spaces for economy

Common sPaCes

Shops

There are around 5-10 shops in the village. They are hold by the richer families and are a support for their economy.

Most of them are unnoticeable at first, like wareroom in some of the family houses. Some of them are specialized, for rise, soap or ironmongery.

The one on the picture is organized as a proper kiosk facing the road and sells gas, soap, and the regular treats that can be find in most of the village shops - Pepsi cola, Mountain Dew, some candies and the famous dry noodles.

Bus Stop

At the end of the road towards the river there is a shop with a shield for the bus stop for the public bus that passes during dry periods.

TAILOr MAN

There is one tailor man shop next to the road that is always open and seems to gather groups of chatting neighbours every now and then.

Traces Of Urbanity

suPPly and mobility

CrOSSINg THE rIVEr AND SUPPLY

Although a public bus is able to cross the river during the dry periods. During monsoon time, it gets too high even for a tractor.

To cross the river, to reach the nearest market, or to transport any materials or goods during that time, they use inflatable tires pushed by two-three strong men or make a life chain to cross the water holding on to each other. All the goods during that period are transported like this (food, fuel, clothing, building materials).

FUTUrE

BrIDgE

The pillars for a new highway bridge, finally connecting the village with the bigger urban areas, are already there, waiting for the rain season to pass in order to pour the concrete further on.

Naturally, the road infrastructure is a main factor for urbanization. Once there is a comfortable and sure connection to the city during all the times of the year, the goods of civilization, including cheap contemporary building materials and much more market products, will flow much easier and faster to the area. The expansion and modernisation could make some aspects of the village life easier, but will bring with itself pollution and overbuilding of agricultural land.

MArKET

The market happens every Thursday in the village across the river and it’s also considered as one of the weekly social events. Usually a family needs to go once a month to the market. Mainly women are going shopping, but sometimes boys or men are taking care for some of the heavier purchases.

The way from our hosting house to the village takes approximately two hours, including the crossing of the river. Looking at the typologies of the houses and the market facility itself, this village is a step further towards urbanization and could suggest in which direction Pipalmadi will change after the bridge is built.

The market structure itself constitutes of stands forming a Pi-shaped courtyard, creating a feeling of collective openness.

On The Road Back Market Ground

Public Machinery

Water and Gas mills

The Mills

A distinctive kind of rural public facilities, with a very specialised urban purpose, are the common water and gas mills, accessible by all the inhabitants during certain hours of the day, used for the domestic treatment of grains.

There is one responsible person, who watches over the mill and gets in return a small payment from the community, keeping as well some of the flour or grains for himself.

The Water Mill

The water mill is a simple machine using the natural force of the water movement to grind cereals to flour. It is used mainly for corn and rise, sometimes for soy - the local harvested products.

Mechanism

There is a small channel which opens with a small wooden board and leads water from the river down to the metal wheel under the mill construction. The water spins the metal wheel, which, on its side, spins the mill stone on top, inside the mill hut. The grains are being pounded through a big conus to the hole in the middle of the stone, and from there grinded between the stone and the basin in which it sits. The speed of the wheel is being regulated by a small lever that moves the metal wheel higher or deeper into the water stream.

The Diesel Mills

The diesel mill was a more recent invention, installed probably around 1960s. Due to its dependence on fuel, it is not so sustainable and far more expensive for the local community. Nevertheless it makes some of the domestic work much easier than it used to be before.

1. THE DIESEL ENGINE

The diesel mill is an assemble of machines, that can activate each other through a system of wheels and belts, powered by a diesel engine. The diesel engine has a diesel tank and water tank for condensation, similar to the engine of a car. It spins the belt for water, needed to cool it down, as well as the belt that activates the rest of the machines.

2. DRYING RICE

The machine for drying rice is the first one in the sequence. After harvesting, the rice needs first to be dried.

The three bowls are heated by fire lighted in the camine-like space underneath. Three sticks with a mix head go down to the bowls and spin it for a faster effect. For a better effect, the rice is being moved consecutively from one bowl into the next.

This machine is used also for other cereals.

Another option is the machine for producing flat rise or other flat cereals, which are quite typical for the Nepali traditional kitchen. The rise is being poured and grained in-between the two rotating stones. The peels fall down through holes under the rotation surface.

After drying, the rice is being poured into the conus of the peeling machine.

There is as well an oil pressing machine, used to gain oil from the seeds of yellow flower, sunflower, mustard, soy etc. The grains fall down into a press cylinder that squeezes the grains. The oil than flows down through a grid, the rests are thrown out from the front of the cylinder.

Traditional Building Elements

struCture, Walls, roofinG

gENErAL STRUCTURE

The buildings have a traditionally wooden structure or a combination of wood and stone.

Walls

The walls diverse from thick stone-mud, through wooden, to woven versions of wood and mud, bamboo and mud or straw and mud, depending on the purpose of the building. The living units have usually a stone-mud walling on the first floor and wooden walling on the second floor (picture top right). Only the house of the local builders’ family has a three-storey house with stone-mud walls until the last floor (picture down right). The smaller houses, usually hosting the animal underneath and having some rooms on the second floor, or the houses for storing of core and straw, have lighter wall constructions. (e.g. picture middle right).

Roofing

Roofing is usually done out of mud tiles, or straw for simpler and more insignificant buildings.

Simpler Structures

There are also some smaller constructions with simple walls out of bamboo or even straw-mud.

Wooden Joints

COLUMN - BEAM - ROOFING JOINTS

WALL

A wooden plank is positioned in the middle of the wall to redistribute the forces, because of the uneven form of the form of stones

Straw

Straw is used under the tile roofing for rain protection, as well as for walling of smaller spaces, in combination with mud.

ornaments/decoration

WindoW, door, floor

In the richer houses and buildings one sees wooden patterns covering the windows, which act as shading elements. The wooden window patterns are meant to protect the beautiful daughters of the local families from the views of king coming through the village during festivals. From the same reason are deriving the patterns of the doors on the second floor.

The small holes in the all were originally left for the builders to be able to climb up and build further. As a side effect they contribute to the ventilation.

OrNAMENTS

Floor

The wooden floor is covered with mud to close the holes in-between, protecting from wind and not letting small object fall down.

ORNAMENTED WOODEN DOORS - 2nd FLOOR

building typologies overvieW

Some more images of different local housing typologies:

For one month we stayed at the host family Rai in Pipalmadi. Their house is located in the middle of the rice fields, surrounded by two other houses of families. Here, three generations of the family members live together. This experience gave us the opportunity to dive into the Nepali daily life and culture, and understand it through experience.

Our Host Family Family And The House

FAMILY rAI

This family tree shows the three generations who live together in the house. While we were there, only Bishnu and Lila of the second generation were present, because the other brothers were working or studying outside the village. The wife of the eldest son and their two children are also living in the same house. The father, Shambhu Rai, and the daughter, Bishnu Rai, are teachers of the school. The son, Lila Rai, and granddaughter, Kusalta Rai, are students of the school. During the day, the mother and daughter- in-law stay at home to take care of the house.

Not only the family lives in this house, also the teacher of mathematics, Mukeshav, lives with the family. In return of his stay, he coaches the children.

This family is very warm and open, like all the Nepali people. Most of the time, people of the neighbourhood come for a visit or work together.

On the picture: the family, the neighbours and some students form the school gathered to say goodbye before we left.

Main Building Stables

The House Territory

The house is located in a cluster of three houses. The territory of the family is divided in two buildings, one is the main building, the other are the stables. The area in between is used for the animals (chickens, goats, buffalo, etc.), to work, to rest etc. Outside the house there is also a toilet.

Main Building

This building is raised up with stones and clay. In the front of the building, there is a covered terrace to sit. The kitchen and the dining room are located on the ground floor. This level is constructed by traditional materials (stones and clay). In the dining room there is a staircase (made from wood) which leads to the first floor (outside). Upstairs there is a small covered terrace and 4 rooms constructed in wood.

Stables

Next to the main building are the stables. On the ground floor, there is space for the buffalo, which are tied to the structure, and goats, which are locked. There is a storage area upstairs for corn, grass etc. Above the stables of the goats, there are still two more rooms. This building is mainly made of wood.

Morning Routine

the household duties of the inhabitants

The day comes with the crowing of the rooster. Ama, the mother of Bishnu, and her daughterin-law start the day cleaning the water container and all the cooking dishes, preparing them for the cooking afterwards. They will make sure the barrels, including the one in the toilet, are full with water. The water is a sensitive issue and having a backup is important.

The task of Bishnu is to clean the floor of the house and especially the doorstep - an important religious ritual. It represents the readiness end respect towards everybody who enters.

Afterwards she opens the door of the hen house and cleans the courtyard from mud, dust and leaves.

Then comes the time to feed all the animalschickens, goats and buffalo. The grass for the buffalo is on the floor above them and is being pushes down through the beams.

The excrements of the buffalo are an important resource, used as a building material supplement for the mud, as well as for production of biogas and fertilizer.

The father goes almost every morning at 6 o’clock to fish. Ama is sitting in front of the house to collect the fish from the net.

She mixes them with water in the tank, together with the rest of the food and lets them flow into the biodigester tank under the ground. The toilet outlet also connects to it.

Typical natural Biogas - compost system. At a certain point in the past, they were installed at most of the houses in the village.

Image: ecoursesonline.iasri.res.in

During the fermentation of the garbage to compost it produces biogas and its pressure pushes the compost through the compost outlet, towards the vegetable garden and the rice fields.

Food

suPPly and CookinG

Dal Bhat

Twice a day, in the morning and the evening, the Nepali people eat dal bhat. This is a traditional meal which consists steamed rice (bhat) and cooked lentil soup (dal). Some vegetables, potatoes and/or meat/fish are also added to this meal.

They eat on the floor and take the food by their hands. The family eats in the kitchen and the guests eat in the dining room.

Food

Every family has its own rice field and plants for lentils. When it is a sunny day, they spread them out on a plastic sail to dry on the ground or on the roof.

Kitchen

It is only allowed for family members or wellknown friends to enter the kitchen. Here, the women cook and prepare the plates for all the members of the family. Before cooking, the women must take a shower as a cultural/ religious ritual, to be clean from their dreams before touching the food.

Because of the fire used for cooking, the wooden beams are being smoked and dried, which makes their bearing quality higher. They also use the spaces of the structure of the roof as a storage.

COOKINg

Out of the window, a pipe is coming out which contains methane gas of the toilet. Thanks to this, it is possible to cook by gas. They use it to steam the rice and cook the lentil soup. For baking, they use the fire.

They have different techniques to cut the potatoes, meat, fish, vegetables, etc. in pieces. They also use a lot of spices that they crush on a stone.

The drinkable water, coming to the sink, floats down through plumping hoses from a small naturally formed point, lying a bit higher up the village road. It works just as connecting vessels.

The water is filtrated through the stones and the soil. One of the hoses is going down providing water for two sinks, each sink shared by two families. When the upper houses use the water, they just disconnect the hose connection to the sink of family Rai for a while.

Atmosphere Inside The House

Bedrooms

The bedrooms are quite shadowy. The interplay between the sun rays, the window pattern and the colourful mosquito nets create a nice light atmosphere.

Terraces

Terraces on the second floor are important space where the members rest or even sleep, when the weather is nice. Guests are also often welcomed on the terrace.