Elements
Edappally, Kochi

Welcome to Good Earth!

Elements, our new proposed eco community near Edappally, is inspired by the elements of nature. We bring to our design the essence of these very elements to create homes that are most ideal for urban living. Coming up on a 1.05 acre green campus, Elements will have 50 homes with gardens in the sky in a Ground + 11 storied complex. With a building footprint of less than 30%, there are pleanty of open areas around. The low F.A.R and lesser share of common areas ensure you more undivided share and usable spaces for the money spent. The green complex will also have community sky courts, swimming pool, club house, gym and all ameneties needed for a fine, secured living. We welcome you to join the Good Earth Elements community.  

Location

Located between emerging commercial center Edappally and the IT hub Kakkanad, Elements is coming up in one of the most preferred up-market residential suburb of Kochi. With excellent road connectivity to Seaport- Airport Road and NH 47, the place is easily accessible from any part of the city. All amenities like schools,shopping malls, hospitals, etc. are in close vicinity. Good Earth Elements is coming up on 105 cents of verdant land on a residential area flanked by premium educational institutions. The property is just 100m off the Edappally Toll - Pukkattupady Road that offer great connectivity between the NH 47 and Seaport- Airport road.
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Sustainability

Towards healthier buildings…

In the most common definition, sustainability is referred to as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” Sustainable development is that which raises the quality of life and serves the goal of achieving global equity in the distribution of the Earth’s resource whilst conserving its natural capital and achieving significant and sustained reductions in all forms of pollution. The objectives of this approach are to “seek by design a low-energy, passive building and better occupant comfort.” 

 

Justifications For Designing With Climate

Climate is one of the endemic aspects of place over others and is adopted as a starting point for design. The most obvious justification must be the lowering of costs as a result of lowering the energy consumption in the operation of the building. This can be a big percentage of the overall life cycle energy costs of the building, since the bulk of its cost lies in operational phase. Significant savings in operational costs would justify incorporation of climatically –responsive design features despite higher initial capital construction costs. Architecture in the tropics has to act like an umbrella: keep out the rain, keep out the sun, and let the wind through to keep the body cool.

Cavity walls

 

 

Double walls built with hollow clay blocks keep the interior spaces cooler and protect them from moisture during the monsoon. The cavity walls are designed to maintain a continuous air flow through them. Hot air extractor fan pull out the hot air from the top of the building thus keeping the internal walls cool. Besides serving as a passive coolant, the external wall is also very low on maintenance, bringing down the long term maintenance costs of the building.

The Tropical High-rise

Good Earth “Elements” is a tropical high rise apartment building, a green alternative which responds to and takes advantage of the climate and the location.


Technological developments, cheap fuels, new cooling and lighting technologies and increased expectations of occupants have resulted in buildings that are designed and used with little regard to their location or their ambient environments Many of these buildings manage to provide acceptable levels of thermal and visual comfort indoors, but at enormous and unsustainable cost to the environment; and there is a growing body of evidence that the artificially maintained conditions within many of our modern buildings are not conducive to good health.

Bio-climatic architecture seeks to create an architecture which is fundamentally more responsive to location, climate and human needs.

The buildings are characterised by the use of elements, including walls, windows, roofs and floors, combining available materials and technologies, to manage energy flows and thus provide comfortable conditions in the occupied parts of the building at all times of the day and year. 

The community sky court

The sky court is a landscaped terrace designed in the transition areas around staircases and lifts, at intermediate levels, to act as a community space, and as visual relief.

At every level, as one enters or leaves the building, one experiences these, and the access to individual homes is through this naturally lit and ventilated space. A space for children to play, neighbors to meet, plants and lawn giving the air a fresher feel. The sky court is designed to integrate hard and soft landscape, to create a variety of areas which encourage interaction among different groups.

Wind scoop and natural light: The atria created by the sky court, act as wind scoops, drawing fresh air into them, and allowing hot air to escape, even through the homes. The same can be said for natural light, which penetrates to the deepest area of the building through them. At every level, the effort is to scale down the spaces to a more human scale, so that the experience is more intimate, rather than vertical. 

The individual sky garden

In the past, most of our developments have been low rise, and emphasized on the relationship to land, the importance of community spaces. At “Elements” we have tried to recreate the same character, which has been transformed through what we call “sky gardens”, in each apartment. These are open green terraces with a breathtaking view of the valley below. Besides creating a bit of the outdoors even at the higher floors, they break the severity of the scale, making it more human.

The design of the sky gardens minimise the heat and moisture on the lower floors, by virtue of protecting the walls below. The landscaped garden, acts as a buffer from the dust, heat and the lashing rain. They are staggered on alternate floors to form a chequer board like spacing, which enhances the air movement between floors. The double height spacing between the gardens, gives each one a private uninterrupted bit of sky, not to mention the valley below.

The transition from the interior of the house to the open terrace is made through a semi open verandah. The verandah is the most comfortable space from which one can enjoy the rain, only feeling the mild spray, or the cool breeze, protected from the sun.

The landscape
When one talks of being eco-friendly, it does not stay in the realm of building, energy and water alone. The ecology- the flora and fauna, existing on the land, that might have existed before development took over, become important aspects in not only rejuvenating the land, but for the psychological and cultural values they impart.
Vegetable and aromatic gardens are possible to grow, on these
terrace gardens.

Eco features

Materials
The materials and finishes used are a blend of the natural and eco-sensitive, with the practical, and easy to maintain. Exposed clay block exteriors, stone, clay and wood for the interiors selectively. Woodwork polished with tall tree oil to enhance the life of the timber and give it a rustic look.

Cavity walls Double walls built with hollow clay blocks, keep the interior spaces cooler and protect them from moisture during the monsoon. The cavity walls are designed to maintain a continuous air flow through them.Hot air extractor fan pull out the hot air from the top of the building thus keeping the internal walls cool.

PAINTS:We encourage the use low VOC paint internally, as it is non toxic, lead free and low in VOC. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC), commonly found in most indoor and outdoor paints, give out low level toxic emissions into the air for years after application.

DESIGN FOR NATURAL LIGHT AND VENTILATION
Designed with adequate natural light and cross ventilation. Large windows, wide verandahs, air channels to take hot air out, and thermally conducive materials, are all features which reduce the necessity for artificial light and ventilation.

Craft

Traditional crafts like carpentry, stonework and masonry are slowly dying out as they cannot adapt to newer material, technology and requirement. But the value they impart to a space cannot be overlooked. We make a conscious effort to integrate these crafts and their skilled craftsperson’s in the building process. In all our work, we emphasise human
resource rather than material.

Water Conservation

RAINWATER HARVESTING AND RECHARGING
Rainwater is harvested and the ground water is recharged through well spread out percolation channels. Roof water will also be passed through a seriesof filters
and collected in the water tank.

WATER RECYCLING
An oncampus sewage treatment plant recycles all waste water. The waste water from the kitchens and bathrooms is collected and treated with a series of filters to emerge clean. This water is then used for gardening.

WASTEMANAGEMENT
We propose to have an efficient garbage disposal system that separates solid and non biodegradable waste from the organic waste. Organic waste can be collected and composted, and the compost reused as manure. Some of the nonbiodegradable waste can be incinerated. For the metals and plastics, one could look at recycling agencies which can pick up the waste.

 

Please see the floor plans, specifications, pricing and availability under respective sections in this page >>