Alternative building methods taught at Her Farm
earthquake resistent housing demonstration
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More than 80% of the homes in Mankhu were destroyed or seriously damaged in the April, 2015 earthquake and subsequent aftershocks. The challenge that lies ahead is how to rebuild and make these homes safer. The typical village home is made with stones and mud mortar. While there is a center beam in the home, there's no structural component that ties all the walls together, such as a ring beam, so each wall moves independent of the others.
Right now we have a well known architect who specializes in earthquake resistent housing teaching the villagers how to incorporate gabion walls as a part of their traditional housing. A gabion wall is stone that is wrapped with metal fencing thereby creating a continous ring beam that secures all four walls.
This simple and cheap modification allows the villagers to rebuild with existing resources and in ways that are familiar to them but provides additional structural support.
