Architect Ini Chatterji is the Principal Architect at Ini Chatterji & Associates in Goa. He has been working with coconut wood for over 15 years now.
On being asked how the pandemic will bring about a change in architecture and design, Ini Chatterji started off by rubbishing any linkages of the pandemic changing the way we design. He also added, “If at all there has to be any change, I think it would people preferring a rural lifestyle. And that would bring a change in the architecture and the material also I guess.”
Practicing for over 15 years with coconut wood has been quite the journey for Ini Chatterji. He shared his experience and projects using coconut wood. He answers the why coconut wood question in a very straightforward simple manner saying, “It is an agricultural crop. People in India plant millions and millions of coconut trees to benefit from the fruit and various reasons. There comes a time when the tree becomes old and is about to fall and they harvest it. If you just go by statistics, even if a tree lasts 70 years, every year 1/70th of the population of the coconut trees dies every year. So, it kind of makes sense to use it.” The thing is that, its not exactly a tree in the traditional sense. It doesn’t quite have a structure of wood; it is more like a pipe with a very heavy wall thickness. So, its mostly about how you cut it and how you extract the wood from the coconut tree, that is something you have to learn.
Ini built a home for his mother, who having lived in Kerala for many years was shifting to Goa to live with him. He himself was quite new to Goa and had no specific reason for choosing coconut wood. He just found it quite cost effective and it worked for him and his budget. There is some sort of scepticism about coconut wood being soft wood in India. Most carpenters like the hardwood or heavy wood. He experimented with furniture to figure out the material and its strength, once in knowledge of the strength it beheld, he found it quite impressive and durable. That belief and knowledge led him to create an entire structure out of coconut wood. He has used coconut wood beams that are fixed to a concrete structure, and are laminated as you don’t get very big pieces of coconut wood, cross section wise. The beams are 16mm*65mm joined by Fevicol, while also being bolted together for assurance. The members are quite effectively light and two people can easily handle it. It makes the working very accurate and gentle.
He also enjoys using pine and cedar wood. He has used imported Russian, pine, Scandinavian pine and spruce wood and stuff and they are quite convenient and even cheaper than coconut wood, but coconut wood, it just works. He has even built a small resort with coconut wood. But when he first saw the structure taking form, he didn’t feel like he had harmed the planet at all. He has, since childhood, been playing with wood and now he is hooked onto coconut wood, he claims so himself.
Canadian Wood and Architect and Interiors India organised a special webinar on WoodInnovations – Celebrating Architecture and Design on October 5th. You can read about it here or watch the panel discussion here.
