Revision of Rules Vital for Eco-friendly Constructions, says Dr Venu. V

KOCHI:
The state needs to overhaul its Building Construction Rules to achieve sustainable and eco-friendly goals in construction, said Dr Venu. V. Principal Secretary, Revenue, Government of Kerala, and CEO of Rebuild Kerala initiative, on Friday.

“Rebuild Kerala initiative is a massive project being implemented by the Government of Kerala,” Dr Venu said at a panel session on “Design as an Industry; Why Design Policy for the State Matters?”, on the second day of the Kochi Design Week (KDW) here.

“In the event of a disaster, we can’t instruct people to build houses based on a particular design. We have to respect the choice of people. The state government will be preparing a reform agenda and one of the key suggestions will be about revising the building rules. When we talk about the Kerala after 50 years, we need to adopt changes that ensure sustainability,” he said.

“As part of Rebuild Kerala initiative and the reform agenda, we are going to start a forum on offline and online where people, experts and practitioners can advise us on what are the areas in which reforms are to be done? and what kind of reforms to be done,” Dr Venu said.

He also reminded the architects of the need to embrace eco-friendly and human-friendly aesthetic designs for keeping the natural landscape of Kerala intact.

Noting that design is a vital factor in the startup ecosystem in Kerala, M. Sivasankar, IT Secretary, Government of Kerala, said design lends immense help to hardware startups that come around 70 per cent in the ecosystem to be cost-effective.

G. Jaigopal, Managing Partner and Director, Designs, Inspirations, said decentralization is important, instead of a centralized system, in the construction sector.

Arun Narayanan, Communication Designer, said in the influx of social media, tone is very important in the design of communication. “The series of press conferences conducted by the Chief Minister should become a research topic. We have to give importance for designing communications that stand very close to the general public,” he noted.

K.T. Ravindran, Dean Emeritus, RICS School of Built Environment, Amity University, was the moderator.

Earlier, in a keynote address on the topic “Innovation in Architecture,” G. Shankar, Founder and Chairman, Habitat Technology Group, said the future of Kerala lies in sustainable construction practices and we can’t compromise on that. “Time has come where designs have to be disaster resilient. We also have to treat land sensitively and in an innovative way,” he added.

The mega event, which will conclude on Saturday, is being attended by design professionals from India and abroad, heads of various companies, architects, interior designers, thought leaders, policymakers and government officials, besides the general public.