Cheer up a school

Posted on | January 7, 2012 | No Comments

We are running a campaign in Nepal to refurbish old government schools built with large grey concrete blocks with beautiful rendering, nice bamboo furniture, fine lighting so that the place becomes very playful and child friendly. Please help this project by voting for this campaign. Whether we win or not, we will pursue it. If you want to help us in any possible ways do let us know, we will keep you in the loop.

http://sunsuperdreams.com.au/dream/view/live-up-the-school-madi-nepal

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Category: News

Prefabricated Bamboo

Posted on | January 3, 2012 | No Comments

Prefabricated Bamboo Structure

For the last few years we have been trying to start a pre-fabrication center to make bamboo structures. This is our first attempt!  We have been continuously refining our technology so that bamboo construction does not become very labor intensive. Moreover, due to labor shortage in Nepal we have been empowering women to do our work. We are proud of this project because it was initated by our female dominated team headed by Sulava. Our vision is to provide enough skills and  technology so that bamboo and earth becom widely accessible as modern construction materials. Our main challenges are grading of the material according to size and strength, providing standardized joints, upgrading of technology so that joints are easy to make and protect against weathering and discoloration. We’d like to thank Sulava, Rita, Srijana, Rammed Hari and Sanjay for their help.

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Category: News

Mud plaster over concrete wall

Posted on | January 1, 2012 | No Comments

Earthen plaster

Here is our finished earthen plaster over a concrete wall. It has three layers of mix which include husk, sand, clay and starch paste. Traditionally in Nepal, people do mud wash which only includes clay, dung and sometimes husk, although this method  produces beautiful textures it requires constant maintenance. It was hard to convince our artisans and clients to add as much as 75% sand and to perfect a real plaster rather than a wash. Our 1 and 1/2 inch thick plaster not only looks beautiful, but its maintenance free. Moreover it is salubrious for our health and the environment. Our bamboo lamps blends in pretty well and indeed accentuates the beauty of earth. Congratulations to Sulava and her women powered team.

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Category: News

Bamboo and Earth in Bhutan

Posted on | December 20, 2011 | No Comments

A good example of bamboo and earth house built by INBAR. According to architect Nripal Adhikary, the house is made entirely out of local material, even the joinery was made using wood and rattan. The walls are built using Latin American barahaque style, that is bamboo framed plastered with earth. Final coating is done with lime plaster, which is not only water resistant but also works as preservative on bamboo. It was treated using ABARI built boucherie technique. The design preserves the integrity of Bhutanese Architecture, but tries to improvise on it by replacing timber with more ecological material viz. bamboo. This house will shelter District Chief and the Royal Government of Bhutan is trying to built more structures like these in coming years.

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Category: News

Bamboo Lamps

Posted on | October 11, 2011 | No Comments

Bamboo lamps

We have been trying this model where by we teach community members to make bamboo crafts. Here is a first batch of prototype built by our women team. We are taking orders!

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Category: News

Rammed Earth

Posted on | August 13, 2011 | No Comments

Update on house of Hemendra Bohra. Roof will start after monsoon. Taking volunteers!!

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Category: News

Permaculture Village

Posted on | July 23, 2011 | No Comments

You must be the change you want to see in the world. – Mahatma Gandhi

As part of our campaign to create Village of the Future we have acquired  just acquired about 2 hectares of land in Chitwan, which we will develop into organic  permaculture farm with primary focus on lemongrass, ginger, chamomile, lentil and of course bamboo. We are building upon what our team member Ramkrishna had started 10 years ago where he magically transformed his degraded land into a vibrant organic fruit farm. Based on the success of our farm, we will extend this into a community based enterprise, where we will pool marginal land of different community members and reclaim it by planting bamboo and other high value crops which will bring extra income to farmers, protect land and preserve biodiversity. We believe if the community is involved it is possible to preserve biodiversity, reclaim degraded land and make sustainable livelihood.

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Category: News, Village of the Future

Lamps

Posted on | July 17, 2011 | No Comments

Our latest creation. If you like them, we are taking orders!

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Category: News

Plants as ecological embankment

Posted on | July 13, 2011 | No Comments

Secret of good bamboo construction is availability of good bamboo. Not all bamboo is as strong as steel. There are many variables like age, culm diameter, wall thickness and moisture content. As modern bamboo construction in Nepal and most of South Asia, is in its embryonic stage, there aren’t many commercial suppliers who can provide quality grade bamboo. Today the commercial use of bamboo is for scaffoldings for which the concern for age, maturity is often overlooked by contractors. The contractors harvest anything they see, thus promoting a very unsustainable harvesting regime. For a long time we had planned to start our plantation but we never had the financial resources to do so. We could only limit ourselves to establishing a nursery where we have collected over 20 indigenous and exotic species of bamboo. We have two hectares of land where we started our nursery based on permaculture principle. Its obvious we love bamboo,  but we also realize over obsession of one plant could lead to development of monoculture as its happening in China. Thus we have collected hundreds of plants that have different nutritional, medicinal and utilitarian value in our model farm. Read more…

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Category: News

Earth Plaster

Posted on | July 6, 2011 | No Comments

It is believed that one needs at least 1/2 inch of earth plaster  in order to reap its health benefit. There are economic, health and ecological benefits of earth plaster, but many urban people are also seeking earth for sake of aesthetics. Mountain soil, especially from base of the mountains are known to have perfect soil for earth architecture as they have good mix of clay, sand and gravels. Kathmandu valley due to rich terrain has many different kinds of soil and thus rich culture of earth structures. Uniquely enough, due to its soil type, adobe structure is only confined to the valley and its immediate proximity. Kathmandu, further over, was also a melting pot of different ancient cultures, thus it also is a repertoire of many different plastering techniques including lime plaster mixed with red brick powder brought by Ranas from Europe and lieun- a technique of plaster created by fermenting rice husk.

Here is one of our ongoing projects in an upscale restaurant in Kathmandu, where we are integrating modern and ancient knowledge to make beautiful earth render. We also believe it is necessary to teach youths the techniques thus we have invited some young volunteers for the project. Please email us if you are interested to join.

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Category: Adobe, Lifestyle, News
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