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“If you know someone who is living in a flood-prone area or whose family was affected by the adverse impacts of the 2018 and 2019 floods in Kerala, then you could share their details with us and then we can build an Amphibious home for free through the crowdfunded money or through CSR. Join the initiative," says NestAbide's website.
Meet - Er. Nanma Gireesh and Er. Ben K George, co-founders od NestAbide who were recently featured in The Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia List 2022 for - 'Amphi Nest', India's first working prototype of amphibious building technology with a concrete buoyant foundation. Their Kerala based start-up aims to engineer amphibious buildings to stay afloat, for individuals living in flood-prone areas.
“Kerala Flood" for two consecutive years been a national discussion. The disaster and the floating in the Kallada river experience made the founders think about floating houses! After doing research from Netherlands and Poland and amble guidance, they gave birth to NestAbide, India's first firm to undertake Amphibious House construction.
The one-of-its-kind start-up is an interdisciplinary consultancy and construction firm that works toward better-equipped flood resilient and flood-resistant eco-technologies. Both the founders are PhD researchers at TU Delft, Netherlands. Er. Nanma, is a Licenced Civil Engineer under the Kerala Urban Affairs Department, Government of Kerala and Er. Ben is an Electrical Supervisor under the Department of Electrical Inspectorate, Government of Kerala.
They focus on building disaster-resilient infrastructure with flood resilient eco-technologies with initiatives including; amphibious/ floating buildings, low-cost sustainable buildings, Floating Wetlands Treatment systems (FTWS) and Flood Modelling simulations of Rivers. Their mission is to translate skills and technologies to improve the life and living settings of people and the planet with synergy between their teams from interdisciplinary expertise.
What are amphibious buildings?
As part of their Flood Resilient campaign, the startup has come up with the idea of “amphibious buildings."
An amphibious building simply is a flood-resilient building that stays afloat in floodwaters. The building sits on the ground like ordinary construction but whenever a flood occurs, the buoyant foundation raises the entire building up on its dock and floats. Interestingly when the water recedes the building will return to the ground.
It avoids the hassle of building houses on poles in flood-prone areas. Floating facilities are made by concreting the sides of the pit (made to build the floor) with a concrete buoyant foundation. Usually, hollow concrete boxes are used as the floor of the house.
It can be constructed in/near a water body, up to three stories. The building will be safe even when the water rises to 4m in height. It is an affordable resilient option where people can continue their usual living style without compromising much during the flood.