Archinect - News

Checking in on Nepal, one year later

2016-04-26T21:39:00-04:00

As the Nepalese government continues to face criticism for the slow pace of the country’s reconstruction, Nepal’s prime minister Khadga Prasad Oli announced today that the reconstruction of key heritage sites in Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur is to finally begin, the Associated Press reports.

A year after the devastating quake, there is some good news in Nepal. As this article notes,

The World Monuments Fund (WMF) also announced today that it, in collaboration with American Express, was financing the rebuilding of the 16th-century Char Narayan Temple, which was reduced to rubble by the quake. The project is to receive a share of $1m in grants earmarked for five major preservation projects across the globe.

For more on Nepal:

Shigeru Ban builds earthquake-proof homes in Nepal: "I'm encouraging people to copy my ideas. No copyrights."

2015-12-30T12:10:00-05:00

After twin earthquakes in April and May claimed 9,000 lives and left vast swathes of Nepal in ruins, survivors worried if they reused the brick rubble, they would end up with the same vulnerable, seismically unsound structures. [...] Shigeru Ban - who helped bring global attention to humanitarian architecture and continues to influence fellow architects and disaster-relief workers - devised a solution. [...] "I'm encouraging people to copy my ideas. No copyrights," Ban said.

"While Ban said he enjoys working on grand projects commissioned by privileged people, he also wants to help people who have lost their homes, and is encouraged that many architects have followed in his footsteps."

Previously in the Archinect news:

AIA group initiative for Nepal vies to overcome common obstacle of delayed rebuilding efforts

2015-07-23T16:34:00-04:00

By planning ahead now, while the humanitarian response is underway, this reconstruction program can bring additional resources to those efforts, overlapping the relief phase so as to rebuild communities that feel like home - but in an accelerated manner. This is what we don't see currently happening when disaster strikes, and so this effort presents a unique opportunity to standardize a model that can be followed by others - nationally and internationally - moving forward.

As Nepal continues to deal with the aftermath of the deadly April 25 earthquake, the American Institute of Architects Foundation — now known as the Architects Foundation — recently announced with relief group All Hands Volunteers a two-year $3 million initiative for the reconstruction of villages devastated by the quake. Architects Foundation Executive Director Sherry-Lea Bloodworth-Botop sums up the three-phase initiative, which plans to use an accelerated, community-driven approach in the design and realization of rebuilding the homes. Additionally, the initiative includes providing training in construction practices to local communities.

More about the Nepal earthquake on Archinect:

"The trauma of rebuilding": After Kathmandu's earthquake, what can architects do? We talk with a Nepalese architect on the ground for Archinect Sessions #27

How Architects Can Help Nepal (And Learn From Past Disastrous Mistakes/Successes)

Another powerful earthquake has hit Nepal

Shigeru Ban responds to th...

Another powerful earthquake has hit Nepal

2015-05-12T14:35:00-04:00

A powerful earthquake shook eastern Nepal on Tuesday, shattering the halting recovery from the earthquake that hit the country less than three weeks ago, and causing loose hillsides and cracked buildings to give way and collapse. By late afternoon, Nepal’s National Emergency Operation Center had reported 42 deaths and 1,117 injuries from Tuesday’s earthquake, which the United States Geological Survey assigned a preliminary magnitude of 7.3...

Nepal is still reeling from a devastating, magnitude-7.8 earthquake on April 25, which claimed upwards of 8,159 lives. According to the New York Times report, Tuesday's earthquake happened just as a semblance of normality was returning to the streets of Kathmandu and its environs. Landslides have further isolated already-damaged rural villages in the mountainous region. A large percentage of the country's infrastructure is critically damaged, while international relief has been short in coming.

Since the April 25th earthquake, Archinect has been compiling architectural responses and reactions to the on-going disaster.

Archinect's Julia Ingalls compiled a feature, How Architects Can Help Nepal (And Learn From Past Disastrous Mistakes/Successes). Ingalls notes the three phases of a natural disaster – emergency, relief, and recovery – and provides useful ideas for how architects can help in each stage. She notes, "In the emergency phase, architects can help primarily by fundraising or d...