Reimagining Rural Construction in Bhutan: A Sustainable Future with Hempcrete, Timber and Bamboo in Remote Regions

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DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Jazyk výsledku

angličtina

Název v původním jazyce

Reimagining Rural Construction in Bhutan: A Sustainable Future with Hempcrete, Timber and Bamboo in Remote Regions

Popis výsledku v původním jazyce

Since 2003, Tarayana Foundation has supported construction of more than 2,600 houses in rural Bhutan. With over 2,000 new requests pending, the Foundation is moving towards a next phase with aim to provide not just more but better homes with focus on sustainability and resilience to climate change. To research this topic and find most suitable solutions for rural community construction, 3 prototype buildings are currently under construction with support from Karuna Foundation. Rural development has to start with decent home. Today, houses in remote villages are characterized by rundown conditions and makeshift structures unfit for inhabitation. Building techniques in rural areas hasn't change much for the past centuries. Even new houses are poorly designed wasting space and resources while vulnerable to natural disasters. The most relevant prototype example nearing completion is family house in Gomche village, Paro, being build for family of 6 living in unfit conditions. Ground floor is build with traditional technique of rammed earth wall including all bhutanese decorative elements. The main improvements focus on technical details like insulating wooden cornices and mostly improving on windows design. To mimic double glazing, 2 glazed windows are placed in a row with cavity in-between. The upper floor is dramatically different from the traditional way of construction. Heavy timber post and beam structure is replaced by lightweight staggered stud frame structure with hempcrete infill and diagonally woven bamboo support. Timber frame with mason or daub and wattle infill is commonly one of the most earthquake resistant type of traditional construction found around the world. Bhutan has its own variant of this structure called rabsel with the daub and wattle infill called ekra. The main difference is that rabsel lacks on any structural diagonal elements reducing the structural integrity during an earthquake event. Additionally massive timber posts and beams are exposed from both sides of the wall causing thermal bridging even if the ekra infill had any insulation properties. This drawbacks are solved by implementing light staggered timber frame with columns alternating on exterior and interior side of the wall and hempcrete insulation going uninterrupted on the center. Bamboo lattice supporting the hempcrete infill is woven diagonally and firmly attached with the timber frame improving on seismic resilience. Additionally consumption of timber is reduced dramatically by using smaller elements and fire resistance is improved by using fire resistant material like hempcrete in combination with staggered timber frame where no flammable element is exposed from both sides of the wall. Based on the prototype houses construction a tool is being developed to provide design and guidelines for sustainable and climate change resilient construction in remote areas of Bhutan. This tool is called Design Guidelines for Rural Housing and it is an interactive book guiding the rural community step by step, page by page through the design and construction process. The builder is required to enter his input like region, terrain conditions or family size on every left page of the book and based on his information will be guided to following pages. Based on previous input he will be given instructions on the following right page. This publication should be able to generate custom made design of resilient house for each specific location and situation in rural Bhutan without a need of an architect or engineer. Although hempcrete or hemp-lime, mixture of hemp hurds, lime and water, is currently one of the most researched construction materials globally, there is little to be known about its potential application in Bhutan. The availability of industrial insulation materials in Bhutan are limited and practice of using it almost non-existing. Hemp, as a naturally sourced alternative for insulation, can be found growing abundantly around the Kingdom but its cultivation or collection is considered illegal. But a research and prototyping is currently being conducted in collaboration with Bauhaus Earth (Berlin), Tarayana Foundation (Bhutan) and author’s PhD research (Czech Technical University). In general, advantages of using hemp in construction are well known so this research focuses more on its feasibility in context of Bhutan. As hemp is not cultivated here and grows scattered around the countryside its collection is difficult. Fortunately Tarayana F. has great outreach and connections with rural communities in remotest areas. Therefore hemp for prototype construction is harvested by rural communities, leaves and branches are removed and stalks are let for retting in the field before transporting to site. Debarking is done manually as decortication machine is not available. For hurd processing (grinding stalks into small particles) a simple wood chipper machine is used instead.

Název v anglickém jazyce

Reimagining Rural Construction in Bhutan: A Sustainable Future with Hempcrete, Timber and Bamboo in Remote Regions

Popis výsledku anglicky

Since 2003, Tarayana Foundation has supported construction of more than 2,600 houses in rural Bhutan. With over 2,000 new requests pending, the Foundation is moving towards a next phase with aim to provide not just more but better homes with focus on sustainability and resilience to climate change. To research this topic and find most suitable solutions for rural community construction, 3 prototype buildings are currently under construction with support from Karuna Foundation. Rural development has to start with decent home. Today, houses in remote villages are characterized by rundown conditions and makeshift structures unfit for inhabitation. Building techniques in rural areas hasn't change much for the past centuries. Even new houses are poorly designed wasting space and resources while vulnerable to natural disasters. The most relevant prototype example nearing completion is family house in Gomche village, Paro, being build for family of 6 living in unfit conditions. Ground floor is build with traditional technique of rammed earth wall including all bhutanese decorative elements. The main improvements focus on technical details like insulating wooden cornices and mostly improving on windows design. To mimic double glazing, 2 glazed windows are placed in a row with cavity in-between. The upper floor is dramatically different from the traditional way of construction. Heavy timber post and beam structure is replaced by lightweight staggered stud frame structure with hempcrete infill and diagonally woven bamboo support. Timber frame with mason or daub and wattle infill is commonly one of the most earthquake resistant type of traditional construction found around the world. Bhutan has its own variant of this structure called rabsel with the daub and wattle infill called ekra. The main difference is that rabsel lacks on any structural diagonal elements reducing the structural integrity during an earthquake event. Additionally massive timber posts and beams are exposed from both sides of the wall causing thermal bridging even if the ekra infill had any insulation properties. This drawbacks are solved by implementing light staggered timber frame with columns alternating on exterior and interior side of the wall and hempcrete insulation going uninterrupted on the center. Bamboo lattice supporting the hempcrete infill is woven diagonally and firmly attached with the timber frame improving on seismic resilience. Additionally consumption of timber is reduced dramatically by using smaller elements and fire resistance is improved by using fire resistant material like hempcrete in combination with staggered timber frame where no flammable element is exposed from both sides of the wall. Based on the prototype houses construction a tool is being developed to provide design and guidelines for sustainable and climate change resilient construction in remote areas of Bhutan. This tool is called Design Guidelines for Rural Housing and it is an interactive book guiding the rural community step by step, page by page through the design and construction process. The builder is required to enter his input like region, terrain conditions or family size on every left page of the book and based on his information will be guided to following pages. Based on previous input he will be given instructions on the following right page. This publication should be able to generate custom made design of resilient house for each specific location and situation in rural Bhutan without a need of an architect or engineer. Although hempcrete or hemp-lime, mixture of hemp hurds, lime and water, is currently one of the most researched construction materials globally, there is little to be known about its potential application in Bhutan. The availability of industrial insulation materials in Bhutan are limited and practice of using it almost non-existing. Hemp, as a naturally sourced alternative for insulation, can be found growing abundantly around the Kingdom but its cultivation or collection is considered illegal. But a research and prototyping is currently being conducted in collaboration with Bauhaus Earth (Berlin), Tarayana Foundation (Bhutan) and author’s PhD research (Czech Technical University). In general, advantages of using hemp in construction are well known so this research focuses more on its feasibility in context of Bhutan. As hemp is not cultivated here and grows scattered around the countryside its collection is difficult. Fortunately Tarayana F. has great outreach and connections with rural communities in remotest areas. Therefore hemp for prototype construction is harvested by rural communities, leaves and branches are removed and stalks are let for retting in the field before transporting to site. Debarking is done manually as decortication machine is not available. For hurd processing (grinding stalks into small particles) a simple wood chipper machine is used instead.

Druh

O - Ostatní výsledky

CEP obor

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OECD FORD obor

20103 - Architecture engineering

Projekt

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Návaznosti

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Rok uplatnění

2025

Kód důvěrnosti údajů

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů