Architecture for mountains

Villages across Nepal are building view towers on nearby peaks. Every municipality now wants welcome arches or stone steps on mountain trails. Bulldozers run amok, triggering mudslides on fragile slopes.

It looks like Nepal is where you go to learn about how not to do architecture in the mountains. But there is also a growing movement towards construction using locally available material, buildings suited to the climate, houses that are carefully designed to reduce energy use.

Many of these examples were on display at the first-ever conference and exhibition of mountain architecture in Patan last week. Dozens of Nepali architects, engineering students, environmentalists and urban planners took part in the two-day event called Mountain Architecture Dialogue (MAD).

“Architecture is a problem-solving profession,” said Anne Feenstra, an award-winning Dutch architect and conservationist. “Solutions come from people who really take time to think things, not the government who just wait and watch.”

But it looks like Nepal’s politicians, planners and contractors are not listening because they are too busy mining rivers, quarrying mountains, or destroying green spaces. Nijgad Forest, the last remaining native woodlands of the eastern Tarai, is about to be destroyed to build a mega-airport that is an economic and ecological disaster. The forest is a sanctuary for wildlife, the lungs of the plains and an area for groundwater recharge.

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“Architecture is as much about knowing when not to build as it is about building,” said Kunda Dixit, author of Dateline Earth: Journalism As If the Planet Mattered. 

But perhaps the most tragic consequences of haphazard building in Nepal are seen in residential and public buildings in the towns and cities. Substandard concrete and cement buildings have replaced traditional architecture suited to the land and climate. In fact, Nepal's Tarai has now become one endless metropolis of concrete.

“They all look the same,” said architect Biresh Shah, presenting a case study of a town in Damauli with concrete structures. “They show no sign of architecture or design. All our urban centres have started looking the same.”

Nepal is world renowned for its traditional architecture of elegant temples, handsome bahal courtyards, and tiled roof skylines of Kathmandu Valley, the stone dwellings of Mustang and Manang, and the bamboo and mud structures of the Tarai. 

But all of this is changing because of the misconception that cement buildings are stronger. During the 2015 earthquake, many concrete structures survived, reinforcing this belief. But reinforced concrete buildings made with substandard material could actually be more hazardous in future earthquakes. 

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The Mountain Architecture Dialogue exhibition showcased many neat and functional designs that incorporate the best of traditional architecture using local materials with modern elements. Most are light structures that would also be flexible and safe during earthquakes.

Feenstra himself has spent 20 years in the Himalaya helping to also improve on traditional designs and practices. He gives the example of developing tents for yak herders in Kanchenjunga to replace their bamboo shelters that were prone to extreme weather and deprived the habitat and food of the endangered red panda.  

Wildlife conservationists and Feenstra came up with lightweight aerodynamic tents that could withstand high winds, heavy rain and snow. Yak herders then realised the tents could also serve as comfortable dwellings for trekkers in the mountains. This turned yak herders into small-time entrepreneurs.

The exhibition displayed examples of 36 mountain architecture projects from across Nepal. One of them was a Habitat for Humanity project that uses treated bamboo on a stone foundation for landless people in eastern Nepal. “These structures are cost-effective, sustainable and earthquake-resistant,” explains Eliza Sthapit of Habitat for Humanity. 

At the higher end, the new hotel Moksha in Jomsom located at 2,800m is designed by celebrated architect Prabal Thapa using local stone and timber for the traditional designs of Thakali people. The building is difficult to spot from the other side of the Kali Gandaki Valley – so well does it blend with the texture of the surrounding terrain. The building also uses passive solar elements, insulated floors and walls to minimise heating costs.

Read also: Tourism that treads lightly on the land, Nepali Times

“Nepal has the potential to be a mountain architecture laboratory, you have the knowledge, all the landscapes, an enormous variety of building materials,” said Feenstra, who curated the exhibition.

The biggest drawback of these designs could be public acceptance at a time when bamboo, mud or stone are regarded as materials for ‘poor’ people. The challenge would be to make these local materials glamorous enough to be more sought-after than cement and glass.

An important message running across the projects on display (see accompanying boxes) was to design structures that exist in harmony with nature. Such buildings are more capable of withstanding earthquakes and the impact of the global climate crisis.

Sangeeta Singh of the Institute of Engineering gave an example of a planned resettlement project for Laprak residents following the 2015 earthquake. Undertaken by the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) at a cost of Rs576 million, the houses in the integrated settlement in Gumsipakha all look the same, do not reflect traditional dwellings and were largely shunned by locals. She warned: “Building innovatively with the latest technology can spell disasters if we do not take local needs and the natural environment into account.”  

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Prabal Thapa, Hemendra Bohara and Emil Shrestha
Moksha Jomson
Lower Mustang 2,800m

The stone and timber resort hotel reflects the architectural style of the surrounding Thakali settlements. The enclosed courtyard shelters the property from the valley's fierce winds whereas the strategic placement of the public areas and individual rooms allows for magnificent views of Mt Nilgiri and the Kali Gandaki River. The hotel features passive solar design elements to minimise energy consumption. Insulated floors, roofs, and windows reduce heat loss and gain.

Amar Gurung and Kshitiz Pokhrel
Neyshang Museum
Manang 3,700m 

Spread across only 100 sq km, the museum is designed like a maze with vertical plywood allowing for ample surface to display artefacts. The structure is built with locally sourced materials including stones for the walls from a quarry 500m away, and surrounding fields supplied the mud while the timber was from a nearby pine forest.

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Anne Feenstra, SMA
Everest Next
Namche Bazar 3,780m

Mountaineering waste and waste generated by lodges and villages will be upcycled into building material for three main museum buildings which are resistant to earthquakes, respond to natural contours, high winds and heavy snowfall. Everest Next buildings have passive solar energy features. Chamfered stone walls next to windows allow for the warmth of the winter sun while double glazing and small windows towards the north provide better comfort.

Krishna Aryal, Bihendra Maharjan and Green Bamboo Creation
Bamboo Pavilion Gokarna 1,410m 

Originally designed as a meditation centre at Akasha Academy, the bamboo pagoda pavilion to house 40 people has 90% of its materials locally sourced. It has RCC columns with metal joint fabrication on the foundation and reused clay tile on the roof with a flattened bamboo ceiling. Marmoleum flooring, foldable wood, bamboo composite doors and Kattar wall partition round up the look.

Read also: Protecting Kathmandu’s historic roofscape, Anne Feenstra

Kiran Mathema
The Leaf
Nagarkot 2,175m

All 20 villas are located strategically to reduce environmental impact while maximising the view, privacy and sunlight. The central landscape area channels rainwater towards a pond which is then filtered for reuse. The footprint is further reduced by stacking floor areas vertically, in turn increasing daylighting and cross-ventilation during summer and solar exposure in the winter in a clever effort to minimise energy consumption. Structures are made with local materials and craftsmanship.

Supertecture Community Lodge
Shankharapur 2,180m 

Made of recycled plastic waste, old beer bottles, metal scraps, rammed earth, soil, as well as bricks and doors left from the ruins of the 2015 earthquake, this community lodge is a unique structure. Supertecture actively sought building materials from structures that collapsed during the earthquake and renovated them to become both the façade and roof of the multipurpose wooden terrace.

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