About Shelter Promotion Engineering & Research Council (SPERC)
SPERC is the dream and vision of a devoted scientist motivated by Bharath Rathna Dr. Abdul Kalam. "Shelter Promotion, Engineering & Research Council (SPERC)" is a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), dedicated to innovate, develop and promote disaster resistant low-cost construction techniques for rural housing.
The devastating loss of property and life in the recent tsunami is still fresh in the minds of people. Tsunami relief is slowly transcending to rehabilitation and reconstruction work. It needs construction of housing stock in lakhs, for the victims who lost their homes. It is heartening to note that there has been wonderful response in the form of pouring donations for the victims. Hundreds of NGOs are working dedicatedly for the resettlement of tsunami victims. Lot of NGOs are now seeking SPERCs technical support in the reconstruction of disaster-resistant housing at economical construction costs. SPERC is going to play a very vital role by providing innovative low-cost housing solutions. In this context, towards an effective knowledge & technology transfer mechanism SPERC is proposing to organise a training workshop on “Innovative low cost construction technologies”, at Chennai in the last week of March-2005. SPERC has already conducted six such training workshop training programmes in the last three years at various places. Please visit our web site to learn about our past workshops.
Though ours is a developing country, we are able to meet the demands of our huge population in respect to the human beings’ first two basic needs of food and clothing. However, we can not have the similar claim with reference to the third basic need, "Shelter / housing". The housing shortage is said to be about 40 million units. It is almost impossible to meet this demand, as the cost of construction is very high in the prevailing market rates. On the other hand even the existing housing stocks are depleting fast, because all katcha houses like conventional huts are being destroyed by the fire, pouring monsoons, degradation, and other natural hazards such as cyclones, earthquakes, tsunami, etc. However, in the Indian context, what a poor man can afford in terms of housing is only a mud hut with thatch roofing, those are highly vulnerable. Even a good hut costs at about Rs.100 per sq. ft. By taking this affordability of Rs.100/sq.ft., as the bench-mark SPERC is coming-out with series of inventions for offering disaster resistant and low cost housing.
‘Steel Stiffened Ferrocrete (SSF)’ pyramid shaped house is the first invention of SPERC.
This is a revolutionary invention, because it offers a fire proof, cyclone proof & earthquake proof house for rural poor people, at the construction cost of only about Rs.130/sq.ft., comparable to that of conventional hut. Whereas relatively, the conventional RCC building structures cost more than Rs.300/sq.ft.. Though cost-wise SSF structure is comparable to that of conventional mud huts, performance wise it is equal / rather better than RCC structures to effectively withstand even severe natural hazards such as cyclones, earthquakes, etc..
Second Invention of SPERC – Ferrocrete Geodesic Dome House, without steel frame work: Our first innovation of SSF structure involves steel frame-work, which needs structural steel of about two K.Gs. per sq. ft. of plinth area. But, for last couple of years steel cost is increasing steadily, leading to inflated cost of construction. To avoid usage of steel, we have had exhaustive brainstorming sessions with distinctive scientists, experienced civil engineers, and engg. academicians. We also held exhaustive studies on this subject from the world literature. Thus an intensive research and innovative thinking has resulted to develop this ferrocrete low-cost housing, with out the need for structural steel stiffening frame-work. This house would be made of partially pre-cast triangular ferrocrete panels assembled in-situ to form geodesic dome of desired size. Unlike pyramid in which, space can not be effectively utilised near the perimeter of base because of inclination of walls, in the present innovation of dome this space can be more effectively utilised. Thus, in this invention, we have avoided the usage of structural steel to minimise the cost of construction to about Rs.100/- per sq.ft., and also improved the space efficiency of the house by opting a dome shape, without affecting its disaster resistant structural features. Hence, it is definitely an improvement over our own first invention, leading to the second in the series of SPERC’s promised innovations.
SPERCrete Panel Housing – The third and latest invention of SPERC: The devastating Tsunami of 26th Dec.-04, has given another opportunity to invent yet another low-cost construction technology. The leading NGOs such as ‘Seva Bharathi International’, ‘Panchayath Academy’, ‘Developmental Alternatives’, ‘Swiss Agency for Development & Cooperation’, etc. who are to involve themselves directly or indirectly in the reconstruction of housing, have requested our SPERC to give them a choice of another low-cost technology in the conventional shape of rectangular box-type house with near flat roof. In this context, a new SPERCrete panel system housing is developed. On the request of Sri Ilango, the most popular Gandhian panchayath president of Kutthumbakkam village, Thiruvallur District, Tamilnadu, SPERC is constructing a prototype full scale model of this SPERCrete panel house, using ferrocrete / ferrocement construction technique. The additional advantage in this invention is the possibility of expanding it to first floor construction with the same SPERCrete panels in future, as it offers flat roofing. SPERCrete panel system also offers fire-proof, cyclone-proof and earthquake resistant housing at about mere Rs.100/- per sq.ft., which lasts for few generations. SPERC hopes that this latest innovation of SPERCrete panel system would revolutionise the scenario of future low cost housing.
To share these inventions with all the engineers of our country, SPERC is offering to organise this workshop on "Innovative Low-cost Housing". The secret of this "invention for the sake of poor" will be unfolded to you / your colleagues and other engineers, if you are going to be the participants of this simple workshop.
Eligibility : Any official / executive / engineer concerned & connected with planning / designing / construction / execution of housing programmes / projects. Any other civil engineer not only by qualification, but also by experience. Civil engineering faculty and students from any Polytechnics / Engineering Colleges.
The Technical Contents of the training workshop : Though, the main objective of this workshop is to release / reveal the inventions of SPERC, it will be supplemented by the presentations on various other low-cost housing technologies developed by many other institutions / organisations of the whole world. The innovative construction technologies developed by the Central Building Research Institute, Structural Engineering Research Centre, Indian Institutes of Technologies, and other technical organizations will be illustrated in the training workshop. It enables the participants to compare the technologies of SPERC with the various other alternate systems from the angles of economy, durability, safety, ease of construction, feasibility of adoption in the field, etc..
The disaster –resistant structural features of construction technologies will be discussed at length.
