UTTARKASHI

At 2.53 am on October 25, 1991, a moderate earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale affected more than 425,000 people of about 2,100 villages in the districts of Uttarkashi, Tehri and Chamoli in what was then Uttar Pradesh and is now the hill state of Uttaranchal. Traditionally built timber houses proved to be the most effective at keeping damage at bay.

Roman retreat

BENEATH the streets of London lie the remains of Londinium, an outpost of the only empire to run Britain from abroad, say archaeologists from the Museum of London. The course of a long-disappeared river and the truncated foundations of a massive arch, which straddled a Roman road, have been unearthed beneath what is now known as Newgate Street.

Make more room

Lean, not fall

FOR almost 800 years, the Bell tower of Pisa's cathedral has been tilted a wee-bit towards south and for almost as long, engineers, far and near, have tried to stop the tower from what it does best - leaning. In 1989, however, when a similar tower fell down, killing five people, Italian authorities decided that the leading tourist attraction can soon become a death-trap. They shut off public access

Eco-friendly building

FOR years, technical book alternative materials and cost building tech have been regularly lished. Government semi-government org tions like Housing Urban Development ration have published erous books and technical papers that have been usefull to the practitioner of alternative tive architecture.

Self-shelter

It is normal for people in many countries to build their own houses, especially among the poor. Now, a British architect, Walter Segal, has developed a timber-frame building system based on off-the-shelf materials, with a minimum of cutting, and a simple sequence of step by step operations (Appropriate Technology, Vol 2 1, No 4). The system, says Segal, is highly flexible and allows for buildings to be extended and modified.

'Mass housing is a self-defeating concept'

What are the activities of the CSR? We are a very small organisation of just 5 people working on appropriate building technology and materials, water and sanitation. We have also been promoting alternative energy sources -- wind for water pumping and solar photovoltaic for lighting; now we are introducing solar thermal energy for steam generation. Interviewee:  Suhasini Ayer-Guigan

Readymade bridges

ONE of the most challenging tasks in the wake of devastating earthquakes, floods and other such natural calamities is the repair of roads and railway supply lines. In particular, mending bridges poses the greatest problem because conventional methods to construct bridges require a lot of time and expenditure. But now, it would be possible to restore supply lines by constructing them in a few days

Catching the wind

WEATHER and climate exercise tremendous influence over human wellbeing and health. Humans make dwellings for themselves to escape the vagaries of climatic variations. Sitting in the relative comfort of our airconclitioned offices and homes - between a past in which electricity was unimaginable and a future in which it probably will be unaffordable - we are forced to ask whether the price that we are willing to pay for our modern lifestyles is too high.

Homing in on tradition

OLD is gold... and "green", and nowhere is it more true than in the case of sustainable models of low-energy, climatically responsive architectural designs. This realisation brought together architects and designers in a recently concluded workshop at Delhi's School of Planning and Architecture (SPA).