Home sweet yuck

Apartments mushroom on contaminated industrial sites

Kangra safe corners

The Himalaya is the youngest range of mountains in the world are immensely prone to earthquakes. The entire range falls in seismic zone 5 and 4 - …

DEFORESTATION

Building to resist quakes

Saving water

The Delhi government proposes mandatory water harvesting units in housing complexes

Clear and present danger in the Himalayas

As Himalayan towns continue to grow haphazardly without development plans and carrying capacity assessment, how does one secure their future?

COVID-19: What it is to ‘work from home’ for women waste-pickers

Most housing units in Bhalaswa village have not been upgraded to support informal waste work. This impacts women’s productivity, …

Where will these railway track dwellers of Delhi live after eviction

Already living in filth, misery, disease and hunger, will they now be deprived of the only places they call home?

Sun city

Architectural features that eliminate artificial heating or cooling of a building are becoming de rigeur

Zurich is world’s most sustainable city, according to a new index

100 global cities were ranked according to their performance on three parameters—people, planet and profit

Earthquakes don't kill, our collapsing structures do

The evidence from Italy and other earthquakes is damning: structures are not generally earthquake-proof

Mud housing is the key

Mud's low cost and malleability makes it an ideal building material. But its use can be popularised only if such drawbacks as its …

Out in the cold

It is possible to design buildings that stay cool in summer and warm in winter and save energy. But interest in solar passive architecture …

Living problems

HOUSING THE URBAN POOR POLICY AND PRACTICE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES Edited by Brian C Aldrich& Ravinder S Sandhu-Vistaar Vistaar Publications …

Access to drinking water, power has improved in slum areas, says slum census report

63.5 per cent slum dwellers in Indian cities have mobile phone connections, but only 19 per cent have toilets

Structured response?

China bans bicycles, while USA goes back to mud houses

Coal mining grounded

Why innovative cool roofing is becoming popular among Ahmedabad’s urban poor

The city’s residents strategically use shade, ventilation and building materials to keep their homes comfortable; and it does not cost the earth

What caused Morocco’s earthquake? A geologist studying the Atlas mountains explains

Steep slopes of the mountains and the straight lines where the Earth’s crust has cracked suggest that there has been recent movement in the …

Climate-related disasters leave behind trauma and worse mental health. Housing uncertainty is a major reason why

With natural disasters intensifying, governments must find ways to offer flexible housing support

Sinking cities: Two ways to fight land subsidence

Artificial recharge and deep soil mixing are two techniques showing promise in rescuing sinking cities

Divine dwellings

An organisation set up by priests provides inexpensive bamboo houses to people living in slums and on the streets

The Bulldozer in the Countryside

Imagine an assembly line construction of 17,000 homes on 3,500 acres of land costing US $135 million. Just on the borders of expanding cities. …

Built to last

A Rajasthan village has cylindrical houses that help people cope with extreme weather events