Once a common phenomenon in rural Bangladesh, earthen houses have made a comeback in Dinajpur with innovation in design.
The new model is more durable, and weather-friendly, local craftsmen have said.
Johura Begum at Jogenbabur Hat under Dinajpur municipality, who built a house with the new model by spending Tk 1 lakh, expressed her satisfaction, saying that the new version of mud house was safe, unlike the previous version.
However, the idea of replacing the traditional mud houses with improved and safer design was the innovation of Anna Heninger, an Australian architect who visited Bangladesh in 2005.
The clay house Heninger designed was a two-storey building, having three rooms including one on the top floor.
She used clay, bamboos, ropes, straw, and various natural ingredients in the process, locals said.
Anna then trained local craftsmen at Biral upazila in the district on how the new and less expensive clay houses could be built.
Local craftsmen working on Heninger’s model said dwellers in rural areas had started switching to brick-built houses as the traditional mud houses had little resilience to risks posed by heavy rainfall, floods and other calamities.
But the new houses built with green materials would survive natural disasters and extreme weather conditions for up to 100 years whereas the traditional clay houses could last for only 10-15 years, Anna then said, adding that the new model even could withstand earthquakes.
In 2007, Anna’s model house built at Rudrapur village in the upazila won the Aga Khan Architectural Award, giving it recognition far and wide.
After that, many locals and different NGOs showed interest in building and promoting such houses.
Following in the footsteps of Heninger, another Australian architect, Meghan Lewis, visited Bangladesh in September last year.
During her stay in Bangladesh for around nine months, she also trained local craftsmen at Thansama and Sadar upazilas in the district, and built 12 houses, bringing further innovations to Anna’s model clay house.
“Such building is weather-friendly as the moisture and heat inside the building are controlled by the clay and bamboo,” Lewis told The Daily Star on June 25, a few days before she left the country.
“As a result, temperature inside a building is lower than outside during summer and higher during winter.”
-With The Daily Star input
