Amazing arches make the building look different

Laying the pre-cast ferro-cement window shades

Sonam Wangchuk

23. september 2008

Two big changes came in the looks of the building today as we went above the lintel level ring beam.. Firstly, we fixed the window shades over the lintel beams. These window shades were pre-cast in ferro-cement two months ago and were left for a good curing during the monsoon rains.

The south side of the building, there are no windows on the east or west side.

Ferro-cement is a thin and cost-effective layer of cement, reinforced with chicken mesh wire that can be shaped in many forms - in this case window shades, I shall explain that in more detail on a later date since the entire roofing is also done in ferro-cement channels.

Suddenly with the shades on, the building started looking much more complete on the south side.

Left: Starting the veranda arch on the removable metal frame. Right: Engrossed, in accuracy.

The most interesting drama was happening on the north side though, where we started work on the two semi-circular earth block arches on the veranda. It was really quick and neat and by the end of the day the masons and community volunteers were themselves so amazed at what they had accomplished.

First the two removable metal centrings (frames) for the arches were placed in position and then the blocks were laid on top of the frame one by one as per the plan, packing the space between each block with mortar. And slowly to everyone's excitement the shape started emerging. Finally we were able to lay the last blocks on the two arches by late evening. Soon after that the centrings were removed.

Hurray! We have done it!

And voila! The earth block arch was standing on its own within eight hours. By the way did you know that the effective number of hours of work on this building so far has been around 63 hours by 17 masons and roughly 30 community volunteers?

And finally the metal frame goes out. The children find it fascinating

Tip for today:

Heavenly magic of the sun and the earth

You may have noticed that this building has most of its windows on the south side and none on the east and west. Well this is because in the northern half of the globe the sun remains always in the south in winter; moving from south east to south west.

So the windows can capture all the sun in winter when it is soooo cold in Terai Nepal.

But that's not all. It has a great role to play in summer also because during the summer, you may have noticed that the sun remains mostly overhead, rising in the northeast and setting in the northwest. Hence the only side of the building that does not get any sun in summer is also south. Now isn't that magical!

In summer the sun can be strong on the east wall in the morning and west wall in the evening, hence no windows on these sides. But yes in autumn the sun can begin to hurt from the south side as well but for that we have our ferro-cement window shades.

Well these are the basic principles of climate responsive building design. Don't you love it? Or is it just me!