Mumbai, June 13
 
IS IT possible to build your dream home at down-to-earth prices? In Mumbai, where real estate prices touch the sky, a two-storied bungalow shatters the myth that you need to be moneyed to own a great house.

Spread over 2,400 square feet, Avtaar — the city’s first low-cost, eco-friendly house — has been built at an unbelievable budget of Rs 50 lakh. Something unheard of in Mumbai. Says owner Anil Sekhri, a chartered accountant, “I had this land for the last 10 years and wanted to build something different. Established architects had clichéd ideas, they don’t want to experiment. I wanted to use raw talent.”

So architects Malak Singh Gill and Tanya Mahajan were roped in. While Malak has been a student of famed British architect Laurie Baker, Tanya built low-cost homes in Gujarat after the earthquake.

Baker, a pioneer in low-cost housing, is known as the “brick master of Kerala”. He offers practical solutions to millions through low-cost housing in accordance to personal needs, climates and lifestyles. A firm believer in the usage of local material, Baker has built houses, churches and institutions using local tiles, bricks, even waste material.

Avatar’s main door opens to nothing. The floor is of Jaisalmer stone (the only material in the house that doesn’t belong to Mumbai). The rooms have doors, cabinets and windows made from wooden sleepers sourced from railway yards. Cashewnut oil — which is dry, termite-proof and water-resistant — has been used to polish the wood. High ceilings with terracotta tiles keep the interiors cool in the summer.

The surrounding trees weren’t cut during construction and the house has been built in such a way that each window opens to the view of a different tree. Pivoted windows have been constructed under bay windows for better ventilation. Stones have been used on parts of the outer walls to withstand rain. Except for the pipes and switchboards, there is no plastic or aluminium.

But what is eye-catching is the use of beer bottles — another Baker idea. The bottles are embedded in strategic points in the walls to catch the sunlight and reflect it inside the house. The bungalow has no concrete pillars and the entire weight rests on its walls.