A Choice of Housing

Published on

During the very short history of urbanisation in modem Nepal, remarkable changes have taken place. There were less than 10 towns in the 1960s: today the number exceeds 30. About nine per cent of the country's population is now urban-based, up from about three per cent in 1960. The annual rate of urban growth now stands at eight per cent. Urbanisation has exposed Nepalis to the era of jets and global communications and dramatically increased their mobility, changed their attitudes and, also, led to shifts in the design and building of houses they live in. Unfortunately. not all the changes in Nepali urban housing have been for the better.

Most professionally designed houses in Nepal are so culturally unsuitable that the owners make changes almost as soon as construction is complete. Problems include low insulation of thin brick walls, infiltration of winter cold through large glass windows also shows a bias for the modern and a mindless abandonment of the tested and the tried. Professionals, architects, engineers and others, must change their technical orientation and be more open to locally suitable technologies that are culturally valid and functionally efficient.

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Himal Southasian
www.himalmag.com