Exhibition on Safer Sustainable Housing
UN-Habitat jointly with DUDBC, Pulchowk Engineering College and Asian Institute of Technology (AIT, Thailand) held a three-day exhibition on "Safer Sustainable Housing." ABARI, an institute specializing in adobe and bamboo also participated in the exhibition.
The 20+ participants representing various firms and organizations came together with the sole objective to bring awareness to the general public regarding new ideas and technologies in building safe and sustainable houses. The organizations, though varied in their expertise, all consolidated under one roof in Pulchowk Engineering College. These experts of vernacular construction helped people learn about different types of house structures and explained various components used in making a safer sustainable house. The exhibition also appeared to be a marketing hub where consumers could meet suppliers and discuss possible joint business adventures.
In ABARI’s stall, there were about one thousand visitors who were enthusiastic and full of curiosity about the materials that we use in our buildings- bamboo, rammed earth and adobe. They also had queries about the approach we are taking for building safer sustainable houses. Some visitors were students from the engineering field while the others were general people who wanted to learn new methods of developing a safer sustainable house. Renowned doctors, engineers and other professionals also visited our stall and they were highly impressed with the way we were operating as a socially responsible firm. Moreover we also had Pradip Gyawali, our former education minister, visit our stall and complimented our endeavor. The visitors were very enthusiastic in learning our methods of building houses since the devastating earthquake disturbed most of them.
Since ABARI focuses on using locally available resources, we had various samples to present to the visitors. Our stall was full of information regarding our way of building and even an example of a rammed earth wall. The visitors had loads of questions regarding rammed earth, compressed earth block and bamboo and we were extremely pleased to have provided adequate information on the queries that our visitors had for us.
