PBM&LC Nawalpur January, 2020 Photographic journey Author: Shirshak Baniya For Nagarik Aawaz
Connecting bridge The idea of the bridge was to connect the toilet and kitchen block for easy access. 1.5 inch MS angle is weaved together followed by 7 mm diameter rod. The wire mesh is provided above and below the 7mm dia rod. Doing this so the conventional formwork process was eliminated to reduce time and cost. A cement mortar of ratio 1:5 was applied followed by cement punning as a finish surface.
Kitchen wall The walls of house at Sehari village is a composition of bamboo/timber frame followed by mud plaster. The thermal properties is very decent but during monsoon the dampness and water starts to rise up from walls near ground. In this building we decided to go with cement walls up to 3 feet and above that we favoured mud walls to minimize the dampness as these lower part of the walls are likely to get exposed to windy rain during heavy monsoon.
Kitchen wall Lok ji in picture is busy making cement wattle and daub walls. This was his first time experience in working with these wall techniques. He had worked with only brick wall before. Brick wall are minimum 7 inch thick with finished plaster layer where as these cement walls using reinforcement can provide us 3 inch smooth wall which is strong and durable. This technique minimizes the provision of necessary sill band and lintel band as in brick wall. These wall are not just the wall only but acts as a binding structure as a whole.
Mud wall For the first time we decided to experiment mud walls over 7mm dia rod mesh. In the picture right, we can see the mud wall applied as per the ritual of village but the reinforcement here is the wire mesh and 7mm dia rod. Usually the mud can make the iron rod rust easily so we applied primer and emulsion paint to iron rod and mesh. After a years we will be observing the resultant of this mud wall experiment which could be a reference line for the future generation.
Toilet wall We finally finished our all cement and mud walls for the building. In these new practice of wall we could train 5 male workers. We tried to break the conventional brick wall, lintel and sill band practice. We provided opportunities to the low skilled civil worker to apply plaster coats. Their conventional typology of work to make only cement mortar mixture was also rested. Doing this so we could build trust and confidence in our low skilled worker.
Bench platform Sehari village has its own legacy in terms of weaving. In past people used to visit forest and make a natural ropes out of it and weave it to make a bed and benches in timber frame. However now a days visit to dense forest are restricted due to new buffer zones rule. People now a days uses plastic and nylon ropes to weave the bed and benches. For people at Sehari to weave is just similar to the meditation. A lot of concentration has to be done while weaving.
Bench platform We invited team of artisan to create a design for the new way of weaving for bench platform. The members of civil team, metal workers all gathered and showed their own creativity. We were looking for fast and durable weaving pattern that could provide us a calm platform to rest. In picture lok ji and prem ji revised some iteration of weaving and we all finalized the weaving pattern jointly for easy and comfortable installation.
Bench platform The final product was a figure of beauty and innovative definition of weaving to the people of Sehari. We have used plastic ropes for this weaving project to investigate how this material will perform in future. Since villagers elect for the nylon rope in their weaving project, we decided to go with this plastic ropes since it was available as a spare in our store house. This is not exposed to direct rain and sun. The functionality of this material will provide a bench mark for the future generation.
Village study This is a typical hand made tools for gundri weaving. Gundri in nepali is a special type of mat made from rice straw. These techniques are disappearing from the village since people have easy access to plastic mats at city.
Village study Another main challenge in making this mat is the lack of availability of rice straw. In past people used ox to harvest rice where they used to tie ox at the center of the pole and straw is placed at floor, so ox moves in a circumference and rice gets detached from the straw. These straw are never damaged and retains its shape and size. How ever now a days thresher machine are used which cuts straw into fine particle. So lack of long straw is the primary reason behind the departure of this weaving.
CGI roof Village dweller uses 0.26 mm cgi for roofing since its is cheap and lightweight. In this project since we are having 10 feet and 7 feet standard cgi roof which is subsequently long, so we decided to choose for 0.32 mm cgi. The performance during installation was very good and no any permanent distorting and bending was seen during the installation process. It took us 5 days to complete our cgi roof installation with two metal worker.
Bamboo chair Mock up Our volunteer architect Dinesh Chaudhary initiated a mock up construction of bamboo chair. He used his creativity in collaboration with the artisan to complete one bamboo chair.
Bamboo chair Mock up 10 mm threaded rod with nut and bolts were used to join the pieces of bamboo.
Bamboo chair Mock up The chair is a masculine in form and proportion. The primary structure is a 3 inch dia bamboo and then bracing are followed by 1.5 inch dia bamboo.
Bamboo chair Mock up Lok ji successfully tested the mock up for the safety and comfortability. Later on we again added some bracing to make it strong enough.
Metal staircase 1 inch MS angle was used to create a frame work for tread. 1mm metal sheet was used to fill vertical gap between the treads. Arjun ji and govinda ji are busy on welding activities. They live about 4 km away from Sehari and they both are the brothers from same family. Arjun ji is the younger brother who is a master welder where as his senior brother govinda ji is assistant to his younger brother. They own a metal grill shop in the city which is 15 km away from the sehari.
Metal staircase We finished the Ferro cement work for metal staircase. The finished layer will be cement punning with white cement admixtures. We decide to experiment with punning that could give us more white texture. For this we are planning to add white cement into the cementwater solution during the punning work in future.
Kitchen Cabinet Framework In less than 2 hours we finished the metal structure for kitchen cabinet. The cabinet will have bamboo planks and the topping will be m20 concrete followed by cement punning.
Bamboo water proofing For bamboo water proofing we tested with two solution. First was using chapra polish which i learned during my days at abari bamboo and earth initiative. Here in the process we buy 1 litre sprit which is of nokia brand available only at narayanghat. We mix these 1 litre sprit with 600 gram chapra candy. We put that solution in sun and let the solution dissolve properly. We then apply the liquid polish to bamboo with woollen clothes. We do not use brush and varnish to act as a medium for water proofing since these polish doesn’t provide yellowish shine to bamboo.
Bamboo water proofing Second water proofing agent we used was a sanding sealer for wood. This makes a thick layer in the bamboo which is cheaper than chapra polish. Both of the water proofing agent has their own speciality. For the bamboo exposed to direct sun and rain we used sanding sealer where as in the interiors we used chapra polish. Chapra polish is a highly sensitive and dedicated job and is also a expensive one but gives a very fine-looking functional result.
Brick experiment We took various bricks to test the water proofing result for the wall. We mixed mud, cow dung with various other admixtures like plaster of paris, wall putty, cement, lime. Also for new result in cement punning we mixed with admixtures like white cement and wall putty.
Brick experiment The lime, cowdung, mud gave the best result against water. This was followed by the ppc cement, mud, cowdung mixture which also gave a very strong result against water. Wall putty mixtures was also successful against water. Pure lime is available only in Kathmandu. Wall putty is available at narayanghat and various city. The punning experiment with ppc cement, white cement and water was very successful and gave a good result which we are going to apply in staircase tread finish.
Murali bamboo procurement On top of the cgi roof we are going to have khar roof. Khar is a special kind of wild grass used as a insulation material against dew and heat. For the khar roofing job we procured Murali bamboo of diameter 1.5 inch to create a frame work for khar roof.
Khar binding The team of men and women gathered to bind the khar. 30 percent of the khar was harvested locally within our site where as we bought the remaining from the community. We will be again experimenting with techniques of khar roofing system. Toilet block will have conventional tharu style roof which is fast and easy where as kitchen block will have refined magar style roof which requires high craftsmanship.
Khar binding In picture artisan Kesari Mahato knocks a big smile to the khar team during our gossip session. Sitting in the sunshine at 2 pm in this winter with group of team, talking about our daily life and at the same time performing work for our project has been already established as a culture here at Sehari. Everyone love and respect each other’s work here at pbm&lc project. We share stories and happening. We share festival events and religious activity. We have become a family.
Khar mock up Our neighbour Hom ji has been leading this roofing work since he has previous experience of roof work. For me this was complete a new task and much more to learn about this roofing system. Hom ji coordinated from material to manpower procurement. To build a beauty its really a quality team work and trust. For kitchen building we will be having Nepal’s first ever new kind of khar roofing system. We were inspired from magar community for this roof.
Bamboo ropes/choya People in village uses fresh cut bamboo and they make a special kind of ropes to tie the khar roof. However in this project primary binding element was this bamboo rope which was followed by GI wire in necessary connection for durability.
Bamboo ropes/choya They produce these flesh kind of bamboo ropes with their own had tools. This looks super organic.
Khar roof framework Team of 3 artisan specialized in khar roof started the roof insulation work. They live 3 km away from our project site. The two layers of Murali bamboo were attached through binding wire weaved at the cap of hiltee screw that fixes metal frame and cgi. The J hook was drilled in cgi which provided additional support for the bamboo frame work.
Khar roof insulation The thickness of one mutha of khar is 5 inch. Mutha is a nepali unit which means we can catch those bunch with one hand. The final average thickness of the khar roof will be 12 inch. In village usually thickness of 4 inch is maintained and according to our research they add or replace those khar every 3-4 years. Our 12 inch khar roof at kitchen building will have life span of minimum of 10 years.
Khar roof insulation It took us 5 days and 3 days to complete the khar roof installation work at kitchen and toilet building respectively. 3 person worked in the roof to weave the khar where as 3 person worked in ground to prepare the khar.
Khadiya weaving Khadiya is a natural sticks available locally around the river bank. This has a diameter of 5-10 mm. Villagers uses this khadiya sticks to make fencing, framework for mud wall.
Khadiya weaving In this project we were using khadiya to cover our gable end below the roof. Also we were using this local material to create a partition wall and door panel. We washed and dried these khadiya in sunshine for almost a week.
Khadiya weaving People at village uses the natural straw rope to weave khadiya which doesn’t last for years due to direct contact with rain and sun. Here we decided to go with copper wire for durability. This was going to be new practice for our two artisan.
Khadiya weaving Rewat ji and kum ji joined as a lead artisan to weave khadiya. They live very near to our project site. Hom ji helped us to find these new set of artisan. From washing, preparing to weaving it took us altogether 12 days with two artisan to finish our details for gable end, partition wall at kitchen and three door panel at toilet.
Khadiya weaving These weaved panel will be used in a toilet door. The frame is a metal angle and metal pipe of 1 inch size.
Toilet door panel Lok ji and prem ji started fixing the weaved khadiya into metal frame. We used 0.36 mm plain cgi sheet in interior. Our weaved khadiya will be exposed to outdoor.
Toilet door panel This kind of door was very first experiment so the artisan had a bit trouble during the start-up period. The first door took 2 days from preparation to installation. To fix the handles, hinges, chukul was terrible in this metal frame which we learned a lot for future work. After we successfully finished first door. Later one we finished remaining two door in two days.
Mud render We mixed the natural mud with cowdung and prepared the mixture for rendering mud wall. Here cow dung acts as a catalyst to create smooth adobe surface and this minimizes the crack on the mud render. All of our mud walls are neither exposed direct to sun and rain.
Mud render Our Ain didi led the mud render work at kitchen. We tried to mimic the essence of small opening which is usually found in village. This will perfectly function as a visual linkage between the exterior and interiors.
Mud render These red shade of mud render acts a perfect division between these two floor level.
Expert team arrival Susan ji, rita ji, ganga ji from Nagarik aawaz Kathmandu visited the Sehari pbm&lc center. In the team engineer narendra ji from Niva rain also joined at site along with architect/planner prabal thapa and architect emil Shrestha.
Expert team arrival In picture left to right Architect Emil Shrestha, Architect/planner prabal thapa and Ganga sagar rai from Nagarik aawaz The physical conceptual master plan for pbm&lc has been developed by prabal thapa architects. This was my first meeting with architect prabal thapa at site after a long time. I used to have architect prabal thapa during my academic life as a juror in the design projects. To share a live session with him on site was a pleasure and opportunity for me to learn more.
Expert team arrival We had a walk around in this ongoing neovernacular kitchen/toilet. We discussed possible area of improvisation in these building techniques. Architect emil Shrestha in left works for prabal thapa architects. Architect emil and me both under graduated in architecture from same institution. He was our inspirational senior. We used to have a lot of collaboration in architecture exhibitions and festivals. Architect emil Shrestha was the one who invited me to carry this new project with a neo vernacular essence.
Cleaning/sanding Finally it was a time for painting the walls. We invited a team of women to handle this job. This time instead of hiring painter from city we decided that our women will finish all these cleaning to painting work. This was the first time they were playing with primer and emulsion paints in metal and chapra polish in bamboo.
Cleaning/sanding In picture keshari ji is busy cleaning the metal pipes to prepare a good surface for enamel paint. We were commissioning leaf brown colour to the metal pipe.
Enamel painting Left to right Lila ji, kesari ji and susma ji
Enamel painting Our paint team finished the task in 3 days. This was our immense success in terms of mobilization of female manpower in paint and finishing work. In future we hope to train this enthusiastic team of women in simple machinery/tools for cutting and drilling.
Partition wall We started the installation of weaved partition wall. These are very light weigh and semi permeable to lights. This also works worthy for air ventilation.
Red mud procurement We collected the red mud 10 km away from the site. The mud was free of cost. We shipped 5 cement bag full of mud from chormara highway to Sehari to create a playful touch in our brick wall.
Red mud render In picture left to right Kesari ji and lila ji
Red mud render The first coat we mixed red mud and rice husk and applied to brick wall so that cracks would appear after it is dried. After this we mixed red mud with cow dung only to apply paste over the first coat. This provided us smooth finishing.
Thank you