SEVAI Amour cottages roofed with coconut thatches.

Amour cottages

SEVAI Amour cottages roofed with coconut thatches. A home with a thatched roof is loveable and Eco-friendly. Thatched roofs have been around since the dawn of time, and it’s easy to see why. They are attractive, ecologically sound and they provide great insulation. Amoor cottages were built using local materials. It is affordable for poor families to build a house simply and above all, cheaply. Walls are made of eco-friendly rat trap walling and roofs are made up of coconut rafters and thatches The house itself is made up of room, having its own window and attached toilets/bathing facilities. To protect the house, a local material is used, whitewash and over coating yellow wash, it gives a yellow color to the walls. Amour cottages are full of charm. Mahatma Gandhi is often quoted as having said, “India lives in the villages.” If India is to be truly understood, it is the lives of these people that really count. A traditional rural residence has important advantages - it is almost always based on adaptations to the local environment, and is often built with the labour of the villagers themselves without the need for external mechanised inputs. The simplest way to build a house, in the past, was to look around for the materials needed for the structure, and begin building the structure by the

Additional cottages under construction at Amour

local people. For the construction of village homes, therefore, the challenge today is to acknowledge people's desire for long-lasting structures, and thereafter ask what elements of functionality, value and aesthetics can be infused into the buildings. Amour cottages have been constructed with a view to provide a mechanism for technology transfer for propagating cost effective and environment friendly building technologies. The success of construction of Amour cottages depends the technical managerial skills of the local NGO SEVAI. For this, in addition to technical skills SEVAI also has knowledge of construction management, human resource management, communication skills, financial management etc. to achieve the organizational goals. Amoor cottages are situated at a peaceful s in the beautiful countryside of Tamil Nadu, Amoor Cottages both comfortable and typical with organic farming, rice plantation, pottery and mat weaving etc.-Govin