A Zero-Discharge Unit

The language for notable contemporary industrial projects in India is defined by the structural innovations. Continuing this philosophy, this industrial project for a processed food major at Kaharani Industrial area in Rajasthan utilises pre-tensioned precast technology to create a large span structure with impeccable finishes to comply with European standards.

Spread over approximately 210,000sq ft on a 15-acre site, the building has been planned on a 10m x 15m grid. The structural elements such as the columns, beams and slabs were manufactured at the production facility at Manesar, Haryana, and then transported to site for erection. The quality of manufacturing ensures that the precision of the elements is extremely high, resulting in a superb interior finish. This technology also ensures that the time taken for erection is much less than conventional systems and uses substantially less manpower. This technology has high relevance for buildings with replicated modules such as schools and colleges, and we are currently designing several proposals for educational buildings based on this technology.

The project is a zero-discharge unit and has been designed to be extremely frugal in resource consumption. All the liquid wastes are recycled or used in irrigation. The project uses a vacuum distillation unit to extract substantial amounts of RO quality water from RO wastes and WTP backwash water. The building is completely insulated and even though the wall work is in AAC blocks, further efficiency has been achieved by using 100mm thick EPS to almost eliminate heat gain.

The production areas are lit up with linear skylights eliminating the requirement for artificial illumination during most production hours. The roofs have been laid on a slope to ensure that there are no rainwater pipes in the production facility, rather edge gutters drained by state-of-the-art syphonic drainage systems have been implemented for rainwater drainage.