Dhamani structure, housing 22 family members in Maharashtra’s Sangli district, grabbed regional media’s attention in 2009. There was a sea of visitors outside the newly constructed yellow home, made from local bricks and recycled materials.
Everyone wanted to know how the 2,200 sq ft house, accommodating mango and coconut trees, was constructed with a budget of merely Rs 8 lakhs.
The monumental feature of the house, its arch which celebrates the old architecture, is at the heart of the structure. The skylight slits on the ceiling help hot air exit and allow cool air to enter from the lower rat trap cavity in the walls. Rat trap cavity method is a brick masonry method of wall construction. Here the bricks are placed in vertical positions instead of the conventional horizontal positions, thus creating a hollow space within the wall.