Integrating user awareness and behavior into building and product design for India

Abstract

Is India on a sustainable road or not? Between April 2012 and January 2014 the authors have conducted a quantitative paper and online based user survey on energy awareness and attitudes in Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. The survey was part of the project “Clime Related Energy Efficient Design - Product Solution (CREED-PS)” first funded under the aegis of Germany India Year 2011-2012 “Germany and India: Infinite Opportunities” with a focus on “City Spaces” and then as part of the project “DWIH Excellence on Tour. 2013-2014.” More than 2000 visitors were interviewed during the events about their individual energy consumption, their knowledge of selected energy issues and energy efficient building design and their sustainability attitudes. The majority of the visitors are part of the academic middle class group in India´s Megacities, as a limited group of India's society. One of the main results are that living in energy efficient residences is very important for most of the respondents, although two third don´t know exactly the energy consumption of their household. Yet, most of the respondents are willing to spend more money in energy efficient and energy saving building devices and household equipment. Summing up one can say that the interviewed middle class group (Shukla, 2005, Mawdsley, 2004) is on the sustainable road, although we have identified several inexplicable contradiction in knowledge and awareness as topics for further research work that are relevant for building and product design. This paper illustrates on the one hand the use of survey as part of an integrated design process and suggests on the other hand collaborative approaches to educating architecture and design students about sustainability in building and product design.