New Delhi: Summer time brings with it power cuts and water shortages. However there are a few Bangaloreans who are trying to bring about a change in the way they live to find a relief in the sweltering heat.

When Vinay Nair and his wife Taranjit decided to settle down in Bangalore, they had a variety of housing options before them.

After a long search, the Nairs finally homed in on T-Zed. Built by a Bangalore-based company called Biodiversity Conservation India Limited (BCIL), T-Zed promised a home that would be more than just brick and mortar.

"I have always felt like building my own home where all these aspects would be incorporated with whatever little knowledge that would have make my everyday living much more easier on my conscience," say Nair.

BCIL has been around for nearly 10 years, constructing homes that are sustainable and use appropriate technology, and it has certainly made life much more easier for not just the Nairs but everyone who cashes in on it.

So how can they become buildings of the future?

"At the household level we give them conscience meters in their kitchens. It doesn't measure the water meter. It doesn't tell you that you're paying money for it, but it tells you that every time you open the water, how many litres of water have you flowed down the drain. It doesn't ask you to change your lifestyle. I can have a tube light and give two to three options to only light those areas that he needs lit the other areas being soft lit. So I bring efficiency," says director, BCIL, Hariharan.

At T-Zed, each home will also recycle the waste it generates and harvest the water on the campus.

Another interesting feature is a built-in refrigerator and air conditioning systems that won't release harmful CFCs into the environment.

Today cities across the country are struggling to meet the water and power demands of the people. But building sensibly and sensitively can go a long way in tackling such shortages in the future.