KATHMANDU TOWN EXTENSIONS vol3 t

Studio Kathmandu volume 3

TOWN EXTENSIONS IN KARYABINAYAK MUNICIPALITY

Urban design investigations into a hazardous territory experiencing fast growth, Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Master of Human Settlements, Master of Urbanism and Strategic Planning, MaHS MaUSP, KULeuven, 2016 Bruno De Meulder, Viviana d’Auria, Annelies De Nijs, Stefanie Dens

STUDIO KATHMANDU 2016 STUDIO STAFF Prof. Dr. ir.-arch. Bruno De Meulder Prof. Dr. arch. Viviana d’Auria ir.-arch., urb. Annelies De Nijs ir.-arch. Stefanie Dens PARTICIPANTS Wim Bruneel Claudia Canales Ruben Hoek Antoine Legrand Grace Valassa Kato Allaert IN COOPERATION WITH Tribhuvan University, Pulchowk Campus Dept. of Architecture and Urban planning MORE INFO ?

MAHS / MAUSP / EMU Master Programs Department ASRO, K.U.Leuven Kasteelpark Arenberg 1, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium Tel: + 32(0)16 321 391 Email: paulien.martens@kuleuven.be ISBN 9789460189920 wet. DEPOT D/2016/7515/11 © Copyright by K.U.Leuven Without written permission of the promotors and the authors it is forbidden to reproduce or adapt in any form or by any means any part of this publication. Requests for obtaining the right to reproduce or utilize parts of this publication should be addressed to K.U.Leuven, Faculty of Engineering – Kasteelpark Arenberg 1, B-3001 Heverlee (België). Telefoon +32-16-32 13 50 & Fax. +32-16-32 19 88.

A written permission of the promotor is also required to use the methods, products, schematics and programs described in this work for industrial or commercial use, and for submitting this publication in scientific contests.All images in this booklet are, unless credits are given, made or drawn by the authors (Landscape Urbanism, Studio Kathmandu 2015-2016, Nepal).

Studio Kathmandu volume 3

TOWN EXTENSIONS IN KARYABINAYAK MUNICIPALITY

Urban design investigations into a hazardous territory experiencing fast growth, Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Wim Bruneel, Claudia Canales, Ruben Hoek, Antoine Legrand, Grace Valassa

Master of Human Settlements, Master of Urbanism and Strategic Planning, MaHS MaUSP, KULeuven, 2016 Bruno De Meulder, Viviana d’Auria, Annelies De Nijs, Stefanie Dens

Studio Kathmandu volume 1

REVITALISING BUNGAMATI: AN ACTION PLAN

Design investigations for a post earthquake reconstruction process in Bungamati, Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Studio Kathmandu volume 2

Studio Kathmandu volume 3

LANDSCAPE URBANISM EXPLORATIONS

TOWN EXTENSIONS IN KARYABINAYAK MUNICIPALITY

for the southern fringe of Kathmandu Metropolitan area, Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Urban design investigations into a hazardous territory experiencing fast growth, Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Valentina Amaya, Sheeba Amir, Ashim Manna, Isabelle Matton Thesis presented to obtain the degree of Master in Urbanism and Strategic Planning at KULeuven

Master of Human Settlements, Master of Urbanism and Strategic Planning, MaHS MaUSP, KULeuven, 2015 Bruno De Meulder, Viviana d’Auria, Annelies De Nijs, Stefanie Dens

Master of Human Settlements, Master of Urbanism and Strategic Planning, MaHS MaUSP, KULeuven, 2015 Promoters: Bruno De Meulder, Viviana d’Auria Co-promoters: Padma Sunder Joshi, Annelies De Nijs, Stefanie Dens

www.kulstudionepal2015.wordpress.com www.mahsmausp.be

Master of Human Settlements, Master of Urbanism and Strategic Planning, MaHS MaUSP, KULeuven, 2016 Bruno De Meulder, Viviana d’Auria, Annelies De Nijs, Stefanie Dens

BRIEF The Spring Studio Kathmandu 2016 is part of a larger effort of MaHS MaUSP (KULeuven) in the Kathmandu Valley and within an intensive collaboration with UN-Habitat. In the aftermath of the April 2015 earthquake, an action plan has been developed for the revitalization of the traditional settlement of Bungamati (as a collaboration between UN-Habitat, KULeuven and Arcadis). As an extended process from this effort, 4 postgraduate thesis students are working on specific urban questions within the valley/ territory. Complementary to these two elements, the Spring Studio will focus on the new developments encroaching the valley and surrounding the traditional settlements of Bungamati/ Khokana.

INTRODUCTION The Kathmandu Valley is witnessing a process of fast modernization and urbanization. Its richly layered existing centers are fundamentally distorted and re-qualified by a new scale and building typologies. As well, an unprecedented number of new developments/ neighborhoods are rising – literally from peripheral paddy fields and along the main roads.

New towns or extensions, they are surely defining a new Nepalese form of urbanism. Similar to other ‘Asian’ variations and with similar elements of contemporary global urbanism (gated communities, modern airports, ’global’ architectural consultancy, commodification of housing, etc.) the Nepalese urbanism nevertheless remains unique, both through the cultural and physical traditions that survive as through the specific way in which the settlements are related to the landscape and its movements and hazards.

It becomes therefore evident that the design research of the Spring Studio is situated at the intersection of major contemporary (and contradictory) problematics as earthquake resilience and accelerated urban growth/ mutation.

The studio will look to traditional and vernacular tissues, it will critically evaluate contemporary urban tissues used by the real estate developers active in the Kathmandu Valley, and it will study international model urban tissues with various degrees of density. It will explore the mixed urban-rural tissues that are common in Asia (often labeled dessakota) and it will test the capacity of tissues to expand or transform over time.

Furthermore, it will take into account the vulnerability of the tissues for earthquakes and other natural hazards.

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The studio consequently integrates the approaches of architecture, urbanism and landscape that until recently operate rather as separate jurisdictions within the nation’s standard master-planning framework.

The studio will address the multi-dimensional, the multi-disciplinary and the territorial/ spatial nature of urban extensions. Consequently, it will study the interplay between different scales; deal with different time-scales; design public space in its relation to urban and landscape strategies and strategic projects; design for complexity (e.g. incorporating transformation, uncertain programmatic conditions, etc.) and also work at the architectonic scale by developing earthquake responsive housing, for example.

CONTEXT On 25 April 2015 11:56 local time, a 7,8 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, with the epicenter in Lamjung District (81 km N-W of Kathmandu), at a depth of 15km. Dozens of aftershocks followed, including a 6,7 magnitude earthquake on 26 April 2015. The hazard has destroyed most of the traditional settlements and monuments in Kathmandu Valley, leading to major displacement streams. There is an enormous task ahead of rebuilding these settlements while retaining their historical, economical, socio-cultural and architectural identity and preparing them for a sustainable growth within an earthquake responsive development.

The village of Bungamati is located 10 km south of Kathmandu and has its origins in medieval times. Its inhabitants are predominantly Newars.

It is situated under the newly established Karyabinayak Municipality,

Gated Community and Land Speculation. Sainbu gated community and a land speculation plot next to Bungamati.

counts around 6000 inhabitants and is famous for the main temple of Machhindranath, as well as for woodcarving and handicrafts. It is furthermore one of the proposed heritage sites for UNESCO listing.

The earthquake damaged 900 out of 1114 houses, destroyed the Machhindranath temple and injured many people. Many families are now forced to live in temporary shelters. Bungamati was chosen as a pilot project as it still hosts significant local potentials and resources.

The spatial reality and redevelopment of Bungamati cannot be dissociated from its “twin-village�, Khokana. Together they form an interactive spatial and social system, with an obvious connection and a cultural node that ties them between them: the temple of Karyabinayak. They are part of a landscape generated by a spectacular geomorphological condition: a sequence of valleys and hilltops. Alongside the main road that connects the villages with the city centre of Kathmandu, several new developments are arriving with a fast pace. The connection and interaction with the historical settlements is often lost and the landscape logics once so present in the valley are now challenged through these modern urban extensions. Several of those developments are situated outside of the historic cores, as well on the lower lying lands as along the higher situated road.

Urban pressure. in the soutern fringe of the Kathmandu Valley, anno 2015

FIELDWORK BRIEF & EXERCISES The Studio started of with two weeks of intensive fieldwork in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal from 13/02/2016 until 28/02/2016. During these weeks a collective investigation between students of KULeuven and of Tribhuvan University has been carried out, and has been added with lectures and speeches from local professors.

Traditional urban centre and gated compound. similar in size, both located on higher lands.

Reading the urban landscape of the soutern fringe of the Kathmandu Valley, massive urban pressure is easily reckognized : the urban pressure translates itself both in form of urban sprawl that simply fills up the remnant spaces inbetween former urbanisation plots, and in form of gated compounds, that are the outcome of real estate speculation.

The latter however, takes both size and location from the vernacular historical cores: a compact way of building located on higher pieces of land in the valley, often referred to as plateaus.

As the studio aim is to find an alternative way of urbanising that takes along the landscape logics, 2 fieldwork exercises were presented, getting and understanding of what is at stake.

1. The first exercise start from the reading and mapping of 3 strips of 2 by 0,5 kilometers, that are characterized by urban sprawl and new development cores. For this exercise 3 specific cases with different conditions were selected:

Civil Homes ll. gated community along the Sadobato road

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- the urban strip, containing the Kohinoor Housing and the current ring road that is planned to be widened - the peri-urban strip, containing Vinayak Colony, with the planned future ring road cutting through - the rural strip, containing Jarunchaa Colony, and characterized by greenhouse cropping and fertile valley lands.

Urban Strip. Kohinoor Housing, current ring road, and future extension of the ring road.

These strips were chosen to evaluate the contemporary urban tissues and their appropriations in relation to the traditional and vernacular ways of living. Topic such as publci space, figure ground and densities, developers logics, interactions with the surrounding built space, connectivity to the centre, social structure and infrastructure were researched.

2. The second exercise focussed on different themes around Bungamati and Khokana, part of the Karyabinayak Municipality. This site was chosen as the actual site for which to design, as a complement of the Action Plan that was made for Bungamati and Khokana in the summer of 2015. The themese that were researched were:

Peri-urban strip. Urban, peri-urban and rural conditions

- water, productive landscape and product flows - urban tissue, typologies and appropriation Urban strip. Jarunchaa Colony

- public space and infrastructure The 2 weeks of fieldwork, and therefore the 2 exercises, were presented on the last day in Kathmandu, on the 26th of february, at the Tribhuvan University, with jury members of the department of architecture; Head of the Department of Architecture and Planning Mr. Rana Chand Rana, Associate Professor Sushil Bajracharya and Associate Professor Sangeeta Singh. Jury members of UN Habitat: Anil Maharjan, Anil Tuladhar, Urmila Maharjan, Anatta Shrestha, Kushma Thapa.

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2

KHK BGM

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Location of the 3 strips. Urban, peri-urban and rural conditions

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ON SITE Saturday 13/02/16 - Brussels Airport Monday 15/02/2016 - first walk in Bungamati Tuesday 16/02/2016 - first fieldwork day : themes Wednesday 17/02/2016 - lecture PS Joshi + fieldwork : themes Thursday 18/02/2016 - lecture S Singh + fieldwork : themes Friday 19/02/16 - happy Diwali + fieldwork : strips Saturday 20/02/16 - fieldwork : strips Sunday 21/02/16 - lecture S. Das Shrestha : strips Monday 22/02/16 - fieldwork : strips Tuesday 23/02/16 - fieldwork : themes Wednesday 24/02/16 - fieldwork : themes Thursday 25/02/16 - drawing day in the house Friday 26/02/2016 - meeting Karyabinayak Municipality and final presentations at the Tribhuvan University

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THE URBAN STRIP - KOHINOOR HOUSING to become a hotel, while the future of the Soaltee City (the southern) project stays uncertain. Both sites are walled and have gates with private security.

Urban Strip. Kohinoor Housing, current ring road, and future extension of the ring road.

The first strip is situated within the urban sphere of Kathmandu. Still it is possible to observe the transition from urban to a more rural condition even within this strip. Examining this strip gives us especially an insight into what the urbanisation patterns, specific for the Kathmandu valley, look like. What does a fully urbanised situation look like in the valley?

GENERIC & EXTRAORDINARY Does the extraordinary structure the generic ?

The big majority of the urban fabric of strip 1 consists of endless series of detached private houses, with 2 to 5 storeys, mostly placed on a plot of private land which is bordered by a wall or fence. Narrow roads and alleys meander in between their facades and walls, many of which have dead ends. This in combination with the sometimes steep slopes of the roads formed our experience of this urban fabric as some sort of labyrinth. Since this fabric can be found in all parts of the strip, we refer to it as ‘the generic’ fabric. The generic is confronted with some ‘extraordinary’ features, each with a specific way of relating to the generic. A rather big one is the Manamati river, which meanders through the urban fabric and along which quite a lot of open space can be found.

This open space is used as parking space, space to get rid of solid waste and space used for agriculture. The reason why this open space remains is not completely clear; it might be related to the danger of flooding or the specificity of land ownership. The other extraordinary features are discussed below (from east to west): - Highrise: In the eastern edge of the strip two locations can be found where high unfinished high rise (ca. 15 storeys) rise above the generic fabric of detached private dwellings. The earthquake made the completion of both projects uncertain. The government halted many of these projects to allow for safety tests. Also the psychology of people changed after the earthquake in disfavor of living in high rise buildings.

The northern of the two projects is in the process of being retrofitted 10

- Royal mansion: Connected to the Ganeshman Singh Path with a driveway, the walled garden belonging to the mansion of Prabin Shah, a (bastard) member of the royal family, is situated in the midst of the densest part of the whole strip. From certain places one can have a peek into the garden and see the mansion, which is considerably larger than the average private house in the surroundings.

- Kohinoor housing colony: This gated community sits on quite a steep slope just above the Manamati river. The colony is walled all around and has two guarded gates (one for entrance, one for exit) on its north edge.

The colony is mainly inhabited by businessmen, who all have a private car. It has its own deep well and waste is handed over to the municipal waste collection collectively. A temple, a community house with gym and a swimming pool (which drains its water straight into the river) make up the shared spaces of the colony. The houses (2,5 storeys) are planned in neat rows parallel to the slope contours, allowing for a great view on the Kathmandu valley and a golden stupa in a nearby hilltop. The price of houses here rose sharply, from 4,5 mln RPS at the initial selling to 21 mln RPS for a recent private selling. Except for one informal beauty parlor, there are no other functions to be found in the colony than housing.

- Ring road : The western ring road of Kathmandu runs straight through the middle of the first strip. Because it is not very easy to cross this four lane road as a pedestrian (there is a rather nice pedestrian bridge (‘Kalanki bridge’) just south of the strip), the ring road divides the strip clearly in two halves. The eastern halve is undisputedly part of the urban sphere of Kathmandu, while in the western halve the density gradually lowers and agriculture land increases. The ring road is in a process of being widened. On both sides right next to it, a zone is cleared for the widening. However, right now this zone is appropriated by all kinds of people and enterprises for a wide variety of activities. Bus companies use it as a parking space, restaurants expand on it, mobile vendors set up shops and other enterprises use it as storage space. It can be considered as a big, linear public space.

- Syuchatar (former) air field : In the locality Syunchatar there are two big facilities that one can expect on the edge of a city of which this former air strip is one. Once it was used a small scale civilian airport. There is even a record of an event that happened in the early seventies: the CIA used it to smuggle weapons to Tibetan rebels without knowledge of Nepal.

However, the airfield hasn’t been in use anymore for quite a while, and

generic & extraordinary

0m

transformator station enclosed area

former run way porous strip ring road flexible space

Kohinoor housing colony mansion of highrise Prabin Shah appartement gated community walled fortress building transformed into an earthquake proof hotel

100 m

Soaltee city: highrise appartments extaordinary typology

Does the extraordinary structure the generic?

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it has been appropriated as a public space; there is a concrete elevated square which is used by a taekwondo school, there is a basketball court, a waste collection spot, a statute of a martyr and a temple. Many people use this space to play sports and to meet. The size of this space as a public space is unique in the strip. It opens up to many small streets and is surrounded by some restaurants and shops.

- Kathmandu Load Dispatch Center : right next to the airfield, there is a huge electricity transformer station, from which power is dispatched across the valley. The electricity is generated through water power outside the city. Because of its location on a hilltop and because of the big metal frames that carry the power lines, the transformer station is quite visible in the surroundings. Still, it is not accessible, since it is walled all around, there is barbed wire and it is guarded by military forces.

So except for the airfield, the spaces around the river and along the ring road, many open spaces in the strip are walled and inaccessible to the public. The extraordinary features together with the generic fabric of detached private dwellings makes up the specific fabric of strip 1.

RESISTANCE OF URBAN HISTORIC LAYERS The fieldwork with the focus on public and open spaces resulted in an interesting understanding of the urban strip. The public spaces can roughly be divided into two categories: a historic one and a contemporary one.

The historic category has again two sub layers. The first sub layer is the ‘Guthi’ system; this is as system of collectively owned land by a group of families. They use the land for agriculture and the profit is divided between all the associated families. This system is going back a long time in history and it is surprising to see that it is still surviving in an urban area with extreme density. Although it is getting under pressure due to the high value of land in the city. A member of one of the ‘Guthi’ systems in the strip told us that they were looking to divide to land between all the participating families so the open land could be sold for new developments. This turned out to be a quite difficult job since there are no clear allotments in the open land and a lawyer was charged to divide the land between all the families. The ‘Guthi’ systems are indicated in green on the map. On the left part there is more open land then on the right part, this can be explained by the fact that the right part has a higher density since it is located at the inner side of the ring road.

INTENSITY OF PUBLIC FLUX Through a quick (and not completely academic) use of space syntax on the street pattern of strip 1, the hierarchy in ‘integration’ of the streets is plotted. It shows that the main roads, the ring road and the Ganeshman Singh Path are highly integrated in the total configuration of streets.

This means they are expected to carry a lot of through-traffic, which is confirmed by our findings. Especially Kalanki intersection is a place of extreme flux. As soon as you leave these main roads, the amount of through-traffic quickly decreases, so that one finds only people who actually live there in the many dead end alleys. The shops go where the people are, so they can be found accordingly to the logic of the through-movement. Along the main roads a process of maximization of amount of shops along the traffic lines has been taking place, resulting in hundreds of narrow (3m wide) shops, in many cases three storeys on top of each other only to utilize the flow of passers-by as good as possible. The amount of shops in the dense fabric of dead end alleys is hardly significant. There are still some in-between level streets, which connect to the main roads, where many commercial enterprises can be found. These neighborhood streets also carry plenty of through-traffic.

This pattern is expressed both in a plan and in section.

Intensity of public flux

Does the public flux organize the open space?

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A second sub layer is the one of the traditional public spaces such as the pathi’s, temples and wells. These small public spaces are scattered around in the urban fabric and are not used so often as spaces for gathering.

These spaces have a clear religious or functional program and are mainly used for a certain purpose. There were some exceptions where locals were reading newspapers under the water tank or in a pathi. But these public spaces have certainly a value in an extreme dense urban area by creating open space.

The second category is the one of the contemporary public spaces, in this category we could identify formal and informal public spaces. The informal public spaces have a temporary character and can be found on open building plots which are used as sport fields or playgrounds. The empty spaces along the ring road are also examples of informal public

spaces. The local government of Kathmandu is planning to widen the ring road and cleared all ready the space needed for this project. In the mean time, this open space is used as flexible public space for a huge variety of activities. Another remarkable structure is the Kalanki bridge providing a safe crossing for pedestrians above a hectic crossroad. This bridge is also used as an illegal market place where the street vendors are chased away by the police. During our fieldwork we could identify only one formal public space, a former airstrip which was abandoned and now functions as space for different kind of public activities. This strip is now considered as an open public space by the municipality and construction is not allowed.

resistance of historic urban layers

guthi: agriculture land collectively owned by a group of people

pathi: public space for relaxation

former airstrip is used as a flexible public space

temple

private front yards

Will the vernacular resist the contemporary?

kalanki bridge used as a market

along the ring road a wide variety of activities is taking place

in dense urban areas streets are public spaces

water wells

vacant plots are used as temporary sportfields

Chaitya futsal: people can rent a shaded football field

0m

100 m

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THE PERI URBAN STRIP - VINAYAK COLONY FREQUENCIES OF APPROPRIATION The map depicts the provision of public spaces in the study area and shows the allotment of urban spaces by dwellers during lapse of a day. The observations were undertaken in patis, temples, shrines, and open spaces along Bhaisepati, Sainbu and Chobhar districts. The data collected taken with the group of students and data gathered was translated in a map that traces the frequencies of appropriation of the highlighted spaces. Findings show that Patis (religious space) are used as bus stops and are incorporated

as part of the mobility network. Patis are also used as landmarks for the locals and are used throughout the day by different population.

Wells and temples are located in various spots in the study area are mainly visited during the day by women.

On the other hand, open spaces as the central space in Bhasepati area used as multipurpose space, agriculture activities, domestic activities during the day, mainly by women and as leisure space during the afternoon by young male population.The insights were done in 4 days and some of these conclusions might be different when executing a longer period of research.

frequencies of appropriation How are the different spaces used throughout the day and by whom?

religious pati wel peepal tree 100m

8am

8am

Pati 6pm

6pm shrines neighbourhood temple

Temple

temple

8am

8am

6pm

6pm

Wel

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INTERWEAVING PRODUCTIVE LANDSCAPES & URBAN PRESSURE Despite the strip is surrounded by an impressive amount of private housing developments; there is still a great extension of productive landscape that is economically valuable for the area. The graphic demonstrates a layered analysis of organic agriculture initiatives done in different scales, the products cultivated, the participants involved and finally the routes the products travel to their final consumers. In the study area, findings reveal household scale agriculture carried out in leased property for a period of 8 until 10 years and these involve 2 families. Indigenous plants (onions, garlic, mustard, cabbage) are cultivated according to organic regulations and other crops are cultivated in higher land 11 000km

away and are collected and distributed in the local shop in Bhaisepati; in other cases the land is privately owned and the activities involve more participants up to 4 families.

As previously mentioned, the valley has large extension of productive landscape, both slopes and terraced land which are owned by families that develop their activities in an individual way and are not part of cooperative or community organization. The future of the productive land lean on the interest of private developers and in the decision taken by landowners, putting at stake the existing balance between rural and urban tissues. Proposals of design strategies should look upon the role of productive landscapes immersed in a constantly sprawling urban area.

interweaving productivity and urban pressure What is the role of a productive landscape in a constantly sprawling urban tissue?

household farming on vacant land

household farming on leased land

conventional farm for regional market

organic farm for local market water from own well

municipal water, stored in tank cattle & harvests year round

rainfall

municipal water, stored in tank

organic fertiliser

harvest in rainy season VACANT LAND

many farmers

grazing in dry season

HOUSEHOLD FARMING

organic fertiliser several harvests year round

organic fertiliser

several harvests year round

NEPAL AGRO LINK

farm shop

3 farmers many families

FARM

1 farmer 1 family 5 farmers

Kalimati wholesale market

products from other regions in Nepal

4 farmers in Kirtipur

100m

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Zone 4

Zone 3

Zone 2

Zone 1

ZOOMS The sketches and sections done in 4 different zones of the strips illustrate the difference between public spaces and the social relevance for local dwellers.

wel new developments traditional settlements

Wells as public space. People come from near communities [2km]. An opportunity to know neighbours and exchange.

While in the more residential areas as Bhaisepati, public spaces have defined functions with amenities, others could be perceived as simple vacant spaces but were known as public spaces among the locals.

Wells as public space. People come from near communities [2km]. An opportunity to know neighbours and exchange.

Some features, as the Well located in Sainbu has a great value because it is a meeting point for neighbours and people living 3km away. They visit the water resource during the week for collection and during weekends for bathing.

The strip included an area of Kirtipur connected by a street. The village had high-density housing 3 to 4 story-houses on both sides of the road, which contributed with the feeling of narrowness and enclosure. Before reaching to the top a viewpoint widens the road, it is the only public space recognized by the neighbours. The shore of the Bungamati river is also used as public space and farmers bring their cattle for grazing.

In Chobhar, a mixture of traditional and new settlements lack of open spaces, leaving the street as the scenario for social interaction. The streets are used as open-air storage of hey and building materials.

The observations enhance the preconceived concept of “public space” and state that in the Nepalese context a careful understanding of the reality is needed when proposing solutions of the encountered problematiques.

Zone 4 Zone 3 Zone 2

Zone 1 Sainbu- Public Space

Different ways of appropriation of the public space. Young population uses the space for Sports and others use it for driving lessons, grazing their cattle.

Open spaces as extension of private houses [ sheltters / informal settlements ]

Zone 2 Bhaisepati - Public Space

Pati & Peepal tree Shrine next to road

Religious spaces blending in the urban tissue of mobility networks .

Stage for community events

Zone 2 Temple- Pati- Public Space

Religious spaces together with platform for community gatherings are located in medium circulated roads.

Zone 3 Kirtipur - Public Space

Temple Jal Binayek, used for religious purposes and also as public space for other purposes.

Quiet “Green space” close to the Bagmati River is used as public space by local neighbours. Even though the space lacks amenities, locals use it gathering location, observatory, sports place.

Zone 4 Kirtipur - Public Space

Zone 1 Vacant spaces appear during winter season between plots and during moonson season agriculture activities are held.

Traditional settlements and modern houses mixed in a small area.

Local commerce,

wel new developments traditional settlements

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Wells as public space. People come from near communities [2km]. An opportunity to know neighbours and exchange.

Zone 1 Sainbu - Productive Landscape

Zone 1 Sainbu- Public Space

Construction materials like bricks, sand and concrete are kept in public space, sometimes invading circulation spaces.

Zone 5 Chobhar- Public Space

Zone 2 Sainbu- Public Space Temple- Pati- Public Space

neighbours and exchange.

Different ways of appropriation of the public space. Young population uses the space for Sports and others use it for driving lessons, grazing their cattle.

Open spaces as extension of private houses [ sheltters / informal settlements ] Religious spaces together with platform for space. People come from near Wells as public community gatherings communities [2km]. An opportunity to know are located in medium neighbours and exchange. circulated roads.

Zone 1 Zone 2 Sainbu - Productive Landscape Bhaisepati - PublicZone Space 3 Kirtipur - Public Space

Different ways of appropriation of the public space. Young population uses the space for Sports and others use it for driving lessons, grazing their cattle.

Pati & Peepal tree Open spaces as extension of private houses Shrine next to road [ sheltters / informal settlements ] Stage for community events Religious spaces blending in the urban tissueQuiet of mobility “Greennetworks space� close. to the Bagmati River is used as public space by local neighbours. Even though the space lacks amenities, locals use it gathering location, observatory, sports place.

Vacant spaces appear during Shrine next to road winter season between plots and during moonson seasonfor Stage Religious spaces blending in the agriculture activities are held.

community events urban tissue of mobility networks .

Religious spaces together with platform for community gatherings are located in medium circulated roads.

Temple Jal Binayek, used for religious purposes and also as public space for other purposes.

Zone 2 Bhaisepati - Public Space Zone 4 Zone 2 Kirtipur Public Space Temple- Pati- Public Space

Traditional settlements and modern houses mixed in a small area.

Local commerce,

Pati & Peepal tree

Construction materials like bricks, sand and concrete are kept in public space, sometimes invading circulation spaces.

Zone 5 Zone 3 Chobhar- Public Space Zone 2 Kirtipur - Public Space Temple- Pati- Public Space

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THE RURAL STRIP - JARUNCHAA ROAD

except for some house within the colonies. For agricultural purposes, they mainly use river water channelled to the paddy canal via a main canal supply.

Urban Tissue

Urban strip. Jarunchaa Colony

The strip is located along the Satdobato-Godabari Road in the Thaiba Village. The area is populated by the Nepali community. Urban sprawl has been on the rise along the main road inwards. This is because most residents have been transiting from their traditional mud houses into the RCC structures. Based on the information gathered, the main reasons are that the RCC structures are stronger, less expensive and more beautiful in comparison to the traditional ones (modernity versus tradition discourse). Due to the lack of planning guidelines, the residents construct the houses randomly on their plots of land hence an accelerated urban sprawl.

Agriculture is the main economic generator of the area and is divided into four major categories: open rice and mustard fields, tomatoes, lettuces, kale, cabbages and onions greenhouses, mushroom farming/ greenhouses and the cattle rearing. Alongside the agricultural activities, the area is also characterised with other economic activities including commercial activities along the main road, textile factories, wood mills and brick factories.

Infrastructure - Solid Waste Management: Most of the residents use the organic waste as compost manure in their agricultural fields. The remaining waste is either burnt or thrown away illegally in the steep slopes existing in the area. The case changes within the new colonies coming up. Their waste is sorted and collected based on the local municipal (or private) collection schedule.

- Waste Water Management: Most homes have septic tank installed after which they are emptied by the local authority on getting filled.

Very few home use latrines and other have a connection to the sewage system installed by the local authority. However, the few shelters spread in the area are obviously equipped with latrines.

- Water: The area has municipal water supply from the Godabari reservoir and it is pumped twice a week. To complement this source, some families access the public wells, sprouts, taps and even rivers for more water supplies. Water tankers are also used to supply drinking water to different families. Rain water harvesting isn’t a common practise

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- Figure ground, Typologies and Density: There are three types of houses that dominate this area. The traditional house that is characterised with mud brick and mortar and bamboo construction (ceilings), the traditionalmodern house which is mainly a construction with both the traditional (mud) and modern (Reinforced Cement Concrete) construction technologies and the third is the fully modernised construction that use RCC for construction. The house range from one floor houses to four floors depending with the financial ability of the owner/developer. No law has been set to guide the floor number one can construct but the traditional houses are diminishing due to perception of the locals and also a bill that has been set against the construction of new traditional houses.

-Amenities: The neighbourhood is enriched with several lower primary schools, few higher primary schools. Temples are located at different points of the whole area, whether in neighbourhoods ore in open spaces. Public spaces are presents along the main roads, pathways and rivers, at designated points like the Patis, people’s trees, squares etc.

Public Spaces - Productive Landscapes: The community is mainly involved with open agriculture where they grow rice and mustard. Alongside this, they also practise greenhouse farming of produce like green vegetables, tomatoes and mushroom. Cattle and buffalo raring are also practised within the community. Some trees in the fields are used as public space by farmers and other people. These landmarks are implicit places to gather, and spend some community time. These are not necessarily peepal trees.

-Religious Spaces: The community has a high number of temples located along the roads/pathways, within the neighbourhoods and other designated locations. No religious routes were observed.

It is also interesting to mention that some resources points such as wells are sometimes combined with a temple, so that the religious aspect of the place ensures that it will be respected by people, and thus remains clean (unlike most of public spaces).

LANDSCAPE IN TRANSITION The urbanisation rate has been on the rise within this area. It is evident that topography and infrastructure have played the major contributors to this increase. Based on the 2003 google maps, the urbanisation was

concentrated along the earth Satdobato-Godabari Road. The carpeting of the road led to the spread of the urban fabric on the plateau that existed. Today, urbanisation has occupied the eastern side of the plateau and more land has been prepared for new developments on the western side of the plateau. This has led to the shrinking of the agricultural lands that initially exists on this plateau. Alongside the shrinking of the agricultural land due to urbanisation, mushroom and vegetables greenhouses are now replacing the open agricultural fields. What is the controlling element of this sprawl and what strategies can be put in place to control it?

The map below also portrays two categories of neighbourhood structures. To the east shows the traditional neighbourhood. It is a compact structure characterised with building on the ridges letting the valleys and slopes to be covered with agricultural land and forests. The central is concentrated with haphazard sprawl that is heterogeneous with no organisation for different elements like forests and agricultural lands.

RESOURCE BASED PUBLIC SPACES Public spaces are points of social gathering at different areas of a neighbourhood. Nepali community have designated areas for social interaction. These places include Patis, squares and temples. Based on

LANDSCAPES IN TRANSITION

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HAS TOPOGRAPHY PLAYED A ROLE IN THE URBANISATION SPRAWL IN THAIBA?

the fieldwork conducted, people tended to congregated around points of resources rather than the designated areas. Most people seemed to gather around water sprouts, wells, and taps to collect some water.

Other areas included river banks (laundry washing nodes), agricultural people’s trees (gathering, threshing and resting points for farmers) and around commerce points (shops, factories, and mills) located along the main road.

1. The Claimed Edge: This is the walled edge around the new colonies developments. It blocked flows between the residents with the surrounding locals both visually and virtually. Access to these premises is limited and they are even self-sustained with no relationships with the surrounding. From the outside view, this edge appears to be a backyard to the neighbouring land. This edge has the important particularity to be designed on the very purpose to separate people.

What can be done to improve these informal and formal social nodes that act as public spaces to the local community?

2. The Topography Edge: It has been the guiding edge to both the traditional and urbanisation settlements. To the traditional settlements, the steep slopes guided how far the settlements could stretch leaving the rest of the land to agriculture and forest (usually steepest lands

EDGES WITHIN THE LANDSCAPE

RESOURCE BASED PUBLIC SPACES

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PUBLIC SPACE VS RELIGION

PUBLIC SPACE VS AGRICULTURE

PUBLIC SPACE VS RIVER

PUBLIC SPACE VS COMMERCE

PUBLIC SPACE VS WATER POINTS

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that could not be turned into terraces). To the urbanisation sprawl, this edge has offered the plateau on which this sprawl is taking place. To the eastern side of the plateau, it is evident that the steep slopes area acting as the limit to which the sprawl could spread. The traditional settlements in the east of the strip seem to follow the same logic as they are located on ridges and elevated spots.

The Irrigation Edge: The canal to the eastern side of the plateau also acts as a controlling element within the neighbourhood. It states the extent of urbanisation leaving the land on the slope towards the river to agricultural activities. Indeed, the lands just below the canal are more

convenient for agriculture, and thus the irrigation is probably another factor for the urban sprawl to occur on the plateau (where land cannot be irrigated) rather than in the valleys.

The Diffused Edge: There is a narrow definition of the edge between the urbanisation and agriculture to the western side of the plateau. The agriculture seems to stretching into the urban fabric and vice versa.

Indeed, new houses seem to pop-up a little bit randomly in the middle of the agricultural lands, which outputs as an odd mixed-use area.

EDGE CONCEPT within landscapes

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WHAT ARE SOME OF THE EDGE CONDITIONS EXPERIENCED WITH PERI-URBAN AREAS?

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THEME PRODUCTIVE LANDSCAPE THE FAULT LINE BETWEEN URBANISATION AND AGRICULTURE

Water and Productive landscapes are some of the major resources within the Kathmandu Valley. Therefore, following one of the major irrigation canals (kulo’s) during our fieldwork turned out to be an effective way to observe productive landscapes systems with relation to urbanisation. This was realised in a span of three days and documentation of approximately 3.7km of the canal, parallel to Chunikchel until Sanokhokana was achieved. Constructed by the national government in the first half of the twentieth century, the canal provides a big share of the irrigation water in the valleys between the Bagmati and the Nakkhu Rivers. However, we also found it to be a boundary of the expanding urbanisation emerging along the Ekantakuna-Tikabhairab Road. As there are frictions between the expanding urbanisation and the agriculture which crystallize around the irrigation canal, we can describe the canal to be the fault line between urbanisation and agriculture.

HOW DOES THE WATER SYSTEM ORGANISE THE URBAN LANDSCAPE? In this map we plotted the findings of our walk along the canal. It shows the relationship between the irrigation canal and other features of the landscape. We found out that the village ponds of both Khokana and Bungamati are partially fed the canal. Two of Bungamati’s ponds are connected to a parallel, more southern irrigation canal which terminates in Bungamati. These ponds are then also connecting to a creek starting from Bungamati and runs into the Bagmati valley. The canal we followed gets its water from the Nakkhu river and terminates somewhere at the height of Sanokhokana. The water from the canal also feeds the creek that starts at the temple between Bungamati and Khokana and also the creek starting north of Khokana. In both cases the sewerage of the villages also flows into these creeks. At other instances it was also clear that untreated sewerage water flows into the irrigation canal. We

THE SEQUENCE OF SCENES ALONG THE IRRIGATION CANAL

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observed that generally the occurrence of pollution of the canal by solid waste goes hand in hand with the presence of urbanisation. We passed a gravel mining pits, which according to the hydro-geology professor we met, fill the water with silt thus clogging the canal and potentially decreases the productivity of the agriculture fields that rely on the canal for irrigation. Urbanisation seems to expand, starting from the sides of the Ekantukuna road downhill, but stops (at least for now) at the edge of the canal. This pattern was not found however in the northeast corner of this map. Here a canal was not present and urbanisation seemed to have much more arbitrary boundaries.

and their exhaust fumes. To support our findings, we observed the canal path usage from a fixed location (at the crossing of the canal and a road between Bungamati and Khokana). We counted the amount of people using the path within the time frame of half an hour. Based on the data collected in two days, (once on a Saturday at 14:00 and once on a Tuesday at 15:30), we found out that 25 people use the canal with an anomaly of one man on a motorbike. Our observation cannot give any conclusion on whether our assumption is true, but at least we found that the path along the canal is used for more than just agriculture related practices.

IS THE CANAL BEING APPROPRIATED BY THE COMMUNITY?

Can the canal be re-imagined as an active border between urbanisation and agriculture?

A canal is a device meant to transport water in a controlled way over a long distance and therefore it needs to have a very flat slope. To achieve this, the canal was constructed along and not across the topography thus the undulating profile. Our conclusion was that the path along the canal, because of the flat nature of it, in a very irregular terrain, would make a comfortable path, especially for the elderly and children. In addition, the path is safer than the road because of the absence of heavy traffic

The canal is directly related to many other landscape features like agriculture fields, creeks and village ponds

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So that brings us to the design question we can distill from our findings: Can this canal be more than just a device to irrigate the fields? Could it become an active and positive boundary between the urbanisation and the productive landscapes? Could the canal allow for an interdependent relation between them? Can the houses feed (through rain water collection and grey/black water (after decentralised treatment)) feed the fields, while the fields in return feed the inhabitants of the houses? Can the path along the canal be a soft alternative for the busy Ekantakuna road on the hilltop? Can it be a linear base for a series of small public spaces? This can all be researched through design in the following phases of the studio.

400 m

The canal forms the border between the agriculture fields downhill and

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THEME MORPHOLOGIES OF TRANSITION TRANSITION FROM URBAN TO RURAL

The focus of the first exercise are the settlements of Karyabinayak along the Ekantakuna road. Those Settlements along the road differ to a large extent from each other. The topography plays an important role in this, since the settlements are located on the plateaus along the road. This is the case for Bhaisepati and the new developments in Bungamati. There are also parts where the road is located on a ridge and no settlements are found along the road. Due to the rapid growth of Kathmandu, the demand for building plots is high. As a consequence, the value of agriculture land is increasing drastically. Farmers are tempted by developers to transform

TRANSITION FROM URBAN TO RURAL

productive land into building plots and to sell it for big money. Along the Ekantakuna road several of this open lands are waiting for a new owner.

Infrastructure such as roads, sewage, electricity is already in place but there is no construction going on since the plots are not sold yet. We located the open lands prepared for new developments and made an estimation of the maximum load of dwellings. Another feature is the transition from urban to rural which is happening along the Ekantakuna road. Bhaisepati is at this moment already a part of the suburbs of bigger Kathmandu; whereas Bungamati and Chunikhel are still rural and to a certain extent traditional towns. The urban fabric in Bhaisepati is the one of a suburb with a ribbon development for economic activities along the

Planned developments

Ribbon development

100m new development organically grown residential gated community

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Linear urban transitions along the Ekantakuna Road 24

road and residential neighbourhoods further away from the road. This ribbon development is also popping up on a much smaller scale in the rural areas south of Bhaisepati.

TRANSITION OF TYPOLOGIES The typology of residential buildings is gradually changing along the road. In the more rural areas of Chunikhel a lot of traditional Nepali houses still can be found. The traditional houses are constructed out of sundried bricks and mud and have an inclined roof. In the more urban Bhaisepati almost all the traditional houses are replaced with new reinforced concrete structures with some traditional elements the so called Namaste style houses. Namaste style houses are constructed

out of reinforced concrete frames with a brick infill and have typically roof terraces to dry laundry or crops. In the ribbon development the shop houses can be found, these buildings are characterized by mixed use: economic activities on the ground floor and residential activities on the upper floors. Because of the earthquake a lot of traditional houses were damaged in Chunikhel, the majority of the owners of these houses preferred to demolish the damaged traditional houses and to replace them with Namaste style houses. The local government has also banned the use of traditional building materials, making the future of traditional Nepali and Newari houses uncertain.

TRANSITION OF TYPOLOGIES Nepali house traditional house located in rural areas

100m

Namaste style house contemporary house located in urban and new developed areas

Shop house mixed use building located in ribbon development in urban areas

Namaste style houses - the new vernacular?

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THEME MAPPING MISMATCHES The map depicts the analysis of the dĂŠrives done in the study area and For instance the zooms show the central space of Bhaisepati (residential can mismatches of during vacant spaces andand during establishes through a layeredHow inquirycan the design provision strategies of public spaces andbenefit area)from is usedthe as productive landscape monsoon season infrastructure located in the informal districts of Bhaisepati, Bungamati, Khokana dry season is adopted for grazing animals, household scale agriculture use of public space? and Sanokhokana. and is the scenario for domestic activities like laundry or cooking ; streets, are taken by children for leisure activities as football and badminton, an Can design enhance conditions in which informal usage publicin older group uses it for driving field; Pati, a religious space, of is included The observations done were focused on publicstrategies spaces as streets, temples,the current space is and occuring? the dynamics of mobility infrastructure; vacant plots (private ownership) wells , open spaces such as vacant plots productive landscapes. are used for grazing, garbage dumping and some dwellers use them as of their settlements; productive landscapes during monsoon Findings show that open spaces located in the consolidated area of The multiple and various usages of extension public spaces (streets) in the Nepali context should are used to cultivate rice, mustard, garlic and other herbs and during Bhaisepati were appropriated in various ways perfoming multipurpose be taken into account on the provision of flexible spaces. dry season they areand used multi-purpose by neighbours as public space for grazing their functions. cattle.

PUBLIC SPACE_MULTIPURPOSE SPACE

PUBLIC SPACE_VIEWPOINT

PUBLIC SPACE_CENTRALITY

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PUBLIC SPACE _ MULTIPURPOSE SPACE

PUBLIC SPACE_ APPROPRIATED FOR LEISURE & SPORTS ACTIVITIES PUBLIC PACE_ AS HOUSING EXTENSIONS PUBLIC SPACE_ AS MULTIPURPOSE SPACE

PUBLIC SPACE _ HOUSE EXTENSION

PUBLIC SPACE _ COMMERCIAL SPACE

PRODUCTIVE LANDSCAPES_ GRAZING & CROPS

PUBLIC SPACE_CONSTRUCTION MATERIAL STORAGE

NEW DEVELOPMENTS_PRODUCTIVE LANDSCAPE FOR PLANNING & LAND PLOTTING

RELIGIOUS SPACE_ PEEPAL TREE AS SPACE FOR SOCIAL INTERACTION

OPEN SPACE_ APPROPRIATED FOR LEISURE & SPORTS ACTIVITIES

PUBLIC SPACE_

WATER BODIES_ APPROPRIATED FOR LEISURE & SPORTS ACTIVITIES

PRODUCTIVE LANDSCAPES_ GRAZING & CROPS

CATEGORIZATION OF SPACE

STRIKING FEATURES

WALKTROUGH ROUTES_ OBSERVATIONS & EXPLORATIONS 17-2-2016

Productive landscapes

18-2-2016

Open Spaces

19-2-2016

New Developments

20-2-2016

Space appropriation

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Demographic growth and urban expansion of the Kathmandu Valley.

The valley was a lake 30,000 years ago. The introduction of the Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Patan Kingdoms in 1967, introduced the compact traditional settlements within the landscape thus the shrinkage of he lake. By 1990, the traditional settlements began to be submerged by the urbanisation sprawl. Today, with the valley overpopulated, the sprawl is extending to the south foothills taking advantage of undulating topography (plateau).

STUDIO EXPLORATIONS The Karyabinayak municipality, on the hinge of different geographical logics and urban configurations, is challenged in multiple ways (urban growth, earthquake resilience and resource management). By introducing a strong urban figure, linking existing and possible new urban cores, a frame is laid out for future urbanization, where geography, landscape, mobility, public spaces and typological innovation become fundamental elements of the investigation.

EVOLUTION OF THE URBAN TISSUE

Urban expansion causing several frictions between the traditional and the contemporary

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land speculation

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The head of the family is normally occupied with farming, but he can also have a second profession. The wife and the grandmother take care of the children and the housework.

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The rice planting will often include more families, for instance the families living together in the courtyards. The planting only involves the women, but the preparation of the fields and the irrigation system are the work of the men.

During the harvest season everybody takes part in the fields.

Wastewater in canals

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Irrigation system

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Relation urban and agriculture

36 view of Bungmati at the north-east entrance

The pond

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We meet the other entrance road, and following that we pass a large pond surrounded by houses.

There are several ponds around the village that function as reservoirs for the irrigation system.

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Next to the pond there is a small library build by a group of villagers

New typologies 7

soon season.

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Materiality 19

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We continue south and meet people walking to and from their villages with loads on their backs. Scattered along the route are fine small monuments called chaityas. Small clusters of yellow and white plastered farmhouses, inhabited by Tamangs and Chetries, stand between the fields.

Brick kiln

urban tissue 1976

Dumping of solid waste

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Š Bungamati 1968, A survey by Danish Architect Students

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BUNGMA

Public space

The west side of the square forms a continuous wall of facades, but a street leads into the core of the village. The narrow street is paved with flagstones, and along the facades is a raised brick plinth, where different 7-9 scenes on our way. crops are put out to dry. The children use it for playing or resting. Now and then animals 10 Tamang and chetrie houses come out of the doors from the ground floor.

At a crossing we find small open pavilions, patis, where people can rest. Looking up, the eye meets another characteristic detail.

We reach the small settlement of Bainsepati, The overhangs of the roofs project about 80 where the road cm divides intosupported several minor from the wall, by struts.

It has a visual effect in the street, but it also has routes. Around a fine large Pipal tree, supported another good reason. If you compare the by a stone platform, people sit new resting with Newar house with the buildings in Kathwith flat roofs on and plastered their heavy loads,mandu which areconcrete carried the walls, you will see how the overhang on the back. Small shops have developed here Newar house is protecting the walls to during the heavy rain, particularly during the monservice the surrounding communities.

Urbanisation on agricultural land

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Elevation of the facades on the southside of the street. The area behind these facades is Sta Tole

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The temple square

Religion 31

The road turns again, and we can see the top of the temple above a flight of stonesteps. At the top there is a gateway leading

EARTHQUAKE AND AFTERMATH

2016 shelters

Shelter Map of the Karyabinayak Municipality.

The earthquake on 25 April 2015 had a big impact on the housing stock of both Khokana and Bungamati. Lots of houses were severely damaged and wereot suitable for living anymore. As a consequence shelters were popping up everywhere, without concrete interventions they could become permanent.

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2035 + 16.000 + 3.500 + 135.000 m2

Prospected Growth of the Karyabinayak Municipality.

The Kathmandu Valley Development Authority estimated that the population of the VDC’s of Khokana and Bungamati will increase with 16.000 people by 2035. This means an increase of 3.500 households or a footprint 135.000 m2 for new housing. The spatial impact will be significant if no strategic plans will be made.

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CONCEPT

The hinge between the urban sprawl and rural foothills Concept plan. Karyabinayak forms the hinge between the urban expansion of Kathmandu and the rural edges of the valley. The urban growth can be absorbed here in a different form: dense settlements plugged into a framework consisting of two roads and an irrigation canal.

The two roads have complementing qualities

This perspective view on the Kathmandu Valley made in the late 60s, shows that Khokana and Bungamati were still seen as rural towns near the mountains that border the valley. Because of recent urban expension, their position has changed.

Concept section: Emulating the traditional settlements, the new settlements should be located on the higher lands along the low edge of the framework, whereas the urbanisation on the upside of the framework has more a linear shape.

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ARMATURE CHARACTERS

Complementing qualities of Ekantakuna road and village road Plans of framework roads: The Ekantakuna road (the connector) has the road as the main feature with retail shopas and workshops as accompaniments. The armature on the other hand is characterized by the road and its thickenings interacting with the different activities along it as well as the landscape at large.

The Ekantakuna Road as a Connector

The village road as a Collector 35

ARMATURE THEMES

The landscape themes that guide the urbanisaion of armature

Agriculture and forest

Irrigation network

Water

Topography

Existing condition

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Historically, the relation between urbanisation and (productive) landscape has been strong.

Topography and the availability of water to drink and to irrigate paddy with were strong determining factors for where to establish towns.

Towns were situated on the high grounds, where it is very difficult to practice agriculture since irrigation water is not available. In this way agriculture land was maximised. By digging irrigation ponds at the edge of the towns, water could be harvested during monsoons, which replenished ground water also in the dry months.

In our vision, we propose to emulate the logic of this traditional settlement strategy. New expansions should be located in higher places on the lower side of the main irrigation canals.

Those can supply them with water for irrigating kitchen gardens and all kinds of domestic practices like washing clothes.

Because of they can be irrigated year-round and have access to a road, the agriculture plots between the Ekantakuna road and the village road have to be preserved; no new development should take place here.

Kitchen gardens and orchards can be integrated in the extension areas. On some dry and steep slopes, bamboo could be planted. Besides preventing landslides, the bamboo can be harvested and used as (temporary) construction material.

ARMATURE THEMES

The urbanisation themes within armature vision

Urbanisation

Armature and Ekantakuna road

Commerce and Amenities

Waste

Mobility

The new extension areas will, just like the existing towns, be connected to an existing road, running between Khokana and Bungamati and extending to a brick kiln south of Bungamati.

This road we call the armature of the development strategy.

This armature forms a framework together with the Ekantakuna road up the hill. Their specific qualities should complement the other. The armature functions more as a collector of people and the shared services which all the urban ‘plugs’ can use like schools, decentralised waste water treatment points (that can also produce biogas), waste collection points, water retention ponds and small commerce and craft workshops. However, due to its curvy shape and materialisation, this road is a slow traffic route.

The Ekantakuna road on the other hand, really functions as the connector between Karyabinayak municipality and Kathmandu. Shop houses with urban commerce and small industries.

Waste can be collected in a waste bank here, before it is taken to landfills in other parts of the valley. This road can take faster and more frequent traffic flows than the armature.

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VISION PLAN & ARMATURE

LINE SPACE PLUG

Landscape sensitive urbanisation

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1 An impression of a view along the Ekantakuna road portraying the surface finish of stepped concrete blocks with an adjuscent swale

2 An impression of the materiality of the road between Bungamati and Khokana with relaxation steps overlooking the pond

3 An impression of the market materiality and the micro topography alteration

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BUNGAMATI MARKET

LINE THICKENING PLUG

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0 By applying the concept of permeability and impermeability, the site introduced two levels of materiality using concrete slabs. The impermeable area was mainly characterised by compact concrete slabs. The space is mainly high traffic usage and also accommodates elements like underground tanks as well as activities like 40

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circulation and daily market activities. The semi-permeable spaces comprise of the concrete slabs with grass joints. These spaces are characterised by less traffic and more of passive activities. Alteration of micro topography and introduction of trees for shade, a micro climate is achieved making the space favourable.

The site is located at the entry into Bungamati from the Ekantakuna Road before approaching the main community water ponds. It is currently used as a bus terminus and a social public space for volleyball, relaxing and also spillage selling and buying points for the shops.

A-A’

This space is one of the vibrant spaces/pockets in Bungamati due to its strategic location and also characterised with some of the social elements like the Pati, Petis and restaurants and shops that act as meeting points.

Shop House

Pati

Multifunctional hard surface Road (concrete blocks) (concrete blocks)

Shaded spillover zone (concrete blocks and grass)

The proposal looks into improving the vibrancy/usage of the spaces.

By moving the bus terminal, the space coverage is increased to accommodate a market that can be multifunctional and dynamic in term of function. Its success is through the introduction of cheap and readily available materials that will curb the dust generated during the dry season and mud during the rainy season. The alteration of the micro topography together with the introduction of trees will give the space character and also micro climate.

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Shop House

Multifunctional hard surface (concrete blocks)

Main road (concrete blocks)

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Shop House

During and after the earthquake, the site acted as a second city that housed some of affected residence in shelters. Rubble from destroyed houses was also dumped on site. Most of the shop houses enclosing it were also destroyed.

Outdoor worshop (concrete blocks and grass)

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Peti and Road (concrete blocks)

Shaded terraces (concrete blocks and grass)

Multifunctional soft surface (concrete blocks and grass)

Multifunctional hard surface (concrete blocks)

Road and spillage space (concrete blocks)

Shop House

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BUNGAMATI MARKET

Open space scenarios: Multifunctionality and resilience of an open space C-C’

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Stepped outdoor market

Market stals (haat bazaar)

Spillover Space

Road

Stepped relaxation area

Volleybal Court

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Food tent

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Daily scenario

Earthquake scenario 42

Rubble

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Market stals (haat bazaar)

Meeting and relaxation

Spillover Space

Meeting and relaxation

Meeting and relaxation

Table tennis

Meeting and administration tent

Shrine and prayer point

Meeting and relaxation

Outdoor Workshop

Meeting and relaxation

Meeting and relaxation

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EDUCATIONAL HUB

LINE THICKENING PLUG

Phasing of the hub implementation

Existing shelters and landscape condition

A-A’ Plastic waste recycling

Vocational school, orchard nurseries, gardens and afforestation

B-B’ Orchard nurseries, gardens and afforestation

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Vocational school, gardens, plastic waste recycling and afforestation 44

C-C’ Vocational school; earthquake proof construction technique and wood craft

WASTE SYSTEM

LINE THICKENING PLUG The always increasing production of waste in the Kathmandu Valley is now for years a serious issue that authorities try to deal with.

KTM 17% others

Around 70% of the waste production in the Valley is organic waste. This can be easily recycled for example as fertilizer. In our proposal, the organic waste can be brought to the wastewater treatment plants where they can be injected in a specific step of the process to be recycled into biogas and fertilizer.

The wastewater treatment plants are spread in our area. Eight different are to be implemented around the different settlements, and each would be equipped to collect organic waste.

71% Organic waste

12% plastic

Waste Bank

KTM

The remaining waste (plastic, paper, glass, metal, etc.) can be collected in specific places that can be paired with the wastewater treatment plants. These waste hubs are accessible from the road. The waste is regularly collected and carried to a wastebank located the main road.

At the waste bank, all the waste will be sorted. A part of it will be kept within the area if locals have the skills to recycle it. The educational hub has a specific facility for that purpose. The amount waste that cannot be recycled in the area will be exported by truck to Kathmandu, where other facilities are more appropriated to process it.

HUB The site is at the periphery of Bungamati to the south. It is an undulating site framed by strong landscape elements including steep topography, forest and feasible agricultural land. It is also adjacent to two schools; a local primary school to the north and Japanese sponsored school to the south.

Area DATA Area DATA 1 plan Currently, it is characterised with shelters within population population 2035 2035 18000 18000 mean agricultural land. The yield and fertility of the land has really gone done due to this sprawl. This posesdaily as awastewater daily wastewater production production (l/pers) (l/pers) 51 51 mean problem taking into account the fact that shelterstotal havedailytotal production daily production (m³) (m³) 918 918 mean acted as base for urban sprawl. Also, the adjacent forest number of number plants equivalent of plants equivalent needed needed 10 10 mean on the steep slope has been extracted for fuel thus The 10 “plant equivalents” needed in our area will deforestation.

Map and graphic of proposed waste system effectively be embedded in eight sites.

Site distribution Site distribution To control the urbanisation, the shelters are replaced Settlement Settlement Plants equivalent Plants equivalent total surf total (m²) surf number (m²) ofnumber sites of sites by a vocational school that acts as a laboratory for the Khokana Khokana 3 3 2340,9 2340,9 3 different activities to be introduced within the destined Karyabinayak Karyabinayak 1,5 1,51170,45 1170,45 (2) shared( urbanisation area. The main activities introduced within 50 100 m the space include earthquake proof construction 0Bungamati skills, Bungamati 2 2 1560,6 1560,6 2 wood crafts, orchards nursery and different kitchen Educational Educational hub hub 0,5 0,5 390,15 390,15 1 garden plants, water recycling plant, plastic waste 3 3 2340,9 2340,9 2 recycling and afforestation of bamboo and otherBrick treekiln Brick kiln species.

Total Total 10 10 7803 7803 8 0m

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WASTE WATER TREATMENT PLANT LINE THICKENING PLUG

Dump

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Poor irrigation

Dump Infiltration

Runoff Big

WELL

RIVER

AQUIFER

Current water systems

The water system in our study area is currently suffering from several environmental issues.

- The pollution is a major issue as most of the waste water produced by households is directly dumped in the ponds, canals and rivers.

- Water is widely available during monsoon season and scarcity is sensible during dry season. Therefore rainwater should be managed to prevent its runoff allowing an appropriate irrigation throughout the year.

- High demand of drinkable water puts an important pressure on the aquifer which cannot be recharged.

A-A’ Sketch section of proposed waste water treatment plant

The proposal includes waste water treatment plants that tackles the pollution problem. These facilities are located down each significant settlement and above the streams and agriculture fields.

Water Treatment Countour trenches

Water Treatment

Rain harvest

CANAL

Irrigation

POND

tion Irriga

Infiltration

WELL

RIVER

AQUIFER Section of the proposed water systems 46

The filtration of all the wastewater before it is released back to the system would enhance the general quality of the water.

Processing the wastewater needs an anaerobic step, which is achieved in a sceptic tank. During this step, biogas is emitted by the digestion of the organic waste.

This polluting gas can be captured in the anaerobic baffle reactor, and be reused for cooking, heating, or lighting purpose.

A’

A

Site plan of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) proposal 0

Area DATA population 2035 18000 oduction (l/pers) daily wastewater production (l/pers) 51 n (m³) total daily production (m³) 918 uivalent needed number of plants equivalent needed 10

0 25

0

Projected need for waste water treatment plants in our area (2035)

25

50 m

The site is located between Bungamati and the Karyabinayak project area.

The end of the canal coming from Karyabinayak (north) is deflected along the road so that it merges with the sewerage pipe before entering the WWTP. Wastewater first goes through a grid chamber that retains the solids found in the influent stream. Then it enters the anaerobic baffle reactor (ABR). At this step suspended matter is separated by sedimentation. The anaerobic digestion of the retained waste produces biogas which is collected and re-used for household purposes. The ABR need to be desludged usually when the waste reaches a third of the tank’s volume.

The sludge lies in the drying bed next to the ABR before it is taken by farmers and used as a fertilizer. A sas allows people to introduce their organic waste into the ABR to increase the gas and fertilizer production. After the anaerobic step, wastewater reaches the contstructed wetlands which is a shallow basin filled with filter material (sand and gravel) and planted with vegetation. Vegetation plays a vital role in the wetlands as they provide surfaces and a suitable environment for microbial growth and filtration. Water is fed from the top and then gradually percolates down through the bed and is collected by a drainage network at the base. Two reed beds follow each other. Finally the water is released in a sedimentation pond that is connected to a creek or the irrigation canal.

50 m

18000 50 51 9180 10

1 plant equivalent 1 plant equivalent mean surface of 1 plant mean surface of 780,3 1 plant mean mean surf. of 1137,7 VF unit 100 msurf. of 1 VF unit mean surf. 150 sludge drying bed mean m surf. 1 sludge 100,98 drying 100 mean capacity (m³) mean capacity (m³) 91,8 Characteristics of one waste water treamtment facility for a daily capacity of around 90m²

Site distribution We stated that one “plant equivalent equivalent” would total be a plant the capability to treat The (m²) site between Bungamati and Karyabinayak runs for 2 “plant Settlement Plants surfwith Plants (m²) equivalent number of sites total surf number of sites 91.8 m³ of wastewater per day, or a tenth of the total daily production in 2035. equivalents”.

Khokana 3 2340,9 3 3 2340,9 3 Karyabinayak 1,5 1170,45 1,5 (2) shared 1170,45 with Khk & Bgm (2) shared with Khk & Bgm 47 Bungamati 2 1560,6 2 2 1560,6 2 Educational hub 0,5 390,15 0,5 1 390,15 1

KARYABINAYAK SITE

LINE THICKENING PLUG

The Karyabinyak site is located on a plateau in between Khokana and Bungamati and is named after the Karyabinayak temple at its southern edge. The plateau is surrounded by steep valley slopes covered with forest. The plateau used to be productive land until the Gyanodaya boarding school arrived in 1999. From that moment on individual residential buildings started to pop up along the roads connecting the school with Bungamati and Khokana. The earthquake was a catalyst for this sprawl because plenty of shelters were constructed in the rice fields by people whose houses were severely damaged.

The aim of the project for the Karyabinayak site is to find a spatial strategy that in the same time deals with the urban sprawl caused by the shelters and the demographic growth and at the other hand can preserve the spatial qualities of the site. By using the micro topography on the plateau a water system is introduced to guide urbanisation. The traditional relation between agriculture and settlement is enforced by a network of orchards and kitchen gardens in order to make residents self-sufficient and more resilient to natural and economical crises.

A-A’ Cross-section

Orange (Citrus sinensis) Peach (Prunus persica)

B-B’ Detailed section 48

Persimmon (Diospyros Kaki)

Peach (Prunus persica)

Restructuring water systems. By introducing new side branches of the existing irrigation canal, the water system becomes a structuring element in the landscape of the plateau. Urbanisation can happen on higher land whereas productive land is located on lower land in order to use gravity for irrigation. The forest is located on the steep valley slopes where creeks collect the water and bring it to the Bagmati river.

A network of orchards defines the building plots on higher land providing access to the dwellings. The buildings are clustered in such a way that courtyards are created to define a hierarchy in public space. Courtyards with a good orientation to the sun can be used for kitchen gardens, others can be used as flexible spaces for several social activities. The rainwater is harvested and used for irrigation in the orchards and daily use in the households.

Retention ponds are located at the entrance of the settlements functioning as an entrance gate. During rainy season the ponds will be filled with rainwater which can be used in the dry season.

The ponds work also as public spaces used for household activities such as doing laundry. In the central part of the settlement a small square provides the inhabitants with a public space to organize events. An open and unpaved area with a pipal tree is located at the end of the settlement creating a space for rest.

The climate in the Kathmandu valley is suitable for different varieties of deciduous fruits such as persimmon, oranges and peaches. The amount of sun exposure is depending on the variety; persimmon needs a moderate amount of sun exposure whereas oranges and peaches need full sun exposure.

A

B’ B

A’

0

50

100 m

plan Karyabinayak site

49

KARYABINAYAK SITE

LINE THICKENING PLUG

Phase 1: current situation. Shelters and buildings are scattered around on the site causing sprawl and eating up the fertile productive land.

Phase 2: basic infrastructure. As a first step the side branches of the canal, the roads and the orchards will be introduced. As a consequence some shelters will have to be demolished and the residents will be relocated to new dwellings on the site. The vacant building plots can be used for agriculture in the mean time.

Phase 3: additional infrastructure. As a second step the public spaces will be introduced: ponds, laundry spots and the squares. All the residents of shelters will be relocated to new dwellings. Vacant plots will still be used for agriculture.

Phase 4: final phase. As the population is growing new plots can be developed for dwellings until the maximum load is reached.

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Panorama showing the current situation of the Karyabinayak site as seen from the road between Kokhana and Bungamati.

Panorama showing the Karyabinayak site after intervention as seen from the road between Kokhana and Bungamati.

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BRICK KILN

LINE THICKENING PLUG

Project site

Brick industry time frame

Throughout the years there has been an unusual croprotation between brick production and agriculture.

The industry has caused environmental damages such as soil degradation, groundwater and air pollution.

These problems are generating health problem to local people and impacting severly the quality of the crops produced in this land.

Seasonal rythm of brick industry and agriculture 52

The proposal is located in the Brick Kiln Bungamati Itta Tile Udhyog. The center of the brick industry is located on a plateau moreover the rice paddies structures are used to dry the bricks and stock the production.

B’

The location is ideal to allocate the upcoming urban growth. The project proposal responds to the topographic and incorporate the landscape features in the design.

C’

B

A

C

D’

D A’

The site has an area of 9.56 hectares and can allocate an average of 6000 housing units.

In both edges of the site, strategies for soil remediation are proposed and agriculture recovery are proposed. A green belt of agriculture fields are located in the north, and agroforestry (afforestation) is located in the south together with the purification of retention ponds contribute to enhance the present condition of the site and will contain the urban tissue.

The urbanisation process will be done in phases, self-building strategy is stimulated.

Traditional building systems and typologies configurations are encouraged.

Phasing of the project

1.

Land remediation through forestry and recovery of agriculture.

The existing ponds used for water retention and infiltrtion to the groundwater

2. Consolidation of existing network structure and define activity areas.

Determine housing plots in relation with the productive landscapes.

3. Elements of landscape and water-joined so the new urban tissue and the existing settlement Khuipu.

4. Second phase of urbanisation.

5. Third phase of urbanisation.

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BRICK KILN

A-A’ Section across the contour lines

B-B’ Detailed section

C-C’ Detailed section 54

LINE THICKENING PLUG

D-D’ Detailed section

Proposed typologies The housing configurations respect the courtyard concept as a collective space ,the units are organized as row of houses facing north taking advantage of the view and the productive landscape.

The height of the buildings is limited to 10.50m, the main building material is brick and zinc roof tiles.

55

BRICK KILN

Current status of the site

Photomontage of the urbanisation project

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LINE THICKENING PLUG

WRITINGS As part of the studio exercise, specific subjects have been investigated into depth, resulting in a thesis paper. These researches allow for profound background knowledge on the issues at stake and allow for a continuous interplay between theory, design and experiences from the field.

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POSTINDUSTRIAL LANDSCAPES

by Claudia Canales ABSTRACT Rapid urban growth in Kathmandu Valley has resulted in the expansion of the urban tissue towards peri-urban areas, increasing the demand for construction materials and boosting the present brick industry.

Several of the brick kilns located in the area have brought along a series of environmental issues. Studies demonstrate adverse impacts on soil productivity, groundwater levels, air pollution and health problems.

Considering the need of high-quality soil, the brick kilns remain on a site only for a limited period of intensive clay extraction. After a while, the land loses its value, and the operations are relocated. This creates degraded plots of land and opens up opportunities for defining new functions.

Many questions arise about what should be done in these vacant landscapes? What are some of the obstacles keeping abandoned sites from being transformed? Should all the brick kilns have similar functions?

Who is responsible for determining the future of these landscapes?

The aim of the paper is to examine the potentialities of the area, to highlight the importance of the regeneration of industrial sites in the Nepalese context and its limitations. Two case studies on post-industrial land transformation are used to define proposals of further action pathways. In this regard, suggestions for the enhancement of the current land policies are proposed as an important tool for urban containment, fostering redevelopment and landscape revitalization.

INTRODUCTION Over the last decades, the rapid urban development and population growth experienced in the Kathmandu city area have contributed to the increase of Nepal’s economy and industry, stimulating the ruralurban migration. However, the ascending price of land, associated with the boom of the real estate sector and land speculation has made the migration flow to reverse.

The demand of space for future housing developments has led to looking at the opportunities available in the peri-urban area of the Valley. As Douglas (2006) defines, suburban areas are transition zones where urban and rural activities are juxtaposed, and the landscape features are subject to rapid modifications induced by human activities. The peri-urban is a strategic area that is likely to receive migrants pursuing a more rural lifestyle closer to nature, but also gathers the poorer rural population searching for work and better opportunities for their families.

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The peri-urban area of the Valley is valued for several reasons. First, for its historical past with two traditional Newari settlements being located in Bungamati and Khokana. Second, the availability of space allowed the installation of many temporary shelters after the earthquake of 2015. Third, the Valley contains very fertile land where agriculture is the primary economic source of the communities. Fourth, it is the largest source of material for industries that extract clays, sand gravel, limestone fuelwood and timber essential to urban life. Fifth, the middleclass population is currently living in colonies and gated communities with services and amenities that are otherwise lacking in the area; sixth, the area is perceived as less polluted in comparison to the city centre, constituting another relevant reason to move to the peri-urban area.

The growth in the peri-urban area has contributed to the gradual transformation of productive land into residential and other land uses.

According to Haack and Rafter (2006), forest and agriculture lands were progressively converted into urban areas, accounting for 14,131 ha. in 2000 compared to 3,015 ha. in 1978; which means an increase of 450 percent. Many authors have mostly discussed the consequences of urban expansion. For instance, according to Lal and Stewart (2010), urban encroachment decreases soil resources in two ways: vast areas of topsoil are used for bricks making (e.g. in South Asia), and prime farmland is converted to shopping malls, airports, roads, and industrial complexes.

Exacerbated by population growth and the private housing boom, significant amounts of construction materials are required, mainly bricks that are traditionally manufactured in the Valley. The number of brick kilns has doubled since 2000 (Animal Nepal, 2011) depredating the same soil of the paddy fields used for agriculture. Farmers have been attracted by the idea to get extra profit from their land, allowing an unusual crop rotation between bricks and agriculture. In the short term, leasing the land for clay extraction might seem a solution; however, in the long run, the environmental damage and cost to restore the degraded land will be higher than the revenues from the lease agreement. The condition of the temporality of the kilns varying between 5 to 10 years of leasing, opens up possibilities in the definition of the future uses and functions these post-industrial sites can allocate (Pariyar; Das and Ferdous, 2013).

The purpose of the paper is to describe the current situation of the brick industry in Nepal, its changes, and impacts. Moreover, the paper aims to examine possible transformation from the brick kiln to restored agriculture fields, public spaces or complexes combining more functions, as a way to improve the degraded land, supply infrastructure, and services and dote the post-industrial area with a new landscape identity.

Fig.01_ Location and population growth. own material

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RESEARCH QUESTIONS The main research question is: How to transform former brick kiln sites in the Kathmandu Valley into productive spaces? More specifically, the main question induces the following sub-questions: 1.

What regulation mechanisms are required to avoid the conversion of agricultural fields to brick kilns?

2.

Should all the brick kilns be transformed to fulfil the same functions after the period of extraction?

3.

What are the challenges and opportunities of post-industrial redevelopment in the Nepal?

METHODOLOGY The research methodology was divided in two sections: both a literature review and the selection of case study research were relevant in the development of the study.

1.

The literature review – covered a wide range of topics. The selected literature contributed to the analysis of urban growth impacts in the study area; of the pattern of the brick industry about the urbanisation process; and of the connection of planning and design with public and private benefits of post-industrial redevelopment.

Fig.02_ source: http://khadkajitendra.blogspot.be/

2.

Case study selection and analysis – the selection of criteria was based on recent land transformation projects, the impact of the project on different scales, the catalyst capacity of the project proposal (transform waste, produce energy, brightfield, wetlands) and the availability of relevant information. These search restrictions were applied to bring a degree of objectivity and draw a selection that responds better to the research objectives.

The two case studies under scrutiny are Mount Hiriya Rehabilitation in Tel Aviv, Israel, and the Duisbury Park in the Ruhr Valley in Germany.

60

Fig.06_ satellite images of the brick kilns. google earth website.

Fig.03_ Sainbhu agricultural landscapes and urbanisation

CURRENT BRICK MANUFACTURING ISSUES IN NEPAL Brick manufacturing is one of the traditional crafts in the Valley.

Archaeologists believe that the production of bricks started in Kathmandu three thousand years ago, to later expand in the whole country (Kumar; Das and Ferdous 2013). The evidence of the old linkage of architecture with this material is visible in the facades of the palaces and temples ornamented with woodcarvings, giving character to the public spaces in Nepal. The activity of brick making and the production methods in the Kathmandu Valley have characterized architecture for centuries, giving rise to a unique civilization renowned for its skills in quality building construction (Bonapace and Sestini UNESCO, 2003). Bricks are still used for the construction of traditional houses in the Valley because of the tradition, durability, and aesthetic reasons.

In the beginning, the bricks were sun-dried, and only a few kilns existed in the area. In the early 1950’s an underlying technology was introduced in Nepal, to be gradually later replaced by the clamp kilns technology.

Endeavours to renovate and standardize the brick technology were made by the Nepal Government with the technical and financial support of China. In 1970 the Hoffman Kiln technology was introduced.

Nonetheless, this technology did not succeed because of the initial high investment and requirement of staff training (SAARC, 2013).

Subsequently, the demand for burnt bricks increased due to the growth in the Kathmandu Valley and motivated farmers to lease their agricultural land for clay extraction. The extraction is only executed during the dry season that lasts from October until May in which the kiln owners pay the price of a crop. The lease agreement lasts five until ten years, and the farmers are not concerned about the negative impacts (ENPHO 2001).

DRY SEASON AGRICULTURAL LAND

When the lease term expires, the industry needs to relocate in fertile soil, leaving the degraded site to farmers that will probably recourse to the use of chemical fertilizers to repair the damage (Thapa, 2011).

The kiln owners select the sites according to the availability of resources like clay, water and the proximity to commercial areas. The brick oven uses coal as major fuel, and in lower quantities agriculture debris, firewood, rice husk, sawdust, oil cakes, scrap tires are also used. This fuel is imported from India due to the small coal resources availability in Nepal (CBS, 2008). The use of rice husks and agriculture residues has decreased because of their lowered availability, reflecting the loss of agricultural lands in the Valley (Haack and Khatiwada, 2006). The urge to obtain other sources of fuel has led to the use of firewood, contributing to deforestation. Although the government has established a deforestation mitigation strategy, which restricted the registration of kilns within a one-kilometer distance from densely populated areas and more than 100m from forests, and excavation of soils must be within a 65-m radius from the kiln, these regulations do not seem to be respected (ENPHO 2001). In addition to these issues, the industry has brought other environmental damages by lowering groundwater levels and causing air pollution and soil contamination with heavy metals; these facts are severely affecting the health of local communities (Pariyar; Das and Ferdous, 2013).

The role of government in the alleviation of environmental damage is crucial (Haack and Khatiwada, 2006). Regulations and mechanisms protecting the productive landscapes should be established to avoid clay extraction to replace agriculture activities gradually in the long-term.

topsoil extraction open air drying

kiln feed

CLAY EXTRACTION

fired brick flue

DRYING BRICK SHAPING MOULDING Fig.05_ Schematic diagram of cement manufacturing process. Based on P. R. Pandey and N. Banskota

coal

DESPATCH

FIRING 61

WESTERN APPROACHES TRANSFORMATION

TO

POST-INDUSTRUAL

LAND

Another responsibility of local government bodies, together with smallholder farm owners, is to define strategies to transform brick kiln brownfields. In Europe, brownfields are defined as abandoned, idle, or underutilized industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination (USEPA 1997a, b).

In the beginning, brownfields and idle sites were perceived as a threat to society. As these landscapes become economically disadvantaged, environmentally degraded and socially distressed, several planners, designers and developers started to react or decline problems caused by the growing wastelands (Secchi, 2007). The perception of the sites as hazards gradually shifted to the envisioning of interesting opportunities.

According to Loures (2014) these sites were attractive not only because of their location, proximity to infrastructure, uniqueness in form and configuration, but also because they were often the only land available for redevelopment in urban areas. Institutions, programmes and networks created in Western countries are responsible for the redevelopment of industrial sites, and often aim at increasing the number of green spaces in the urban dynamics. However, the land transformation process of brownfields is intrinsically layered and complex due to the multiple players involved, including levels of government and multi-disciplinary consultant teams; technical challenges of ecological and biological systems; and the financial burden with limited government incentives for upfront capital costs.

overly focussing on the aesthetic and recreational aspect. Indeed, the transformation concept seems to be shifting the discourse of sustainable design into productive directions (OALA, 2010).

HIGHLIGHTED CASE STUDIES ON LAND TRANSFORMATION In this section, two case studies that are particularly relevant for the Kathmandu Valley and present different restoration approaches, scales and benefits, are analysed. The first case is located in the fringe of the city and the second one is situated inside the urban zone. The selected projects shed light on the limitations and opportunities of post-industrial redevelopment.

ECOLOGICAL REHABILITATION OF THE MOUNT HIRIYA Rehabilitation can be defined as physical remediation through chemical or organic remediation methods and can be applied to restore polluted soil and water (Liu and Pan, 2014). In this project, located in the urban fringe of the Tel-Aviv city and benefitting 18 municipalities, the rehabilitation process was initiated in 1998 by German landscape architect studio Latz + Partner. Unlike the Nepali brick kilns, the Hiriya site was not a productive landscape degraded by a pollutant activity; on the contrary, the site was a space that served as a landfill from 1952 to 1999.

The antecedent of land transformation practices can be defined as sitespecific and profit-driven and often did not include the multidimensional character of a restoration project. In the present, post-industrial land transformation is multidimensional and includes socio-cultural, environmental, aesthetic and economic perspectives (Secchi, 2007). The land is transformed into something different that, most of the time, is determined by the vision of designers or developers whom often not coincide with the public needs or expectations. It is crucial to understand the drivers in which redevelopment solutions are based, how they operate and how they are established (Loures, 2014) In this regard, the majority of the post-industrial examples found when researching for this paper, dealt with transformation projects whose conversion resulted in urban parks and recreational spaces, which undoubtedly satisfied the great demand of “green lungs� in cities and fulfilled the desire of a specific group of their societies. However, it seems that the current challenge for landscape architects and urban planners is to integrate design innovation, prioritizing ecological functions and infrastructure and services in the transformation strategies, instead of 62

Fig.07_ Hiriya mountain masterplan. source: www.freshkillspark.wordpress.com

Over this period, the mountain of waste grew to reach a surface of 450 000m2 and a height of 60m2. In 2001, the Dan Region Association of Towns was established to begin the process of hill rehabilitation aiming at sanitation and solid waste disposal. The successful restoration project has provided the city of Tel-Aviv not only with a new park but also with an open space that fulfils different functions. The former wasteland now performs functions like water retention and infiltration is done via a man-made aquifer. Waste is sorted in the waste treatment plant and pumped in biogas digesters where gas is generated and used as power in the entire facility. Surplus energy is sold back to Tel-Aviv. The Ariel Sharon Park is a feature of the Hiriya complex and works as a green belt between the sea and Jerusalem. It is considered to be a green gate to Israel and the region. The park also acts as a buffer and provides urban farm plots and gardens to the city.

This project reinforces the concept of multifunctionality: the complex treatments achieved on-site have given added value to the transformed area. Designers took advantage of the location and the extension of the former wasteland. Although the rehabilitation of Mount Hiriya is only in the first stage of implementation, the Ariel Sharon Park will be the largest green lung of the Dan Metropolitan Area, as a key feature of the rehabilitation masterplan. The Mount Hiriya was considered as the backside of the city and gained social and environmental relevance due to its transformation, improving the life quality of many individuals.

Fig.08_ Aerial foto of the site. source http://www.latzundpartner.de/

ECOLOGICAL FUNCTION DESIGN OF THE DUISBURG PARK Ecological function design comprises the application of a scientific approach to highlight the role of nature and transform it into a landscape with ecological infrastructure treatment features (Liu and Pan, 2014).

The second case study, located in the Ruhr region in Germany, describes a renovation project that began in 1988 and was conducted by the Regional Planning Commission with the collaboration of 17 municipalities.

A former mining area where coal and iron was intensively extracted, the site saw its mines being closed down in the 1970s, leading to the conversion of the area into a brownfield.

The mining activity contributed to the pollution of the canalized Emscher River that ended up as an open sewer carrying both industrial and human waste. The creation of a new administrative structure with a ten-year lifespan aimed to promote and host seminars and international competitions to generate innovative ideas for the region (Harmon, 2011).

Using ecology as the central organizing focus for the regeneration of the region’s economy as well as its environment.

Turning industrial wastelands into a regional network of open space, recreation, and cultural resources.

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Being the largest renaturalization project in Europe, and one which is rare in the world for undertaking brownfields restoration on a regional, rather than site-specific basis.

What is noteworthy from the Duisburg Park project is the power of ecology as the core of the project and the integral concept of regional redevelopment. The aim of the project was to clean up the river through several methods: the installation of underground sewers for waste collection, a canal-like hydrophilic shoreline, was designed in a way to make sure the collected water would flow into the Emscher River after clarification and filtration (Liu and Pan, 2014).

In the Duisbury project the ecological component was integrated into the economic and residential development as well, with the emphasis on energy efficiency and use of solar technology. The renaturalization project is relevant due to the scale of the project because it comprises restoration on a regional scale and not site-specific. It is important the new historical and cultural value given to the site, neighbours believe that the transformation of the site has given them a certain level of identity.

The involvement of different partnerships in the implementation of social programmes and funding for the execution of the project is also noticeable.

64 Fig.11_ Duisbury park source: www.rudi.net/books/12038

In conclusion, both projects evidence how land transformation can go beyond the formal aspects and perform to develop productive land that benefits society on the micro, meso and macro scale. The joint effort of authorities and other stakeholders to support the implementation of these projects is decisive. But certainly, the most challenging element of industrial upgrading is obtaining financial support, one of the main barriers identified in post-industrial redevelopments studies (Loures, 2014).

DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS This study reveals the current relation between urban growth, the brick industry and the opportunities in land transformation for the Kathmandu Valley. On one hand, urban growth has caused a severe impact in the peri-urban area, where productive landscapes are being transformed into unplanned housing development sites. Therefore, the need to develop and apply stronger land use policies emerges as a solution to assure the balance between the built environment and the surrounding productive landscapes. In addition, the Government needs to implement environmental policies to regulate the type of technologies used by the present industry and execute an effective monitoring process of this implementation, in order to reduce the emissions of pollutant gases.

Another way to improve the current situation is to create social awareness among land tenants about the long-term effects of land

degradation and air pollution. In combination with a real agricultural development policy, this strategy might reorient the preference of local communities towards agriculture activities and help them to recognize the importance to preserve their soil.

On the other hand, the temporary nature of the brick kilns opens up opportunities for redevelopment. Land transformation can contribute to enhance the quality of life in a sustainable way by reusing degraded lands and by reintegrating them economically and socially in the local dynamics. The future projects should follow design principles that reduce the environmental impacts and stimulate economic prosperity, social inclusion, multifunctionality (Loures and Panagopoulos, 2007) and a better quality of life. In addition, it is important that the land use transformation strategies of the former brick kilns sites should be defined by means of different criteria, allowing for different function decisions to be adapted to site-specific context variables. In this regard, features like the location, proximity to settlements, water resources availability, topographic conditions and accessibility should be taken into account to define the open spaces and select former industrial sites suitable for further transformation. Local Bodies and Government should incorporate land use policies and regulations to establish new conditions to define areas for future large scale developments, aiming at the protection of agricultural land in the peri-urban areas.

Fig.12_ Duisbury park source: www.rudi.net/books/12038

Considering the design strategies used in the case studies, both projects included in their features several functions as ecological treatments, recreational spaces, zones for cultural activities and social interaction.

Both projects demonstrate a high degree of complexity and great flexibility in the organization and definition of the programmes that provide social, cultural and ecological features.

The conversion of the former kiln sites could be aiming to restore agriculture land use or to couple housing developments, ecological infrastructure features and productive landscapes. The reclamation of these landscapes as urban development might contribute to restore the value in the area by reusing the degraded land instead of consuming new productive landscapes. In this way, the upgraded brick kiln landscapes should not create boundaries, but perform to ensure a better provision of basic infrastructure and other community amenities. These projects should be characterized by multifunctionality and include low-cost alternatives for wastewater purification and retention ponds for the seasonal monsoon as well as open up spaces for local communities.

In conclusion, the definition of the other features should respond to the communities’ expectations and needs. In this way, as part of the land transformation approach the negotiation with the smallholder agriculture owners; local bodies and other stakeholders are essential to collectively determine the forthcoming function of the space.

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WATER (IN)SECURE URBANISM

Lessons from traditional Newar urbanism for the peri-urban landscape of Kathmandu

by Ruben Hoek ABSTRACT The urbanisation fueled by population growth in the Kathmandu Valley, took the shape of a peri-urban landscape of detached concrete houses and walled colonies dispersed in fragmented agriculture lands.

This form of urbanism is a total break with the traditional urbanism by the indigenous Newar people. The landscape of sprawl has put huge pressures on the Valley’s environment. A striking example is the increasing water insecurity, both in quantity and quality, the periphery is confronted with. Still, with regulations and coherent spatial planning, the spatial potentials of the periphery could be utilized. This planning could learn from how Newar settlements’ physical design was structured around the availability of water. The redevelopment of the peri-urban landscape of the Kathmandu Valley might have the best result if this is the result of a shared, community centered, cultural production.

INTRODUCTION Even though water resources in Nepal as a country are plentiful, not all regions have an abundance of water. Due to its typical topography forming a bowl shape, the Kathmandu Valley, is one of such regions (Raj Pandey, 1969). Since the availability of clean, potable water is an indispensible condition for human life, water, has been profoundly shaping the society and settlements of the inhabitants of the Valley (Sushmita & Bijaya, 2008). Historically, urbanism in the Kathmandu Valley, especially by the indigenous Newar people, has been tightly linked up with the landscape, people’s culture and their religious beliefs and practices.

Tiwari (1992, p. 5) has been calling this “religio-cultural urbanism”. At present day, the main logic of urbaniszation in the Kathmandu Valley has very little to do with the historical Newar urbanism. With it, also the important role of water in shaping the urban forms has eroded.

The landscape of compact settlements on high ridges with strong ties to their surrounding agriculture fields has transformed into an almost ubiquitous sprawl of detached concrete houses, many on walled plots, dispersed in rice fields (ill.1). In spatial terms, this new urban form is almost the counter form of the traditional Newar city: it is centerless instead of highly concentric, unbounded rather than strictly bound and more socially fragmented then integrated (Nelson, 2013). This type of new landscape, which has both urban and rural elements, has been called peri-urban fringe, while the process of expanding urbanization characterized by this peri-urban condition is called peripheralization. The term “peripheral” does not just refer to an edge position in the physical sense, but also to a marginalization in terms of ‘income opportunities, 66

housing, traffic structures, and access to educational, medical or other infrastructural facilities’ (Fischer-Tahir & Naumann, 2013, p. 19). The lack of sufficient urban resulted in an octopus-like structure around the main roads connecting to the urban cores (Sudarshan Raj Tiwari, 1999). This process is not unique to Kathmandu, but can be found at hand in most cities of the global south, together with the environmental issues related to this form of urbanization. The aim of this paper is to get an insight into how knowledge from Newar traditional urbanism could inform planning and design on the contemporary peri-urban landscape of Kathmandu, with a focus on water issues. First I will investigate how water availability structured the traditional Newar settlements. Then I will elaborate on the erosion of traditional Newar urbanism and the emergence of the peri-urban fabric and what this means in terms of water. Finally I will look into some ideas on how to move ahead from the contemporary urban situation.

1. HISTORICAL NEWAR URBANISM Even though many rivers cut through the Kathmandu valley, urban settlements did not primarily emerge on the banks of rivers. Cultivation of rice, which historically formed the economic base of the Valley’s societies, requires irrigation. The fertile flat lands along the river banks and the adjacent irrigable slopes were considered valuable agriculture lands. To maximize the land suitable for cultivation, the ancestors of the Newar people located their settlements on the higher, unirrigated fallow land, and kept them as compact as possible (Sudarshan Raj Tiwari, 1992, 1999). The strategic location and safety provided by settling on high ridges were additional benefits of this system (Sushmita & Bijaya, 2008).

ill. 1. A typical scene from the Kathmandu Valley peri-urban landscape; detached concrete houses, fragmented agriculture and private wells

Religious rituals and festivities played an essential role in reproducing the shared idea of the merits of the compact urbanism and the relation between town and its natural surroundings. The indigenous inhabitants of the Valley, at least their religious and political elite, seemed to be well aware that a society based on agriculture needs to make sure nature is not exploited beyond its ecological limits. Rather than on legal measures, the ancient leaders relied on ‘ritual mediation’ (Sudarshan Raj Tiwari, 1999, p. 4), meaning people’s religious understanding of ethics was mobilized to avoid overexploitation of nature. Ecologically significant sites outside towns were celebrated with shrines and processions. Many aspects of daily life were spiritually connected to these places, like cremations happening at rivers considered sacred. This was to remind people of ‘a perception that a delicate continuum existed between nature and town and that this needed to be continuously nurtured across time for common good’ (Sudarshan Raj Tiwari, 1999, p. 2). Towns remained compact because of the notion that expansion could not happen beyond the ‘boundary gods’ (Sudarshan Raj Tiwari, 1992, p. 6) and their sacred sites, called piths, which marked the edge between the town and the agriculture fields.

In case expansion was inevitable, either new piths were constructed further away, or the expansion happened through the constitution of satellite towns with an intermediate distance that was big enough to preserve the balance between towns and nature (Sudarshan Raj Tiwari, 1999). Within the demarcation of the piths, the pattern of the towns was concentric and followed the logic of the Hindu Mandala. The nucleus of the town was either a temple or a palace and was surrounded by homes of the highest castes. In a ring around this ensemble were the houses of the merchants, the middle castes and further away the lower castes.

The castes were all organized in quarters, each around a smaller temple or shrine (Sudarshan Raj Tiwari, 1992), forming harmonious patches of people from the same clan and profession (Sudarshan Raj Tiwari, 1999). The Newars thus had a strong symbolic concept of hierarchy of center and periphery in their way of constructing towns: beyond the human sphere - which already had a strong center-periphery structure with the hierarchal position of castes - was the sphere of the agriculture lands, and finally beyond that the sphere of the gods: the lands across the rivers and the mountains (Nelson, 2013). Even though the majority of inhabitants was engaging in agriculture, the towns developed a truly urban culture. This can mainly be contributed to trade with India and Tibet and a division of labor and specializations between the towns and cities in the Valley (Sudarshan Raj Tiwari, 1999).

2. MAN-MADE WATER PROVIDING STRUCTURE IN ANCIENT NEWAR SETLLEMENTS The logic of settling on the higher fallow lands to maximize irrigable agriculture land, on the other hand creates the challenge of assuring the availability of clean, potable water. The presence of springs at the Valley’s mountain ridges explains why many settlements emerged at those ridges (Raj Pandey, 1969). For most Newar settlements, especially when they

developed to the size of towns, the proximity to a natural spring or reservoir alone was insufficient to provide for enough water for drinking and domestic purposes. At least since the medieval Malla period, the Newari have developed manipulations to the water system, some requiring advanced engineering skills, to meet the demand for drinking water (Gurung, 2000). Water was considered a sacred, public resource and providing water by sponsoring the construction of water devices brought merit to the sponsor (Gurung, 2000; Pradhan, 1990). Many kings showed commitment to their people through donating water providing structures (Becker-Ritterspach, 1995). Four distinct forms structures can be identified that together supplied the historic Newar towns: ponds, tube wells, depressed pit conduits or stepwells and canals (Sushmita & Bijaya, 2008). These elements were connected, either directly by conducts of different sorts, or indirectly through the groundwater table. By relying solely on gravity to transport water from a source and adopting a cascading system between the different stations, no pumping of water was needed (Gautam & Prajapati, 2015; Spodek, 2002).

The most outstanding of the Newar water providing structures are the so called Dhunge Dhara (or hiti), or depressed pit conduits or stepwells (ill.2). They are essentially deepened pits, lined with stone steps to assure a safe access to one or more stone spouts at the bottom of the pit. These spouts were carved into rich , spiritual decorations (BeckerRitterspach, 1995). The Dhunge Dhara provided a continuous flow of drinkable water at three types of locations (Sushmita & Bijaya, 2008).

The first served local inhabitants of towns at squares within the dense urban fabric. Then there were conduits outside the towns aimed at travelers and farmers. Finally, conduits at the mountain foothills provided water for pilgrims. The conduits could have two different sources of water: either they were fed by groundwater from shallow aquifers, or by pipes and canals which transported water from sources like rivers or springs, sometimes kilometers away from the towns; projects which required ‘a high level of technical, financial, organizational and legal coordination’ (Becker-Ritterspach, 1995, p. 24). The canals, or rajkulo (royal canal)(ill.3), were commissioned by the Malla kings and did not only feed Dhunge Dhara and artificial ponds associated with them, but also irrigated many hectares of agriculture land between their sources and the towns they were directed to (Becker-Ritterspach, 1995; Pradhan, 1990). Although agriculture of the Kathmandu Valley mainly depends on rain for cultivation, the canals enabled irrigation even in the dry months (Gurung, 2000). The rajkulos can thus be seen as a backbone of water supply in Newar towns and their surroundings (Gautam & Prajapati, 2015). When a town had multiple stepwells, they could be interconnected. Each of them had a drain, from which the water flowed through underground clay or terracotta pipes to feed the next conduit. In the whole trajectory, several sunken gravel filters could be embedded, containing gravel of varying granulation, to filter the water (Becker-Ritterspach, 1995). Because gravity was used to transport the water down the series of conduits, the spouts had to be placed deeper 67

along the chain, accounting for the increasing depth of the stepwells. The hierarchy of the water conduits overlapped with the hierarchy of castes: the higher castes were served first in the supply chain (Spodek, 2002).

Another form of “cascading” of water was by combining a stepwell and a pond, or phuku (ill.4). Waste water from the spouts could be drained in an artificial pond. The water from these ponds was used for all kinds of domestic purposes like washing and doing laundry, or could irrigate nearby fields. They also served to harvest rain water in monsoon times, in order to have water available also in the dry season. A third function of the ponds was to slowly replenish the groundwater table (Spodek, 2002).

In this way the ponds were indirectly connected to the town’s tube wells (ill.5), which were used as a complementary source of drinking water.

There were two typical places within the urban fabric for the artificial ponds. First, they could be found on the lowest edges of the town, where the marginal water from the conduit chain could be collected and from where it could be discharged into the agriculture fields (Gautam & Prajapati, 2015). The second type was at the main entrance of the towns, usually in pairs, as symbolic gates. The ancient Newar town Bungamati offers a clear example of the interconnection between rajkulo, wells and stone spouts, ponds and surrounding agriculture fields (ill.6).

These water structures have in turn shaped urban settlements and Newar social life significantly. Both conduits and ponds, besides their utilitarian function, were the scene of many cultural and religious rituals.

ill. 2. Stepwell with three stone spouts in Patan

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People not only gathered here to use the water, but also came to socialize and strengthen community ties (Gurung, 2000; Spodek, 2002).

The dense urban quarters were only relieved by small, informal public squares with a source of potable water like a well or a waterspout as its main feature. It was very common to find a pati, a traditional resting house where travelers could find shelter, in an ensemble with the drinking water source and a shrine or temple (Becker-Ritterspach, 1995; Sushmita & Bijaya, 2008). The creators of these artificial water sources, being it a king or a community, were aware that they needed to be maintained to stay functional in the future. Continuity had to be assured by setting up a community maintenance system. Each well or stone spout was placed under the responsibility of a Guthi, a Newar social trust organization (Pradhan, 1990; Spodek, 2002). The members of the Guthi were responsible for mobilizing volunteers for the upkeep of the structures. The yields from common agriculture land, owned by the Guthi, was invested for this purpose. Festivals and celebrations had an important role in involving the whole community in the continuity of the water providing structures (Sushmita & Bijaya, 2008). For centuries water, in its availability in the form of irrigation, household and drinking water, thus proved to be a profoundly defining element in shaping not just Newar social, spiritual and communal life, but also in shaping the urban settlements in which they lived.

ill. 3. “Rajkulo” or royal irrigation canal, east of Bungamati

THE EROSION OF TRADITIONAL NEWAR URBANISM AND THE RISE OF THE PERI-URVAN LANDSCAPE Interestingly, different views exist on the societal processes that underlie the erosion of the traditional urbanism and the emergence of the typical urban fabric of the periphery. Both views seem to agree that the current urbanization mode has a narrow, economic focus, and lack proper planning, but disagree slightly on the cultural explanation. On the hand, there are the writers who see the change of the ethnic composition within the Valley due to the in-migration of non-Newar settlers as the main explanation for the contemporary urban form. Tiwari (1992, 1999) is one of such writers. He argues that the historic urbanism of the Newar started losing ground in the mid nineteenth century when the country’s elite came started adopting ‘alien cultural practices’ (1999, p. 7). One example could be the trend among Rana rulers to build Victorian palaces on vast tracks of land beyond the edge of the historical cities (Sudarshan Raj Tiwari, 1992). This building type definitely represents a break with the concentric hierarchy of the dense Newar settlements with the temple or palace as the absolute center, while the outer lands used to be the domain of production and divine worship. In the middle of the twentieth century, the policy which restricted migration to the Kathmandu Valley was relieved, leading to a big influx of non-Newar migrants. At the start of the twentieth century, violence in other parts of the country led to

ill. 4. Pond at Bungamati’s south entrance for washing, rain water harvesting and groundwater replenishing

even more migration to the Valley (Sengupta & Bhattarai Upadhyaya, 2016). Tiwari (1992) goes on to state that these migrants were used to a rural lifestyle and lacked an urban culture and history.

On the other hand there are writers who put more emphasis on the absorption of the notion of modernity in society and the shift from caste to class values that came to shape urbanization. Whereas the spatial logic of the traditional Newar town was largely based on a segmentation, but proximity and interdependency of castes with religion as a binding force, the new peri-urban landscape follows a logic of segregation between class.

Even though he does not dismiss the importance of ethnicity and caste - especially not in explaining the lack of political capacity and willingness of the state to regulate the spatial development within the Valley Nelson (2013) rather stresses class values and capitalist consumerism as the most important concepts explaining the contemporary form of the Kathmandu urban periphery. He argues that the Newar way of dealing with urban space was not capable to adapt to new reality of becoming integrated in a global economic and cultural system. This gave rise to the ideology that values land as a commodity rather than as space for production. On the land buyers’ side, Nelson sees that building one’s own, detached house in the periphery ‘represents a certain status to gain separation from a cycle of relocation in between the bazaar towns and villages of the hinterland’ (2013, p. 233), in which ‘caste and ethnic bias polluted social interaction’ (p.234), or a move away from ‘the

ill. 5. Tubewell at the central square of Khokana, next to a “pathi”

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unreliable services and mixed neighborhoods of the city center’ (p.233) ). So called “colonies” or gated communities, a common typology in the periphery where rich people live together irrespectively of their caste or ethnicity, shows how the periphery is increasingly characterized by segregation between class (Sengupta & Bhattarai Upadhyaya, 2016). The idea of being modern by acquiring a detached house in the periphery or in a colony and the commodification of land thus fits in a shift from caste to class division.

However, the imported Western concept of a modern city does not seem to work completely for the Kathmandu Valley; while tradition has eroded to a big extent, the state is unable to provide all the facilities that are associated with a modern life. Sengupta & Bhattarai Upadhyaya (2016, p. 100) describe this as ‘the failure of the new order to emerge and replace the tradition’. One could argue that Kathmandu is in some sort of middle stage between tradition and modernity and that through “development”, eventually it could become just as modern of a Western city. This idea is opposed by scholars arguing that within the economic and political world system, Nepal has a place in the periphery and that his place is perpetuated by unequal power relations (Fischer-Tahir & Naumann, 2013). The peri-urban landscape of the Valley is in this view a reflection of Nepal’s peripheral place in the world system, and explains why many other cities of the global south or confronted with the growth of a similar peri-urban landscape.

WATER RELATED ISSUES OF THE KATHMANDU PERI-URBAN LANDSCAPE Many peri-urban landscapes in the south are confronted with a shortage of drinking water. The incapability of the state to deliver drinking water through a centralized piped system is met with private extraction of groundwater, often lowering the water table beyond a sustainable rate as a result (Simon, 2008). This is exactly what is happening in the Kathmandu Valley. When the state started to provide piped drinking water, the dependence on the traditional water structures like wells and stone spouts decreased. Being able to connect a water pipe to your house might have made life a bit easier, but it also meant that those traditional structures got neglected . The neglect has been worsened because the state took over the management of many of the historic water structures from the Guthi trusts in the 1960s (Sushmita & Bijaya, 2008). Many ponds, canals and water spouts have even been demolished to make way for buildings (Sudarshan Raj Tiwari, 1999). Piped water provision has been one of the conditions that allowed for the urban sprawl to take shape. However, these pipes prove to be increasingly insufficient as a drinking water source. The rapid expansion of Kathmandu goes together with a sharp growth in demand for drinking water, a demand that cannot be met with the current sources used for the piped water system (ill.7).

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ill. 6. Water structures of Bungamati. Two major canals provide the town with water. The are directly connected to four of the town’s ponds, which can be found in pairs at the main entrances. The wastewater from the southernmost pond, together with the surplus from the canal, flow into a creek, which is used to irrigate the surrounding fields. Water from the ponds also infiltrates to the groundwater, which is tapped by the wells in Bungamati

The water is rationed, which means the pipes only deliver water on limited times. This shortage of water gets worse every year (Gurung, 2000). The gap between the demand for water and the supply the piped system and the neglected traditional water structures can deliver, has to be met in some way (A. Shrestha, Sada, & Shukla, 2015). In the Valley this has happened through private exploitation of groundwater. This is done on an individual base in the form of private deep wells, but the Valley also saw the rise of water entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs make good money by selling water to those who can afford it, which they take from sources at the mountain ridges and bring to the city by truck: ‘water is cash today’ (Gurung, 2000, p. 156) . The commodification of water, just like the aforementioned commodification of land, really represents a break with traditional Newar values: water was considered a sacred and public good, buying and selling it a shameful act (Gurung, 2000).

The exploitation of the sources on the Valley’s edge led to tensions with the local inhabitants, who are increasingly facing water insecurity (A. Shrestha et al., 2015).

Looking at a map of urbanization superimposed on a map of the state of irrigation from 1969, it becomes that urbanization really does not follow the logic of only settling at the high, unirrigated lands anymore (ill.8). This goes hand in hand with the neglect of irrigation canals. Another water related issue the Kathmandu peri-urban landscape has to deal with is the pollution by waste water from the cores. A parallel change of attitude as towards drinking water, has happened towards waste water. Whereas wastewater used to be seen in the traditional Newar cities as something that could be reused, a resource, at the moment it is solely seen as a nuisance (Shukla, Timilsina, & Jha, 2012). Of all the Valley’s households, only 15% is connected to the municipal sewerage. The rest is directly discharged into drains and ends up in the surface water untreated (Zurick & Rose, 2009). The complex topography of the Valley and the limited capacities of the state make it unlikely that the centralized waste water treatment system will be able to treat all waste water in the near future (Shukla et al., 2012). The pollution this causes to the water sources in the periphery, not just the surface reservoirs but also the groundwater, poses health threats to the inhabitants of the periphery, but also to all the consumers of the products cultivated in these areas (Narain, Khan, Sada, Singh, & Prakash, 2013). The pollution is worsened by polluted runoff water from the urban areas. The increase of urban land area (ill.

9) also means an increase in impermeable surface and thus an increase in runoff water. In case of heavy rainfall, a common event during the monsoon, the erosion the runoff causes can do quite some damage, because there is hardly any storage capacity (Simon, 2008) In short, the contemporary urban form of sprawl did not make use of the sustainable water provision the traditional Newar cities developed, and is now facing problems both in terms of quality and quantity of available water.

ill. 7.

THE WAY FORWARD; LESSONS FROM THE PAST The contemporary problems with the peri-urban landscape in the Kathmandu Valley should not lead to a complete rejection of this urban reality. There might be ways forward to create an urban form which is capable of maintaining a sustainable balance with nature, for example in terms of water use. De Solà-Morales (1992, 1995) convincingly reconceptualized the urban periphery as a place of ‘occasion and opportunity’ (1995, p. 166), and argues we should not just think about it as the negative of the urban core. He opposes the thought that, just because the peri-urban landscape is primarily is a product of liberal capitalism, architects and planners should therefore just accept, or even glorify, the form of the peripheral space (de Solà-Morales, 1992). He therefore sees a role for architects to rethink the form of the peri-urban zones and start from some of their characteristics as positive features: more open space and a notion of freedom and less constraints. That does not mean the periphery should be completed or repaired to emulate the center, but envisioned as a form of urbanity in its own right.

The proximity between agriculture and urban functions offers interesting opportunities (Allen, 2003). For the context of the Kathmandu Valley, there are definitely some opportunities which can be explored. Farmers with agriculture land at the edges of the city could use their proximity to a market of urban citizens as an advantage if they would switch to commercial cultivation of higher-value crops like fruits and vegetables (Simon, 2008). But also in terms of water management, the periphery could play an important role. If the open spaces within the peri-urban fabrics can be preserved and designed to harvest and store rainwater, this would both reduce the damage and pollution caused by runoff water and could replenish the groundwater table (R. R. Shrestha, 2009). The combination of being close to urban areas and availability of open space, are also good conditions to install decentralized waste water treatment (DEWAT) devices. Even though these are still under development, there are already plenty of well-functioning pilot projects (UN-HABITAT, 2008). The DEWATs are low-tech devices that can be constructed with local materials and labor and need few maintenance. Therefore they ill. 9.

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might be an interesting alternative to the underperforming centralized sewerage system. The treated water could be used to irrigate the agriculture fields at the peri-urban fringe, which would revive the traditional notion of waste water as a reusable resource. Much can be learned from the water cascading strategy that traditional Newar cities used (Shukla et al., 2012).

To prevent the peri-urban fabric from spreading even further in the Kathmandu Valley and on the way demolishing even more valuable ancient structures, both natural and man-made, a certain degree of effective spatial planning and regulations is necessary (Sushmita & Bijaya, 2008). This planning needs to incorporate both urban and rural interests and needs to think beyond administrative boundaries (Allen, 2003). Regulations are necessary to avoid more agriculture land turning into urban land (Sengupta & Bhattarai Upadhyaya, 2016) and to limit private exploitation of the groundwater (Vishnu Prasad & Futaba, 2014).

In general, much can and should be learned from how the Newar used to build their cities. However, learning from the way the Newars dealt with human agency is maybe just as important. Tiwari (2007) proposes to attempt to revive the cultural practices that were related with shaping cities in the medieval Kathmandu Valley. “Culture” as a concept could then mean much more than solely an attraction for tourism. The inhabitants of the Valley seemed to be much more inclined to follow a set of rules concerning the use and production of space when these rules were enforced through religious and cultural practices, than through legal constructions, which has been the attempt of the modern Nepalese state, following the Western example. It is true that the Nepalese state does not have the disciplining power over space as many Western states do (Nelson, 2013). Tiwari rather envisions an ‘urban regeneration through the medium of cultural processes such as festivals or other surviving indigenous knowledge systems’ (2007, p. 102). Also placing the responsibility for the maintenance of infrastructures related to water or waste in the hands of local communities, like the traditional Guthis, might be more effective than a centralization at state level.

land and water. In both explanations, the Nepalese state had been either unwilling or incapable to regulate the urban growth. The phenomenon of the peri-urban landscape of sprawl has put huge pressures on the Kathmandu Valley’s environment. A striking example is the increasing water insecurity, both in quantity and quality, the periphery is confronted with. A shortage of piped water led to unsustainable private exploitation of groundwater while urban waste water pollutes the same groundwater, rivers and agriculture fields. Still, the current form of the peri-urban landscape offers opportunities to deal with water harvesting, treatment and reuse. To utilize these potentials, regulations and coherent spatial planning are required. This planning can learn a lot from the traditional Newar urbanism. Firstly, it could learn from how Newar settlements’ physical design was structured around the availability of water. They were hierarchically centered around a significant place, strictly bounded to preserve valuable agriculture land, and socially integrated due to the proximity of harmonious patches of social groups. Intricate constellations of canals, ponds, stone spouts and wells provided the towns with water in a sustainable way, only using gravity for its transport. Cascading of water and seeing water as a resource could be interesting concepts also for contemporary urbanism. Secondly, a valuable lesson from Newar historic urbanism is that in the context of the Kathmandu Valley, cultural and religious practices might be a better way to achieve a coherent spatial development strategy, then legal measures have proven to be.

The redevelopment of the peri-urban landscape of the Kathmandu Valley might have the best result if this is the result of a shared, community centered, cultural production.

CONCLUSIONS Since the second half of the twentieth century, the population of the Kathmandu Valley has been growing quickly due to massive migration to the Valley. The urbanisation fueled by this growth, took the shape of a peri-urban landscape of detached concrete houses and walled colonies dispersed in fragmented agriculture lands. This form of urbanism is a total break with the traditional urbanism that was for centuries practiced by the indigenous Newar people. This break can either be explained by a shift in ethnic composition, with an influx of ethnicities without an urban culture or history, or to a shift from caste to class values and the cultural concept of modernity. The latter includes a commodification of 72

ill. 8. Urbanization superimposed on irrigation situation in 1969 (based on Raj Pandey, 1969)

A NEW HYBRID HOUSING TYPOLOGY

Lessons from traditional Newar urbanism for the peri-urban landscape of Kathmandu

by Wim Bruneel

TRADITIONAL ARCHITECTURE OF THE NEWARS

INTRODUCTION

Architectural style The Newar people have been living for more than thousand years in the Kathmandu valley and developed during that time their own vernacular architecture always well embedded in the landscape and adapted to the human scale.

Nepal has a long and comprehensive history of traditional building. Due to the different ethnic groups living in Nepal a wide variety of vernacular styles and building methods has been developed during time. Those building techniques are a response to deal with the specific conditions in Nepal: the climate, the seismic activity and several religious traditions.

When taking a closer look at the Kathmandu valley, the oldest part of its urban tissue is built by the Newar people. Their buildings are characterized by a high architectural quality and an excellent responsiveness to the climatological conditions. The last two decades, due to a changing lifestyle and the import of new building technologies, new residential typologies has been developed. These generic and functional structures are popping up all around the valley causing several problems such as sprawl and bad building practice. In order to deal with the massive urban growth in an area prone to strong earthquakes a new hybrid housing typology combining traditional and new knowledge needs to be developed.

Picture of a traditional Newar house made during fieldwork.

The houses of the Newars have a rectangular floor plan with a depth of 6 meters, the length is flexible and depending on the availability and the size of materials. In general, the length of a house is between 1,5 m and 15 m, but 4 m to 8 m is the most common. Another important feature of the traditional Newar house is the vertical arrangement of space. The aim of using the smallest amount of valuable agricultural land for housing resulted in houses with a minimal footprint and a vertical orientation.

The majority of the houses has a height of three storeys but houses with two storeys can also be found among poorer residents. (Korn 1998, p.18) The uniform depth of 6 m enables to build additional houses next to existing ones in order to form clusters of housing with a courtyard. The dimensions of the additional houses are similar for the height but can differ for the depth ranging from the regular depth of 6 m to half of the depth. Every family or clan attempts to build a single house around a courtyard or chowk which generates privacy and security. (Korn 1998, p.18) Later on when the family or clan is expending the four sides of the courtyard will be used for additional housing. The access to the street is provided by a gateway on the ground floor in at least one house next to the street. Different staircases located in the corners of the courtyard give access to clusters of rooms on higher floors. The courtyard is a crucial part of the traditional Newar housing units and is used as a flexible space for different daily activities: a playground for children, a space for doing laundry or grain grinding and accommodates a pleasant and protected area during winter and summer for relaxing.

The vertical organization of spaces in traditional housing is a characteristic element that can be found in all Newar houses. The ground floor or chheli is divided into two smaller rooms by a dividing wall or duaga for structural reasons. The room at the side of the street is used as a shop or a workshop, the room at the back side is used as storage, workshop or entrance to the courtyard. The ground floor is not used for living and has therefore only some small windows. A narrow staircase gives access to the higher floors where the actual living quarters are located.

The first floor or matan is usually divided into smaller rooms used as bed rooms for the family members. The second floor or chvata is the 73

main living space for the family, the central wall is replaced by columns creating a room as big as the whole floor area. Large windows bring light and fresh air in the living room, especially the sajhya a large window with lattice shutters in the centre of the façade. Because of the relatively good lighting conditions this room is also used for a variety of household work for instance weaving. The third floor or pyatan is not common in traditional Newar houses which usually consists out of three storeys and an attic. The third floor can be used as a big family room or as separate bedrooms. The attic under a pitched roof or baiga is used for the kitchen with an open fire place and the family shrine. (Maharjan, p.2; Korn 1998, p.36) The interior of the house is quite simple contrasting with the highly decorated façades. Symmetry is the main principle for the design of the façade and is applied where possible. Windows are paired on a central axis of a main window or door which are decorated with extensive woodcarving. The main communication to the street apart from the door happens through the sajhya window in the family living room. The sajhya is a window bench with lattice shutters and is the most decorated window on the façade. (Korn 1998, p. 35) The materials used for construction are mainly brick and wood. There is a huge variety between the houses due to use of different kinds of brick and the amount of decorative woodcarvings.

Climate responsiveness The Kathmandu valley has a warm temperate climate according to the country specific Climate classification for Nepal from Shrestha.

There are two main seasons the winter from October to March with temperatures that do not drop drastically and the summer from April to September. The monsoon has also a big influence on the climate and divides the summer in a dry period from April to mid-June and a humid period from mid-June to September.

During time the Newar people have successfully improved their building techniques to deal with the local climate conditions. The Newar settlements are one of the few in Nepal with a denser pattern because

of the characteristic courtyards. The courtyards have proven to be quite performant in order to deal with solar gains, warming up during sunny winter days facilitating different household activities and providing shade during summer. The ceilings are rather low ranging from 1,60 m to 1,90 m, what is an advantage for heating the rooms during wintertime.

(Bodach et al. 2014, p.234) The vertical organisation of the houses has also advantages to deal with climatological conditions. The ground floor is only used as entrance, storage or workshop and functions as a buffer between the cold and humid ground and the living quarters above. The bedrooms can be found on the first floor and the living room on the second floor. Both of these floors are accumulating plenty of sunlight through the windows in order to heat up the rooms during the day. (Bodach et al. 2014, p.234) The main window in the living room or sajhya is designed in such a way to allow direct sunlight at low angles in the winter and to prevent direct sunlight in summer. The location of the kitchen in the attic under the pitched roof, generates a buffer between the roof and the living quarters preventing overheating during hot summer days.

The outer walls are constructed out of two layers of different kinds of brick, the outer part of the wall is made out of burnt clay-bricks while for the inner part sun dried bricks are used. As a consequence, the walls have thickness varying from 28 to 70 cm which gives a high thermal mass to the structure. (Bodach et al., p. 234) It is also common that the whole wall is constructed out of sun dried bricks. The roof is always a pitched roof with an overhang of minimum 50 cm providing shade during summer and protecting the walls from heavy monsoon rainfall.

The Newar house is constructed with a stone plinth foundation or peti with a depth of 60 to 80 cm in order to protect the building from flooding during wet season. (Bodach et al., p. 235) The peti is also used as an extension for the shops and workshops on the ground floor. The floors are made out of a wooden framework covered with a layer of mud and a final layer of clay, sometimes wood is also used as a covering material. The use of earth and clay for flooring improves the thermal mass of the building.

The intelligent layout of the Newar settlements with courtyards allows passive solar gains in winter while generating shade during summer.

The high thermal mass of the walls and the floors helps to keep the dwellings warm in winter and cool during summer. The vertical space organisation of the traditional Newar houses consisting out of buffers between the soil and the roof creates a comfortable indoor climate in the living quarters.

Sketch made by Korn showing the standard layout of a Newar House. © Korn

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Earthquake Resilience Several building methods were used in the Kathmandu valley for traditional housing: rubble structures with timber framing, brick-wood structures and raw soil structures. The rubble structure is the most used building method for traditional housing, today about 50% to 60% of the buildings in small towns and rural areas is constructed with this method.

The traditional brick-wood method is mainly used by the Newar people to construct religious buildings, palaces and residential buildings. Today about 8% to 10% of the buildings is constructed with this method. The raw soil structure method is used in rural areas and represents today 5% of the whole building stock. (Baitao et al. 2015, p. 572) The first rubble structures were built in Nepal about 1600 years ago as castles. It became the most common method for housing construction, due to the easy availability of rubble in both cities and rural areas.

The structural system consists out of a combination of an internal timber framework and load bearing rubble walls. Most of the houses constructed with this method are two to three storeys high. The climate in Nepal makes it difficult for trees to grow big, as a result the dimensions of timber building elements are pretty small and have to be connected to each other with steel parts resulting in poor stability. The walls made out of small rubble mixed with mortar have also a quite poor stability. The rubble walls support both the vertical and horizontal loads, the timber framework also supports partially the vertical loads. These structures are not really resilient to earthquakes due to the lack of ductility and an inadequate connection between wall and components. (Baitao et al.

2015, p. 573) Many houses constructed with this method are severely damaged every time when a big earthquake occurs and are rebuilt time after time.

The raw soil structures consist out of an internal timber framework which is constructed first, the walls made out of adobe bricks or mud are added later. The structural system is based on the overlapping of the beams of timber frame with the walls dividing the loads of the floors and the roof. The seismic capacity of this method is better than the rubble structures due to the internal timber frame but the ductility and the strength of the adobe walls are poor. (Baitao et al. 2015, p. 576) The traditional brick wood method is developed more than 2000 years ago by the Newar people for the construction of temples, palaces and houses. Although the houses are smaller than the temples and palaces the construction method is similar but simplified. The structural system is a smart collaboration between the load bearing walls and an internal timber framework both supporting independently the floors and the roof. Since the walls are made out of brick, the whole system has a certain resilience to earthquakes. But the lack of a reliable connection between the timber framework and the brick wall can be a weak point causing the walls to collapse. (Baitao et al. 2015, p. 576)

From these three methods the rubble structures are the most used but have the worst seismic capacities. The raw soil structures are used the least and perform a little better than the rubble structures. The traditional wood brick structures are found in the historic centres of Newar settlements and have the best seismic capacities. However, none of these construction methods is entirely earthquake resilient and the earthquake of 25 April 2015 caused a lot of damage to buildings constructed with traditional methods.

Namaste house Architectural style

The last decades a new housing typology is emerging in Nepal due to a changing lifestyle and the import of new construction techniques. The demographic growth of Kathmandu plays also a role causing a rapid and massive expansion of the city towards the countryside and generating sprawl in rural areas.

The main building method used for these structures is a reinforced concrete framework with a brick infill. The faรงade is finished with plaster and colourful paint. A small ornamental triangle on the front faรงade with the statue of a Hindu or Buddhist god gives the building a traditional touch, hence the name of this new typology: Namaste house. The Namaste house is a free standing building consisting out of a square floor plan, with a similar layout for every floor. A typical floor consists out of a central hallway with a staircase flanked by four multipurpose rooms and a bathroom. The multipurpose rooms can be used as bedroom, kitchen, living room or storage.

In general, the Namaste house has four floors but there are also examples with more floors, the first two floors are identical and are used as the living quarters. For the third floor the layout is a bit different, the hallway is absent and only at one side rooms are constructed the other side is used as a roof terrace. The last floor is a rooftop terrace. In most of the cases the kitchen is located on the third floor due to the easy connection with the water tanks on the rooftop terrace. The roof terrace is a new feature for buildings in Nepal, traditional buildings always had pitched roofs in order to make the buildings water proof. With the arrival of new building technologies flat roofs which are waterproof can now easily be constructed. The roof terraces are used for drying laundry and to process different crops such as rice and wheat. The water tanks also get a prominent place on the roof terrace, since the public piped water network is not stable people store drinking water in tanks on their roofs.

Depending on the family budget new technologies to be self-sufficient are installed. The public utilities in Nepal are not reliable and people use a hybrid system, a combination between public and private to get electricity and water. Photovoltaic panels are placed on the roofs to generate electricity, solar boilers are put in place to heat up the water 75

and rain harvest systems are installed to collect water for household use. In some colonies, gated communities for the higher class, these technologies are mandatory.

The new building methods make it possible to construct bigger houses than traditional building methods. As a result, houses are shared between different related families. Every family uses a floor with their private bedrooms and living room, the kitchen and roof terrace are shared by the entire family.

The Namaste houses are quite popular at this moment and are popping up everywhere consuming valuable productive land and causing sprawl.

The earthquake of 25 April 2015 was a catalyst for the construction of these new houses, since local people prefer to demolish damaged traditional buildings and to replace them by a new Namaste house.

During our fieldwork several residents shared their opinion with us claiming that Namaste houses are more resilient to earthquakes, they are more convenient for a “modern� lifestyle and the construction is cheaper than a traditional house.

Climate responsiveness The new build concrete structures are quite functional and generic in their layout and the traditional knowledge about climate responsiveness is not taken into consideration. Since all the Namaste houses are

freestanding the qualities of the courtyard system facilitating social activities in a pleasant environment by providing shade in summer and solar gain in winter is lost. As a result, these climate controlled semipublic spaces which are important for the social cohesion are not part of the urban tissue of newer settlements.

In traditional Newar houses different measures were taken to create a comfortable indoor climate. Due to the vertical organisation of spaces the living quarters are sandwiched between two buffers, the ground floor and attic, protecting the living areas from the outside temperature and humidity. The walls of traditional houses are composed out of two layers of different kinds of brick resulting in walls with a thickness up to 70 cm. These thick walls give the house a thermal mass regulating the indoor temperature to be cool in summer and warm in winter. The low ceilings reduce the amount of energy needed to heat up the house in cold winter days. If we take a look at the Namaste houses, we see that the vertical organisation of space with the buffer system is not used, since every floor has an identical function. The infill brick walls are made out of one layer of bricks with much smaller sectional dimensions as a consequence the thermal mass of the house is much lower. The ceilings are also higher demanding more energy to heat up the room in winter.

As a result, the indoor climate of these buildings is less comfortable than a traditional building. Throughout our fieldwork an old men complained about the uncomfortable temperatures during winter and summer in his new Namaste house and how it was better while living in a traditional building.

The roof overhang providing shade in summer and protecting the walls from heavy monsoon rainfall is maybe the only traditional climatological feature which is used in the Namaste houses. Besides that, the Namaste houses are not adapted at all to local climatological conditions and generate an uncomfortable indoor climate for its inhabitants. This problem could be solved by using hi-tech solutions such as mechanical ventilation and thermal insulation, but for a country without economic stability this may not be the right solution. Traditional low-tech solutions that have proven to be efficient for centuries might be the best option.

Earthquake resilience The last two decades reinforced concrete frame structures have become the main building method in the urban and suburban areas of Nepal. Most of these buildings are constructed with standard construction techniques without proper knowledge about seismic design principles. Public and government buildings tend to be the exception and are constructed according to the Nepalese seismic design code.

Picture of a Namaste house made during fieldwork.

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A common practice in the construction of reinforced concrete structures in Nepal is that the cross section of the beams is bigger than the cross section of the columns. This practice is not in line with seismic design

principles directing that you need a structure with strong columns and weak beams. The sectional dimensions of building components such as beams and columns are also smaller than described in seismic design principles. Another weak point is the joint between the beam and the column capital, due to the direct cast in place the joint is too rigid and doesn’t allow horizontal movement. Stirrups should be placed around the joints between column and beam to allow horizontal movement.

(Baitao et al. 2015, p. 573) Despite all these flaws the reinforced concrete structures performed generally well during the earthquake of 25 April 2015 (Baitao et al.

2015, p. 574). In order to prevent casualties in future earthquakes a performant seismic design code should be implied and followed for reinforced concrete frame structures in Nepal.

HYBRID TYPOLOGIES Since the introduction of reinforced concrete in Nepal, traditional buildings are gradually replaced by new reinforced concrete buildings.

The majority of the local people prefer them above traditional buildings claiming that reinforced concrete structures are more resilient to earthquakes. The performance of these structures in the last earthquake on 25 April 2015 proves them right at least if the seismic design code is applied in a proper way. Another reason for local people to choose for a Namaste house is that it fits better with their current lifestyle.

Traditional houses are designed for a more rural lifestyle while people in cities and bigger towns not necessarily have this lifestyle anymore. And last but not least the construction of a traditional house needs special trained craftsmen who still have the traditional knowledge making the construction much more expensive than contemporary houses.

The Namaste houses and other reinforced concrete buildings have also several disadvantages. The buildings are quite generic and their architectural quality is poor in comparison with the rich tradition of traditional Newar architecture. The traditional knowledge about climate responsive building developed during centuries seems to be forgotten and is not applied in new buildings resulting in new buildings with an uncomfortable indoor climate. The use of reinforced concrete as a general construction method is a quite recent phenomenon in Nepal and the knowledge to apply this technology in proper way in an area prone to strong seismic activity is lacking. Although the Nepalese government composed a seismic design code, the majority of the new buildings is not constructed according to any of those design principles creating huge risks for future earthquakes.

Since all of the existing housing typologies have multiple flaws there is the need for a new hybrid housing typology using both the traditional and contemporary knowledge. An intelligent combination between traditional and contemporary technology allows to create a new typology which fits into people’s current lifestyle, is adapted to the local climatological conditions and has a certain architectural quality. Several features from the traditional Newar houses are still useful for new housing. The courtyard is maybe the most striking feature, acting as a climate control system for enclosed outdoor spaces and in the same time reinforcing the social cohesion. The human scale of the dens Newar settlements with a maximum height of four floors for buildings is still very suitable for new settlements. The roof overhangs protecting the façade from rainfall and providing shade in summer are also a traditional feature that can improve the quality of a new building. Also some traditional lowtech measures can be taken in order to regulate the indoor climate. The vertical arrangement of spaces with the ground floor and attic working as buffers between the living areas and the outdoor climate can still be useful today. Improving the thermal mass of a building by composing thick walls out of several layers of different bricks will definitely help to optimise the indoor temperature. The traditional lattice window shutters are a good instrument to control direct sunlight to enter the building, allowing sunlight in winter and blocking it in summer.

The import of new building technologies in Nepal brought also some useful features which certainly can be used in a new hybrid housing typology. Due to new building methods water resistant rooftop terraces can be constructed and are an essential feature of all Namaste houses.

The rooftop terraces are used for several household activities but are also an outdoor space facilitating social gatherings. The use of different technologies such as solar boilers, photovoltaic panels and rain harvest systems in order to be self-sufficient and independent from the unreliable public utilities network is also an interesting aspect that should be used in a hybrid typology. It is self-evident that the more convenient way of living of the Namaste houses with all the modern day comfort such as running water, electricity, modern bathrooms and kitchens should be applied.

Reinforced concrete structures are the main construction method for Namaste houses, if this method is used in a proper way according to the seismic design principles then it can also be used for a new hybrid housing typology.

Some principles used in incremental housing strategies can also be applied in Nepal in order to develop new hybrid housing typologies.

An interesting example of incremental housing is the project by Urban Nouveau in Pune, India. Several housing prototypes were co-created together with local people resulting in structures that are embedded in local traditions and also have the input of building professionals. The idea of participation in the design of new settlements might also be a good idea for Nepal because people will feel much more related to the projects. Another interesting aspect of incremental housing is the idea of 77

sweat equity, people with limited budgets are involved as much as they can in the construction process in order to lower the building costs. A last feature which also could be implemented is the principle of half build structures, only the vital parts of a dwelling are initially constructed such as a bathroom, a kitchen, a bedroom and a living room. The design of the building allows that additional rooms can be constructed later on within the framework of the building.

CONCLUSION Kathmandu valley is at an important turning point in its history, according to the Kathmandu Valley Development Authority the population will double from 3 million people to 6 million by 2035. This means that the city’s housing stock will also expend drastically. In order to deal with this significant growth an intelligent housing typology is needed. The Newar people have developed during time an extensive architectural tradition which is adapted to the local context. This traditional building method is under pressure by imported building technologies creating lots of new possibilities however they are not adapted to the Nepalese context. A hybrid housing typology using intelligently both traditional and imported technologies needs to be developed in order to create comfortable housing adapted to the local conditions giving shelter to the fast growing population of the Kathmandu valley.

Incremental housing strategy in Pune, India by Urban Nouveau*. Š Urban Nouveau*

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STREET AS A SPACE AND A SECOND CITY IN EARTHQUAKE SENSITIVE AREAS; A case of Kathmandu Valley

by Grace Valasa ABSTRACT Open spaces are one of the goals promoting effective response and recovery planning for hazard prone urban areas. Earthquake is one among the many hazards that have taken place in different parts of the world.

This come alongside other goals like the landscape, the infrastructure and retrofitted buildings. Open spaces, therefore, not only contribute to the quality of every day’s life in an urban life but also act as a second city housing the victims of earthquakes in prone zones. According to Hossain, the effectiveness and adaptability of an open space is based on the user’s movement patterns, land use, building density/capacity, open space distribution and the landscape morphology in relation to the specific open space. The functions of an open space during disasters are determined by its categorisation and scale. These spaces include the green spaces like parks, reserves, greenways and fingers and agricultural lands; public open spaces like squares, courtyards and streets; and private open spaces like gardens and smaller residential courtyards.

This paper will be looking into the different street typologies, their characteristics and organisation/network within Kathmandu Valley and how it adapt and become resilient during and after an earthquake thus becoming a second city. This will be achieved through a theoretical framework and field study of the Newari street network and character during the different political eras and how it has been affected by the concept of urbanisation.

INTRODUCTION Streets and their thickenings form one third of the city’s coverage and can either be a channel for traffic flow or a space for ideas, people and activities convergence (Shrestha, 2011). They shape the urban fabric by it character and identity. Through their different characteristics like materiality, function, layout and form, size and shape etc., streets determine their level of interaction with the adjacent bouldering elements like building or open spaces and also the users using the streets.

According to Gehl, streets possess two major generic forms. Medieval and Renaissance streets originated from solid materials and the street was a positive form against the architectural fabric. The garden city concept on the hand states that streets are spaces flowing through the three dimensional architectural fabric without any shape or form. In this form, the green areas are emphasized rather than the streets themselves leaving the built fabric as a backdrop to the open spaces.

Streets are defined vertically by the adjacent elements like buildings, walls, or plantings. These elements the streets the height, characters of its facades and also presence or absence of enclosure. Horizontally, the street is defined by its width, shape, materiality, depth etc.

STREET AS A SPACE “Life between Buildings: Using Public Space” is a concept that Gehl explains to portray the ability of street to be more than just a channel to convey traffic flow. He states that streets can be spaces where different activities and ideas converge as well as the users of the spaces themselves.

For a street to be a space, it must own multiple characteristics that improve its sociability and liveability (Shrestha, 2011). Some of these characteristics include accessibility, people convergence, publicness, safety, comfort etc.

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Accessibility: It should be easy to get in and out of the street space.

The street should be adaptable to accommodate different age groups, genders as well as making it easy for the user to master and register them.

Streets should not only gather ideas and activities and convey traffic channel but also own symbolic, cultural, political and ceremonial aspects.

Pedestrian-based: They should be human scale in terms of the width, shape and size, gradient and even the adjacent facades as well as making it comfortable and accessible to the minimal vehicles that need to access the different areas within the settlements.

Urban resilience: Street resilience is its ability to respond and adapt in case of an earthquake occurrence while still maintaining its functionality and form. The resilience is determined by its variability, modularity, slow and tight variables, social capital, innovation, the overlap of governance and ecosystem services (Allan and Bryant, 2010).

According to Tiwari, Kathmandu Valley is characterised by streets that are enhanced with crossings and enclosed within physical, visual, cultural, econmic, social and political processes (Tiwari, 2011), see figure 01. This paper will carry out a theoretical framework and fieldwork case studies of the different street typologies in the Kathmandu Valley in terms of how they relate to the concepts of street as a space and street as a second city.

Traffic controlling: Through the variation of materials, width, gradient and introduction of speed control elements, a great street to facilitate the flow of the traffic within it whether pedestrian or vehicular.

Safety and comfort: Streets should be well lit and well-marked to ensure the safety of the user. Through introduction of easily walkable materials and gradients as well as rest points along the street, a street can be termed comfortable to the user. Segregation of vehicular and pedestrians traffic where necessary is essential to establish safety on the streets.

Landscape and Environmental-based: Great streets consider the cultural, economic, social and even physical factors like topography, climatic conditions, and amenities within the site. This ensures that the streets implementation is sustainable and also economic.

STREET AS A SECOND CITY Street and its thickenings are valuable spaces during and after earthquake.

They act as a second city; a refuge for victims who need emergency shelters for varied time period ranging from days, months to even years.

They provide multiple functions as inhabitations of emergency shelters, distribution and transportation of relief goods and services, storage of rubbles and damaged materials, re-establishment of necessary commerce and commemoration purposes (Allan and Bryant, 2010). To determine the adaptability of streets towards an earthquake, two attributes are mainly considered.

Urban morphology: The city processes like social-economic, ecological, political and cultural and forms like the built fabric, streets and defined infrastructure co-exist to form the urban morphology (Allan and Bryant, 2010). Analysis of the relationship between the built and open spaces highlights the capacity of the urban fabric to adapt in case of an earthquake. This is achieved through the analysis of the amount, distribution and organisation of the relationship in terms of functionalism and structure (Allan and Bryant, 2010).

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Figure 01: The concept behind the street organisation Kathamandu Valley (Tiwari, 2011)

STREET TYPOLOGIES IN KATHMANDU VALLEY According to Shrestha, Kathmandu Valley street network has evolved from the Malla period through the Rana period to today’s urban networks. He lays out the valley as a space of different street typologies introduced during different eras and portrayed at different part of the valley thus the dynamism in character.

Typology 01: The Malla Period (13th to 18th Centuries) During the Malla period, the Newari traditional settlements had three main categories of spaces; the nodal spaces, the street spaces and the bahal (closed courtyard) spaces. The streets were and are still more than just a conveyor of traffic but a space that own characters that enhance social cohesion. According to Shrestha, they are spaces where ideas, activities, and services like shopping, gossip, meetings, household and ritual activities converge as well as routes for farmers to their rice fields. These streets are pedestrian scaled and own characteristics that enhance their social cohesion aspects of the users and the outdoor and indoor of the adjacent buildings. The street and its thickenings are mainly brick or stone paved encouraging pedestrian and minimal vehicular use. This uniformity of material connects the whole settlement thus wholeness in urban design of such settlements (Shrestha, 2015). Their

organisation is mainly irregular with different widths/thickenings that encouraged different activities at different points along the networks thus a personality, see figure 02 (a). There was no end to the street and beginning of the open spaces and vice versa isn’t thus making these two one space running all through the settlements (Shrestha, 2016), see figure 02 (b).

Unlike other street design, Malla period streets have both physical and visual connections to the adjacent buildings. Physically, spaces like dalans, petis and patis act like transiting spaces from the street into the houses.

The dalans are covered open space behind twin rows of carved and ornate wooden columns that act as transition space into the building’s Chowk (open courtyard) while patis are shelters spaces within squares that used as meeting and relaxation areas. Petis are steps outside houses and shops and are mainly for household chores and also spill over spaces for shops. The presence of building with shops on the ground flow also enhances the relationship between the street and the buildings. Visually, the buildings are design in a way to enhance views into the streets and the details of the windows and doors provide an aesthetic sensation of the street users that slows them down thus dialogue between the building and the street (Shrestha, 2015). The ratio of the street to that of the building was also determined to range between 1:1 and 1:2 thus a sense of enclosure and determination of the human scale. This also birthed a series of picturesque scenes that came along the elements of mystery, surprise, excitement, and anticipation as one walked along the street against building enclosures that opened up to thickening of different characters, see figure 02 (c).

Tiwari in ‘City Space and Life then, 150 years ago’ summarizes how the Malla period street network was more than just a conveyor. He elaborates how these streets are spaces in three different ways.

1/The street an activity space and a workspace for many jaats 2/The street as a daily conveyor of traffic flows to the farms 3/ The street as a cultural space during the annual, four yearly and twelve yearly gods’ festivals. They also created room for cultural activities like birth rituals, burial routes and rituals, marriage etc.

In the case of an earthquake, the Bahal (closed courtyards), the Chowk (open courtyards) and squares which are actually part of the street network accommodate the victims of the earthquake like the conveyor street act as a traffic flow of the emergency relief flow network (Shrestha, 2011).

A case study: Bungamati Traditional Settlement Bungamati is a Newar (ethnic group) traditiona settlement to the south of the Kathmandu city. Within its compacted built up area flows a street network that opens up into thickenings, see figure 03 (a). These thickenings include spaces like temple/market/transport squares, bahals

(closed courtyards), chowk (open courtyard), patis and dalans (sheltered waiting areas/ rest houses) and petis (plinth) (Amir, 2016) and (fieldwork, 2016). This street spaces are clearly pedestrian-based although vehicular traffic is observed along the dynamic streetscape, see figure 03 (b).

During the earthquake that took place of the 25th of April, 2016, most of the buildings and structures were damaged and the victims were forced to move into the street thickenings where they were accommodated in emergency shelters, see figure 03 (c).

Figure 02: (a) Irregular street organisation with different widths and shapes. (b) Continuity of street into an opening spaces and vice versa. (c) Street and building relationship; ration of 1:1.5 (Shrestha, 2011)

Typology 02: Rana Period (1846 to 1951) The streets in this period were a reconstruction of the Malla streets after the 1934 earthquake. The design was neo-classical and consisted of huge nodal points with street networks converging to the nodes, see figure 04(a). Unlike the Malla period streets that were irregular and narrow and didn’t separate the pedestrian from the vehicle, Rana period streets were wide and straight with main road for vehicles and pedestrian pathways on both sides, see figure 04(b). At the end of these streets was a monumental feature that crowned the palace buildings (Shrestha, 2011).

Unlike the mud houses detailed with fine wood carvings enclosing the Malla streets, these streets were bordered by four storeys, white plastered wall houses that were monumental in size. This killed the essence of the house details to the street user while introducing a strong sense of enclosure of the street into the sky ceiling. This was achieved through increased ratio of the street to the houses to 1.5:1, see figure 04(c). After the 1934 earthquake, the damaged streets within Kathmandu valley core were straightened and widened accommodating the pedestrians’ pathways on both side of the street. The rest of the 81

Figure 03: (a) Bungamati street network and its thickenings. (b) Traffic flows and frequencies of both pedestrians and vehicular modes (c) Shelters distribution within the street thickenings. (Studio Nepal,

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streets at the periphery of the historical centre were reconstructed but only to accommodate vehicles and not the pedestrians. This nullified the concept of a street as a social space where user interact while flowing through/within the space.

the settlement resilient and adptable to the earthquake. The presence of to major hospitals near the parks enhance the adaptability since the wounded victims can be treated in the hospitals, see figure 05(b) and (d).

Nevertheless, the introduction of new commercial activities along these streets boosted the pedestrians’ activities and the huge squares and courtyards act as Haat bazaar presently (a weekly vegetable market).

This is a boost to the street acting as a space. Construction of schools, hospitals and electrical authority at the periphery of the huge parks and pools within the settlements boosted the resilience and adaptation of this streetscape in case of an earthquake or calamities like fire outbreak (Shrestha, 2011).

A case study: Indra Chowk Square and the surrounding open spaces This is one of the market squares within the historic Kathmandu city reconstructed after the 1943 earthquake. It is located along the once renown India-Tibet trade route. It is at the intersection of six commercial streets that link the square to the rest of the city (Shrestha, 2011).

Alongside its commercial activities, the square has drawn streams of pilgrims and tourists at different seasons of the year. Major festival pageants and chariots procession have been conveyed through this square, see figure 05(a) and (c).

Adjacent to the square are larger open spaces including the Durbar Square to the west and the huge parks and ponds to the west.

These spaces, together with the six neo-classical commercial streets, accommodate and convey victims and rubbles of the earthquake making

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Figure 05: (a) Indra Chowk street network alondside the huge open spaces/parks and Rani Phokari (pond). (b) Pedestrians and vehicular traffic distribution, commertial areas along the streets and shelters distribution within the open park systems. (Google earth editted by author, 2016)

Typology 03: Unplanned urban areas’ streets The streets in this period were a reconstruction of the Malla streets after the Urban growth and densification in Kathmandu Valley has revolutionised the physical and functional form of the rural landscape and traditional settlements. This was due to the migration from the overpopulated old city and in-migration from other parts of Nepal and Asia at large in search for economic opportunities, political and conflict status between 1996 and 2006 and the turmoil afterwards and enjoyment of the defined and developed infrastructure within the new centre of the Kathmandu Valley (Shrestha, 2011) and (KVDA, 2015). The settlements shifted from the traditional compacted form with defined open spaces to a sprawl city. The defined contrast between built and unbuilt within the sprawl has been minimised since the two forms exist as a haphazard mix within the developing urban form (KVDA, 2015). This sprawl is mainly at the periphery of the traditional settlements. Agricultural fields were transformed into buildings and rental skyscrapers thus the loss of most of the existing open spaces (Shrestha, 2011).

The streets within these settlements were developed in a very impromptu and emergency basis in an unplanned process. They therefore have different shapes, sizes and organisations; lacking hierarchy. Unlike the traditional typologies above, these streets are enclosed by boundary walls of private residential developments. They are the left over spaces after the development of private residential houses has been established thus and afterthought no man’s land. These streets are rarely paved or serviced with infrastructure like sewerage, drainage or drinking water pipes since they are not planned for within development plans. They are often characterised by construction materials and household waste and are mainly vehicular with no definition of the pedestrian scale (Gehl, 2012).

Figure 04: (a) Neo-classical street design. (b) Vehicular based streets with pedestrian pathways. (c) Street and building relationship; ration of 1.5:1 (Shrestha, 2011)

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In relation to the concept of the street as a space, these streets have minimal characteristics or none supporting the concept. This is because the massive skyscrapers lack harmony in their heights and sizes thus lacking the sense of enclosure of the street. The different characters of the building facades and walls also kill the concept of series of picturesque scenes that came along the elements of mystery, surprise, excitement, and anticipation as one walked along the street. The transitional spaces between street and the interiors, unlike the traditional set up, are varied since the design is individual based and not community based.

This discourages the pedestrians’ free flow along the street and also discourages the continuous existence of activities along the street thus less spaces where ideas, activities, and services like shopping, gossip, meetings, household and ritual activities converge. Because of the lack of physical and visual connections between the building and the street, the presence of walls along the streets, and lack of pedestrian-related amenities, these streets are bound dangerous and insecure (Shrestha, 2015). Due to lack of infrastructure like drainage and sewerage systems of the unpaved streets, the pedestrian accessibility during the rainy seasons is deemed impossible. This is because of mud and waterlogged pathways that are a mix of both surface runoff and sewerage from the built up areas.

These streets are also not adaptable or resilient to calamity and hazards like fires or earthquake due to the lack of defined open spaces accessible by residents and due to densification, the accessible spaces can accommodate all the residents. Also, the widths of some of these streets are not wide enough to accommodate fire engines or ambulances in case of an emergency (Shrestha, 2011).

A case study: Bhaisepati urban area, see figure 06 (a) and (b) Typology 04: Planned urban areas’ streets Planned urban development projects were the Nepal’s government initiative that in the early 1970s (Mattingly, 1994). The aims of these projects were to improve the living conditions of the existing urban sprawl and also increase buildable land for the future urban settlements. This was also to make it easy for the poor to develop their own residences.

The government employed three strategies: site and services, land pooling and guided land development which were to be implemented by both the regional and local authorities. Site and services schemes provided infrastructure like the street network, sewerage and drainage systems and drinking water piping and services like waste collection on beneficiaries letting the owners to develop their buildings (Srinivas, 2016) and (Mattingly, 1994). Land pooling on the other hand involved the rearrangement of privately owned land plots and supply them with infrastructure after which the owners would develop. The government targeted areas that were largely built up thus improvement and widening of the existing unpaved and narrow streets instead of introducing 84

Figure 06: (a) Bhaisepati urban sprawl. (b) Photos of the sprawl. (Google earth editted by author, 2016)

new ones. These streets were therefore vehicular and pedestrians accessible, providing access to plots that didn’t have access (Mattingly, 1994). Guided land development was introduction of land use zoning and policies guiding the new development within the new Kathmandu Valley. According to Shrestha, this initiative attracted several private developers and real estate agencies and in 2002, a Joint Apartment Act was approved. Since then several planned developments were put in place within the valley.

The streetscape and liveability of the urban area was improved comparing to that of the existing urban sprawl. Nevertheless, harmony and hierarchy of the street spaces and open spaces wasn’t achieved because planning standards and guidelines weren’t put in place. The configuration of the site and services schemes were also project-based thus variation from one project to the other (Shrestha, 2011). The street organisation just like within the urban sprawl was leftover spaces of the serviced plots thus lack of the defined hierarchy of nodes and thickenings within the networks. The individual house and perimeter wall design led to differences in forms and heights thus lack of enclosure of the street and lack of sense of place. These streets also lacked defined pedestrian pathways yet vehicular-based. The concept of perimeter walling within these schemes also nullified the concept of transition spaces between the street and the buildings thus no life as one walked along the street.

These streets were therefore conveyors of traffic flow mainly vehicular with no idea and activities convergence thus lack of the concept of a street as a space. To maximise on the built density, these developments focus on the serviced plots and the odd left spaces were allocated to the open spaces thus minimal allocation.

The street networks within these schemes were also not in harmony with the public street network feeding the schemes thus disconnect with the rest of the city (Mattingly, 1994). In terms of resilience and adaptability to earthquake, these streets are not favourable just like the streets within the urban sprawl. This is because, the streets are not well connected to the public transportation thus difficulty in access in case of an earthquake. The open spaces within these schemes are also located in the odd left over spaces within the plots. Also, the fact that these developments are segregated from the rest of the city and walled their operation appear to be private and different from the open public city development thus difficulty in easy access (Shrestha, 2011).

A case study: Bhaisepati urban area, see figure 07 (a) and (b)

Figure 06: (a) Bhaisepati urban sprawl. (b) Photos of the sprawl. (Google earth editted by author, 2016)

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Studio Kathmandu volume 1

REVITALISING BUNGAMATI: AN ACTION PLAN

Design investigations for a post earthquake reconstruction process in Bungamati, Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Studio Kathmandu volume 2

Studio Kathmandu volume 3

LANDSCAPE URBANISM EXPLORATIONS

TOWN EXTENSIONS IN KARYABINAYAK MUNICIPALITY

for the southern fringe of Kathmandu Metropolitan area, Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Urban design investigations into a hazardous territory experiencing fast growth, Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Valentina Amaya, Sheeba Amir, Ashim Manna, Isabelle Matton Thesis presented to obtain the degree of Master in Urbanism and Strategic Planning at KULeuven

Master of Human Settlements, Master of Urbanism and Strategic Planning, MaHS MaUSP, KULeuven, 2015 Bruno De Meulder, Viviana d’Auria, Annelies De Nijs, Stefanie Dens

Master of Human Settlements, Master of Urbanism and Strategic Planning, MaHS MaUSP, KULeuven, 2015 Promoters: Bruno De Meulder, Viviana d’Auria Co-promoters: Padma Sunder Joshi, Annelies De Nijs, Stefanie Dens

www.kulstudionepal2015.wordpress.com www.mahsmausp.be

Master of Human Settlements, Master of Urbanism and Strategic Planning, MaHS MaUSP, KULeuven, 2016 Bruno De Meulder, Viviana d’Auria, Annelies De Nijs, Stefanie Dens