Adobe and Bamboo Research Institute

Bamboo and hinduism has a very interesting connection. It is said that bamboo shoot should not be harvested by a brahmin, as it is compared to a killing child of the family. Similarly brahmins should not plant bamboo or a banana, they usually hire a people of  other caste to do so. But on the other hand, on all brahmin wedding, bamboo and a banana are mandatory, and the deads are always carried on a bamboo stretcher.

In kathmandu, bamboo should not be harvested on Sundays or wednesdays and on  a new moon night or a full moon night, while in the eastern nepal bamboo are not harvested on mondays.

On the other hand, bamboo and a banana are mandatory in a hindu wedding. One should always carry a dead body on a bamboo stretcher.

It is believed that whereever buddhism went, bamboo went along. Bamboo and buddhism were intrically associated.  As the buddhism spread, it is believed that hindus got scared and started attacking buddhist beliefs. And since buddhism was intricately tied to bamboo, they started by attacking bamboo. Perhaps that is why, the traditional skilled craftsmen of nepal are not the brahmins but of other groups.

But in the modern days, things are changing, as the caste system is being replaced by the class. Now there is a class bias against bamboo, as it is considered sign of poverty and backwardness to live in a bamboo house.

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There is so much indigenous construction knowledge out there with the people, which unfortunately is not documented or even explored by the academic or the professional world. We just “discovered” a very interesting bamboo connection and structural technique, practiced by the newars of Kathmandu. Please take a look at the pictures. These lightweight structures are used to rotate heavy structures during the famous ritual of handigaun ko jatra. If we can properly study these structure, we think, they can be appropriated in modern designs. At an initial observation, it looks like these structures can be adapted to make structures likes domes, bridges, roofs etc..

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We believe architecture is not about imposing ideas. It’s an organic process, its a transfusion.  We believe that the essense of building in a culture, comes from living in a culture. Its not a technical process, it involves anthropological study. We have been living, farming, eating with the farmers in Harsar, so that our architecture blends in and gets accepted to the people. How many times have we seen technically superior and “contemporary” architecture that failes to get appropriated by the intended user?

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Here is what our Hon’ Finance Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai had to offer to the bamboo sector:

216.. An extensive plantation in public and private lands will be carried out in the form of a campaign with the objective of expanding the forest area and reducing the excessive pressure on public forest area as well as to increase income generating opportunities through strengthening of local supply. For this, 11.5 million plants including fodder grass,cane, bamboos and herbs will be produced and planted and provision of care will also be made. The policy of “One Place One Species” will be adopted in such plantation programmes.

217. At least 75000 families from poor class Dalits, Janjatis and other marginalized people will be provided with the opportunity of income generation through forest based industries and occupations and leasehold and community forests.

We need to congratulate our Finance Minister for encouraging marginalized people to use their sophisticated traditional skills as a source of livelihood. Perhaps we just need to encourage some designs as well, so that the traditional products get the competitive edge. “Design”, is always perceived to be somewhat of a decadent activity, so it hardly invokes a policy level debate. There are always budgets for the “development” of traditional skills, but yet this sector tend not to get the expected result as these product fail to entertain the modern market because they dont have the designs. People have realized that the market is essential; but not the design. Its a catch 22 situation- you dont have the market if dont have the design and vice versa. It’s clear that a design institution need to be established, so that people can use their traditional skills to make products that cater to the modern sensibility

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Prof. Dr. Jiv Raj Pokhrel, president of Nepal Center for Disaster Management,  has been working on a fire resistant thached roof, in which he puts a half inch mud plaster on top of a traditional thachted roof , which is then covered with a uv protected plastic sheet. By doing this, oxygen is blocked out and fire will die out quickly even if gets there. The cost is minimal. It uses little bit of plastic, but it will make thachted roof fire resistant!!

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It is a ritual in many Asian countries, to fix one’s roof before every monsoon, and to plaster the whole house after it. Maintaining one’s house every year before and after monsoon is seen as a ritual and not as a sign of poverty. Nepalis knew of glazed tiles yet they still insisted on burnt clay tiles or thatched roof, as they understood that the roof also needs to “breath.” The illusionary quest for the ultimate waterproof material, with “zero maintainance” has brought us to the age of plastic and steel.  The major flaw of modern architecture, in my opinion, has been to move away from pitched roofs to flat roofs, because we “discovered” the ultimate water-resistance capability in concrete. Pitched roofs regulat temperature, they also protect outer walls  with their long overhanging eaves. We have seen many development in the fields of natural walls, like adobe, rammed earth, compressed earth blocks, strawbale etc. but the roof and foundations still need more research. It defeats the purpose of having thick earthen walls, if we have to put galvanized steel, or concrete roofs as they have very poor thermal qualities.  The good old thacthed roofs, needs to be encouraged more. They have exquisite thermal quality and sexy aesthetic appeal. Unfortunately, durability (in wet climates), fire and mice problems still deter people from using this roofing materials.

Above is the picture from Laos, where people are fixing their thached roof. Look how many people can bamboo rafters hold!!

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One of the main reasons for disuse of bamboo in modern construction is due to a lack of skilled human resources. For better or worse bamboo can not be standardized. Bamboo comes in different shapes and sizes which makes it a very difficult material to work with. Bamboos are very hard to produce in an industrial scale. But we take that as a blessing. Sustainability, we believe, also means scale. It is very difficult to make things sustainable and yet cater to a highly industrialized and consumerist lifestyle. Anyways, to work with bamboo requires lots of patience, creativity, improvisation and obviously skills. One has to treat every bamboo as an individual, as they look and behave differently. With a little bit of encouragement, bamboo can challenge any material. With our primitive tools, we are here fabricating bamboo trusses (10 meters), that are strong, durable and perhaps more elegant than  steel.

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Bamboo at work. In the the village of Harsar, where bamboo has been used for ages, this demonstration does indeed come as a revelation. The word “truss” is entering the local vocabularly, and indeed the local sceptics of bamboo are thinking twice. The local carpenters are lining up to learn the new techniques.

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The work in Janakpur had stalled for various political reasons, one being kidnapping of our overseer. Well! That all seem pretty normal these days. Anyways, the villagers put all their effort to resume the work. It just heartbreaking to see, how much love and effort people have put into this project. We not only see work in Harsar as our seminal work because we have an opportunity to try out different construction methodologies like rammed earth, stablized earth blocks, adobe and cob but the social aspect of working with the community has just priceless.

This is a section of a wall with a high stone plinth and foundation, two layers of burnt bricks, adobe wall for thermal mass vertical and horizonatal bamboo reinforcement against earthquake which are all topped off with cob wall for a better adobe and bamboo connection.

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