SUSTAINABLE HOUSING SYSTEM

IN BANGLADESH

Done By

Azra Maliha

Index

Introduction

Climate

Local resources

Sustainable housing system

Housing techniques & Materials used

Bangladesh’s heritage monuments

Conclusion

References

“Regionalism in Architecture” is a concept which is based on a particular region’s major

determinants, like culture, climate and resources.

In the early days of civilization, the housing systems of Bangladesh purely derived from

cultural and traditional determinants.

The architectures were simple, made with subtle building materials found easily in the

rural and semi-urban regions naturally, which are now, in the modern day labelled as

sustainable housing materials.

The importance of studying these is that we can apply their techniques in today’s design

and achieve something more unique, yet with love for the environment.

INTRODUCTION

Climate

Bangladesh has six seasons in a year, Summer, Monsoon, Autumn, Late Autumn,

Winter and Spring. So the climatic conditions vary after each two months. The climate

of the region is warm-humid The Mean. Maximum Temperature during the summer

and the monsoon months starting from March and continuing up to October varies

between 29°C and 32°C.

Heavy rainfall take place in the summer and monsoon seasons. As the country has

abundance of small and big rivers all over, there are a lot of flood prone areas, nearly

one-third of the country’s low lands.

In the winter months, from November to February, temperature may occasionally fall

below 8°C. The hilly regions of Bangladesh receives more rainfall due to the green

forests.

Local resources (which can be used as sustainable materials)

There is an extensive resource of fresh water allover the country because of the rivers and rivulets.

Also there are ponds, tanks and reservoirs to supplywater.

Bamboo is collected from the vast bamboo gardensin villages.

Woods of different types comes from both naturalforests and man made cultivation forests.

The rural highlands contain enough clay and mud toproduce clay and pottery products as well as to usein house making.

Cultivated jute can be turned into jute mesh andropes.

The leftover dried rice plants, also known as Strawsare largely available.

Sustainable housing system

A typical rural Bangladeshi house consists of

individual, independent small houses or “huts”

which are similar to rooms in urban systems. the

space is planned in a way that it has an open

space or “yard” in the middle and the huts are

surrounded by it.

Each hut also has veranda, which is used for

siting, households works or cooking. Some

houses are consists of separate shades just for

cooking purposes.

Overall, the space and furnitures are kept

minimal and simple which brings out the

traditional simplicity to it.

Housing techniques & Materials used

The rural houses are specially made up of mud, bamboo mat, timber, jute stick, steelsheets, straw or red bricks. The mud walls are made thick by stacking wet mud and thensmoothening them, eventually giving the shape of a house.

The houses or huts are made on a thick mud platform in order to prevent flood water toenter inside the house.

The mud walls carry both vertical and lateral loads. The mud platform helps distributingthe gravity load of the roof equally. Although excessive rainfall washes away some ofthe wall and platform mud, which is later fixed by adding more mud. Any cracks orbreakage on walls or floors can also be fixed just by wetting a piece of cloth andsmoothening the mud.

The house:

Reuse, Avoid Toxin, Protect nature

Roofing and ventilation system:

• Roofs of the mud houses are made with straws, bamboo mats, timber, different type of

mangrove plant branches along wit jute mats, thatch, terracotta tallies, etc.

• Tallies are burnt clay tiles which are very good for houses where there is excessive rainfall

as the water drains outwards by itself.

• The other types of materials, when used as roofs allow air to pass in and out of the huts.

• Houses have small windows with grids made with bamboo sticks. Mud houses have small

openings occasionally made on the walls for ventilation.

• The door and windows are made from wood or bamboo mats.

Coping with winter, summer and monsoon:

• The earthen flooring and walls are very comfortable in summer as they help in keeping the interior

cool. Also the other materials when used for housing are good for summer as they allow air to enter.

• In the cold seasons they sometimes cover the straw roofs with jute mats or wooden planks. They

also block the openings to stop cold air to come.

• Terracotta roofs are very useful in all the seasons. In monsoons, if destructed, they fix the roofs and

houses again as the materials are always available to them with very low or almost no costings.

Reuse, Recycle, Avoid Toxin, Protect nature

Lighting:

In the daytime, sufficient amount of light can enter inside the house through the windows, openings

and the roofs (except tally roofs). The verandah also provide lighting as most of the house works

take place here. The front courtyard is an open space, so there is a lot of scope for lighting and

ventilations.

At night however, they use oil lamps, lamps made with bamboo sticks or small timbers or small

bonfire created in the middle of the courtyard.

Water source and storage:

The villages consists of a number of ponds, lakes, wells and small rectangular water reservoirs.

Also they collect water from rivers, if it is adjacent with the village. They carry water in pots called

“Kolshi”, which can be both of clay or tin. Clay pots helps the water to be cool, because of the tiny

pores in them. Tube well system came into action before few decades where water is taken from

underground.

Reduce, Protect nature

Some other facts:

• The people build their own

stove out of mud, which can

be reused again and again by

fixing with water, similar to

fixing the walls and floors of

mud houses.

• They use fallen branches of

trees, dried leaves, young

bamboo sticks, jute, straws,

etc. for cooking fire instead

of using up timber.

• They have separate shades

for cattle, also made with

straws and jute mats and

bamboo as the pillars.

Bangladesh’s heritage monuments

1. The Somapura Mahavihara

• Built in 8th century AD, consisting a central

stupa surrounded by 177 cells for monks

and meditation.

• Terracotta plaques, coins, ceramic, stone

sculptures, etc. has been found buried

underground.

• The style of architecture was influenced by

Barma.

• The area it covers is 27 acres (110,00meter

square)

2. The Mosque city of Bagerhat

• Listed by Forbes as one of the 15 lost cities

in the world. Consisting 50 Islamic

monuments.

• Planning of city was done in Islamic

architecture style ( Mughal & Turkish), with

360 mosques in total.

• The famous one is The mosque with 60

domes.

• The material used for architecture was

Baked Bricks.

• The minarets which are two floors high

were surrounded by corniches and façade

and windows were situated in mid height for

light and ventilation.

3. Lalbagh Fort

• Built in 1678 by Mughal emperor Muhammad Azam Shah.

• The fort consists of a mosque, the tomb of Bibi Pari and Diwan-i-Aam, which is the

residence part.

• The residence part had a huge bathhouse, under which another underground room was

discovered. It was found that water used to be heated in this room and supplied through

terracotta pipes above to the bath house for hot water.

• The fort had a huge rectangular water reservoir, 71.6 meters each side

4. King & Jamidar Palaces

• These all palaces had sophisticated architectural designs and intricate ornaments made by bricks

and stones.

• Usually the palaces had long corridors on all the levels for light and ventilation purposes.

• Some palaces had yard in the middle, so that they get direct sunlight.

• The windows were made with colored glass (green, red and blue), so that when sunlight falls on

them, the shadow on corridor made colorful mosaic pattern.

• On each level near stair cases they had openings on walls with design borders.

Conclusion

“ Important asset of mud building is its ability to breathe”. Since the beginning of time, humans have

been using sustainable methods for building houses, without even knowing the amazing properties

of these resources. One of the earliest use of mud house was in China, in 5000 BCE. Being the land

of river, Bangladesh is rich in sustainable natural resources, which are available till today, but used in

a more advanced and modern way. These are both easily available and cost effective, allowing even

the poorest of people to have a shelter, unlike many developed country where there are homeless

citizens.

If these concepts from decades and centuries back are taken into action with modern touch, we can

create dynamic sustainable design.

References

• ftp://ftp.shef.ac.uk/pub/uni/academic/A-

C/ar1mb/HH_EthnicHousingPatternToCopeWithTheEnvironment.pdf

• https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-

quarterly/bangladesh/chittagong-hill-tribes-bangladesh

• https://www.interaction.org/newsroom/blog/house-on-the-hill

• http://stourismbangladesh.com/package/archaeological-tour-in-rajshahi-rangpur/

• http://nijhoom.com/bangladesh-village-picture/

• http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Bangladesh.aspx

• http://www.everyculture.com/A-Bo/Bangladesh.html

• https://www.travelblog.org/Photos/3560011

• www.Wikipedia.com

• www.google.com

• www.youtube.com

THANK YOU