Sketch a G+1 residential plan according to Vaastu Shastra and Calculation of Loads as per IS code

AIM:

To draw a plan of G+1 residential building according to Vaastu Shastra and also perform load calculations as per the Indian Standard codes and list out the important drawing required on site.

INTRODUCTION:

Vaastu Shastra:

• Vaastu Shastra is the Ancient Science of architecture and acts as a guideline to design your home in a way that enhances positive Cosmic energy.
• Our nature is abundant with powerhouses of energy sources like the Sun, Wind, Moon, Water, Earth and fire (Basically all renewable types of resources).
• Effect of sun rays, the flow of winds, pull of earth's magnetic field and other such cosmic energies can be utilised properly to enhance the positive energy at home.
• A good home needs to radiate the right kind of energy.
• A person dwelling in a house comes under the influence of a specific energy field.
• Architectural changes are not possible for a ready to move house but we can still improve the standard of living.

Significance of Eight directions:

(a) The four cardinal directions are:

• North
• South
• East
• West.

(b) Four intercardinal directions are:

• North-East
• North-West
• South-East
• South-West.

(c) Each direction signifies an aspect of life and is governed by various gods as per Vaastu Shastra:

• North = Wealth
• South = Dharma
• West and East = Overall prosperity.

Basic principles of Vaastu Shastra:

(a) Shape: 

• Rooms should be preferably square or rectangle.

(b) Room basics:

• Rooms should be well ventilated, well lit, bright and clean.

(c) Home centre:

• The centre of the house should be a space without any structures.

(d) Stairs and Furniture:

• Heavy furniture should be kept in the South-West direction.

(e) Water:

• Avoid keeping plants and water features (Paintings of waterfalls or water bodies) in the bedroom.

(f) Dining Table:

• The dining space should be near the kitchen and not near the main door.

(g) Mirror placement:

• The mirror facing the bed is strictly prohibited.
• Mirrors in the bedroom need to be placed in such a way that the bed cannot be seen.

Auspicious directions as per Vaastu Shastra:

(a) Kitchen:

• South-East is the best direction for the kitchen.
• North-East to be avoided.

(b) Staircase:

• South-West is the best for stairs.
• North-East to be avoided.

(c) Toilet:

• North-West is the best.
• North-East to be avoided.

(d) Master Bedroom:

• South-West is the best.

(e) Guest Room:

• North-West is the best.

(f) Living Room:

• North-West is the best.

(g) Over Head Tanks:

• The West is the best.

(h) Underground Tanks:

• North-East is the best.
• South-West to be avoided.

Gateway (entrance) of the house:

• The main entrance is the entry point for energy.
• The main door should be strong and bigger than other doors in the house and made of superior quality wood preferably teak wood.
• The main door should not be dark because good energy is associated with bright and cheery places.
• Garbage bags, unwanted things and shoes should be kept away from the main door.
• The main door should open in words and avoid creaking sounds.
• The main door should be constructed to ensure that when we step out, we face the North, East or in the North-East direction.
• Avoid placing animal statues near the door.

Living Room:

• The living room should be clutter-free and it is the place where the family spends the most time together.
• The living room should face East, North Or North-East, North-West.
• Heavy furniture should be kept in the West or South-West direction of the living space.
• Electronic appliances should be installed in the South-East section of the living room.
• If the mirror is placed make sure it is placed on the Northern wall.
• An aquarium on the North or Eastern wall for prosperity.
• A bright picture of sunrise in the Southern wall.
• Shades of Yellow, Green, Beige and Blue on the wall to infuse liveliness and vibrancy.

Bedroom:

• Bedroom in South-West direction brings good health and prosperity.
• Avoids bedroom in North-East as it may cause health issues.
• Avoid in the South-East zone as it may cause quarrel among couples.
• The bed should be placed in the South-West corner of the bedroom with the head facing West.
• Avoid placing a mirror or television in front of the bed because reflection causes fights and other domestic disruptions.
• Avoid having paintings depicting water or a foundation as it could cause emotional outbreaks.
• The use of aromatic oil creates an oasis of calm.
• Never sleep with your head in the north.
• Avoid overhanging beams in the room to enjoy good health.
• Use solid wooden beds instead of hollow wrought iron beds.
• Paint the bedroom walls in neutral or earthly sheds that radiate positive energy.
• Bedrooms are the place for rest and repose and it's good to have soothing wall colours for a peaceful Aura.

Pooja Room:

• Rooms in a house for meditation and prayers will ensure spiritual growth.
• East or North-East part of your home is perfect for meditation, yoga and spiritual pursuits.
• Facing East when you meditate will increase positivity.
• White, Beige, Light Yellow or Green are great colours options for meditation room.
• Create a sacred alter and decrease it with candles or increase sticks.

Kitchen:

• Following Vaastu for kitchen insures a healthy life for your families growth.
• Keep water sink away from the gas stove.
• The fridge needs to be placed at the South-West corner.
• Never let your kitchen face the washroom wall or share a common wall with it.

Study Room:

• Don't place the table facing a black wall or window.
• Placing a table in the North-East, East or West direction is ideal.
• Select a square or rectangle shape for the study table.
• Hanging bookshelves are best avoided.

Courtyard:

• Brahmasthan is a unique feature of ancient architecture based on Vaastu Shastra.
• It is the centre of your residence and the holiest and most powerful zone.
• Traditional home in kerala, the courtyard is always at the centre of the house.
• This path should be perfect and cluster free.
• The placement of kitchen bathroom or pillar / beam attracts negative energy.

Important structural drawings for a project are:

Central line drawing:

• To mark the column positions.
• It is needed in the beginning before excavating.
• All the dimensions are represented from grid positions / grid lines.
• Same grade positions architectural drawing.
• Grid to grid dimension is also provided.

Footing and column layout with reinforcement details:

• The same dimension should be followed as central line drawing.
• The size of the footing as per design requirement is given here.
• Distance from the grid to the footing is also given.
• Different types of footings can be drawn on the same drawing.
• Standard footing details can be provided if there is a place in this drawing (i.e. Footing schedule).

Column schedule with reinforcement details:

• If there is no place in footing drawing standard size of footing or footing schedule can be drawn here.
• A column schedule with
• Name of the column
• Size of the column
• Section of the column (Above and below ground level).
• The size and number of the stirrups is also represented here
• Reinforcement details of the column are provided in this drawing.

Plinth beam layout with reinforcement details:

• Columns that are connected by beams on the plinth level are drawn in the dwawing.
• These beams will be resting on the soil.
• Shuttering of these beams is done after the refilling of footing soil.
• Beams that do not connect two columns should be specified separately, these are called secondary beams.
• Cranking for reinforcement bar should be also given here for the beam.
• Grouping of different plinth beams based on dimensions can be done but should be mentioned.

First-floor beam layout with reinforcement details:

• The same beam layout is followed as the first floor out reinforcement.
• Need to mention where sunken slab needs to be provided for toilets.
• Normal slab and first-floor beam details are provided in the same drawing, but for better clarity, we can also provide them separately.
• The thickness of the slab and the dimension to which the slab needs to sink in the sunken slab is also provided in this drawing.

First-floor slab layout with reinforcement details:

• No cranking is done at sunken slabs.
• Crank details should be specified for the rest of the slab.
• The dimension at which the beam is cranked to the inner side of the beam should be mentioned clearly.
• The main reinforcement with centre to centre distance and distributive centre to centre distance is provided.
• Grid to grid dimensions can be avoided in this drawing as beam shuttering is already done.

Lift plan and headroom reinforcement details:

• Foundation for lift pit can be drawn here
• Waterproofing details for the pit is indicated in the drawing.
• Beams at roof slab level are shown in the drawing.
• These lenten beams requirements are taken from the vendor.
• The roof slab of the lift is also drawn.
• Left hook details should also be collected from the vendor.
• The load acting on the hook is also important to be considered.
• Flaoting columns may be required for overhead tanks or headrooms.
• There ae times when we cannot provide columns from the ground floor hence floating columns are given.
• These floating columns rest about the beams.

The important basic details that need to be covered in the drawing to ease the mode of construction:

1. Construct a basic template to print the drawing.

2. This template should have all information of the drawing on the right side of the sheet.

3. This information starts with notes on the drawing

• These notes can be followed throughout the drawing on the paper.

4. These nodes can be like

• Only did written dimensions should be followed
• Grade of the concrete
• Clear cover for reinforcement
• Deshuttering time period
• Minimum curing time
• Grade of the bar and yield strength
• Section and lapping of bars
• Lap length.

5. Important information like

• The size of the printout
• The number of revisions
• drawn by
• Checked by
• Designed by

6. A compass representing North South East West is also drawn.

7. Name of the project.

8. Name of the client.

9. Drawing title.

10. Drawing number. 

11. Name of the company making the drawing.

PROCEDURE:

Sketch of ground floor plan:

Dimensions of ground floor plan:

Dining = 3500 `times` 2300

Kitchen = 3500 `times` 2700

Master bedroom = 4120 `times` 4000

Bedroom = 3500 `times` 3000

Hall = `3500 times 5000`

W.C. 1 = `1500 times 2500`

W.C. 2 = `1500 times 2500`

Sketch of first-floor plan:

Dimensions of First-floor plan:

Pooja room = `3500 times 2700`

Study room = `3500 times 2300`

Drawing room = `3500 times 5000`

Veranda = `3500 times 2700`

Guest room = `4120 times 4000`

W.C. 1 = `1500 times 2500`

W.C. 2 = `1500 times 2500`

Other dimensions:

Outer wall length (8700 + 11680 + 7080 + 12000) `times` 2 = 78920 mm = 78.92 m.

Outer wall thickness = 230 mm or 0.23 m.

Inner wall length (29000) `times` 2 = 58000 mm or 58 m.

Inner wall thickness = 1200 mm or 0.12 m.

Number of column = 16 `times` 2.

Number of beams = 20 `times` 2.

Height of ground and first floor = 3500 mm or 3.5 m

Calculations of load as per Indian codes:

Dead load calculation: 

(A) The dead load of the columns:

• Dimensions of column = 300mm `times` 300mm or 0.3m `times` 0.3m.
• Height of the column = 2 slab thickness + ground floor + first floor = 0.25 + 0.25 + 3.5 + 3.5 = 7.5 m.
• The toal volume of the column = 0.3 `times` 0.3 `times`7.5 = 0.675 `m^3`.
• Unit weight of RCC column = 25 `frac{KN}{m^3}` (from IS 875:part-1).
• Dead load of one column = 0.675 `times` 25 = 16.875 KN.

(B) The dead load of beams:

• Dimension of beam = 300mm `times` 450mm or 0.3m `times`0.45m.
• The total volume of the beam per metre length = `0.3 times 0.45 times 1` = 0.135 `m^3`.
• Unit weight of RCC = 25 `frac{KN}{m^3}` (from IS 875:part-1).
• The dead load of beam per unit metre length = `25 times 0.135` = 3.375 KN.

(C) The dead load of slab:

• The self-weight of a slab of 250 mm thickness and span `1m times 1m`.
• Total volume of the slab = `1 times 1 times 0.25` = 0.25 `m^3`.
• Unit weight of RCC slab = 25 `frac{KN}{m^3}`.
• The dead load of slab `1m times 1m` = `25 times 0.25` = 6.25 KN.

(D) The dead load of walls:

• The thickness of the external wall = 230 mm or 0.23 m.
• Unit weight of brick wall = 20 `frac{KN}{m^3}`.
• Height of ground floor and first-floor wall = 3500 mm or 3.5 m.
• The volume of wall per unit metre = `3.5 times 0.23 times 1` = 0.805 `m^3`.
• Dead load of the ground floor and first floor walls per unit metre = 0.805 `times` 20 = 16.1 KN.
• The thickness of the internal wall = 120 mm or 0.12 m.
• Unit weight of brick wall = 20 `frac{KN}{m^3}`.
• Height of ground floor and first-floor wall = 3500 mm or 3.5 m.
• The volume of wall per unit metre = `3.5 times 0.12 times 1` = 0.42.
• Dead load of the ground floor and first-floor walls per unit metre = `0.42 times 20` = 8.4 KN.

Live load calculation:

• As per IS-875 part-2 for the residential building live load are taken as 2 `frac{KN}{m^3}`.
• For staircase, veranda, storeroom is 3 `frac{KN}{m^3}`.

Wind load calculations:

If the height of the building does not exceed 10m wind load need not be considered.

As this is a plan for G+1 residential building there is no need to calculate wind load as H = 7.5m.

Still, if you want i have calculated wind loads with assume values,

Wind load for the given plan can be calculated using the formula from (IS 875 part-3 2016)

Pz = `0.6 times` Vz^2

Pz = Wind pressure at a height z in `frac{N}{m^2}`.

Vz = Design wind speed at a height z in `frac{N}{m^2}`.

Vz = `Vb times k1 times k2 times k3 times k4`

Vb = Basic wind speed

Let's consider the plan is situated in Hyderabad so the basic wind speed = 44.

k1 = Probability factor (risk coefficient)

Let's consider the mean life of the plot is 100 years so the risk of efficiency is equalled to 1.07.

k2 = Terrain height factor

We can assume that the k2 value falls under the category as 

Category 1 = Open terrain, no obstacles

Category 2 = Open terrain, well-scattered obstacles H = 1.5 to 10 m.

Category 3 = Closely spaced obstacles of H = 10 m.

[Next unlikely/rare]

Category 4 = Highly closely spaced, a height greater then 25 metres.

The height of the structure is 7.5 m and is assumed to be an open train with well-scattered obstacles.

So, we can now assume that the k2 value falls under category 2 from IS 875 part-3 = 1.

k3 = Topography factor.

According to the slope and topography where the structure has plotted the value of k3 is 1 to 1.36. Where the ta is greater than 3 degrees

The slope and topography where the structure has plotted the value of k3 = 1.2.

k4 = Importance factor for cyclonic region

According to IST 875 part-3, this plot of land has a k4 value of 1 as it is an ordinary structure

Now, 

Vz = `Vb times k1 times k2 times k3 times k4`

Vz = `44 times 1 times 1.07 times 1.2 times 1` = 56.496 `frac{N}{m^3}`

Then Pz = 0.6 `times`Vz^2

Pz = 0.6 `times``56.496^2` = 1915.07 `frac{N}{m^2}`

Pz = 1.91 `frac{KN}{m^2}`.

RESULTS:

By performing this project we have calculated loads of G+1 residential plans built according to Vaastu Shastra

The total dead load we got is:

• Dead load of one column = 16.875 KN.
• A dead load of beam per unit metre length = 3.375 KN.
• The dead load of slab 1m`times`1m = 6.25 KN.
• Dead load of the ground floor and first-floor walls per unit metre,
• For External wall = 16.1 KN
• For Internal wall = 8.4 KN.

The live load which we got = 2 `frac{KN}{m^2}`.

For staircase, verandah, storeroom = 3 `frac{KN}{m^2}`.

The wind load which got is: There is no need to calculate wind loads as H = 7.5 m.

Despite this after calculation wind load value Pz = 1.91 `frac{KN}{m^2}`.

CONCLUSION:

I would like to conclude my project by stating that Vaastu Shastra is not only spiritually but also scientifically true for providing us with peace of mind and a healthy environment to live in. It is the accumulated knowledge of our ancestors.

REFERENCES:

• IS 875:1987 (part-1) for dead loads.
• IS 875:1987 (part-2) for live loads.
• IS 875:1987 (part-3) for wind loads.
• SKILL-LYNC COURSE.