Faire réseau pour favoriser l'accés a un habitat digne : appui à Lumanti pour étudier les bonnes pratiques de l’architecture vernaculaire

Contexte

Since 2010, the Fondation pour le Logement des Défavorisés (FPL) and CRAterre have been working in partnership to help the most disadvantaged people gain access to decent housing. In June 2023, the FPL renewed its trust in CRAterre for a further three years. This gave rise to the ‘Networking to promote access to decent housing’ project, the aim of which is to support FPL's international partners in developing methods and tools to improve the response to people's access to decent housing.

The aim of this project is to support FPL's international partners in the development of methods and tools to improve people's access to decent housing. The project has 2 main focuses.

The first involves providing CRAterre's expertise to FPL's partner organisations that express a need for it.
The second involves coordinating the network of FPL partners in order to co-develop methods and tools relating to housing, associated with the themes of respect for production methods, gender and climate change.

Objectives

Since 2020, Lumanti has been working with the Fondation Pour le Logement to help marginalised communities in the sub-metropolitan town of Kalaiya build safe and secure homes. The partnership has enabled the construction of homes for nearly 90 families living in extremely vulnerable communities in Kalaiya. This collaboration has had a positive impact on their lives. It has fostered an ongoing partnership between vulnerable communities, their support network and their local government. This networking has helped to identify communities in urgent need of improved housing.

Looking ahead, Lumanti has proposed to provide housing for Nepal’s disadvantaged and marginalised communities, known as Dalits, who currently live in various parts of the sub-metropolitan city of Jeetpursimara. The majority of the homes they currently live in are made of bamboo and earth, with thatched roofs. Some are covered with traditional tiles, whilst others have opted for cement tiles. The community has adopted several strategies to meet their needs and adapt to the environment. However, the current norm is to build using reinforced concrete and bricks for those who can afford it. Most people have dreamt of building a similar house if they had the opportunity. From this perspective, the greatest challenge is to preserve the indigenous architecture.

The main objective of this mission is to study best practices in existing vernacular architecture and to propose ways of improving them to make them more sustainable, affordable and acceptable to the community. The aim is to highlight the physical, social and economic contributions of villagers and surrounding communities to local architecture, as these elements demonstrate the extent to which they have adapted to their unique environment. The aim was also to raise the community’s awareness of the positive aspects and benefits of their local architecture through the following actions:

To document the best construction practices of the communities’ vernacular architecture, as well as the challenges they face in preserving them.
To recommend techniques and guidelines to improve existing practices, making them more sustainable and acceptable to the community.
Preparing information, educational and communication materials targeted at the community and local technical practitioners.

Results

The research was carried out in close collaboration with the community, using photography and observation as tools to understand practices that encompass environmental, social and economic dimensions. To gain a better understanding of building codes, regulations, disaster preparedness, housing accessibility and wider community challenges, the initial stages of the research involved conducting semi-structured interviews with municipal authorities, including the mayor and engineers, as well as open-ended interviews with members of different castes living in Jeetpur Simraha.
Focus groups were organised with bricklayers, women and men from different communities. Study walks were carried out in partnership with women from the Paswan community with the aim of identifying communal spaces and assessing their use and hopes for transformation. At the same time, surveys of houses belonging to various communities were carried out to identify recurring patterns, spatial organisation and construction details. Qualitative methods such as focus groups, interviews and guided tours were used as part of the data collection techniques to help capture and analyse the effective practices employed by the communities of Jeetpur Simraha.

At the end of the study, a feedback session was held, involving residents of Chatapipra from all castes, which enabled the collection of residents’ comments.