Scrap to super home - Couple's 'House of Bottles' captures imagination

Daijiworld Media Network

Hyderabad, Jun 16: City-based Prashanth Lingam, and his wife, Aruna Kappagantala deserve support and encouragement for conceptualizing extra ordinary houses which are easy to build and cost-effective.

The couple had started a concern named ‘Bamboo House India’ in 2007, with the purpose of creating market for artistic bamboo products made by tribals. Later, they took up construction of houses by using bamboo. These houses got excellent response in Hyderabad, where people as well as five star hotels, resorts, and parks opted for these houses, which provide lot of room for creativity and imagination.

The couple has again aroused the curiosity of the people by building houses by using bamboo and plastic bottles. Their recent effort of building a house in Hyderabad by using about 4,000 mud-filled plastic bottles overawed the people. The total amount they spent for creating this attractive house was mere Rs 75,000. Prashanth says that main items used for this house including the roof beams and pillars, are made of bamboo and plastic bottles.

The walls of this house have been reinforced from inside with mud-filled bottles. Prashanth says that these bottles not only provide strength to the walls, but also lend it the ability to withstand external heat. The couple bought these bottles from scrap dealers by paying one rupee per bottle. The bottles have been used in place of traditional bricks.

“At present, a cement brick costs ten rupees, while red bricks cost five rupees a piece. Plastic bottles cost lot less, they need very less cement to build, and keep the house cool,” Prashanth observes. He says that only five to six gunny bags of cement would be enough to build these bottle houses. He predicts that these houses will last for about 30 years, and that about 4,000 bottles would be needed to build a 225 square feet house. “This technique not only addresses shortage of houses the country is facing, but also bring down cost, and provides solution to the problem of disposal of plastic bottles which are not subject to biological degradation,” he points out.

The couple wants to provide a big boost to this technology in rural areas. They are also planning to approach the ministry of rural development with a request to adopt this technology for building houses under the ambitious ‘Indira Awaas’ scheme of the ministry.

“Under the said scheme, the government provides a subsidy of Rs 70,000, but by using the above technology, an entire house measuring about 400 square feet can be built at a cost of Rs 50,000. We have requested IIT New Delhi to conduct quality test of this technology. Once we get their certificate, this technology will earn further credence and acceptance,” Prashanth says.