Stone Free Movement : A long term survival plan
Finalist – Earthna Prize 2024
We are proud to announce that URVI Foundation’s Stone Free Movement has been shortlisted as a finalist for the Earthna Prize 2024, a global recognition by Earthna Center for a Sustainable Future, an initiative of Qatar Foundation. Selected from over 400 applications across 100 countries, this honor celebrates our commitment to blending traditional knowledge and modern innovation to create sustainable, climate-resilient construction practices in Kerala and beyond.
About Earthna
Earthna Center for a Sustainable Future (Earthna) is a non-profit policy, research, and advocacy organization established by Qatar Foundation to promote and enable a coordinated approach to environmental, social, and economic sustainability. Earthna serves as a global platform for collaboration among experts, policymakers, academia, and communities—particularly in hot and arid regions—to drive progress in areas such as climate action, circular economies, biodiversity, energy transition, and sustainable urbanism.
The Earthna Prize, launched on Earth Day 2024, honors projects and organizations worldwide that preserve and adapt ancestral and traditional knowledge to tackle today’s environmental challenges. Being recognized among the 12 global finalists places the Stone Free Movement within a community of innovators shaping the future of sustainable living.
About the Movement
Launched in 2017, the Stone Free Movement is URVI Foundation’s long-term mission to rethink how Kerala builds—promoting earth-based, low-carbon
construction that reduces dependence on stone quarrying and concrete-heavy development. Rooted in traditional building wisdom and adapted through modern engineering, the initiative showcases how locally available materials such as soil, bamboo, lime, and timber can replace resource-intensive materials while offering resilience, comfort, and beauty.
Why It Matters
Kerala’s over-reliance on quarrying has weakened its ecosystems, leading to landslides, floods, and biodiversity loss. The Stone Free Movement addresses
these issues by:
Promoting geo-sensitive, region-specific construction for wetlands,
midlands, and highlands.
Reviving traditional craftsmanship through community-based training.
Advocating for policy reforms to include earthen and rapid housing in
building codes.
Creating open-access research and scalable prototypes through
the URVIKOSA Research Center.
Climate-Positive Design
By sourcing materials within a 5 km radius, the movement significantly reduces embodied carbon and transport emissions. Lime-stabilized earthen structures naturally sequester carbon and provide thermal comfort, lowering cooling energy needs. Innovative use of construction waste, agricultural residues, and ocean plastics further enhances sustainability.
A Vision for the Future
The Stone Free Movement is more than an architectural approach—it is a survival strategy for 38,863 sq. km of land and 33.4 million people. Our vision is a Kerala where progress strengthens, not sacrifices, nature.
Being named a finalist for the Earthna Prize 2024 affirms our belief that the path to a sustainable future lies in reconnecting with traditional knowledge, guided by science, innovation, and community action.
Together, we can build a future that is stone free, climate resilient, and truly sustainable.
