Sukumbasi Housing

Here is an example of a sukumbasi housing. The style is modern, craftsmanship is exquisite, it is as green as one gets, material is local. Our urban dweller can learn from these displaced people.
 
 
 

Soaking

We have tried three different methods of treatment. The first one shown above is the traditional treatment method where bamboo are soaked for 4-12 weeks on a running or muddy stagnant water. Bamboo contains starch solution which is suceptible to bacteria, but since starch is soluble in water, it gets diluted or washed out with [...]

Life of a bamboo

Our plant is portable, sleek, inexpensive and available. With this method we have exponentially increased the life of a bamboo.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Boucherie Revolution in Nepal

Our bamboo plant at work. It is simple. It can be carried by one person. It is environmentally benign, low cost, manually operated and most importantly locally produced. It is Abari's another brain child. All thanks to our research expert Nripal and Ramkrishna (shown in the picture). Once a few technical problems are sorted out, [...]

Reddobe

This is an example from a house in Panauti, the inner wall is adobe and the outer wall is kiln burnt bricks. Interesting thing about this areas is the use of red mud mortar. Red mud (Rato Mato), in the other parts of the country, is used as plaster but here it is used as [...]

Bamboo Treatment

These days, we have been very busy starting our new bamboo treatment plant. We had to wait till the new moon (aaunsi) to cut the bamboo. We first tried the Vertical Soaking Method. In this method, bamboo were made completely hollow by penetrating the diaphrams (the inner portion of the nodes), except the last one, [...]

A stairway to the Second Floor

 
This is an example of a typical nepali staircase. They are usually located right after the entrance.  In the traditional houses, the first floors were used to shelter animals or only to store food because the moisture barrier used to be insufficient  to provide sufficient thermal comfort for the humans.  These stairs used the the [...]

BAMBUCICLETAS

 Photo: American Bamboo Soceity
Flavio Deslandes is the man behind the development of a bicycle made of bamboo. He is Brazilian and he is an industrial designer from the PUC-Rio University.
The bicycle is one of the worlds most brilliant inventions. It is hard to find a disadvantage (to the bicycle) – except the material it [...]

Mud Recipe

Try different locations and choose a site that has the most appropriate mud. In Nepal, if the mud does not stick to a brick form, and does not build up cracks, it is considered the most appropriate mix. Usually the mud about 2 feet from the groundlevel work pretty well, since they dont have the [...]

Bare Adobe

 

In the Eastern area of Kathmandu, adobe walls are either kept bare, or are plastered with a thin layer of mud, which almost looks like a wash. The tradition says, adobe is not effected when the water hits it in an angle.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Stone and reed,

In the Pokhara region, stones are stacked up like this without (or very less) mortar. It has, however, thick mud plaster from the inside. Pokhara is one of the wettest cities in the world. A thick thachted roof, depening on the pitch, thickness and workmanship can last anywhere from 5-20 years. Foundation is made with [...]

Update

Here is the update on the pati (public space) in Thimi. Anyone interested on visiting the sitecan contact us. The walls and pillars are up. Next step is the roof. The technique is purely traditional, they have not used any nails. The mortar is mud. The wood is carved in the site itself. One [...]

Weaving

                          
Our friend Deepak from Chepang gaun is weaving! Almost everyone, men and women, young and old, know how to weave in this village. They usually weave dokos and nanglos, for their everyday use. Weaving could be a [...]

Chwali

 This is our new member Roshi Shilpakar's latest creation. This is an art created using reed. Reed is soaked in water to make it soft, cut into pieces, flattened  and then put in place using a template. It is a long and a very meditative process indeed. 

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