http://abari.org Adobe and Bamboo Sun, 12 Oct 2008 04:40:46 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en 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 ... http://abari.org/bamboo-and-hinduism [gallery=11] 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 ... http://abari.org/handigaunko-jatra 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 ... http://abari.org/solidarity-with-the-farmers 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 ... http://abari.org/bamboo-in-budget-2008 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 ... http://abari.org/fire-resistant-thachted-roof   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 ... http://abari.org/thatched-roofs 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 ... http://abari.org/truss-fabrication [gallery=9] http://abari.org/making-the-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. http://abari.org/bamboo-pavilion-2 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 ... http://abari.org/adobe-cob-and-bamboo