Vastu Shastra For Building Construction – Beliefs, Benefits,Tips and Limitations

Vastu Shastra is an ancient Indian science which capitalizes on the concept of prosperity. It links person’s health and happiness directly with layouts and construction of a building.

Promoters of Vastu Shastra propagate that it is most authentic and proven advice science. They say that nature consists of 5 basic elements such as energy of planets, air, water, fire and earth. Each carries its own set of dynamics and with vastu one’s home and business can be synchronized.

As per promoters of shastra it creates a tremendous impact over all facts of life, i.e., health, life, education, thinking, prosperity, marriage and peace of mind.

In fact “Vastu Shastra” is the science of the ancient “Vedic Ages” of India under the guidance of which one can construct building of structures on a particular plot of land. For some people these principles are still relevant today also. As per their belief the science of “Vastu Shastra” controls forces of gravity and magnetic power of the earth.

The major beliefs of Vastu Shastra are as follows:

• Existence of roads on the northern or eastern side of the house improves the health and progress of the members of the house. If a house has road on the 3 sides, its inhabitants suffer tension and tension related problems.
• When the digging is happening to lay the foundation, make sure that you start from the east, go to the north, then to the west, and lastly, southwest.
• The plot at the end of a road is also not good for its inhabitants.
• It is good to have main door on east, northern and north eastern corner of the house. A house having main door at the southwest end provides less peace and perpetually tense atmosphere.
• A house having massive main door gives a lot of unsavory events and members residing suffer health problems.
• There should be no doors in the southwest corners or the southwest portion of the house. It is best if the doors face north or east. Doors should also open inside and not outside. When the door opens inside, it stands for inviting popular powers and positive energy. However, the door opening outside would be bad for the positive energy- it would actually drive the good energy away.
• Wall of house should have soothing and soft colors on walls as this gives a tension free atmosphere. Deep yellow, red or orange colored walls give irritation to the occupants.
• All water related appliances or resources of the house should be placed on north east area. This provides prosperity.
• A well or a tube well should never be provide on the southeast end of the house. A well or tube well at center of the house brings good luck to its head.
• Presence of plants of Tulsi, Banana, Champa, Ashoka, Aawla outside the house keeps inhabitants healthy, happy and peaceful.

Tips of Vastu Shastra for Building Construction

In the urban areas, due to the scarcity of land the construction of flats has become a common practice. Flats are economical and have some added benefit such as security, common recreation centers, shopping area etc.

Therefore, in urban areas purchase of flats are more common than constructing a house on a plot which becomes quite expensive.

In fact, construction of flats as per vastu is difficult still satisfactory results could be achieved if one follows principles of vastu meticulously in selection of plot and construction of buildings.

As per vastu experts, maximum benefits to the flat owners can be achieved keeping in mind the following principles of “Vastu”.

• The site should be a square or a rectangle. If possible southwest corner should have 90 degree.
• The main door should be on north, east or northeast side of the plot. 2 gates are preferable, one on east and other in the north. In addition to this northeast, southwest or northwest blocks are also good.
• Ground level should slope towards northeast and levels in southwest should be higher than all other sides.
• A bore well should be provided in north east before the construction takes place.
• More space should be provided in the east and north compared to west and south of the complex.
• Balcony towards north, east and northeast are preferable.
• Kitchen is advisable in south east or northwest but never in northeast.
• Staircase should be provided in the south, west or southwest and should be avoided in northeast because head room of the staircase higher than southwest is not acceptable.
• Underground room or space (cellar) should be kept under the northeastern or eastern portion of the complex.
• Parking for cars, scooter and bicycles are preferred in northeast cellar.
• Open area in north and south should be used for lawns and sumps.
• AC equipment should be kept in southeast of the complex and should never be installed in northeast under any circumstances.
• Washbasins should be provided in north or east or northeast of the hall.

Benefits of Vastu Shastra

One often thinks about how Vastu Shastra works and not enough about how they can benefit from the same. Here are some of the biggest benefits derived from Vastu Shastra to become successful:

1. Comfort
2. Inner realization
3. Strength
4. Easy to use
5. Best use of space
6. Good structuring
7. Can enhance one’s personality
8. Enhance relationship with other people
9. Use this for spiritual knowledge
10. Greater mental peace and skill

Limitations of Vastu Shastra

A general recommendation from vastu shastra has been provided for information of readers. While going through these recommendations they will conclude that most of the recommendations are governing the principles of good orientation and ventilation which are national building code also has recommended.

Since the principles of vastu are coming from Vedic period, to encourage people to get more benefits from nature, the principles have been associated mythological so the people will follow them.

Many examples could be cited to show that if principles of vastu followed in constructing one’s house one could be quite happy and prosperous.

The figure above describes the best and worst position of rooms in house according to Vaastu.

Standard Size of Rooms in Residential Building and their Locations

Knowledge of standard size of rooms and their location in a residential building is important for planning of residential construction project. The room sizes and their location provides spaces for movement, sunlight and natural air for residents.

Standard Size of Rooms in Residential Building and their Locations

1. Size of Drawing or Living Room:

Drawing room or living room is a common, comfortable and attractive place for sitting of family members and to receive friends and guests. Sometime it is used as reception room and dining room and special occasions.

Drawing room should be located in the middle of the building and should be connected to the front verandah and dining place. It should be well-lighted and ventilated.

Generally, drawing or living room is the biggest room of the building so that it can be utilized for some ceremonial function in the house. Size of the drawing room should be determined by type of furniture to be used.

Standard size of drawing room may range from: 4200mm (14ft) X 4800 mm (16ft) to 5400mm (18ft) X 7200mm (24ft)

2. Size of Bedrooms:

Bedrooms should be so located that they are well ventilated and at the same time provide privacy. Generally, they should be located on the sides of the building so that at least one wall is exposed for good ventilation and lighting.

The bedroom should be located on the side of the direction of prevailing wind. The location should be such that the bedroom receives sunlight during morning hours. The minimum window area should be 1:10th of the floor area. In bedrooms 9.5 cubic meter per adult and 5.5cubic meter per child space should be available and suitable allowance should be made for furniture.

If good water supply and drainage system is available, a bedroom should have an attached bathroom and water closet.

Standard size of bedrooms may range from:3000mm (10ft) X 3600mm (12ft) to 4200mm (14ft) X 4800mm (16ft)

3. Size of Guest Room:

Guest room should be well lighted and ventilated. It should be located on one side of the building, generally by the side of the drawing room.

Guest should be disconnected from inside of the house and should have separated bathroom and water closet.

Standard size of guest rooms may be: 3000mm (10ft) X 3600mm (12ft)

4. Size of Verandah:

The best location for verandah is south and west. If the frontage of the building is east then they are located in east also. The verandah also serves the purpose of a waiting room. It segregates the private apartment from the entrance area.

The veranda should shade the walls of the building during greater part of the day. For this it is necessary that it must not have openings of a height greater than 2:3rd of the floor width.

Each house should have one front and rear verandah. If space doesn’t permit, the rear verandah can be omitted.

Verandah have width ranging from 1800mm (6ft) to 3000mm (10ft)

Verandah opening should always have a chajja projection for protection from sunlight and rain water.

5. Size of Office Room:

Office rooms should be on one side of front verandah, disconnected from other rooms. Sometimes an office room serves the purpose of guest room and vice versa.

Standard size of office room may be: 3000mm (10ft) X 3600mm (12ft)

6. Size of Dining Room:

Generally, the dining room should be provided in rear of the drawing or living room and near the kitchen. In modern houses drawing room and dining room are combined to have a big room for special occasions. For orthodox families dining room is kept separate.

Size of bedrooms may range from: 3600mm (12ft) X 4200mm (14ft) to 4200mm (14ft)X4800mm (16ft)

7. Size of Kitchen:

The kitchen should be provided in rear corner of the building but NE corner is the best. It should be connected with dining room and should have one approach from outside also.

If possible, the kitchen should be so located that sun light should come in the morning hours, when it is used most.

It should have windows for good ventilation and chimney for smoke escape. The window space should be min. of 15% of floor area.

Sink should be provided for washing and sufficient number of shelves should also be provided. Sometimes storeroom and kitchen are combined together, if less space is available.

Standard size of kitchen rooms may range from: 2500mm (8ft) X 3900mm (13ft) to 3000mm (10ft) X 3600mm (12ft)

8. Store Room:

Store rooms should be located near the kitchen and should have sufficient number of racks.

Standard size of store room may range from: 2500mm (8ft) X 2500mm (8ft) to 3000mm (10ft) X 3000mm (10ft)

9. Pantry:

Pantry is a small room adjacent to dining room for keeping cooked food. It should have sufficient numbers of cup-boards and shelves. For ordinary building, kitchen serves the purpose of pantry.

Size of pantry may range from: 2500mm (8ft) X 3000mm (10ft)

10. Size of Bathroom and WC:

Now-a-days it has become common practice to provide attached bathroom and water closets with each bedroom. This is preferable only when good drainage and water supply is available.

It is not attached to the bedrooms, bath and WC should be provided in rear of the building separately so that the two can be used at a time. Good ventilation should be provided for bath and WC.

There should be two windows in a bathroom. One for ventilation at a height of 2000mm above outside ground level and another at usual low level with frosted glass shutters for admitting light and maintaining privacy.

Sometimes ceiling height is kept low (2100mm or 7ft) and upper space is used for storage purpose

Common sizes of bathroom and water closet may be:

Bath and WC (combined): 1800mm X 1800mm to 1800mm X 2500mm

Bathroom (separate): 1200mm X 1800mm

WC (separate): 1200mm X 1200mm

Economical Design of Reinforced Concrete Columns to Reduce Cost

Economical design of reinforced concrete columns and its construction practices and recommendations to reduce its cost of construction is discussed. Columns are the major elements in reinforced concrete structures and the safety and stability of the structure greatly depends on it.

The cost of a column per linear meter per MPa of load carrying capacity substantially varies due to several factors, for example, the location of the column in the structure (exterior column and interior column) and the configuration of the loads imposed on the column and others.

However, there are number of recommendations and measure by which a cost effective reinforced concrete column can be designed and constructed. These recommendations will be discussed in the following sections.

Fig.1: Reinforced Concrete Column Construction

Recommendations for Economical Design of Reinforced Concrete Columns

Recommendation provided for economical design of reinforced concrete columns are as follow:

• Strength of concrete employed for reinforced concrete column
• Formwork used for casting reinforced concrete column
• Steel reinforcements used in the reinforced concrete column construction
• Details of reinforcement of concrete column

Strength of Concrete for Reinforced Concrete Column

A valuable recommendation provided regarding concrete strength is the use of maximum concrete compressive strength needed to carry factored loads and lowest permissible reinforcement ratio. This is because the lowest price would be reached if such measure is practiced as the cost of reinforcement reduces.

It is claimed that, the use of minimum reinforcement ratio for a given column would reduce total column cost significantly (around 32% for concrete strength of 56MPa and 57% for concrete strength of 100MPa) compared with the case where maximum reinforcement ratio is utilized.

The smallest size of columns in multi storey structures is specified based on the maximum concrete compressive strength and a limit on the maximum reinforcement ratio.

If the size of column is smaller than the minimum allowable size at the base of the structure, then reinforcement ratio can be decreased.

Finally, both reinforcement ratio and concrete compressive strength can be decreased as the imposed factored loads decline in the upper storeys.

Fig.2: Dimension and Reinforcements of Columns

Formwork Used for Casting Reinforced Concrete Column

It is recommended to use the same size and shape for reinforced concrete column for the all floors and from footing to the roof.

Not only does this strategy would allow to construction large number of columns (mass production) but also the formwork of columns can be reused again.

One may argue that, using the same size for all columns would lead to utilize large quantity of additional concrete and hence it would be uneconomical.

However, it is proven that, savings achieved from formwork cost and fast construction would be much greater than the cost of extra material used for smaller columns of storeys above. Added to that, this strategy is claimed to be applicable for maximum building height of 188.2m

Fig.3: Column Formwork

Fig.4: The Same Size and Shape of Column used in the Construction of Multi Storey Building

Steel Reinforcements used in the Reinforced Concrete Column Construction

It is advised to conduct cost comparison between various combination of concrete compressive strength and steel yield strength to specify combination that provides lowest cost.

It is reported that, the use of high strength concrete with 520MPa yield strength would need lowest cost.

Another measure to decrease cost of reinforcements is to utilize minimum tie bars without the violation of code specifications.

Minimum tie requirement would be reached if a longitudinal steel bar is installed at each corner of the column.

If minimum tie requirement is realized, then it would not be necessary to use interior ties.

Consequently, not only can low slump concrete be poured and properly compacted but also the time and cost required to install column reinforcement would be reduced.

Detailing of Reinforcement of Concrete Column

It is possible to make savings in splices subjected to compression only (in another word, end bearing mechanical splices). Added to that, it is advised to employ staggering in order to make the mechanical end bearing to resist certain amount of bending.

Fig.5: Compression Only Mechanical Splices

Commonly, tensile splice of steel bar with 32mm size is required to be employed if the column subjected to large bending force. In this case, it is recommended to use mechanical splice because it is more economical.

However, if the size of the bar is smaller than 32mm, then it is more economical to consider lap splice rather than mechanical splice.

Fig.6: Lap Splice in Column