URBIZEN

Village houses may be artists' delight, and cement structures in villages may look like incongruous ugly dots in a picturesque landscape. But while urbanites may feel that village houses should retain their traditional appearance - and therefore be made of wood, stone, mud etc. - villagers themselves are quick to point to the irony in this: the well-meaning urbanites themselves have long ago abandoned traditional housing! Low cost, aesthetics, preserving traditions, and living in climatically suitable houses are all fine notions, but the durability of homes is also an important consideration. A mud house with a thatched roof needs continuous maintenance, whereas a brick and cement house is far sturdier, and has a longer life span. And villagers are as interested in the longevity of their homes as their urban counterparts. But a traditional rural residence has important advantages - it is almost always based on adaptations to the local environment, and is often built with the labour...

This is one of the few web-sites dedicated to South Asian architecture and architects. Though in it's nascent stages of development, I think it holds the potential to be the spearhead of an oncoming change. Web-sites and resources like these are quite necessary and useful to make people aware about contemporary and future movements in the South Asian region. "LAYER finds its roots in diversity. It was born out of a common desire to launch a platform for interaction, exposure and participation of South Asian designers, at all stages to experience and share their ideologies, which will help evolve the present status quo. LAYER indulges in all aspects of design and art. The nature of exhibitions, curational strategies and publications, demands new interrogation and reconsideration. This is fueled by the fact that in recent years, worlds of art, architecture and design have outgrown their modes of representation and production, and have started to cannibalize neighboring discip...

This is a very good starting point for people who are interested in the super-adobe building system developed by architect Nader Khalili of CalEarth Institute. It is a two-page manual on how to build your own super-adobe shelter, complete with diagrams and photos. http://www.calearth.org/Emerg_files/KhaliliEmergShltr.pdf

Shigeru Ban is known for his achievements with paper: he is to paper what Le Corbusier was to concrete, or Norman Foster is to steel. The technique is simple, environment-friendly (being made from recycled paper), and inexpensive. The cardboard rolls that you see everywhere can be made to good use for temporary and semi-temporary shelters. But the idea of building with paper seems riddled with problems - it is flammable, vulnerable to water, weak and temporary, but Ban turns all these arguments upside down: "How long do you think concrete lasts? It has many problems and it's very difficult to replace or fix. If a paper tube is damaged it can be replaced by a new one. The lifespan of a building has nothing to do with the materials. It depends on what people do with it. If a building is loved, then it becomes permanent. When it is not loved, even a concrete building can be temporary. And the strength of the material has nothing to do with the strength of the building. It depend...