Have you ever seen a house being transported from one place to another? Yes, like a complete house.  

Me neither, until Moon Bhandari (38) sent me this picture. 

It’s her farmhouse in Nagpur being shipped from the assembly site to the final location. And I must admit it’s a sight to behold. 

Moon and her family had the home built last year, and they’ve spent a few vacations here. Sharing their insistence during the prefabrication stages that the farmhouse be built sustainably, Moon says, “The material that’s been used is very unique, and it doesn’t harm the environment.”

She is referring to the silica composite blocks that architect Shridhar Rao (49) of the Gurugram-based ‘R D Studio’ calls “a game changer in sustainable construction”. The blocks are 100 percent recyclable, he says, adding that they are 80 percent foundry dust (burned sand from metal casting) and 20 percent plastic waste.

How ‘waste’ becomes building material

While the farmhouse is one example of such a project built using the blocks, a series of 10 toilets in Punjab has also been constructed with them. The first of these was at the Amritsar international airport; Shridhar says the idea was........

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