Archinect - News

Stefano Boeri reveals master plan for vast sacred Buddhist site in Nepal

2023-12-15T18:15:00-05:00

Stefano Boeri Architetti has unveiled a master plan to enhance the Ramagrama Stupa, one of the most significant places in the Buddhist world.

The site is located in Ramagrama, a municipality within the Parasi district in western Nepal. The archaeological destination dates back to the earliest period of the Buddhist tradition. It is covered by a hill and by the centuries-old Bodhi Tree, a sacred tree in Buddhism characterized by a high level of biodiversity. Under this lies a still intact Stupa of Buddha, which is a dirt burial mound faced with stone that contains portions of the relics of Buddha. Today, the site presents itself as a green mound.

Image: Stefano Boeri Architetti

Various organizations and Buddhist communities have committed themselves to the preservation and sustainable enhancement of the Ramagrama Stupa. The aim has been to conserve this site in accordance with the standards set by UNESCO for World Heritage Sites. Stefano Boeri Architetti has, thus, been entrusted wit...

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...

Shigeru Ban responds to the emergency in Nepal

2015-05-08T15:30:00-04:00

Pritzker Prize Laureate Shigeru Ban has announced plans to contribute to emergency relief efforts in Nepal after the April 25 earthquake reduced cities to rubble, killed more than 7,000, and left thousands homeless. In the short term, Ban’s firm and his relief organization Voluntary Architects’ Network (VAN) will distribute simple tents—supplemented with plastic sheets donated by contractors to serve as wall partitions—and assemble them onsite as temporary shelter and medical aid stations.

According to the report, VAN aims to partner with local universities, students and architects in the coming months to work towards create stable housing once conditions have stabilized. This is not the first time that Shigeru Ban, who won the 2014 Pritzker prize, has deployed his architectural expertise to respond to emergency situations. After Christchurch, New Zealand was hit by a devastating earthquake in 2012, Ban designed a soaring cathedral out of paper tubes to temporarily shelter congregates. His firm is well-known for designing emergency housing following a massive tsunami that hit Japan in 2011.

Editor's Picks #414

2015-05-06T14:00:00-04:00

Nicholas Korody profiled GRNASFCK, an experimental landscape studio. Therein they explained "We travel to places of material action, geologically leaky locations, where the evidence of disturbance, but also creation, is evident...While we see our narratives as a version of a field report, it seems important to acknowledge ourselves as emotional, human agents. In this way we are equally inspired by Hunter S. Thompson, John McPhee, and Chris Kraus".

Plus following last month’s 7.8 magnitude earthquake, Julia Ingalls reviewed How Architects Can Help Nepal (And Learn From Past Disastrous Mistakes/Successes). Will Galloway stopped by and provided some insight into post-tsunami redevelopment in Tohoku

"The trick is to still be there and still be engaged 2 years or 4 years or 5 years later, when communities are finally ready to build...Now is really the time for architects to act, to help build a sustainable community. But we blew our wad on sexy stuff in the early days, and anyway the news...

Old Kathmandu - What was lost

2015-05-01T13:15:00-04:00

Photographer Kevin Kelly shares a collection of beautiful photos he took in 1976. Heart wrenching.

Katmandu was an intensely ornate city that is easily damaged. The carvings, details, public spaces were glorious. My heart goes out to its citizens who suffer with their city. As you can see from these images I took in 1976, the medieval town has been delicate for decades. Loosely stacked bricks are everywhere. One can also see what splendid art has been lost. Not all has been destroyed, and I am sure the Nepalis will rebuild as they have in the past. Still, the earthquake shook more than just buildings.

If you look carefully you may notice something unusual about these photos. They show no cars, pedicabs, or even bicycles. At the time I took these images, Katmandu was an entirely pedestrian city. Everyone walked everywhere. Part of why I loved it. That has not been true for decades, so this is something else that was lost long ago. Also missing back then was signage. There are few signs...

"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

2015-04-30T18:57:00-04:00

Last Saturday, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Kathmandu, precipitating catastrophic destruction throughout Nepal and a death toll currently marked at more than 5,000. Reports have been very bleak, with citizens taking to living outside in public spaces, fearful of more damage from aftershocks. Aid and relief efforts are slowly beginning to appear, but basic necessities such as food, water and shelter are still desperately needed.

In the face of such large-scale damage to buildings and infrastructure, architects have a professional imperative to consider their role (from near or far) in reconstruction and relief efforts. At the same time, assistance must take the long-view – for survivors, the worst part of such disasters may not have the immediate event, but the trauma and tedium of the long return to normal.

On this episode, Rajan Karmachaya, a Nepalese architect in Kathmandu, spoke with us about what it's like in Kathmandu now, and what architects can (or shouldn't) do to help. R...

Deadly 7.9-magnitude earthquake in Nepal destroys architectural landmarks

2015-04-26T13:41:00-04:00

The powerful temblor measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale on Saturday practically levelled the nation's tangible cultural history, robbing it of its architectural jewels, including the landmark Dharhara Tower, in an eerie reminder of the 1934 quake that claimed over 10,000 lives. The 19th century nine-storey minaret, a UNESCO World Heritage site, which once offered a panoramic view of the Kathmandu Valley, turned into graveyards for over 200 people.

Follow #NepalEarthquake on Twitter for up-to-the minute updates

Kathmandu architect chronicles a dying culture

2012-01-27T17:56:00-05:00

... much of the capital's ancient architecture will soon be no more than a memory, according to one of the world's leading authorities, Niels Gotschow, as haphazard urbanisation and a desire for modernity change Kathmandu. "To put things into a book is an act of preservation because one day this will be the only way to remember," says Gutschow, who has dedicated the last four decades to chronicling and preserving Nepal's architectural treasures.