Team

PERSONNELLE

Abari was established by young professionals in 2006. In a country where the construction scene is dominated by the older generation and the young professionals are migrating to industrialized countries, the Abari team not just wanted to set a trend in an architectural field, but wanted to set an example on the whole process of architecture. The Abari team are not just confined to designing, they make sure their dedicated team are involved from mobilizing community members, teaching skilled and semi-skilled workers on all aspects of natural materials including the procuring, researching, designing and obviously construction.  They don’t work as contractor, they believe in sharing skills, techniques and idea. They have a team of expert, from structural engineer to carpenters who go to the site and work and live with the local artisans, men and women, by sharing knowledge, ideas and love so that they can make something, that is more than just a structure. Furthermore, in this process, they have included young interns and students in their works, so far they have had interns from Nepal, Sweden, Canada, U.S.A and Argentina.

Nripal Adhikary has worked as a freelance architect, theater designer, painter and a graphic artist in New York City. He also worked as an designer in Hassfurt Germany. His works are built in New Mexico, USA, Mongolia, and Nepal and he has traveled to more that twenty-five countries learning and spreading the virtues of bamboo and adobe. He is not just a professional but a student and a researcher. He believes, that architecture, might be structurally sound and very modern in design, yet, many times they fail to get appropriated. There are cases of very modern buildings and bridges that get built but fail to be used as they fail to become sensitive to the needs of the local. In Nepal, infrastructure development has conventionally been very technocratic and they fail to integrate the traditional knowledge of the locals. He has been designing, lobbying,teaching, writing so that the design and construction become sensitive to the local context.He is currently working as a consultant for INBAR.

Shishir Garihe has completed his Civil Engineering degree on the Bangladesh Government Scholarship from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), with the a particular emphasis on flood plain and the hill tracts construction of Bangladesh. In the due course he has develop special skill in the construction with appropriate and local resources, which has been aided well by his artistic flair. He has done his masters in Engineering Management focusing on the Technology Transfer with the Sustainable Building Materials. He is also involved in the part time lecturing in different business college and also in a fashion institute.
MSc, Engineering Management, Acme Engineering College, PU
BSc, Civil Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) , Bangladesh
Membership
Nepal Engineering Committee
Nepal Engineering Association
Nepal Surveyor Association
Natural Resource Development Committee

Basanta Adhikary is a a veteran agronomist. He is the main coordinator of Abari because of his more than 30 years of plantation and administrative experience in countries like Nepal, Yemen, Mongolia and Laos. He has worked for organizations like Action Aid, GTZ, DED, UNDP etc. He is currently engaged in setting up a pre-fabrication center and a huge bamboo plantation in the southern plain.

Sulava Piya comes from social science background, and thus provides a very needed social face in this field, which has a tendency of being too technocratic. She is a very versatile member apart from doing intensive research on internally displaced women during the 10 year armed conflict in Nepal, she also has done training in wood working and restoration from Germany. She trying to help Abari set up a pre-fabrication and furniture production unit, which tries to involve women and war victims in the process.

Ramkrishna Thapa has been working with adobe and bamboo since he was 6. Coming from a village setting, he learned how his parents weaved their lives out of bamboo. From food to the house columns, everything in the village was made of bamboo. He has worked with many organization promoting bamboo, but now he has found his true calling, heading the technology department of ABARI.

Ramhari Thapa
Ramhari Thapa, 19, is our protegee, in his young age he has shown immense enthusiasm in this field. He has been interning as a designer with ABARI and he has designed lamps, furnitures etc. He is also intrumental in managing our bamboo plantation. He has also taken various workshops including one in India held by INBAR.

Munesh Bhakta Upadhayaya
MA Sociology, Diploma in Civil Engg
He has years of expertise in environmentally friendly rural community infrastructure works like green roads, dry stacked retaining walls etc. He has worked in community mobilization, disaster management and environment conservation. He has spent couple of years working with the minorities of the impoverished far west region of Nepal. His research works include emergency management and vulnerability assessment from structural and social perspective.

Rene Yadav is the senior carpenter from Janakpur. After working for about 8 years in the Gulf, he had returned to Nepal thinking its better to serve one’s own village than somebody elses. He is prominent member of our team, he accompanies ABARI wherever it goes.

Kurt Gardella (currently in Germany) has adobe mixed in his blood. He specializes not only on adobe sun dried bricks but also adobe softwares. Our website would not have been possible without him. Thanks to his effort, ABARI has been very visible on the web.

OUR DONORS

Guido Mueller from Germany works for a Telecommuncation firm Infinion. He is indeed a great mountain hiker, he recently conquered 5000 meters in the Himalayas. He supports our Trustbari program.

Bhupal Adhikary has financed everything to set up this website. And of course how integral the website has been to our publicity and daily functioning.

Arya Karki