Tag Archives: Mud Brick

Fieldwork: Indigenous Building Practices, District Kangra, Himachal Pradesh

Latitude: 30N; Longitude: 75E Altitude: 250-6975 m Average Annual Rainfall: 1539 mm Average Precipitation Days: 86 Max. Summer Temperature: 34-35 degree Celsius Min. Winter Temperature: 0-3 degree Celsius Languages of Indigenous Craftsmen: Pahadi, Gaddi, Punjabi, Hindi Local Materials: Kacchi inth (Adobe), Gaara (Mud mortar), River stone, Blue gun patthar (Blue sand stone), Baans (Bamboo), Cheer […]

Public: Design and the Politics of Space

The following article was featured in Issue 46, Journal of Landscape Architecture  www.lajournal.in. Can be downloaded here.   In the 21st century, ‘developing’ countries like India are a unique study in contrast demographically. At one end, there are the privileged elite and the growing middle class, aspiring to live and consume like their western counterparts. At […]

Public: The Role of a 21st Century Architect in Rural India (1)

The article was published in Domus India, September 2015 edition. Can be downloaded here. Introduction In the first part of this article, we took a journey through different rural regions of the Indian Subcontinent trying to understand the materials, methods and ideologies used by the indigenous people to build their spaces. What we learnt is that although all […]

Public: Ar. Siddharth Menon

The following interview was featured on 27th July 2015 in http://www.sawdust.online on the challenges of mud architecture in India. When did you build your first earth building, and could you describe some of its features? I built my first earth building at the Auroville Earth Institute (www.earth-auroville.com) in Auroville, Tamil Nadu in 2011. I was training […]

Public: The polyphonic perils of finishing-The Architect as a Maestro

The article was published in the School of Environment and Architecture News Letter 2016. Can be downloaded here. The final phase of any construction activity is the finishing of a built space. It is arguably the most crucial stage of a building process as this is what sets the final image of a building. All […]