Building with the Terrain

Incessant, unchecked construction and the loss of forest cover in our hilly tracts in recent decades have played a significant role in magnifying the scale and frequency of natural disasters- evident from the ones we have witnessed recently. Typically, construction in these areas has mimicked that of urban structures. Conventional construction inherently means cutting and filling the land, destabilising soil, and pushing an already fragile ecosystem to the brink. While the labour and materials for such construction are readily available, any construction technique used in the hills must centre on allowing the water to flow naturally, with minimal obstruction.

Urban planning policy for mountainous regions must be framed around such necessary ecologically sensitive considerations. Developing an adaptable framework that works harmoniously with the slope gradient and defining unbuildable zones over specific gradients will greatly minimise cut-and-full, helping the land retain its stability.

It is also worth noting that historically, buildings in the hills were constructed using local materials like stone and wood. These indigenous construction methods (Kath-Kuni) are viable alternatives for building resilient structures and connecting them to the land. We must revisit this centuries-old bioclimatic wisdom and adapt it to our present-day context.

In our design for RAAS Devanya in the hills of Uttarakhand, the primary objective was to restore the land. Instead of planning the built areas and roads as a singular exercise, as is usually done in master-planning projects, the streets were designed first, based on the topography, to minimise any cut-and-fill. Whatever digging was carried out was stabilised by building retaining walls of stone masonry since it is more permeable.

Buildable and unbuildable zones were identified once the team had mapped the natural drainage channel patterns. The slope determined the nature of the building. Stilted villas were built where the slope angle was greater than 15 degrees. Masonry retaining walls allowed natural surface water runoff to flow through the stilt and percolate into the swales we placed across the site. A prototype of this methodology, The Villa in Woods, was designed using prefabrication technology for off-site assembly to avoid bringing heavy lifting equipment to the ecologically sensitive area.

Similarly, while designing RAAS Kangra, a hospitality property in Himachal Pradesh, our primary objective was to deploy the idea of rhythm to evoke a sense of peace and calm. Since the property sits on a mountain ridge in the ecologically sensitive Dhauladhar range of the Himalayas, we procured waste stone from a nearby quarry, often used by locals to construct boundary walls. Slate being an inert and environmentally sound material, the stone facade blends in with the surroundings, is sensitive to nature and is respectful of the architectural vocabulary of the region.

Attached Projects

RAAS Kangra

Villa in the Woods