Abstract:

Nepal has a very rich and complex vernacular architecture that is still alive in lot of villages, where constructions with local materials and ancestral constructive techniques are still visible: stone, earth, brick, wood, adobe, which have historically responded to the needs of the environment keep continuing their presence in spite vernacular architecture has been gradually replaced by the model imposed by the Western countries, which is incorrectly taken as an example to follow.
Reinforced concrete and metal structures, promoted by the government, have been replacing and promoting the abandonment of those materials, typologies, and traditional construction techniques, taking themselves as a banner and sign of "development" in Nepal. However, it has been possible to verify that, in the long run, this transition towards new approaches does not respond well to the local reality, due to its imported condition, its high cost, its low adaptation to the climatic conditions of the country. Finally, the new materials have a poor response to seismic movements (given to a certain inevitable poor execution, undersized and poorly armed buildings).

In this frame, the project “HouSe-Nepal: Anti-Earthquake Sustainable Housing Prototype”, financed by Centre for Development Cooperation (CCD) of Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain has promoted a workshop with local students of Architecture and Conservation field in order to support and encourage the construction of a prototype of a residential unit with traditional techniques that can be an interesting pilot project to reflect about contemporary problems that local architecture is suffering. This action has been possible thanks to the involvement of local Abari Foundation, that in the Post Earthquake Scenario (Gorka 2015) has studied the houses that needed to be rebuilt and the scattered nature of earthquake-affected settlements.

The paper will explain the steps of the workshop that has been undertaken in spring 2022, detailing the phases developed, the methodological frame, the stakeholders and the participants involved as well as the main goals obtained.

Keywords:

Cooperation, development, architecture, traditional techniques.