Vinu Daniel, an architect focused on sustainable and eco-friendly architecture, emphasizes the importance of utilizing natural materials and minimizing embodied energy in design. His firm, Wallmakers, received several awards for innovative projects such as low-cost housing and community spaces constructed from mud, bamboo, and recycled materials. Daniel's work integrates traditional techniques and contemporary design principles, aiming to create expressive architecture that is both functional and environmentally responsible.

3. PHILOSOPHY
•A design should speak the language of the site and the materials and while the design
takes form of architecture, the buildings should be reasonable to the maker, the user and
to the natural setting.
•Optimise the use of natural resources in a way that the creation is an amalgam of
sustainability, art and functionality.
•I have always believed in being true to materials in designs. It’s an art to use natural
properties of materials to our advantage rather than covering up and destroying its
natural appearance and qualities.

4. INTRODUCTION
•Vinu Daniel completed his B. Arch in 2005 from The College ofEngineering, Trivandrum,
following which he worked with Auroville Earth Institute for the UNDP (United Nations
Development Programme) Post-Tsunami construction. Indian Islai School, Abu Dhabi On
returning from Pondicherry in 2007 he started 'Wallmakers' which was christened thus by
others, as the first project was just a compound wall.
•By 2008 he had received an award for a low cost, eco-friendly house from the ‘Save Periyar’
Pollution Control Committee for the house which was constructed for a cancer patient. Many
such eye-openers in the course of his practice prompted him to resolve to devote his energies
towards the cause of sustainable and cost-effective architecture. Architect Laurie baker has been
my major inspiration because he combines sustainability and art. For me also, the motivation for
my architectural works is the responsibility of using materials with very less embodied energy.
•Vinu Daniel is changing the rules of building living spaces, brick by brick. The award-winning
architect is taking green architecture and sustainable construction to another level with his use of
mud, bamboo, and recycled material of all kinds: used bottles, scrap metal, jute sacks, coconut
shells, broken bricks and more.
•Vinu Daniel is changing the rules of building living spaces, brick by brick. The award-
winning architect is taking green architecture and sustainable construction to another
level with his use of mud, bamboo, and recycled material of all kinds: used bottles,
scrap metal, jute sacks, coconut shells, broken bricks and more.

5. AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS:
•2008: Received award for low cost eco-friendly house from ‘Save Periyar’ Pollution Control
Committee.
•2009: Received 'India Today eco-friendly house of the year' (South Zone) for Valsala
Cottage, Mavelikkara, India
•2014: Received the NDTV Award for ‘Weekend Home for Asif Ahmed’ at Kakkathurth
•2014: Won the competition to build the Kochi-Muziris Biennale Pavilion. The pavilion is the
largest Conoid ever built using ferrocrete.
•2015: Received NDTV award for St. George Orthodox Church, Mattancherry.
•2016: Winner of IIA National award for St. George Orthodox Church, Mattancherry
(Institutional category)
•2016: Received Vanitha Verdi Architectural Awards for Best Home (Residence for Mrs. &
Mr. Kurian Philip) and Best Public Space (St. George Orthodox Church, Mattancherry).
•2017: Commendation Prize of HUDCO DESIGN AWARDS, 2016 for St. George Orthodox
Church, Mattancherry (Green Buildings category)
•2018: Second Award for "Chirath Residence” in the International Sustainability Award 2018.

6. Location Pathanamthitta, India
Category Sustainability
Area 194.0 m2
Project Year 2015
•Its a rammed earth residence for a family of six.
• The site was at a slope with remnants of many demolished
buildings.
•Maximizing the given area the building is set in multiple levels to
accommodate the family.
•Very different from weekend homes, these houses have become
prototypes in themselves and act as pivots for the life of the
inhabitants.
•This house employs recycled and eco-sensitive materials in its
making with much care all the while ensuring that the material
limitations are overcome and an expressive architecture is allowed to
emerge from the constraints.

7. FRONT ENTRANCE
LIVING AREA
KITCHEN
DINNING
COUTYARD

8. BEDROOM
MEEZANINE FLOOR VIEW
STAIRCASE CUM UTILITY RACK
TERRACE VIEW
TOILET

9. The small court ensures ventilation and the windows made from scrap but with a certain careful detailing.
The levels of the site are explored for connections within and the house maintains a scale with sensitivity
towards the neighbourhood.
PROJECT TECHNOLOGY:
the materials were responsibly chosen; the walls rose out from the earth that was dug out within the site,
the debris from the earlier building is turned to a curvilinear wall that forms the central courtyard
and becomes the central focus of the house which is called the Debris Wall and is also the advent
of a new technology.

10. DEBRIS WALL:
The Debris wall is built over a discovered foundation and with materials that are recycled from the site Using
meshed (22 gauge chicken mesh )casing reinforced with 6mm bars at 2 feet intervals vertically and
horizontally, lump sized Debris added with 10% gravel and 5% cement and 5%manufactured sand with
water was slightly tamped in 2cm layers to form the set of walls Debris walls consume 5 times less energy
than a fired brick wall.
RAMMED EARTH WALL CENTRAL DEBRIS WALL
POURING DEBRIS
CENTRAL DEBRIS WALL

11. FERROCEMENT SHELLS
COCONUT FILLER SLAB
STONE STAIRCASE
RAMMED EARTH
WALL
CENTRAL DEBRIS WALL
COUTYARD

12. Location Thazhakara, India
Category Houses
Area 201.0 m2
Project Year 2015

13. SINUSOIDAL WALLS
The technology consists of constructing wave-like walls with or without reinforcement. This was pioneered
by architect Eladio Dieste in Iglesia de Atlantida, Uruguay. The Wallmakers have tried to emulate the
essence of Dieste by using Compressed Stabilized Earth Blocks without reinforcing the vault structure. This
small technique allowed wind to enter creating beautiful triangular openings (windows) and yet avoiding
trespassers viewing into the home.
CHAIN STUDY METHOD
Chain study method helps to stabilize the right shape of the arch before the execution begins. The structural
study was first formulated by Antonio Gaudi in some of his structures. Which engineers posthumously found
out. The same technique is employed to achieve stability in the Arches

14. •COMPRESSED STABILISED EARTH BLOCKS
•These are mud blocks used for walls, vaults, composite beams and columns prepared by compressing
earth in the form of blocks of different sizes and shapes.
•The mix basically contains 80% gravel, 15% sand, and 5% cement.
•A finished CSEB wall is 15-20% cheaper than country fired brick wall.

15. NUBIAN TECHNIQUE
Age old construction technique involving masonry with earth blocks
and mud mortar without shuttering to create a wide range of arches
and domes and vaults. The was reintroduced to the 20th century by
Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy.
LIVING ROOM
DINNING ROOM
STAIRCASE WASH BASIN

16. BEDROOM
CAR PORCH
INTERIOR VIEW

17. Project: Chirath Residence In Pala Kerala
•We, as a community, have devoted ourselves to the
cause of using Mud and Waste as the chief
components to make structures which are alluring
and utilitarian. Plot Area: 10,867 sq ft .Built-up Area:
1,811 sq ft.Located in kottayam,kerela.
•As a firm practicing sustainable architecture
exclusively for a decade, we know about the
aspirations of a “modern” client, where his house is a
symbol of his status and prominence in society
instead of being a statement for the future.
•When we first met the client, he mentioned to us
about his disapproval towards the traditional Kerala
style home system.
Location Pala, India
Category Sustainability
Area 168.28 m2
Project Year 2018