With people turning to earth-friendly materials like bamboo and mud in their quest to build cement-free, sustainable homes, there is no doubt that this trend in the construction is here to stay.
However, in my opinion, these materials seem incredibly conventional before a house built with jaggery and eggs!
No, this is not a joke. Jawahar C, a resident of Vellakoil in Tamil Nadu’s Tirupur district, is currently supervising the construction of his 3200 sq ft home, which is being built using jaggery and egg whites.
“Our ancestors built and lived in eco-friendly homes, that were well-ventilated, sturdy, and served all their needs. I was deeply inspired by them and wanted to do something similar. Besides, construction activities can be extremely polluting. We are anyway facing a severe scarcity of natural resources, so why burden the earth further?” he mentions.
Jawahar was sure that he wanted to build an eco-friendly home, but when it came to its execution, he could only think of one person who could turn it into something tangible—his nephew, Aravind Manoharan.
The 27-year-old civil engineer runs a sustainable construction company called, ‘Pizhai Azhagu’ which he founded in June, 2018. Here the buildings are constructed using traditional techniques and locally available materials.
Building a home using jaggery and egg whites
“When I made up my mind to construct a home, I didn’t exactly think of the materials that would go into it—all I knew that it was going to be eco-friendly, and that Aravind would help me. It was his idea to speak to local masons and old people in the area, and get their input on the traditional techniques used to build homes there,” quips Aravind.
The duo managed to interview people and masons in the area, and the findings were quite unusual.
“Many of the people we interviewed had traditional courtyard style homes built using mud and ingredients like jaggery as a binding agent. They also informed us that they built these homes themselves, as there were very few construction companies at the time,” mentions Aravind.
Following this, he also spoke to several masons in the area who corroborated these findings.
“They told me that jaggery and egg whites served as great construction materials. Jaggery acts as a great bonding agent while the use of egg whites in the plaster gives the walls a polished look,” he explains.
Aravind also emphasises that he did not possess the knowledge on how these materials were to be integrated in the construction process. So, he roped in some of the masons he had spoken with earlier, as they knew how to go about building the structure. These men, in turn, passed this information to the other masons working on the project.
Jawahar’s Sustainable Home
The construction of the house began in the last week of February, 2019 and it is expected to be ready by the end of this year.
The walls are being made using the conventional bricks but in place of cement, they made a mixture of lime mortar, sand, jaggery, crushed kadukkai (yellow myrobalan) and water. The plastering on the bricks is done in five layers and this helps in ensuring the breathability of the building with more oxygen inside.
The first base of plastering is done using a mixture of lime, sand and water. The second and third layer is plastered using a mix of water, lime and crushed kadukkai. The fourth layer comprises lime, water and talcum powder while the fifth and the final layer, it’s a mix of lime and water again with egg whites.
Lime is again a material that was commonly used while building traditional homes in the region.