INDIAN REGIONAL ARCHITECTURE : INFLUENCE OF GLOBAL GREEN AGENDA

Abstract

The growing environmental crisis has led to a strong need to design and develop sustainable and energy efficient buildings. This dissertation on “Indian regional architecture” focuses on addressing the global green agenda by investigating the Indian green building rating tools like LEED USGBC, LEED India and GRIHA and the purpose of its evolution in the Indian context. The objective of this study is to attempt and find a right equilibrium between the local context and the global demand. This paper investigates the IRRAD project to analyze sustainable architecture in India. The main focus of this research involves in finding the impact of the green rating tool (LEED) on this project. The research approach adopted involves a comprehensive chronological mapping of the entire design process and extensive documentation of the design transformation from its intial regional context to the final build form. This study shows that the involvement of LEED changed the entire course of the design and had a great impact on the regional architecture style. Some of the design changes involved in the IRRAD project was directly a by-product of LEED’s inclusion. The research questions some of the processes followed by LEED with respect to the Regional Style. The research concludes by showing that these green rating tools must be more custom made to satisfy the regional architectural style by showing that a shared character must be maintained between the tools and the design in order to develop Sustainable Regional architecture.