Film; Winner of the 2024 Transfer Architectural Video Award
Joshua Bolchover and Kent Mundle
In 2015, an earthquake of 7.6 magnitude struck Nepal damaging over one million homes. While there has been significant effort to rebuild the rural housing stock, only 38% of the homes in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal’s most populous urban centre, have been rebuilt. Vernacular construction is deemed too expensive and is becoming obsolete. Changing social and family organisations have furthered the replacement of traditional houses with concrete-framed structures. Land plots are often subdivided, reflecting changes of split ownership between siblings of old family homes that no longer want to live together, resulting in narrow, tall houses that are prone to future structural failure. If urban reconstruction efforts continue this way, the resulting housing stock will be at risk of future seismic events, will not meet future sustainability goals, and will pose a threat to future generations of urban dwellers. This film investigates three portraits that reflect the effects of this transformation from the home to the settlement: A traditional-house on the verge of division; a subdivided-house that has been partitioned by multiple family generations; and a hybrid-house that meshes both traditional and new construction but can no longer meet the needs of its residents.
Watch the film here <
Film Credits
Filming and Editing: Kent Mundle
Filming Location: Dhulikhel and Patan Municipalities, Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
Voice Work: Buddha Shrestha, Pritishma Shakya, Sujan Shakya
Interviews Conducted By: Lumanti Support Group for Shelter, Buddha Shrestha, Kent Mundle
Music License: Mobygratis
Project funding
The University of Hong Kong Department of Architecture Special Projects Fund
The Hong Kong General Research Fund: Infill Urbanism: Demonstrating a Model for Sustainable and Affordable Housing in Lalitpur, Nepal