Order of the Supreme Court of India in the matter of Sarika Vs Administrator, Mahakaleshwar Mandir Committee, Ujjain & Others dated 01/09/2020. The SC passed a slew of direction after taking into account the report submitted by the Experts Committee on January 19, 2019, the report of the Temple Committee …
few realise that behind the colourful contemporary folk art of Mithila paintings is a powerful message of conservation and an indication of the region's rich biodiversity. Traditionally done in the Madhubani region of north Bihar, the paintings were originally made by women as
Rejecting the pleas of conservationists, the constitutional tribunal of Ecuador has taken a decision which would cause irreparable damage to the Mindo ecological reserve (see Down To Earth , Vol 10, No 3, June 30, p13). It has permitted multinational consortium ocp Ecuador sa to complete the construction of a …
T he merit of kat-ki-kunni (timber-cornered building) of Himachal Pradesh can be traced back to 1905, if not earlier. A massive temblor levelled every village from Dharamsala to Kangra. Measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale, it lasted two minutes and was felt over 416,000 sq km. But, buildings with kat-ki-kunni …
At 2.53 am on October 25, 1991, a moderate earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale affected more than 425,000 people of about 2,100 villages in the districts of Uttarkashi, Tehri and Chamoli in what was then Uttar Pradesh and is now the hill state of Uttaranchal. Traditionally built timber …
BENEATH the streets of London lie the remains of Londinium, an outpost of the only empire to run Britain from abroad, say archaeologists from the Museum of London. The course of a long-disappeared river and the truncated foundations of a massive arch, which straddled a Roman road, have been unearthed …
lutyens Bungalow Zone, one of the greenest areas in New Delhi, should be razed and replaced by multi-storey apartments, says Union urban affairs minister Ram Jethmalani. The government has constituted a three-member panel to study and recommend a viable plan of action within two months. Jethmalani says that the zone …
FOR almost 800 years, the Bell tower of Pisa's cathedral has been tilted a wee-bit towards south and for almost as long, engineers, far and near, have tried to stop the tower from what it does best - leaning. In 1989, however, when a similar tower fell down, killing five …
FOR years, technical book alternative materials and cost building tech have been regularly lished. Government semi-government org tions like Housing Urban Development ration have published erous books and technical papers that have been usefull to the practitioner of alternative tive architecture. Build your own How to the Rhythm of life …
It is normal for people in many countries to build their own houses, especially among the poor. Now, a British architect, Walter Segal, has developed a timber-frame building system based on off-the-shelf materials, with a minimum of cutting, and a simple sequence of step by step operations (Appropriate Technology, Vol …
ONE of the most challenging tasks in the wake of devastating earthquakes, floods and other such natural calamities is the repair of roads and railway supply lines. In particular, mending bridges poses the greatest problem because conventional methods to construct bridges require a lot of time and expenditure. But now, …
What are the activities of the CSR? We are a very small organisation of just 5 people working on appropriate building technology and materials, water and sanitation. We have also been promoting alternative energy sources -- wind for water pumping and solar photovoltaic for lighting; now we are introducing solar …
WEATHER and climate exercise tremendous influence over human wellbeing and health. Humans make dwellings for themselves to escape the vagaries of climatic variations. Sitting in the relative comfort of our airconclitioned offices and homes - between a past in which electricity was unimaginable and a future in which it probably …
OLD is gold... and "green", and nowhere is it more true than in the case of sustainable models of low-energy, climatically responsive architectural designs. This realisation brought together architects and designers in a recently concluded workshop at Delhi's School of Planning and Architecture (SPA). Some 20 eminent architects from Israel, …
Some bats could well be making the belfries they live in. Jae Choe of Harvard University has recently discovered in Panama a bat (Uroderma bilobatum) that constructs sophisticated wigwams in several leafy tiers (BBC Wildlife, Vol 12, No 9). The bats chewed part of the way through the midrib of …
IMAGINE a building swaying like a pendulum so that it doesn't crumble during an earthquake. Engineer Victor Zayas of Earthquake Protection Systems in San Francisco has designed just such a system (Science, Vol 262, No 5139). The new Friction Pendulum System (FPS) is quite unlike others, which dissipate tremor energy …
SUNLIGHT has been used for thousands of years to heat or cool buildings. Originally a matter of mere survival, it has since become an expression of the human need to harness solar energy and create a better world for themselves. Historical records suggest the formidable powers of the sun, both …
SHORTAGE of space is a familiar lament of city folk fond of gardening. But now, architect Gosta Nilsson has found a novel way to make walls using hollow concrete blocks that could be filled with sand and manure for plants to grow in. These "growing" walls would be ideal around …
WHEN WILLIAM Morris began his epic, The Earthly Paradise, with these lines in 1868, he was reacting to the effects of the Industrial Revolution and the unbridled urban growth of 19th century England. A century later, what was confined to the West has spread across the globe. And because we …
