Utilising Concept of Green Design for Energy Efficient Affordable Housing

Housing inadequacy is largely felt in India at the level of low income group particularly and more so with continuous rise in cost of construction at all levels. This necessitates the use of appropriate and cost effective technologies in housing construction. The use of conventional construction materials in the housing sector poses primarily two major problems, firstly they are comparatively costly and secondly they cause pollution and disturb the environmental balance. To overcome this, there is a need for developing cost effective, durable and environmental friendly building materials, particularly keeping in mind the low income group and economically weaker sections of the population. In this paper deliberations has been made to identify and discuss about various types of eco-friendly and cost effective material technologies, with overall focus on the need of common man. The present state of Housing and special needs of Urban India is also discussed. Further, how planning of low cost Housing can be made is also deliberated. The existing various Govt. Housing Schemes & road ahead to address this problem is also brought out in the paper in details.