Course: Design Studio VII

Team Members: Pukar Bhandari, Purushottam Adhikari, Sabina Shrestha, Sambid Ghimire, Shreejan Maharjan, Sudeep Singh

 

Project Summary

On May 12, 2015 at 11.56 AM, Nepal experienced a mega earthquake 7.8 Richter scale with its epicenter at Barpak village of Gorkha district, 10 km below the ground level. The continuous numerous aftershocks then turned into another massive earthquake after 17 days. The 12 May, 12:50 PM aftershock of 7.3 Richter scale struck which had its epicenter in Sindhupalchowk district. As a result of these massive earthquakes, enormous damage and destruction was caused.

The earthquake epicenter of Barpak village was wiped out with death of 68 people and destruction of almost all old stone masonry buildings of the village. With no structures remaining, the village has been severely hit by disruption in social functioning and what was one the largest rural settlement of Nepal, is in brink of losing its identity.

This project ‘Housing and Settlement Planning’ is conducted as per the course requirement of Design Studio VII of B. Arch. 4th Year/ 2nd Part. The field exposure like this serves not only to address real-time problems seen on settlement of earthquake hit Barpak but also to improve and enhance professional ability of students to work in real projects at place of need.

This project, since being given to us as Design Studio VII project, has required conceptualization and design of settlement in rural Barpak village targeted to local groups for affordable price. Though field visit and interaction we got idea about how this project has to be carried out. There’s no two thoughts about the fact that shelter/housing is a basic need for us. The settlement development for the earthquake hit rapidly glowing rural village is further a specialized matter that involves the concept of planning though a viable approach keeping in mind the need to compliment the growing needs of facilities and need to address various existing aspects of the settlement.

As it is student level project it has been very handy in enhancing the knowledge for planning and development of any area, especially for rural communities with unique architectural features. The natural topography of the site has been used to enhance the design. The housing units are developed considering the traditional settlement of the village with a motive to preserve the traditional planning and style of Barpak.