Company Overview

ABARI is a socially and environmentally committed research, design and construction firm that examines, encourages, and celebrates the vernacular architectural tradition of Nepal. As Nepal posses sophisticated traditional knowledge of natural materials like adobes, bamboos, stones and reed, ABARI as a research and design firm that tries to promulgate these materials into contemporary design practices.

Company Strategy

Abari - Manifesto

Purpose To find alternative natural building materials for concrete and steel.

Vision

Instigated by environmental consciousness, health, aesthetic and economic reasons that people are showing—even small —a reinvigorated interest to go back to natural building materials like adobe and bamboo. We are seeing a modest institutionalized effort to reinvestigate traditional natural materials so that they can be re-appropriated to cater to the modern requirements in Nepal.

Mission statement

Build homes and structures using local resources that are earthquake resistant, healthy, energy efficient and a modern sustainable alternative to conventional building practices.

Goals and Objective

  • Design and construct sustainable structures using traditional material like adobe and bamboo which is sensitive to the environmental, social, cultural and topographic conditions of the area.
  • Rescue and redesign traditional materials like adobe and bamboo so that they can cater to the modern sensibility.
  • Construct structures that can harness solar energy and use household waste for energy generation.
  • Design structures that can effectively resist earthquake and flooding.
  • Train and empower people on bamboo identifications and treatment, proper storage, joints connections, adobe manufacturing and other specialized construction methods.

Approach

Since Abari is research and design firm, it has developed different construction techniques that are unique to the Nepali conditions, so the presence of Abari is required from the design to the construction phase. Given the high number homes to be rebuilt and the scattered nature of earthquake-affected settlements, ABARI believes in a decentralized ODR approach. Owner Driven Reconstruction (ODR) is identified as a dignified approach encouraging individual homeowners to implement safe building design and construction in natural disaster affected areas.

Technologies

  • Bamboo Water Tanks – Transferred to Ethiopia, Rwanda, Nepal
  • Bamboo Treatment Machine- Transferred to Fiji, India, Ethiopia, Bhutan, Nepal, USA
  •  Bamboo portable testing machine- Ongoing

Clients

  • Government of Nepal
  • Government of Bhutan
  • ActionAid
  • The World is my Country
  • Asia Foundation
  • Helvetas
  •  UNHCR
  • Care Nepal
  • WWF
  • Learning Planet
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Inbar
  • Indian Institute of Technology
  • Colorado State University
  • UNDP
  • Dekeyser & Friends Foundation
  • Sathsathai Mundi, Netherlands
  • Madan Puraska Pustakalaya
  • Bodhi Hill

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