Permanent Low-cost Vernacular Architecture Building Strategies for Sustainable Future Evolved in Santiniketan, India

'How do you build a house with ONLY Rs.80,000 (approximately 1100 Euro)?' One day in 1976 a retired school teacher came to architect Professor Samaresh Mukherji with this question. The teacher had a small plot of land and managed a lifetime saving of Rs.80,000. The intense frustration of turning this man down, drove Professor Mukherji to find a solution. Thus was born, PLVA or Permanent Low-cost Vernacular Architecture, towards an attempt to reduce conventional resource usage and cost by half. The book is a testimony to the life of Samaresh Mukherji and his works in this field of PLVA, a term he coined. In the first part, the planning and construction methodology, elaborated with various detailed diagrams for roofs, floors, fenestrations, are covered. The second part explores through conversations, the intrinsic rubric, bolstering his architecture - his ideology and philosophy in life. An ardent believer of his vernacular philosophy, he smokes a beedi, wears khadi, refuses to possess more than two pairs of clothings or even use a mobile phone. Stripping down the architecture to local necessities, this book is the answer to many seeking a path in alternative sustainability.