I N S P I R A T I O N : Concepts

Vijay Shanthi Faber Hills, Salem,Tamilnadu

Set in the serene and picturesque foot hills of Yercaud, Faber Hills - M/s Vijay Shanthi Builders' joint venture with M/s Sky Roca - is their first project in Salem.

With just 99 villas in 3 categories spread over almost 20 acres of gently land, the most significant feature of Faber Hills would be the concept of earth berms.

Earth sheltering is the architectural practice of using earth against building walls for external thermal mass , to reduce heat loss, and to easily maintain a steady indoor air temperature. Earth sheltering is popular among advocates of passive solar and sustainable architecture , but the idea has been around for nearly as long as humans have been constructing their own shelter.

•	About 80% of the houses are earth-berm structures and the remaining 20% are on the water front of an artificially created rain water harvesting lake of approx. 2 acres extent.
•	There are three options of houses. Each option has two variations in the roof form. Permutations and combinations of selected finer details in all options bring about a variety
•	There are large, open “green lungs”, which are children and elderly friendly and free of vehicular movement, evenly spread out over the site.
•	As much as 60% of the existing prominent trees have been retained. An attempt will be made to transplant those that cannot be retained. Apart from that new trees will also be planted along the periphery.
•	The present coverage is 24% but appears to be 19%, as 80% of the houses are earth berm structures.