Environment-friendly Sustainable Rural House Designs for Different Geographic Regions of Bangladesh

Résumé En

Natural disasters-flood, cyclonic tidal/storm surge, land slide, river bank erosion, drought and earthquakes are the main hindrance to the sustainable development of Bangladesh. In recent years, these have caused extra burden for the marginal people of the country jeopardising country's economic growth as a whole. Although it is a small country, its culture, disaster types, availability of building materials are diverse and the housing practices in different regions vary widely too. A large number of rural houses are damaged due to disaster on a regular basis and cause economic losses and sufferings to the people. Repetitive constructions of such houses also impart deterioration of the environment as much of the construction materials are obtained locally from surrounding nature and thus sustainable development is also hampered significantly. The past experiences on post-disaster shelter response have emphasised the need for more contextual approaches to develop disaster resilient low-cost rural houses. Based on lessons learnt from shelter response after Sidr 2007 and Aila 2009 cyclones, Caritas Bangladesh took an initiative jointly with BUET, Bangladesh and CRAterre-ENSAG of France to develop design of disaster resilient low-cost houses involving local communities. Also, attention was given to develop design of houses that can be built quickly after a disaster. To this context, a seven year project is being carried out in eight different geographic regions of Bangladesh. To develop the design, at first the local practices and availability of local materials were studied. Besides, it was considered essential to understand and accommodate the need and culture of the community. At the same time it is important to consider environmental issues. Three-stage community level meetings attended by people, leaders and local masons were held to gather their views, demand and experience. Properties of the local construction materials were ascertained from laboratory tests. Respecting local affordability and considering the service and environmental loads, designs were finalized based on FEM analyses. Model houses were constructed at the selected locations to demonstrate them to the local community with an aim that new design or at least some features would be replicated. Different treatment schemes for increasing the durability of materials were employed to study their effectiveness. Thirty five designs have been developed in this research for eight different geographic regions of Bangladesh which will be useful for any individual, the Government and NGOs for constructing disaster resilient sustainable rural houses. Performances of these model houses are being monitored. The designs have been found to be accepted by the local community and some features are already replicated.