This is KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Maureen Cavanaugh. Tens of thousands of people in Nepal are still living in makeshift hut after last year's earthquake. Fourth-year architecture students in San Diego are working on a project they hope will help. A local nonprofit with ties to Nepal is working with the students to design a model village and teaching center in the countryside outside Kathmandu. Allison St. John has the story. I will spend a little bit more time on the site itself, and what you have come up with. The students in Joe Kennedy's class at the New School of Architecture and Design. Are working on a project that will actually bill in the future in the hills of Nepal. The big earthquakes show the traditional ways are quite dangerous, we want to improve them. Kennedy is written book on building and the developing world. This is the map of the region. The town of Penauti , where we are working is right here. Our site is in this area, a little bit outside of town on a very steep slope. It's actually a good site, the work is to be four villages that are in the mountains, having a steep side will allow us to do the best project that's most replica. The idea is to build a campus where alternative techniques are demonstrated. So the ideas can spread and become a viable solution. We can't build one house at a time, there are 750,000 houses not down. -- Knocked down. The project has a direct link to what Nepalese need. Deep Deoja is a San Diego restaurant, but keeps chose -- close ties. When I went to Nepal, a year after the earthquake, people don't have a clue how to rebuild. I went to some areas and saw the houses where it's literally just a roof and nothing. People are living in those situations. People want to do something better, they don't know what it is. Many organizations go in and do the projects themselves, they are teaching the locals. He has raised money for Bishwa Seva Foundation . They quiet the mind with the help of sound vibrations. The foundation has worked with the local school in Nepal, it helps to great -- break ground this fall on the new teach sound -- teaching center. Kennedy has pulled together experts with experience in sustainable building could contribute to the plants. The idea of creating a main center, which will be the site for teaching, as well as six different buildings showing different types of building. Whether it's Earth bags, straw bale, gabion band , stones within wire mesh, people can see different type of system and recognize that it fits for the region. One of the students Aisha Al Saadi hopes to use this in her future work. This project is called designing for the 99%, if you look at the world, it's 1% that are fortunate enough to have a nice house in a disaster free country. Other parts of this world go through these disasters and go through poverty, I'm learning for a bigger perspective. Kennedy says the students final presentation will be June 20. I'm hoping to inspire students to really look at what's needed out there in the world. To find some ways to address the huge problems we are facing is a planet. Allison St. John, KPBS news. Joining me with more on the Nepal project is Joe Kennedy, lecture at the New School of Architecture and Design and a cofounder of Builders Without Borders. As part of Builders Without Borders, you've worked on natural building techniques for several countries. What special challenges does the Paul present? Nepal is faced with the fact that, much of the rural infrastructure has been destroyed. It's a very poor country, there's not much to build with, only stones and mud, which do not do well and earthquakes. The big challenge is how to make those very humble materials earthquake safe. The range of terrain is another challenge. It's a very mountainous country, very difficult to access some of the more isolated villages, by roads. Yes, getting materials to these villages is a challenge. We just heard you list several building methods in Allison's report including Earth bags and gabion band . Earth back construction is just as it sounds, taking something like a rice sac, it's an inexpensive plastic material used throughout the world, it's filled with earth, soil, whatever you have on hand. Then it is tamped into place, like a soft brick, if you will. We've been using that in various countries throughout the world, it's been effective and popular in Nepal. What about the bands? The gabion band system is very fascinating , designed to recognize -- replicate earthquake strategies from previous errors in Nepal. The gabion band take something like wire mesh, perhaps rocks with that mesh to add that element that can resist the earthquake. The bands go in between layers of stone or earth and can help -- help to hold the earth. Are these materials, things that are readily available? Writer -- wire mesh is available as chicken wire or fencing, it should be available to them, quite easily. It's made in India and China. Bag materials, are easily available as well. It would bring in imported material we wanted to be something they can get. What are the Nepalese people who come to this demo village, what will they see? They will see architecture that is reminiscent of their traditional architecture, but is improved, seismically. They'll be able to kick the tires and see, this looks like my village housing, but with some important, new design details to keep it from falling down in the future. It's fascinating that one way you are showing people, they can construct these buildings themselves, is because you're going to leave part of the building, not built, so they can see how the different levels go together and the materials are structured. We call that, straw bale construction a truth window, we leave part of the plaster away, so you can see inside the building. It will be framed with a nice window, so you can see what's in there. Otherwise, it could just look like a building and you don't know what it's made of. This will enable folks to really see, this is how it is, this is how it's put together. That's a big part of this project is to demonstrate to folks how they can do it themselves. We heard you are designing a shrine and that's to bring people to this demo village. Yes. That's true. Penauti, where this project is built is well known for its shrines. It has people that come specifically to visit the shrines. We thought to encourage folks to come to our site, to build a shrine to Shiva would enable people to come for that reason. Also, to see the other projects that we are doing. As the teacher at the New School of Architecture and Design , let me hear you talk about your students and how they have risen to the challenge. The real challenge for this project, it's very different than their typical project. It's a real project, with a real client. Most student projects are hypothetical, that's a first challenge that they've had to address. The second is, we've come together as a group, this has become a group project. They are acting as a studio, the innovation is really been through the process of working together and bringing new skills to bear, much more like they would find in the real world. The projects are almost purposefully, not your typically wild, exciting, crazy projects. Nepal is very conservative, the projects need to be respectful of the culture. There being asked to be doing something different than they are usually asked to do. At the same time, find innovation within that vernacular, tradition. That's where the innovation lace. Lies. I've been speaking with Joe Kennedy.
Students in San Diego's NewSchool of Architecture and Design are working on a project they hope will create a model for thousands of Nepalese who lost their homes after a powerful earthquake shook the country last year. A local nonprofit with ties to Nepal is working with the students to come up with building designs for a teaching center in the countryside outside Kathmandu.
The seniors in Joe Kennedy’s class hope their designs will be built in the not–too-distant future.
“The big earthquake showed that the traditional ways of building are quite dangerous,” Kennedy said recently. “So we want to improve upon them.”
Kennedy has written books on building in the developing world. He points to a spot on the map about 18 miles southeast of Kathmandu.
“The town of Penauti is here," he said. "Our site is right here, on a slope — a very steep slope, actually — a very good site because the work is to be for villages that are in the mountains. So having a steep site will allow us to do the best project, most applicable to most of Nepal.”
The plan is to build a kind of campus where alternative building techniques are demonstrated.
“So the ideas can spread and become a viral solution because we can’t go there and build one house at a time," Kennedy explained. "There’s something like 750,000 houses that were knocked down. We really want to see those be rebuilt as soon as possible. The only way that’s going to happen is by the people themselves.“
The project has a direct link to what locals on the ground need. Deep Deoja is now a San Diego resident, but still keeps close ties with his family in Nepal.
“When I went to Nepal this year, people after the earthquake still don’t have any kind of clue how to rebuild," Deoja said. "I went to some of those areas, saw the houses where it is corrugated roofs and nothing. People are living in those situations. People do want to do something better but they don’t know what it is. Many international organizations, they’ve been going and doing the projects, trying to do it themselves, but again, the same problem — not teaching the locals to do it."
Doeja has raised money for the nonprofit Bishwa Seva Foundation. The Foundation has worked with a local school in Nepal and hopes to break ground later this year on the new teaching center nearby.
Kennedy has pulled together experts with experience in sustainable building to contribute to the plans his students are working on.
“The idea is of creating a main center, which will be the site for teaching, as well as six different types of building — whether it’s earth bags, straw bale, gabion band, which is stones within a wire mesh, so people can come and say, ’Oh, this fits for my region, I’m going to use this idea,'” he said.
Architecture student Aisha Al Shatti said she’s particularly inspired by the Nepalese cultural and spiritual values that call for a different approach to building, one that she hopes to use in her future work.
“This project is called designing for the 99 percent because if you look at the world, it’s like one percent that are fortunate enough to live in a nice house in a disaster-free country or city," she said. "So I’m learning for a bigger perspective."
Kennedy said his students will give their final presentations on the project on June 20.
“I’m hoping to inspire students to really look at what’s needed out in the world and find some way to address those huge problems that we’re facing as a planet," he said.
