are not enjoyed by the organization itself. These
entities benefit from the fact that certain government projects only allow
bids from such organizations.
A typical organization of this sort is usually funded by donors whose
interests are aligned with that of the project. The functioning of the NPO is
only funded for the time being of the project and research or other such
work is taken up to sustain themselves or keep going in between projects.

From the above it is evident that social work is not financially rewarding. To be
able to carry out the philanthropic work, firms need to pursue commercial
projects whose profits can then be invested in social work. Work hence, will
majorly involve projects that are profitable and humanitarian architecture in
these cases is a rarity.
In the case of NPOs, apart from the critical catch of no money, there is the fact
that sustaining oneself while being solely dependent on these projects is
unrealistic. The reasons vary from lack of projects (not lack of demand) and
unavailability of funds to the basic point that there is no incentive to delve into
this difficult area of work besides ones own interest. Following are some of the
organizations that carry-out humanitarian work, their structure and funding
mechanism:

CASE STUDIES
Name of Organisation: Development Alternatives (DA)
Formation:
Dr Ashok Khosla founded and was president of the thirty-year-old Development
Alternatives Group and now chairs its Board. Headquartered in New Delhi, the DA
Group was among the first civil society organisations set up to address the issues
of sustainable development as a whole. It also pioneered the concept of social
enterprise, creating business-like approaches for eradicating poverty and
conserving the natural resource base.
Type of organisation:
This is a conglomerate called Development Alternatives Group, comprising five
organisations. The non-profit Societies, such as the flagship entity Development
Alternatives and TARA (Technology and Action for Rural Advancement) are
responsible for research, innovation, policy, incubation of green businesses and
technical support services.
Principles:
Development Alteratives claim to be the world's first social enterprise dedicated
to sustainable development, is a research and action organisation striving to
deliver socially equitable, environmentally sound and economically scalable
development outcomes. DAs green technology innovations for habitat, water,
energy and waste management, which deliver basic needs and generate
sustainable livelihoods, have reduced poverty and rejuvenated natural
ecosystems in the most backward regions of India.
DAs Mission is to help eliminate poverty and regenerate the environmental
resource base through methods that are highly scalable.

Empowering Communities through multi-stakeholder action for:

o Institution Development with a focus on women and
marginalised groups
o Basic Needs fulfillment more specifically habitat, water, energy
Creating Green Jobs at a large scale through promotion and support of
o Employment Skills for Green Job creation
o Enterprise Creation for Social Enterprises
Promoting and advocating Low Carbon Pathways for Development through
the design and demonstration of
o Natural Resources Management Models
o Clean Technology Solutions

Organisational Structure:
The DA group trust functions as a group of societies as mentioned below:
Non-Profit Societies:

Development Alternatives engages in scientific research and

innovation, on-the-ground implementation of eco solutions as well as
communication and policy influence.
Technology and Action for Rural Advancement (TARA) practices green
business incubation and provides technical support services.
For-Profit Social Enterprises:

TARA Machines and Tech Services Private Limited promotes sustainable

technology solutions for small and medium enterprises. It markets green
technology solutions for building construction, waste recycling and handmade
paper production, delivering business solutions to a global network of micro,
small and medium enterprises, specialising in eco concrete, eco-kilns, fly ash
and recycling technology.
TARAhaat Information and Marketing Services Private Limited create micro-
franchises to deliver IT enabled education and skill building products to young
job seekers.
TARA Nirman Kendra delivers environmentally friendly habitat products and
services through a range of sustainable building technologies and advisory
support.
 TARA Enviro markets cutting-edge products designed for safe water and other
vital resources.
DESI Power Private Limited promotes biomass energy-based EmPower
models for rural electrification and enterprise creation.
Funding:
SOCIETY FOR DEVELOPMENT ALTERNATIVES has a lot of donors, local and
foreign. For example, in 2015-16 they have received funding from
Climate Action Network South Asia, Heinrich Boll Foundation, Toshiba
International, Charities Aid Foundation India, DFID India, VSO International and
many more. Sister organisations under TARA also support DA financially as per
Audit reports.
Work undertaken
Its activities broadly cover three primary areas that underlie any sustainable
development process: the design and large-scale dissemination of appropriate
technologies, rational environmental management systems, and equitable
people-oriented institutions and policies. The DA Group innovates such eco-
solutions to help meet the basic needs of all and works with partners, including
government bodies, local entrepreneurs and civil society to market these in a
commercially viable and an environmentally friendly manner to an ever-growing
body of consumers.
As for acquiring projects, they generally propose solutions to societal problems
themselves to the government and appeal for funding and permissions. They
also compete in bids and facilitate conversations with funding agencies such as
the UN, Dept. of Science and technology, CSR initiatives etc.
They offer many facilities that include the following:
Centres of Excellence: The DA Group Headquarters building houses the Centre
for Sustainable Futures, the Center of Excellence for Sustainable Housing and
Rural Infrastructure, A Climate Change Centre and a Centre for Integrated Water
Resources Management. These centres are engaged in cutting edge research on
issues of global and national sustainable development, access of communities to
basic needs goods and services and natural resources management. The Centres
of Excellence are supported by technical and social laboratories.
Apart from this there is a Product Development Centre , Building Materials
Laboratories, Building Materials Laboratories, TARAgram, a livelihood resource
center and a social laboratory demonstrating models of sustainable
development, with facilities for training and conferencing in Orachha, Pahauj and
Datia and more.
Their primary mission is to promote sustainable livelihoods. Even though it was
started by architects, it is run by a highly multidisciplinary team. Amongst other
things, they work towards enabling shelter, developing holistic architecture and
developing the construction sector to improve livelihoods and decrease negative
environmental impact. Architecture and construction is just a means to an end of
sustainable development in these offices. For example, for the housing project
in Orachha, they organised funds, trained artisans, arranged for funds through
the government, carried out participatory design exercises, worked for
production of materials, and finally the facilitation of construction. They worked
with the communities of artisans to connect to necessary funding agencies like
the bank.
Name of the organization: SEEDS is a non-profit organisation that seeks to
protect the lives and livelihoods of people exposed to natural disasters and living
in disaster prone areas. SEEDS primarily engages in shelter reconstruction and
adopts locally based approaches to reduce the impact of future disasters on
communities at risk.

Formation: Founded in 1994, SEEDS comprises of young professionals drawn

from various development related fields. A visit to Dehradun during the Chipko
movement instigated an urge in the founding members Dr. Anshu Sharma and
Dr. Manu Gupta to create a philanthropic support base to empower the
powerless.
It is governed and advised by a board of eminent academicians and practitioners
from international organisations.
SEEDS Asia, founded in 2006, comprises of individuals who a have wide range of
experience in humanitarian response, particularly the Kobe Earthquake of 1995,
community based disaster management and environmental education.

Type of organization:

1. SEEDS India is registered as a public Society. It is registered under the

Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860. All donations made to SEEDS by
Indian citizens are eligible for Tax Deduction under section 80G of the
Income Tax Act 1961.
2. SEEDS Asia is a registered non-profit organisation in Japan that takes an
integrated approach to disaster management and environmental
conservation to ensure safer communities in the Asia Pacific region. SEEDS
Asia leverages the 17 years of experience of its sister organisation - SEEDS
India. It is this foundation that enables it to expand the work to the Asia-
Pacific region.
3. SEEDS Technical services Pvt. Ltd. Is a Section 8 Indian Non-Government
Company, its MoA including Community, Personal & Social Services. SEEDS
Technical Services (STS) is an independent entity that focuses on training
and consultancy on disaster management and environmental sustainability.
It draws its strength from years of SEEDS experience.

Principles: SEEDS with its small team of committed individuals has reached out
to families affected by earthquakes, floods and cyclones; restored schools and
homes; and has invariably put its faith in education to build long term resilience.
SEEDS continues to advocate for and involve with communities across Asia to
ensure a safer and sustainable world.
SEEDS Technical Services has been involved in the training of development
practitioners, government officials and school teachers. It acts as the anchor for
the Global Open Learning Forum on Risk Education (GOLFRE).

Organizational structure:
SEEDS India currently employees 50 people; 20 with technical qualifications, 20
with other qualifications but actively engaged in programmes and support staff.
The technical employees include 4 architects, 3 planners, 5 with social science
background, 4 MBAs and 3 in communications.
SEEDS Technical Services has Dr Anshu Sharma and Dr. Manu Gupta registered
as directors.
Funding:
Their primary source of funding comes from International Relief organizations like
European Commission Humanitarian Aid Department (ECHO), Global Network of
Civil Society Organisations for Disaster Reduction (GNDR), UNICEF etc. This is
done by applying for grants and sending in proposals of intervention.
Aid is also provided by a number of national organizations like National Disaster
Management Authority (NDMA), United Way of India (UWI) and similar funding
parties like Plan India, Ganga Action Parivar.
CSR and corporate tie-ups like TATA Relief committee, Jagaran Prakshan Limited
where corporations are obligated to utilise 2% of their profits for a notable social
cause.
World Bank contracts are dealt with by the SEEDS Technical Services division.
They also frequently apply for research grants to National Foundation of India.
Their technical cell, SEEDS Technical Services often generates the surplus
required to fund the organizational fees of SEEDS India.

Projects and funding organizations:

Listed below are the key projects undertaken by SEEDS India in the fiscal year
2014-15.

Objective Provision of humanitarian assistance to flood-affected

families in Pooch and Pulwama districts in Jammu &
Kashmir
Activities Response to immediate shelter and basic needs Establishment
of temporary school tents Distribution of school kits for children
Budget INR 7,407,195
Funded by Trafigura | SEEDS Asia | UNICEF | United Way of India
Outreach 314 families, 23 schools, 2566 children across two districts and 74
villages

Objective Construction of transitional shelters for flood-affected

families in Pulwama district
Activities Identification of the most vulnerable households Construction
of disaster resilient transitional shelters through technical support
Capacity building of local masons / carpenters
Budget INR 13,656,390
Funded by United Way of India | BATA | Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC)
Outreach 100 transitional shelters and 42 toilets across seven villages of
Pulwama district

Objective Reconstruction of schools and community spaces as part

of the recovery programme in Uttarakhand
Activities Reconstruction of 13 schools and construction of one
Community center in Sumari Bardar School safety programme
with children of and teachers of all schools
Budget INR 14,348,321
Funded by SEEDS Asia | Parmarth Niketan | Abhiyan | Paul Hamlyn | United
Way of India | Tata Relief Committee | Group of Friends Club |
 Ambuja Cement Foundation (ACF) | Jagran Prakashan Limited |
Ganga Action Parivar and Divine Seva Foundation | Care Today |
General public (Local and FCRA)
Outreach One school completed and construction of 12 schools and one
community centre are undergoing School safety training for
approximately 2000 students and teachers

Objective To ensure humanitarian and early recovery needs of the

cyclone and flood affected communities in the four worst
hit districts of Odisha though a multi-agency and multi-
sector coordinated approach
Activities Survey and field verification of the most vulnerable households
Finalisation of shelter beneficiaries and statutory approval from
government Repair and construction of disaster resilient shelters
through material and technical support Capacity building of local
masons / carpenters on disaster resilient housing and village
community on DRR
Budget INR 6,307,369
Funded by Christian Aid / ECHO
Outreach 250 houses repaired [ partially damaged] 50 houses
reconstructed [ fully damaged] 13,720 man days created under
Cash For Work @Rs.164/- 100 masons /carpenters trained on
safe construction using local building materials. 11 Village
Development Committees formed 2 prototype houses
constructed Construction manual developed and disseminated

Objective Work with drought affected communities in Beed district,

Maharashtra, to mitigate current stresses through critical
sustenance support and prevent further escalation into a
full blown emergency.
Activities Augmentation of existing water sources and connection to the
water distribution system Community awareness workshops,
campaigns and rallies on safe hygiene practices, safe water
handling practices and use of toilets Construction of community
toilets
Budget INR 4,491,954.39
Funded by SEEDS Asia
Outreach Water augmentation for 18 wells and 8 handpumps
Construction of 4 community toilets Benefits and training for
1800 households (9629 people)

Network and outreach programs:

Objective Measure community resilience; identify actions and

advocacy activities at local, national and regional levels;
and strengthen civil society organisations at the local
levels.
Activities National Training Workshop in Hue, Vietnam Identification of 6
Risk Zones for Frontline India Training and support to local
partners, staff and field-based volunteers in the risk zones in
February 2015.
Budget INR 626,000
Funded by GNDR
Outreach 24 communities and over 132 community members including
adults, single women, children, youth and senior citizens.
Identification of local partners for building a stronger national
platform for DRR in India.
Name of Organisation: Hunnershala
Formation:
Hunnarshala was formed as a foundation which provided its skills and resources
in Building Technology and Innovation as a part of a local NGO network Kutch
Nav Nirman Abhiyan after the 2001 Earthquake in Gujarat.
Type of organisation:

In 2003, Hunnarshala was registered as an organisation under section 25 of

Companies Act promoted by Prof. K. Jagdish (IISC, Bangalore), Kirteebhai Khatri
(Kutchmitra) and Sandeep Virmani.

Principles:
Its primary focus is to help communities in disaster struck regions build their
own dwellings. It does so by promoting vernacular tradition of building
construction of the space whilst providing technical guidance about structure and
appropriate technologies. Their motive is to transfer the technical knowledge of
construction to the community and help them become self-organized and
independent.
Typically in the reconstruction post-disaster they teach the people a scientific
approach to building, for example earthquake resistant ring beam construction,
which they would adopt in their further constructions. They promote technologies
that are low maintenance and replicable.
In this way it also promotes democratisation of the society by sharing the
technical knowledge and means to parts of the society who do not have access
to it.
It works on the principle of Owner-Driven Construction, which is a reconstruction
approach that enables home owners to rebuild their houses themselves (by
hiring the necessary skilled labour), through a guided combination of financial
and technical assistance, and a regulatory framework that would ensure access
to good quality and affordable construction materials (Duyne Barenstein and
Iyengar 2010: 164).

Hunnershala offers its knowledge and skills for building designs, settlement
planning, social housing, disaster reconstruction, waste water treatment
systems, infrastructure development, etc. , while promoting and demonstrating
people centric, environment friendly, artisan based approaches and
technologies. Hunnarshala believes that artisans are bearers of tremendous
knowledge, and their engagement with modern building science is important for
delivering high quality buildings. Its shareholders are motivated by this vision
and not by profit, according to Hunarshala.

Organisational Structure:
It is divided into three branches:
a Community Empowerment
b Artisan empowerment
c Artisan school
It is a collaboration of professionals, corporates and scientists. Interns are hired
through advertisement on the website. It has various partner organisations
engaging in allied humanitarian causes.

Funding:
There is a group of shareholders that fund the projects. It is a not for profit
organisation so any profits must go into other projects. There are 80
shareholders: people from various backgrounds such as industrialists,
businessmen, activists, educationists, scientists, etc. Its balance sheets are
publicly available on the website, hence maintaining transparency.

Work undertaken (type, procurement,)

Typical Working Structure:

1. Organization and coordination of the agendas of varied actors. National/local
governments to the panchayats and families. These agendas usually make the
project economically feasible, socially viable and sustainable.
2. Taking a managerial and organizational role in maintain the link between the
community and private enterprises in organizing transactions.
3. Providing technical knowledge of building construction in the framework of the
vernacular traditions, local to the context.
Because of the grass-roots and community-led approach it takes, this has
produced great variety of architecture.

Outreach (and examples)

Along with the guidelines Hunnershala prepared a manual for masons in gujarati
to educate them about safe construction practices. These technical guidelines
and the manual enabled more than 100 villages to rebuild using earth
technologies. Hunnarshala works closely with partner organisations of Abhiyan,
like Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan (KMVS) to train the rural population in
construction so that they can rebuild their homes in ways that don't compromise
on safety or their cultural expression.

Architectural (and examples)

Projects completed under:
1. Indira Awas Yojana.
Mandated under Commissionerate of Rural Development, Government of Gujrat
to provide technical facilitation to build housing for BPL families.
The objective of Hunnershala is to ensure technical support for the
implementation of Indira Awas Yojana at district level through development of
appropriate design options, technical guidelines for each option, prototype
demonstrations and training.
Steps undertaken:
1. Study of typologies local to the place where houses need to be built.
2. Design appropriate solutions, keeping in mind acceptability, affordability and
safety.
3. Prototype construction of about five designs.
4. Training of the beneficiaries, masons and artisans in the appropriate
technologies and materials to build their houses.
2. Kosi Flood Rehabilitation - Bihar
Hunnarshala demonstrated the technology as well as policy implementation for
appropriate construction by building 42 houses in Orlaha village and 89 houses
in Puraini village and trained more than 400 people for further implementing the
program.
It further developed policy with Bihar government that facilitated the
reconstruction 100,000 houses.
Hunnarshala has also undertaken Post disaster reconstruction work in Kashmir,
Iran, Indonesia, and Afghanistan.
3. Urban Slum Redevelopment:
Detailed Project Report for the redevelopment of the 3 slums was prepared by
Hunnarshala and has been approved and sanctioned by BMTPC. Hunnarshala
Foundation has been appointed as the Project Management Agency for
implementation of RAY three slums in Bhuj, Gujarat by Bhuj Nagar Palika. 314
houses shall be built in 3 slums; Bhim Rao-1 Nagar, Ramdev Nagar and GIDC
relocation site.

Regions served: Gujarat; May serve disaster struck regions in India.

Other work: It releases informative and interactive publications such as
manuals and guidelines for re-construction, that are meant to spread awareness
among the public.

SOURCE: http://www.hunnarshala.org/
Name: People in Centre Consulting (Ahmedabad, Gujarat)
Formation: People in Centre is registered as a Company under the RoC
(Registrar of Companies)
It is a Pvt. Ltd., non-listed company. It was registered in 2008 by coming together
of like- minded people who had previous experience (individually) with NGOs.
Despite not being an NGO, it is bound by its objectives as stated during
registration. It works as a consultancy company.
Type of organisation: Pvt. Ltd. Firm, Tie up with Unnatti NGO, help them
acquire socially inclined projects.
They believe it is more honest to call themselves a company, rather than NGO
as profits may be disguised as salaries or property owned, in the latter case.
Principles: People in Centre Consulting, as described on their website, is an
organization founded on the principle of bringing people into the centre of
all developmental endeavours and facilitating empowering mechanisms for
them. The firm believes in the need for a shift in the present focus of
development which is not sustainable and often marginalizes people, particularly
the poor and vulnerable. Working with this as their premise, the consultation
provides socio-technical support for project planning, coordination,
implementation, action research, process documentation, training, monitoring,
impact assessment, knowledge consolidation, dissemination and perspective
building.

Unnatis Vision is: To create an inclusive society where all stakeholders,

particularly the vulnerable, participate with full empowerment and
gain equal access to and control over services, resources and
institutions.

Organisational Structure: The organization, based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat,

comprises of three principal architects, employees and interns. They work in
collaboration with the government and like groups such as Hunnarshala
Foundation and BuildAur.

Funding: UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), Indian Govt., other

private clients
Work Undertaken:
Their work is organised under the following sub-heads:
- Restructuring Human Interventions for Ecological Balance
- Reinforcing Peoples Abilities for Coping with Disasters
- Reclaiming Urban Space for the People

Projects are procured through contacts, and bidding procedure, just like any
other company. While some bids only allow certain kinds of companies to submit
bids, others are concerned with the kind of work done by companies. PiC maybe
left out of bidding procedure which only invite NGOs, but may be invited for other
projects relevant to the kind of work they do. Projects are also procured out of
associated organisations such as Unnati. Hunnarshala also collaborates with PiC
where it lacks expertise.
PiC is motivated to take up social welfare-oriented projects purely out of its
founding members interests. Just like any other company, they do the kind of
work they believe in, which happen to be socially relevant projects in their case.
Collaboration is a major part in such projects.
A. Architectural Projects:
When a dam breach in Nepal damaged 3,00,000 houses in Bihar, UNDP (United
Nations Development Fund) funded the rehabilitation of some villages. UNDP,
being familiar with PiCs work, invited them. Collaboration with other
organisations/NGOs, they rehabilitated two villages as a model for further
rehabilitation. For the next set of villages (three whole districts), they trained
masons/workers in different villages to see the rehabilitation through (funded by
the Govt. this time), though this was not as successful.
An upcoming project is: redesigning riverside squatter homes in flood prone
areas in Bihar.
They also work under policies like PMAY (Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna) and IAY
(Indira Awas Yojna), which deal with providing shelters for people. Some more
examples:
Appropriate Housing Options for Rural Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh and
West Bengal: With UNDP collaboration, People in Centre along with
Hunnarshala and BuildAur supported Ministry of Rural Development and
respective State Governments in developing appropriate technical options for
social housing under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). The technical options
were based on a study of vernacular construction practices, locally available
materials and skills and peoples aspirations. As part of this engagement,
housing zonation for each state was identified and appropriate options were
developed through participatory and consultative process. State level workshops
were also organized to share these housing options with the government. The
state wise reports are available on request.
Reconstructing Schools using Bamboo in Violence Affected Kokrajhar,
Assam: People in Centre Consulting collaborated with UNNATI to support local
communities reconstruct the schools that were destroyed in the ethnic violence
in Kokrajhar, Assam in July 2012. PiC brought together local artisans with artisans
from Kosi flood affected region to share their skills and knowledge of bamboo
and rebuild new schools. In the process of construction, bamboo trusses and
improved bamboo joinery were demonstrated and shared. Total six schools are
constructed for both Bodo and Muslim communities.
Developing Alternative Design for Jamalpur Market in Ahmedabad,
Gujarat: After newspaper reports on traffic obstructions caused by vending
activities near Jamalpur Vegetable market, police took harshly on the vendors
selling vegetables outside the APMC market. People in Centre, along with SEWA
worked with the street vendors to organise the marketplace. Several
representations were made with the AMC officials to come to agreement for a
case for organised vending market under the newly constructed flyover bridge at
Jamalpur cross roads.

B. Outreach projects:
Promoting Seismic Resistant Housing A Set of 20 Posters: People in
Centre Consulting supported a campaign to improve seismic resistance in
existing houses. The campaign was undertaken by UNNATI Organization for
Development Education in Kutch district of Gujarat. A set of 20 posters was
prepared about how homeowners could improve seismic resistance of their
existing houses. The focus was on simple principles that could ensure much
improved performance of existing houses with simple retrofitting measures
Training of Supervisor Artisans and Engineers for Kosi Flood
Reconstruction: PiC and Hunnarshala, as part of ODRC support to Kosi
Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Programme, Government of Bihar, worked to
strengthen capacities of supervisor artisans and engineers appointed by the GoB
to provide technical guidance to flood-affected house owners. People in Centre
Consulting and Hunnashala Foundation built capacities of more than 300
supervisor artisans on technical guidelines to reach out to more than 30000
house owners. Training programmes covered all the stages and details of
construction of bamboo as well as brick houses.

Challenges faced: The main challenge with such a firm, is to resolve the
differences between the client and the party served, as in the case of
socially oriented architecture, the party served is generally different from the one
paying for the job. There is a tendency for the paying party (the govt.) to dictate
terms over the already marginalised impact group (The common people), which
needs to be resolved by the company working for both of them.
Sources:

http://www.peopleincentre.org/PiC/
Rushank Mehta, Director, PiC
Yogesh Saini, Intern, PiC

As Architect Alejandro Aravena, the winner of the 2016 Pritzker Prize rightly put
it, difficult questions like these, require professional quality, not professional
charity.