Amid the challenging times brought about by the Covid pandemic, Basanta Shrestha and his wife undertook a unique journey to build their dream house.
“Building our house during the pandemic was a transformative experience. Our decision to use rammed earth and repurposed materials was a conscious effort to harmonize with nature and reduce our impact on the environment. In the post-earthquake reconstruction, a lot of people were ditching the rubble and building new houses. But we salvaged them and put them to good use including recycled tiles, recycled wooden floors and recovered steel bars.” They have also added double-glazed windows.
This house has become a testament to the idea that adversity can be an opportunity for positive change and that a connection to both the past and the environment can be seamlessly woven into the fabric of modern living.
They have set up eight flourishing vegetable beds. The beds have the water and are nurtured by the organic vermi-compost, blending organic fertilizer enriched with charcoal and animal waste. “Last year, except for a few vegetables that we have not sown here, like potatoes, it was enough for the family to eat without any purchase,” he says.
Not only did they use the waste carefully, but they were also mindful of the waste they created around the house. “As we inch towards near zero waste, we have set different systems around the house. One is for the rainwater collection, from the roofs and the grounds, in colossal tanks boasting a capacity of 20,000 to 25,000 liters. Another is wastewater treatment, with three different segments that further filter the solids and liquids–which are used for the vegetable plots and the biogas.”
“So what we found out was that the soil in the land was full of red mud, and it was a perfect requirement for us to build the house and it minimized our cost by a lot,” says Shrestha.
But the construction was not easy. They needed to have a lot of patience as it took both time, effort and energy to complete it. “It took us one to two years in the design phase and an additional three to four years to finalize the construction,” he says .
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