Timber, bamboo and earth: building with local materials in the Indian Himalayas
Building with local materials at any scale in northern India takes more than sourcing the materials. It also requires a system around those materials: craftspeople who know how to use them, a reliable supply, and customers who want them.
Across northern India, builders are increasingly experimenting with nature-based building. Some of them are also building part of the system that will be needed for nature-based building to scale. Read on to learn about three: architecture firm North, the Uttarakhand Bamboo and Fiber Development Board, and training centre Geeli Mitti.
North: keeping knowledge in circulation
North, the studio of architect Rahul Bhushan, in the town of Naggar, is working to resurrect Kath-Kuni, a traditional Himalayan construction system using alternating courses of timber and stone that interlock without mortar. Beautiful Homes describes the result as an architecture “both seismically resilient and materially frugal.”
North also adapts other traditional techniques. For example, for its Dhajji Cabin, it adapted the traditional Dhajji Dewari system, a timber frame filled in with masonry. According to Beautiful Homes, the project was an opportunity to reimagine this ancient technique using local wood and stone. The project also had a key modern benefit: North calls the project its first carbon-negative cabin.
But North’s deeper commitment is to knowledge, not just materials. The decline of traditional building styles like Kath-Kuni and Dhaji Dwari is due partly to a shortage of skilled builders, argues Down to Earth. The publication warns that if the architecture and its artisans disappear, “a deep knowledge of the mountains and how to live in them will also vanish.” In the face of this challenge, North’s Training and Livelihood Program provides local artisans with skill development, design literacy, and long-term livelihood pathways.
For Bhushan, skilled workers are key to the resilience of the region’s traditional architecture. “It’s not just building buildings,” he tells Beautiful Homes, “but building teams of artisans, collectives of knowledge-holders, and communities who carry these values forward.”
The Uttarakhand Bamboo and Fiber Development Board: transitioning bamboo from handicrafts to construction
In neighbouring Uttarakhand, the Uttarakhand Bamboo and Fiber Development Board is focused on a different challenge: ensuring that the region’s rich supply of bamboo can be used by the local building industry.
The state has some of the richest bamboo resources in the central Himalayas — yet for much of its history, those resources fed into low-value handicrafts rather than construction.
The Uttarakhand Bamboo and Fiber Development Board, established in 2003 by the Government of Uttarakhand, was created to change that —to build a network of rural and urban entrepreneurs working with locally available bamboo and natural fibres, moving the material up the value chain from household goods toward housing.
Its own data suggests that the organisation has had its share of early successes – building more than 92 bamboo structures across Uttarakhand, training more than 4,930 artisans and farmers, and developing 110 master trainers. Its work spans the full value chain — developing nurseries and plantations, running training facilities, supporting community enterprises, and working on bamboo preservation and treatment.
Currently, it is particularly focused on developing treatment infrastructure for bamboo, which is lacking in the region. Without reliable access to preservation and treatment facilities, bamboo remains vulnerable to pests and moisture — limiting its appeal to builders and clients, and slowing its path from a promising material to a mainstream one.
Geeli Mitti: Creating the next generation of builders
In Uttarakhand’s Nainital district, demonstration and training centre Geeli Mitti is working to generate excitement about using traditional building materials, writes Euronews. Founded by Shagun Singh, the centre offers training programs in disciplines ranging from intensive natural building to permaculture design and water management.
The publication notes that Indian homes once used mud, bamboo, lime plaster and animal dung, but that growing populations and expanding cities shifted construction towards cement and steel. India is now the world’s second-largest cement producer.
In response, Shagun Singh founded Geeli Mitti in 2016 to revive India’s traditional building methods. “I created this place to serve as a centre of excellence for leading a sustainable lifestyle,” Singh told Euronews. “Our goal has been to empower people and train them to feel confident building a beautiful, happy, sustainable ecological shelter for themselves and their families.”
She simplifies the building process down to clay, sand, straw, and water. From these basic materials, students create buildings with natural ventilation and the ability to remain cool, even in high temperatures, because the walls have a high thermal mass that can absorb and store heat, releasing it slowly.
“In recent years,” the publication explains, “more and more architects have started returning to natural materials as they seek to create buildings able to withstand extreme weather and rising temperatures.”
Building the system
In many ways, North, the Bamboo and Fiber Development Board and Geeli Mitti are simply rebuilding a system that northern India once had. Moreover, their stories match what CSFEP found in our recent study with ICIMOD: the main obstacle to increasing nature-based construction in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region (which includes North India) is not a lack of materials – it’s the lack of a coordinated support system.
The study also warns that, without timely action, the skills, knowledge and local supply chains behind nature-based construction will keep declining, making any future shift harder and more expensive.
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