In April 2015, Nepal was hit by a massive earthquake that claimed thousands of lives and destroyed or seriously damaged many structures, including ancient monuments. On the second anniversary of this tragic event, we are publishing a series of interviews with architects involved in rebuilding the country after the disaster. The conversation with Shigeru Ban can be read here, with the UNESCO expert Kai Weise here.
This interview is about the reconstruction work in Nepal after the 2015 earthquake: its scale, coordination mechanism and practice. They also touched upon the importance of using building materials of natural origin during reconstruction in rural areas and in working with cultural heritage, on the connection between the caste system and the spatial needs of the Nepalese, on the problem of resettlement of residents of the most earthquake-prone zones and the experience of solving it.
The participants in the talks held in December 2016 were the authoritative theoretical architects of Nepal, who concurrently act as consultants to state and international organizations (United Nations Development Program, World Wildlife Fund and UNESCO) in the elimination of the consequences of the 2015 earthquake.
Kishore Tapa - architect, former president of the Union of Architects of Nepal, member of the Presidium of the National Agency for Reconstruction of Nepal.
Sanjaya Upreti - Architect and urban planner, graduate of the University of New Delhi (1994), Deputy Head of the Architecture Department of the Faculty of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Consultant to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
Sudarshan Raj Tiwari - Professor of the Department of Architecture at the Faculty of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Head of the Laboratory for the Study of Historical Architecture, the author of numerous publications on the cultural monuments of Nepal.
How acute is the issue of reconstruction in Nepal after the 2015 earthquake?
Sudarshan Raj Tiwari:
- More than 70% of existing buildings in 14 earthquake-affected areas in Nepal require restoration work, and 30-35% of buildings have been destroyed.
Kishore Tapa:
– Particularly large destruction occurred in rural areas, where the earthquake destroyed more than 800,000 houses, many of which were of architectural value, especially in ethnic historical settlements. Many of the lost buildings in both cities and villages were very old, but there were others - new concrete houses that were not built correctly.
Sanjaya Oppreti:
- More than half of the buildings in Kathmandu are squatters that do not meet the requirements of the building code. In many buildings, the proportions between the number of storeys, base area, length and width on different floors are greatly violated - we get trapezoidal houses expanding towards the top. As a result, in some areas of the city (for example, in the area of the Ratna Park bus station), narrow streets between such houses at the third floor level turn into barely noticeable stripes of sky.
Despite the severity of the problem of unauthorized construction, in my opinion, the issue of reconstruction is most acute in rural areas. The cities have resources, so recovery can be started with little or no own funds - with borrowed funds. In the city, there is always confidence in the ability to justify the costs incurred, since there is a high demand for land there, and it is expensive. In rural areas, any investment is a risk.
The Nepal Reconstruction Agency oversees reconstruction work nationwide. How is it organized? Who works in it?
Kishore Tapa:
– The agency consists of four divisions, three of which coordinate the reconstruction of a certain type of architectural objects: cultural monuments, residential or administrative buildings. The fourth unit of the Reconstruction Agency is in charge of geological surveys after the earthquake - in areas affected by tremors, as well as in potential resettlement areas.
The agency is staffed with engineers, geologists, sociologists and managers, many of them switched to this work on a temporary contract in order to return to their previous place of work after liquidation of the consequences of the disaster.
When restoring cultural heritage sites, we rely on UNESCO experts, in the reconstruction of administrative buildings, we mostly manage on our own, when restoring schools since 1998 (then an earthquake happened in eastern Nepal - E. M.'s note) we cooperate with Japanese architects.
Is there a certain sequence in carrying out restoration work?
Kishore Tapa:
- In terms of the priority of restoration, the Agency adheres to the following priorities: first of all - private houses, then - schools and hospitals, and last of all - cultural heritage sites, because their restoration requires extensive discussion with local residents. To date, only a few cultural monuments have been restored, one of them is Buddanath.
The agency also stipulates the terms of reconstruction: 3 years for the restoration of residential buildings and 3-4 years for schools as large facilities, the restoration of which uses relatively high technologies.
How does the state participate in the restoration work in rural areas?
Kishore Tapa:
- The government provides subsidies of 300 thousand Nepalese rupees (about US $ 2,900) to rebuild a house in a rural area on the site of a destroyed building and has developed 18 options for projects of houses with different storeys, number of rooms and from different materials (stone, brick, concrete).
How do you assess the proposed projects?
Kishore Tapa:
- Villagers criticize these projects for their high cost. The construction of houses according to the options proposed by the government requires a significantly larger investment than the subsidy paid. There is a need for cheaper projects.
Sanjaya Oppreti:
- People have been building houses for several centuries and have developed the optimal structure of dwellings in accordance with their own cultural and everyday characteristics, it is foolish to try to retrain them today. In my opinion, the main task of government agencies should be the diffusion of technologies in rural areas, and not the development of projects for seismically resistant houses.
According to my observations, out of 18 projects, only one is used, and that is more likely due to the availability of the materials embedded in it (stone, clay, cement), and not due to high-quality, interesting design. Having discovered this, I began to wonder why the proposed typology did not work. In my opinion, false classification criteria were used - by area, number of storeys, functionality, and the like. Two important factors were not taken into account: polyethnicity, which in Nepal is most pronounced in rural areas (more than 120 languages, 92 cultural groups), and a special stratification of society, including historically inherited socio-cultural oppression of certain social groups. It was worth starting with the creation of a typology of villagers in order to understand their spatial and housing needs. The government partially realized these shortcomings and decided to supplement the set of standard projects with 78 more options.
What exactly is the difference in the use of space by representatives of different social groups in Nepal?
Sanjaya Oppreti:
- People working on the land are the lowest stratum of Nepalese society. They live in need. Usually their houses are one-story. It is important for them to have room to install a hand-held wooden dhiki rice thresher (a traditional Nepalese tool for grinding and crushing rice grains by hand using a long wooden beam using a lever principle - EM's note) and for keeping livestock. Livestock occupies a central place in their economy, serving as almost the only source of income.
During one of my expeditions, I met a very poor Dalit woman (untouchable - approx. EM). She earned a living by raising sheep. She used to have two adult sheep, one of which was pregnant, and two lambs, but all of these animals died in the earthquake. The government gave her funds to buy one new sheep, but at the time of our conversation she lamented that it would be better if she herself became a victim of the earthquake, and not her sheep.
Representatives of the higher castes - brahmanas and chhetri (Nepalese analogue of kshatriyas - approx. EM) - usually live in three-story houses. On the third floor they have a stove, on the second floor there are bedrooms, the lower floor is reserved for the kitchen and public space for family members.
What technologies, in your opinion, should be popularized in the villages?
Kishore Tapa:
- It is important to use local lightweight materials and transfer to the countryside the technologies that villagers can use. Concrete structures are quite dangerous there. Local residents do not know how to dilute cement, how to connect reinforcement. This leads to numerous accidents.
Sanjaya Oppreti:
- Indeed, the majority of villagers choose reinforced concrete rather than stone, a traditional and affordable material, as building materials for the reconstruction of their houses. According to them, most of the reinforced buildings survived the earthquake. It turns out that the government was unable to explain to the villagers that the use of traditional architecture is preferable, and not so much from the point of view of aesthetics as from the point of view of environmental friendliness, affordability and compliance with local climatic conditions.
Work to bring construction technology to the countryside began as recently as the government hired about 2,000 engineers to help redevelop high-altitude villages.
How is the process of reconstruction in the field going?
Sanjaya Oppreti:
– Reconstruction began with self-organization. In many villages, construction waste was cleaned up by the local community. This was a good start for restarting the local economy: imagine the house is completely destroyed along with the acquired "assets". Cleaning up construction waste has become the first income for many families and the opportunity to find the surviving things in the process of dismantling the rubble.
In my opinion, the main task of rural reconstruction is to support the local economy. If the settlement consists of 300 houses, then the government subsidy will be 90 million Nepalese rupees per year. That is, if the restoration work is planned correctly, about 50 million rupees could rotate in the local economy. Unfortunately, this is not happening yet. The subsidy program does not contain recommendations on the use of funds allocated for restoration within the local economy. People hardly use local materials, prefer to buy cement in cities and thus enrich others.
What other problems do you see in the practice of carrying out restoration work?
Sanjaya Oppreti:
- It is necessary to move away from the restoration of destroyed buildings in the form in which they existed earlier, in favor of adjusting the territorial planning. To do this, it is necessary to work with the inhabitants of each village to explain the benefits of increasing the size of the jointly managed land.
If each homeowner donates 5-10% of their land to the joint land-use fund, then the land collected in this way will be sufficient to expand roads and equip communal areas. This approach to reconstruction will help organize the life of the rural community better than before and make it more sustainable. So far, this also does not happen.
Partly to blame for the harsh social stratification. In most of the villages where I have had occasion to communicate with the locals, representatives of different castes are not ready to use the common infrastructure. For example, when trying to design a unified water supply system, many insisted on duplicating taps, because, according to the caste system, after the untouchables, no one can take water anymore.
Finally, villagers have been excluded from the planning process for now. Their opinion is taken into account through representatives, but this is not enough. Local people are very knowledgeable about their own needs and the organization of construction, but this knowledge is practically not used yet - decisions are made at a level (or several levels) higher.
Let's talk about the reconstruction of cultural monuments in Nepal. What is the main task of the restoration work?
Sudarshan Raj Tiwari:
- In preserving the spirit of traditional architecture, which consists not only in the visible characteristics - the aesthetics and architectural form of the object, but also in the materials and technologies used. Restoring a building requires maintaining the philosophy of its structure. If the structure was conceived to be flexible and movable, the incorporation of rigid fixed elements makes the object more vulnerable and destroys its philosophy.
Modern engineering achieves earthquake resistance by creating resistance and immobility, while traditional architecture has used flexible joints. The response to an earthquake of buildings built according to such different canons will be different. In case these approaches are combined in one building, the answer will be asymmetrical.
The main reason for the significant destruction of cultural heritage sites after the 2015 earthquake was the lack of maintenance of buildings over the past 30-40 years or even the entire past century. Another reason is poor quality repairs. In many cultural monuments, individual parts were fortified, as a result, these parts became much more powerful than the others, and when the earthquake happened, the building did not behave as a whole. Concrete beams, which replaced wooden joints, hit the walls and shattered them.
It turns out that modern and traditional materials are incompatible during reconstruction?
Sudarshan Raj Tiwari:
- Nepal's cultural heritage sites have existed for the last four to six centuries. In my opinion, for the conservation of these buildings, you can use only those materials that will last two to three hundred years. The use of materials with a shorter service life - concrete, steel cables or reinforcement - does not fit into the idea of conservation. Of course, it may be argued that wood or brickwork is also incapable of surviving that long. But this is not so: the construction system has evolved in close connection with renovation work, maintaining buildings in proper shape was an integral part of it. Repairs were carried out every fifty to sixty years, that is, during their existence, cultural monuments have already gone through five to six restoration cycles. Today, when some of the facilities were damaged by the earthquake, it is impossible to use materials in the restoration work, the repair of which should be carried out with greater frequency. The repair time for a new element will come later, but, unlike wood, which can be sawed without changing its position, modern materials generally require a complete replacement, their repair will be more expensive and time-consuming. If you replace the foundation with a new one, after a while you will have to do it again.
Traditional Nepalese architecture used wood and clay to make bricks and mortar. In ancient times, there was a lake in the Kathmandu valley, so the chemical composition of the local clay and its properties are significantly different from other clays: for example, it is very strong when frozen. Clay mortar is often criticized by builders for turning to dust when it dries. Here the situation is completely different: due to regular monsoons, the local clay used in construction is constantly moistened, this maintains its connection with nature, keeps it alive.
Modern manufacturing materials are designed to resist nature. Natural materials are also opposed to nature, but at the same time they live with nature, they are part of nature, and this is their value.
In my opinion, good material cannot be reduced to an indicator of strength, it is not an end in itself. Really good material has to be created by nature, and in the end - absorbed by it. If we use materials that cannot be recycled naturally, we create waste.
To what extent do other specialists and organizations involved in the reconstruction share your position?
Sudarshan Raj Tiwari:
- Most of the Nepalese architects agree with me. Fortunately, UNESCO also supports my position. But many foreign consultants insist on using modern materials.
How did the international community participate in the reconstruction work in the countryside?
Sanjaya Oppreti:
- Many foreign experts came to offer their projects and technological developments. New buildings can be found in rural areas, constructed with timber ties or prefabricated panels, but there are very few of them. Basically, these are community centers or administrative buildings that were built with funds from international organizations (Red Cross and USAID) immediately after the earthquake. For the demonstration of technologies, this category of buildings was usually used, since the decision to build public facilities is made by a significant number of stakeholders, including government agencies, that is, it was easier for international organizations and foreign specialists to obtain permission for their construction. However, these technologies did not become widespread in the private sector, and even state bodies did not begin to adopt foreign experience, because it is difficult to adapt it to local conditions. For example, making wooden ties requires a high strength material; trees with such characteristics are virtually absent in earthquake-affected areas.
What foreign experience in eliminating the consequences of natural disasters seems to you the most applicable for Nepal?
Kishore Tapa:
- In the field of housing rehabilitation, this is the experience of India and Pakistan.
Sanjaya Oppreti:
- In my opinion, the experience of India is extremely relevant, especially in the field of resettlement of residents from areas with the greatest seismic hazard.
Kishore Tapa:
– Yes, the issue of resettlement is very important for Nepal. Some settlements were completely destroyed due to a landslide. The inhabitants of these villages should be relocated first, but this is not easy. Many of them do not want to move, despite the fact that the place of their former life is dangerous. Nepal has no experience of resettlement of people.
Sanjaya Oppreti:
- Once we went to a seminar in Gujarat. There, the Indian government offered the victims of the earthquake two options - either relocation to safer areas, or the restoration of buildings in the same place in accordance with the rules developed by the government. Settlers were provided with a set of benefits and privileges, including easier access to credit. The rest received funds for restoration work and the prospect of improving living conditions - gasification of settlements, an increase in the allotment of land, etc. We visited one of the affected villages, 60% of its inhabitants moved to a new place. This example demonstrates how important it is to give people a choice and create a working mechanism.
Of course, India and Nepal exist in different conditions. India has a land fund that was used to select resettlement sites. In Nepal, the land issue is extremely complex. There is little land, it is located in high mountain regions. In addition, in India, financial and organizational resources were mobilized very effectively through active interaction with international non-governmental organizations.
What role does the Union of Architects of Nepal (SONA) play in eliminating the consequences of the disaster?
Kishore Tapa:
- Immediately after the earthquake, about 250 architects were involved in the analysis of construction waste at cultural heritage sites. Teams of architects were sent to the most ancient settlements in the Kathmandu Valley. SONA members prepared a project for a memorial to the victims of the earthquake in 2015, and designed and erected boarding houses, toilets and a first-aid post in Patan and Sankha.
Personally, I participated in the development of a project for temporary housing - a one-story two-room building (with a kitchen and a bedroom). Not all families affected by the earthquake followed the proposed plan, and some built three- or four-room temporary homes according to the needs of their households.
When developing the project, our team was guided by the following principles: these dwellings must be strong enough to last at least two years; during their construction, the careful use of building materials that survived the earthquake should be provided so that these materials can later be reused in the construction of permanent housing; temporary shelters should be suitable for low temperatures and cyclones (as this is common in high-altitude villages).
Is there a shortage of personnel in the process of carrying out restoration work?
Kishore Tapa:
- There is a constant shortage of qualified architects in Nepal, despite the fact that about 250 architects graduate from seven universities in the country every year, although 50% of them then leave to work abroad. In the near future, the eighth educational program is being prepared for the opening at the University of Kathmandu. It will focus on training architects for the highlands: it will probably be the first educational program of its kind in the world.
