democratic pavilion

 

It is sometimes strange how design can reinforce or dismantle hierarchy. We weaved a traditional khatiya in our recently built pavilion, and this has been a center of attraction in the whole village. People sit on it irrespective of their caste, class or gender distinction. In a village like harsar, which is still mired in traditional caste system, for everyone to sit on one bench is indeed [...]

Handigaunko Jatra

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 [...]

Architecture as an anthorpological study

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 [...]

Bamboo in Budget 2008

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 [...]

Truss Fabrication

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 [...]

Making the bamboo pavilion

Bamboo Pavilion

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.

Adobe, Cob and Bamboo

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 [...]

Bamboo Truss

We had been “underground” in Harsar trying to finish the work at for CareNepal. Here is the first installation of our truss. This is just a training for bamboo connection to the local craftsmen. The real thing is yet to come!! The current unrest has put a hold in the progress, lets pray that the [...]

Thatchted Roof

courtesy: Egr. Pratik Lohani
Here is an example of a thatched roof from Japan. Thatched roof tradition is a somewhat in danger of getting lost because it requires very intricate skills to install. However, properly put thatched roof can last for more then 30 years. The advantages of thatched roof include very good insulation, available [...]

Bamboo Temporary Shelter

Here is an example of a temporary shelter built by Abari in Janakpur Nepal. It is built as a storage place for all the bamboo that we have treated for the construction. It was designed in order to resist dampness and provide enough air circulation to store and dry the bamboo.

Bamboo in Laos

 A rice field in Harsar, Laos. The elevated bamboo houses are very common in this part of the world. The advantages of elevated houses are protection against flood, snakes, rats. The space in the bottom are also used for storage space.

Bamboo Treatment

Here is a picture of our low cost, high efficient bamboo treatment plant. Our focus has been, apart from using bamboo as a modern building material, to teach local people, especially women and marginalized people, about our technology so that they can use it themselves. Our patent pending, revolutionary small treatment plant has successfully [...]

Gypsies in Kathmandu

With an incredible resilience Gypsies have travelled all over the world. In Nepal they are known as firantes. They have exquisite stone carving skills. They also work as magicians among other things. They are very versatile and adaptive nomads, no wonder you see from Greece to Kathmandu. Here is an example of a gypsie tent. [...]

A glimpse into the homelessness

Here is an example of housing along Monohara river where poverty level is below satisfactory. People from this house earn from 30 to 150 Rs. (.45 cents to 2$ ) a day. Even bamboo and mud is out of reach for many of them. A bamboo costs about 150 Rs. per piece and mud costs [...]

« go back — keep looking »

RSS Feed

    RSS

Search

Resources

Press

Galleries

Categories

Archives

Links