Cool and green in an Indian architectural desert

By Dominic Whiting, Asia property correspondent

HONG KONG (Reuters) - In a sizzling property market, architect Manit Rastogi at MD Morphogenesis has created some of India's coolest buildings, using recycled water, wells, wind tunnels and sun screens to chill work places and slash energy costs.

Thanks to his designs, students in a Jaipur fashion school mill around classrooms cooled to around 25 degrees Celsius without air conditioners, while the desert bakes at nearly double that temperature outside.

And guests at the Swabhumi Hotel in Kolkata feel a breeze as they step out of a building resembling sliced mushrooms fused together, and inspired by the way trees trap wind.

But although developers and investors are coming under the environmental spotlight because buildings account for half the world's carbon dioxide emissions, Rastogi says few in India are going green.

"In India's booming real estate market, there are not enough professionals. And because mediocrity sells, it's easier to do that," Rastogi said in an interview in Hong Kong.

"Architects are just doing what developers want. If you start taking them down the sustainable route, people start getting nervous," he said. "They see it as wasted expense."

Building sites have churned up India's dusty cities since 2005, when rules on inward investment in construction were eased, sparking huge land speculation and a near quadrupling in prices.

An economy growing at more than 8 percent annually has drawn over $12 billion from global property investors, including funds run by Morgan Stanley and Citigroup, and enriched Indian developers such as DLF Ltd.