PBM&LC Nawalpur February, 2020 Photographic journey Author: Shirshak Baniya For Nagarik Aawaz
Kitchen sink We had 1 inch angle and 12 mm dia rod left over in our stock. For kitchen sink we made a metal frame in 30 minute and mounted a stainless steel sink over a ferro concrete top. The size of SS sink was 18�x16� which cost Rs 1950 . The total cost of this mobile sink came approx. Nrs 3500. In future we hope to incorporate a hot/cold 2 in 1 long body faucet worth Nrs 4000.
Lawn grass Our programme incharge Govinda Acharya supervised the lawn grass work in front of our kitchen block. This was a new work for me as I have not worked much more in landscape work prior. We sliced the local grass from nearby field and transported to our land with the means of tractor.
Lawn grass This work required great sense of care. For 2 weeks we cured it with water every 3 times a day. Also for early growth and fast setting of grass patch we poured some urea chemicals. These urea are used by local farmers in our village as a fertilizer. We cared about the slope to drain rain water to the nearby canal. This was my first experience with the lawn grass work.
Lawn edge The soft lawn landscape and the hard concrete surface of the kitchen has to be segregated with a intermediate layer. We did stone soling at the edges of the building and the 20 mm aggregate were poured which will act as a porous layer to absorb water and dirt.
Warm Led Light Lighting solution at the village are always a challenge since a lot of power fluctuation happens and the insects gathers. We found a local electrician at Sehari village. Nawaraj ji from Dhakal electrical agreed to work for our kitchen/toilet project. He suggested us to use normal bulb lights since it will be easy for maintenance and repair.
Š Ganga Sagar Rai
Warm Led Light Warm lights minimizes the insect gathering. I was convinced with this performance of warm led light at surkhet but Nawaraj ji responded that using led lights in village will be a risk since power fluctuation happens here frequently which will lead to damage. Also no any warm light bulb was available in the village market. White lights attracts more insect. Our lights in this project more exposed to semi outdoors.
Warm Led Light With lot of discussion we decided to install warm led light. We visited Narayanghat Market to search for warm light and managed to buy 20 watt 4 feet warm led light at Rs 800 and 2 feet warm led light at Rs 500. All these lights has a 1 year warranty service. Listick wiring system was adopted here. Dhakal electrical charged us Nrs 400 per points. We wrapped up the project at Nrs 53465 for electrical materials and service fee. In analysis material cost was 60% where as manpower cost was 40% of total electrical cost.
Gundri Mat We ordered a four number of gundri mat for seating and assembly purpose. The women team joined and finished those four gundri in 8 days. The size of gundri mat was 3 feet wide and 7 feet long. The weaver provided us those gundri mat at Nrs 500 per piece.
Gundri Mat This yellow textured gundri mat perfectly blend with our theme and interiors. The availability of organic raw straw is always a challenge since now a days people use thresher machine to harvest rice. This machine turn the straw into fine particle so to get a raw straw is very hard in village. We were looking to have more custom design gundri mat but lack of straw could not meet our need. In next season we will be more prepared to weave more and we hope to establish a team of professional weavers one day in Sehari.
Exterior Mud render For outer wall we choose ecru colour. The mud of Sehari village is close to the ecru color. To experiment we tried to mix mud, cowdung and wall putty in ratio of 2:1.5:1
Interior mud render The result of this investigation was a part to improve for us. No any dust from the rendered wall got attached in hand and clothes where as the water proofing strategy is still not worthy although we mixed wall putty to improvise.
Lime mud render As per the suggestion from prabal thapa architects we decided to perform a lime mud render in one of our exterior wall which was much exposed to rain. For this we imported pure lime from Kathmandu. We dissolved lime in water for 24 hours. Then we mixed the proportion of mud, lime, cowdung in 1.5:1:1.
Lime mud render The result of this mud render gave us a cosmic latte colour. With improved performance of water proofing against rain, this test was successful for us to learn best alternatives for mud render.
Metal End Sealing In previous project the metal end were sealed through welding. In this project we failed to close the end caps with metal plate. Also CGI sheets were already screwed so it was impossible to perform welding again.
Metal End Sealing We packed the end of the metal with bamboo and sticks and prepared a mixture of cement, red oxide and water to prepare a paste that would match the colour of finished leaf brown enamel.
Metal End Sealing The picture in the left shows the final finishing surface of the end of metal pipe with crimson hue color.
Kitchen cabinet We maintained the finished counter height at 28 inch. The future user of this cabinet would be our Ain kumari didi so we studied her anthropometry and maintained the counter height. Usually the minimum counter height for kitchen as per literature is minimum 30 inch. The central part of the counter was level down to create a space for gas stove. The top finish would be m10 concrete and finished punning.
Kitchen Cabinet Kesari ji initiated the work for painting of kitchen cabinet. Here we used same leaf brown colour. Since the interior of the cabinet are high exposed to wet utensils we decide to apply enamel colour.
Kitchen cabinet Lok ji and prem ji used their skill to join bamboo and metal. Also we had waste plywood of 19mm in our store. We used those plywood to create a frame work for drawer. We imported door hinge and drawer slider from Kathmandu of worth Nrs 3000. Overall this kitchen cabinet idea was proposed and designed by our volunteer architect Dinesh Chaudhary. In the absence of Dinesh ji I handled the execution process with hit and trail. The joinery of hinge and metal were complicated for us and in the end we managed to solve that.
Village study The built environment of Sehari village is starting to change in terms of building material and proportion. But the people are trying to conserve the form and physical outlook. This shows their love towards the outlook of their indigenous house. Lot of migrant worker at city and gulf are the economic backbone for Sehari village. The modern house are built in phase by phase process. They make cement foundation this year and add brick wall next year. Everything happens in instalment process. CGI are the most powerful building material here. The picture shows a 12 feet long coloured CGI sheet being installed in the concrete house at background.
Village study Sehari has its own antiquity in weaving. This was the art of weaving from plastic ropes found at one of the house.
Village study The timber frame are graciously designed here. The shape and pattern are all balanced in every weaved geometry.
Bamboo procurement We managed to buy bamboo from local farmers for safety railing work. We obtained 20 pieces of bamboo which cost Rs 200 per piece. These bamboo are 2.5-3.5 inch in diameter and usually 25 feet tall in average. To cut bamboo poles, 3 people were involved accounting a manpower budget of Nrs 2100.
Bamboo procurement We rub out all the nodes with hand tool and drilled the nodes with 3 mm screw to drain out water inside it. We prepared the bamboo into our necessary size.
Bamboo Treatment For kitchen/toilet building the architect Emil Shrestha has supervised bamboo treatment by immersing it in water for a month. This helps to remove starch inside the bamboo so that termite attacks can be prevented in future. The water immersion treatment system would require minimum a month to treat a bamboo. We opted for traditional smoke treatment system this time since we did not have time to wait for treated bamboo. We treated the bamboo in smoke for 8 hours. To introduce a high tech bamboo treatment system will be the part of pbm&lc future extension project.
Bamboo railing We began the installation of bamboo as a safety railing to the vertical metal post. We have used 10 mm threaded rod with nut system.
Bamboo railing In future any kind of repair and maintenance is easy in this fixing process. We maintained the height of the railing at 36 inch. We executed the installation of bamboo railing in coordination with architect emil Shrestha and Nagarik Awaz head team.
Bamboo railing To infill the gap between the two horizontal bamboo we studied the khatiya (bed) of the village. People finely weaved these wooden frame with a plastic rope. We did a ideation to create a simple and revised version of weaving for our railing.
Railing weaving To weave at the railing was a challenging process. Since the gap between the two horizontal bamboo was almost 24 inch , the safety was the most concern. Initially the client team at Sehari were not convinced with weaving the ropes as these will not be durable. They were looking for vertical bamboo to be stitched to horizontal same like in kitchen building. As a sample test we decided to weave natural rope of babiyo as seen in picture as a mock up.
Railing weaving We invited Rewat ji from our village to use his skills for weaving the railing. We completed the mock up. We decided to have a discussion on site before we choose the final design for the railing. For this expert group and client team from Kathmandu were arriving the site on February end for the inauguration of kitchen/ toilet block.
Village study The culture and lifestyle is very rich in the village of Sehari. The picture shows the house which recently concluded the wedding. Everything is minimal and organic. The entry gate is guarded by banana tree at both sides. The arc frames is made from bamboo and banana leaf. After the wedding is finished these structure remains in the house for some weeks and later on it is disposed. These are purely biodegradable. These thing forms a pure element of minimalism and eco friendly.
Village study This looks like a house for chicken and goats. I was also confused during the early days. Later on I started investing why every house has this kind of dedicated beautiful structure. Actually this is a store house for rice grain and cereal which are harvested by the people from the field. Most of the house has this store which are visible from the road. These are all made from local timber painted with bright colour.
Village study This was a scenario of village market called haat bazaar which happens weekly located 5 km away from our project site of pbm&lc. From clothes to cereals, meat to vegetable all can be shopped here. These are the perfect place for designers and architect like us to explore the authentic celebration of temporary structures and traditions of decorating their products.
Village study I found this ultimate piece of ornamentation and space organization of the products by one of the shopkeeper at haat bazaar. He excitingly accommodated 52 bags of items under one roof. The colourful beans and masala enveloped with white bag is stimulating to learn different colour scheme. The order, rhythm, repetition, hierarchy, datum all these principle can be observed in his decoration. As lewardist (indian illustrator,comic writer) shares that everyone are designer and architect of their own. Inspiration for design, colour, pattern, theme can be found anywhere that surrounds us. Just we have to make our eyes loud and have a endurance to observe the quietness of the beauty that these village shares with us.
Village study As modernism is driving from city to village, it is apparent that the consumption of modern building material can be profoundly seen even in the village. The bright colour are always nominated by the people in village. The two way slope usually called Namaste roof is a borrowed version from the city. The ancient village never used these Namaste form. These are the derivatives of observation of migrant worker at city. Although this building doesn’t execute good in term of thermal properties, the best learning we can learn from the village is that investment in living house are just kept simple and small.
Village study The spatial layout of the village house is always a noteworthy point to summarize. The frontal puncture in the volume is called veranda where the sitting bench called khatiya is placed. This layout is followed by most of the house of whole terai. These khatiya are purely all wood. This is a place where guest at first reach the home and waits there. The summer temperature is intense hot here. The house owner mostly uses this space as outdoor night bed for cool wind. These volumes are actually the living cells to the house.
Village study Roofs are exquisitely designed here in one of the old house. The upper roofs are a indigenous terracotta clay tile roof called khapda in Nepali. These kind of clay tile production has ended here in almost all of the village of Nepal. The lower roof are made up of micro concrete by the people of village. These concrete roof production is also eliminated from the village. Every building material were locally sourced and prepared through hand through people’s participation. Now CGI has replaced all the ethnic roofing material.
Village study Month of February was a season of wedding. The house plan have adequate volume to cater the mass. No any party palace and banquet have entered in this village. The three giant arch at the frontal zone of house welcomes the guest and owners. The three set of DJ sound speaker is accommodated in one of the arch. The space are so much multifunctional and unprogrammed. Varieties of events happens in these unprogrammed space.
Village study Here also we can figure out store house for chicken and grain with bright colour at the background. The foreground has the bench platform used in the wedding to have a dining. Usually these benches are mobile and can be transported from one place to another. These are the shared furniture used by the people of village in various ceremonials and festivals. Normally I have observed a single seater chair in practice in most of the wedding of village which provides a high sense of independence. However these benches like in school were new practice for me where a group dining could increase sense of social space
Window work We selected the 1 inch square metal pipe to create a frame work for our window. We purchased plain polycarbonate sheets from nearby city market which was Rs 160 per sqft.
Window work Our objective of this fresh typology of window was to make a more durable panel and also to train our local artisan. This window panel project was success for us and we have gained high confidence in reducing outsourcing work to city vendors.
Window work The total cost of this type of window panel came to approx. Rs 535 per sq.ft. Normally in the village aluminium vendors are occupying the market. At Rs 550 per sq.ft. the vendors installs window panel from 1.3mm aluminium frame with 4mm glass.
Survey Work Lok ji and prem ji began the making of wooden peg required for the survey work which was supposed to start after few days.
Survey Work On February 20 team led by Narendra Dangol reached the site at Sehari village from Kathmandu. Narendra Man Dangol is our consultant for water management plan. Surveyor Akal Das Maharjan and Prasit Maharjan from trishakti topographic survey center (TTSC) started the work with the total station machine. The survey of land focused on contour mapping and position of built structure, canal, trees and other. Me along with my friend Nabin Chaudhary assisted the survey team for 3 days.
Survey Member In picture left to right Prasit Maharjan Narendra Man Dangol Akal das Maharjan
Survey Team In picture left to right Prasit Maharjan (TTSC) Sovakant Lamsal (Nagarik aawaz) Akal Das Maharjan (TTSC) Nabin Chaudhary (Environment enginner) Narendra Man Dangol (Niva rain) Sunita Maharjan (Niva rain) Shirshak Baniya (Nagarik aawaz)
Plumbing works We were almost to the end of our kitchen/toilet project. Plumber Padam ji (right)from chormara city executed our plumbing works. Our bathroom and washing station has provision of both hot and cold water. Lok ji (left) also learned plumbing works from Padam ji. Once the water drops from each and every faucet we will be concluding our project.
Landscape work Majority of our landscape work was envisioned and executed by Sovakant Lamsal. He is one of our full time staff for Nagarik aawaz coordinating the training work and vending work of construction material. He has a hobby of gardening and plantation. I really admired his passion for landscape design. Mostly we used raw stones and we transported the flower and plants from our utility gardens to the perimeter of the kitchen and toilet.
NA KTM team arrival The CEO of Nagarik Aawaz (NA) Susan Risal along with Ganga ji and Hari ji arrived at Sehari project site from Kathmandu as part of the monthly visit. This time we were also inaugurating the newly built neo vernacular kitchen and toilet building. Our youth and peace ambassadors from various ward have been preparing for this event through music, dance, and presentation. Our programme incharge Govinda ji has been mentoring and facilitating the youth for this event.
NA KTM team arrival The next day founder of Nagarik aawaz Rita thapa also joined with us. She founded Nagarik aawaz on 2001AD. She is playing a vital role in coordinating the engineering team for the infrastructure development of peace building memorial and learning centre (PBM&LC) here at Sehari, Nawalpur. With her team she has already realized Tewa centre at Kathmandu as a client. She is admirer of local craft and indigenous technology. This is reason why I love working with her team for the innovation and promotion of improvised craft and local technologies.
Inauguration event Our recently built neo vernacular space was inaugurated by our care taker Ain kumara didi with a candle light. The addition of this kitchen with 2 toilets and 1 bathroom will act as a catalyst for future construction project and training events. We invited all the men and women who were involved in the construction process. More than 30 people participated in the event. The event was followed with presentation, music, dance and dining.
Post occupancy The natural bare wall with doors enables the wall presentation. Strategic electrical power socket facilitates electrical devices like multi plug and projector. Six mobile charging points are provided at 3 side of the kitchen wall. Our vision to create a modern amenities inside a neo vernacular structure has been realized and the next step is to maintain and care it.
Post occupancy 70 percentage of the space are semi outdoor with a insulated roof overhead. Seating arrangement can be adjusted by the users as per the module of the programme and event. The finished cement punning floor surface are easy to clean and maintain.
Post occupancy The food was cooked in this LPG flames. The finished kitchen cabinet was friendly for our care taker Ain kumari didi. This was the first time she was using gas stove. Sudha ji and Taruna ji from our Nawalpur NA office facilitated the cooking session. They all managed to organize the utensils inside the kitchen cabinet. Ain didi is learning to handle these utility kitchen day by day.
Post occupancy We prepared food in our new kitchen and served to our guest. Except rice which came from city market all other ingredients like lentil, potato, radish, spinach and even mustard oil were resourced within our land.
Post occupancy The provision of hot and cold water has been maintained at this washing station. The two faucets facilitated the mass washing of dishes. Women are learning to control hot/cold water. In village most of the women are comfortable to wash dish in a seating position. For big utensils one additional tap and health faucet has been provided at the wall for those who feel uneasy to wash dish in standing position.
Post occupancy Staircase are not just only a medium for movement here. It’s a medium for the user themselves to act and create their own comfort and function. More than 8 Youth selected this space as a balcony of cinema hall to attend the inaugural event. With a sunshine in a winter they enjoyed the pleasure of this built space in a new dimension. Architecture volumes can never be the scripted space. Designer can envisions a defined space. The pleasure of the architecture is to look and observe how users coordinates with the element of air, light and material to define their personal version as a inhabitants.
Relationship Building In less than a three month we realized this built space in spite of the challenging climate. We resisted the dense fog and cold with the warm love and ownership. The place and people were totally new for us. More than 25 people worked as a construction worker from start to finish of the project. We created local jobs for men, women and youth. We purchased local materials like bamboo, straw, khar, khadiya from the local people of this village.
Relationship Building We produced and shared the economy with the villagers. We have collected the trust from Sehari village. In the chormara city which is 10 km away form our project site we have developed professional and intimate relationship with market vendors who delivered us construction materials. This will also facilitate the possibilities and network sharing for the future construction work. We distributed responsibilities and this is the reason we accomplished the project as a team. Learning and exchange of skill between each other was always a primary event here at project site.
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