search
×
menu
login
donate
The Yangri Hope Project
Yangri Village, Nepal
Written by:
follow
share on:mail linkcopy link to clipboardShare via LinkedInShare via TwitterShare via FacebookShare via Facebook
The Yangri Hope project by the Swiss/Canadian charity "Himalayan

image: Rhea Lonsdale | CC-BY_black.png some rights reserved
i
Category:
education
Phase:
construction preparation
Design:
Florian Maurer Architect, Penticton, BC, Canada
Updated:
31 January 2017
introduction

The Swiss/Canadian charity "Himalayan Life" has been working with street children in Nepal for over a decade, with homes, vocational training intitiatives, and a plastic recycling plant on Pokhara. After the 2015 earthquakes they decided to widen the scope of their work to include reconstruction. As the home of one of Himalayan Life's leading collaborators the Yangri Valley, about 60 km NE of Kathmandu and just east of Helambu was chosen as an area that was small enough to make a difference.

This year a small local school in one of the outlying villages has been completed roughly to allow school to continue, the micro hydro plant has been repaired, with a building to protect the equipment. Powerlines to outlying villages have also been repaired. But the main project is a boarding school in the main village for those children that come from places as far as 1000 m higher. Construction is scheduled to start in winter 2016/7.

a devastated village

image: Florian Maurer | CC-BY_black.png some rights reserved
i
read more >
< read less
cultural and social context

The Yangri Valley has been particularly hard hit by the 2015 earthquakes. One year after the event fear of aftershocks and lack of money released by the government has kept the local population from commencing any substantial reconstruction other than using metal roofing to make temporary shelters.

It is an ethnically diverse area with Tamang people in lower places, and Sherpa villages above 2000m elevation. Those few who started rebuilding used traditional dry stone masonry, but made the walls even lower and windows even smaller than before, fearing they would weaken the structures.

the team posing on the repaired tailrace

image: Daniel Burgi | CC-BY_black.png some rights reserved
i
read more >
< read less
materials and building techniques

The material of choice for seismic performance is wood. It is Himalayan Pine that grows thick and straight above 2,400m elevation. It is initially still cut in pit saws and carried on the backs of people down to the main village. However, building a ropeway to get the timber to a small sawmill powered by the micro hydro plant is planned as a next step. We hope it will grow into a cottage size industry and provide modest economic development beyond the immediate village!

North American style timber framing must of course be highly modified for local conditions and available materials. For example, plywood as sheathing material is not available and we are experimenting with corrugated metal as structural sheathing. Gypsum wallboard is also not available, and resourcefulness will be needed to find a solution for interior wall sheathing. We're working on it.

earth and climate

Wood framing also allows large window openings. Daylight is not only important for the wellbeing of children and adults alike: at 27 degree northern latitude and its dry and sunny winters the area also has an enormous potential for passive solar performance! Right now school is taking place outside in many similar communities, because it is too cold in dark rooms with stone walls. Here again resourcefulness and experimentation are needed, as glass is expensive and difficult to transport. We are experimenting with high strength,, clear, UV-resistant plastic as roll good that can be stretched on wood frames and tightened with heat. We'll see if that works!

the proposed south wall

image: Florian Maurer | CC-BY_black.png some rights reserved
i
view from a classroom

image: Florian Maurer | CC-BY_black.png some rights reserved
i
image gallery
building a second penstock

image: Daniel Burgi | CC-BY_black.png some rights reserved
i
the repaired micro hydro plant

image: Florian Maurer | CC-BY_black.png some rights reserved
i
the powerhouse framing

image: Florian Maurer | CC-BY_black.png some rights reserved
i
the completed powerhouse

image: Daniel Burgi | CC-BY_black.png some rights reserved
i
a small "model" house

image: Daniel Burgi | CC-BY_black.png some rights reserved
i
from the framing tutorial-1

image: Florian Maurer | CC-BY_black.png some rights reserved
i
from the framing tutorial-3

image: Florian Maurer | CC-BY_black.png some rights reserved
i
from the framing tutorial-3

image: Florian Maurer | CC-BY_black.png some rights reserved
i
view from the south

image: Rhea Lonsdale | CC-BY_black.png some rights reserved
i
technical drawings
section and diagrams

image: Florian Maurer | CC-BY_black.png some rights reserved
i
Location
show earth plate boundarieshide earth plate boundaries
Explore more inspirations
Keyword:
development cooperation (45)
earthquake (20)
community practice (113)
prev
  •  agriculture & fisheries
    Warehouse for agricultural products
    Bolmo, Mali
  •  meeting place
    Pondok Tagal
    Kampung Maligan, Malaysia
  •  housing
    Casas Melhoradas
    Maputo, Mozambique
  •  education
    College Mixte Le Bon Berger
    Montruis, Haiti
  •  health & sanitation
    BioCenter
    Kibera, Kenya
  •  meeting place
    Meeting space for urban pedagogy
    La Habana, Cuba
  •  urban planning
    Kambimoto housing
    Nairobi, Kenya
  •  health & sanitation
    Butaro hospital
    Burera, Rwanda
  •  recreation & sport
    NATIONAL PARK OF MALI, BAMAKO
    Bamako, Mali
  •  education
    Tongo school
    Tongo, Mali
  •  education
    New Children's land
    Um Al Nasser, Palestinian Territories
  •  education
    EARTHBAGS CHILDREN CENTER
    Palestinian Territories
  •  education
    Kutamba AIDS Orphans School
    Bikongozo, Uganda
  •  emergency shelter
    Prototypes houses
    Phnom Penh, Cambodia
  •  meeting place
    IFRC community center
    Thalalla, Sri Lanka
  •  education
    Canteiro Móvel | Mobile Hands-on
    Botucatu, Brazil
  •  health & sanitation
    Roche health center
    Roche, Tanzania
  •  emergency shelter
    Arts and Trades Workshop "La Perseverancia"
    Jojutla, Morelos, Mexico
  •  meeting place
    Old Market Library
    Bangkok, Thailand
  •  meeting place
    THE SHIP WALL OF ANIMAS
    Havana, Cuba
  •  education
    Silindokulhe Community Hall
    Port Elizabeth, South Africa
  •  education
    LA VIEJA
    Montebello, Cali, Colombia
  •  emergency shelter
    Emergency Shelters
    Baninajar Refugee Camp, Khuzestan, Iran
  •  education
    Ilima Primary School
    Ilima, DR Congo
  • play
     meeting place
    Sunzu Village Community Center
    Burera, Rwanda
  •  education
    Pani community centre
    Rajarhat, Bangladesh
  •  health & sanitation
    RE-MOVABLE CLINIC
    Palestinian Territories
  •  housing
    OA Bamboo House
    Various locations, Malaysia
  •  work & business
    Sembalun Bamboo Youth Development Centre
    Lombok, Indonesia
  •  meeting place
    LA CUADRA: Social Production of (In)formal Parks
    Cuenca, Ecuador
  •  education
    Bethel Secondary School
    Gourcy, Burkina Faso
  •  meeting place
    Women's center
    Rufisque, Senegal
  •  meeting place
    CASA ENSAMBLE CHACARÁ
    Pereira, Colombia
  •  housing
    Project Chacras; Pop up Productive Housing
    Arenillas, Ecuador
  •  housing
    CASA RANA
    Tamil Nadu, India
  •  education
    Initiative Rising Star - school buildings for Hopley, Zimbabwe
    Harare, Zimbabwe
  •  housing
    Dorchester Art + Housing Collaborative
    Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
  •  emergency shelter
    Paper log houses
    kobe, Japan
  •  health & sanitation
    Ruku Kucho Center for the Elderly
    Ecuador
  •  health & sanitation
    Rwinkwavu Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
    Kayonza District, Rwanda
  • GC2021 finalist
     housing
    Jaraguá 160
    São Paulo, Brazil
  •  education
    Colegio de las Aguas Montebello
    Cali - Montebello, Colombia
  •  housing
    CODEC - Affordable Resilient Housing Program
    Chitalmari Upazila, Bangladesh
  •  health & sanitation
    Kapuna Hospital
    Kapuna, Papua New Guinea
  •  education
    Polyvalent Cultural Center in Senegal
    Tanaff, Senegal
next