Founding Partner Nikki McFarland along with a Team of 6 fellow researchers undertook a year long project, investigating the rural village of Bungamati in the Kathmandu valley, Nepal. The project looked into living conditions of families who had lost their ancestral homes in the Earthquake of April 2015. Through extensive meetings, consultations and workshops, the research concluded with a projected proposal for rebuilding homes with in the village and was used to initiate a longer term relationship with future MA and Diploma students at The Cass, London Met University.
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An Extract from the published research
"Two site-specific potential projects emerged from this extensive research. They propose improved designs for earthquake-resistant housing that is safe and considerate of current financial and legislative impediments. The devised programme suggests appropriate models for incremental construction that address local sanitation problems and envision strategies for future expansion at different scales.
In so far as it has been developed, the proposed implementation strategy encourages a dispersed group of 17 individual families to work together as a collective team, using the skills and resources available to them to help each other to build back each one of their homes. The greater ambition is to empower these dispersed families to act as leaders in their local communities, instigating further development in neighbouring properties. In particular circumstances, such as those of Ratna Man Tuladhar and his neighbours, it may be possible to extend the scope of the live project beyond one house to include a cluster of properties in the initial phases of reconstruction, thus testing and implementing the proposal at the larger scale of the street.
The information presented in this publication is intended to be used as a starting point for new and continuing ARCSR students, at Degree, Diploma and MA level, from which to pursue live making opportunities in Bungamati and beyond. Any potential project will need to be rigorously tested and adjusted through proactive and diverse methods of architectural research and practice, in order to find accommodations that better fit the physical and cultural topography of each site. We look forward to returning to the community of Bungamati to continue our work alongside BFN in the upcoming November 2016 field trip."
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Credit to the Team of 6 others involved in this research project Pradeepa Sivasanthiran, Corina Tuna, Rengin Dogan, Isabelle Chapman, Nick Rose and Tanya Stagnetto.
In association with Architecture of Rapid Change and Scare Resources, The Water Trust and Bungamati Foundation.
