From the article: ... And here's a profile piece about the architect: An architect has found a way to build flood-proof homes (Washington Post) ... ...
From the article:
Among the humanitarian responses to [flooding in Pakistan] was a joint initiative from the Pakistani chapter of the International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism (INTBAU) and the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, an NGO set up and led by architect Yasmeen Lari. Starting in September 2022, 1,000 prefabricated emergency shelters were constructed in the [several villages] in Sindh, and Lasbela village in neighbouring Balochistan province. These were based on a design by Lari for an eight‑walled 12-foot diameter bamboo and date palm structure, originally conceived as a response to the devastating Hindu Kush earthquake in 2015: the Lari Octa Green (LOG) shelter. Initially serving as emergency shelters, some have since incorporated adobe wall insulation and are now part of the reconstruction efforts as a permanent housing solution for communities in Sindh with limited means.
Each LOG structure sleeps five people on the floor and two charpoys (string beds) and can join up with other octagonal huts to expand living space. Their foundations comprise lime brick, lime and concrete, while the roofs are constructed upon a bamboo frame with thatch and reed as layering materials on top. The frames were prefabricated using materials from the village of Pono and the town of Makli, both in Sindh. Wall panels and doors are made from bamboo frames upon which mud plaster can be applied. ‘All our work is entirely zero-carbon,’ says Lari, ‘and because of its low cost and participatory low-tech approach, this happens to be the only methodology that has been scaled up to thousands’.
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The availability of LOG’s principal building materials is key in making the prototype replicable at scale. Good quality clay and soil is widely available across Sindh and many other parts of the country. While bamboo has not been a primary building material historically, bamboo cultivation has been picking up in Pakistan in recent decades, with acreage having more than doubled from 9,000 hectares in 1992 to 20,000 in 2010, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation. If carefully chosen species of the plant are cultivated with technical guidance, adobe and bamboo construction has the potential to trigger rural sector reforms in Sindh and elsewhere in Pakistan – but it will need support from local government and policy makers.
At present, government agencies, construction consultants and administrators tend to value conventional concrete construction, finding little to celebrate in the modest and pro‑nature adobe structures of Pakistan’s rural regions. There is a widely held belief that adobe and bamboo construction is inadequate to deal with flooding disasters and torrential rains. The Sindh People’s Housing Foundation (SPHF), a provincial government outfit with a mandate to initiate and supervise redevelopment of housing hit by rain and flood disasters, argues that flood and rains destroy mud houses to a great extent, and that reconstruction should be done using more ‘durable’ options such as concrete, steel and bricks. However, the Pakistan branch of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), which first helped Lari develop the LOG prototype in 2015, has argued that the ‘octagonal form is inherently strong and, unlike concrete, the light bamboo frames pose no danger to life’. Lari herself has noted that many bamboo and adobe structures built prior to the most recent flooding catastrophe, ‘have survived through 2022 in the worst-affected area of Kot Diji, Upper Sindh.’ While the SPHF is aware of LOG structures in Sindh, it is not currently looking to adopt them as a more permanent, scaled‑up housing option for the province. The question remains how to make LOG and similar ventures replicable and adaptable options for large-scale rehabilitation and redevelopment efforts.
Lari designed some of Pakistan’s most recognizable buildings during the 1980s and 1990s, such as Karachi’s Finance and Trade Center, a hulking building using passive cooling for natural ventilation, and the Pakistan State Oil House, with its cascading glass facade. She retired from her practice in 2000 to focus on humanitarian work and to preserve historic buildings, a pivot she often says is meant to “atone” for her past.
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Lari’s current project subverts that structure. The bamboo homes, which combine mud and limestone facades with inner bamboo skeletons or bamboo roofs, are designed to be copied and pasted across Pakistan and perhaps, beyond its borders. Her foundation’s free YouTube videos show how to build the homes.
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The daughter of a colonial officer, Lari said she was privileged to be able to study in Britain, then design homes upon returning to Pakistan. She describes her rise as blessed, but not without challenges. Male colleagues would make her life difficult, placing rickety ladders at job sites. “They wanted to test me,” she said.
Now 82, Lari continues to carve her own way. While others working to rebuild after recent floods are relying on donations, she’s funding her project through microloans meant to jump-start small businesses within the communities, so every cluster of homes will ultimately pay for itself.
“I am no longer relying on outside funding,” she said. “My communities will reach the target themselves with their own resources.”
From the article:
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And here's a profile piece about the architect:
An architect has found a way to build flood-proof homes (Washington Post)
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