the INCREMENTAL house

Barefoot College is a small community based NGO right outside the small village of Tilonia in Rajasthan. I had called expressing an interest in visiting, but had not received that much response about my visit. But, it was enough when I was told there was a place to stay. I had originally learned about Barefoot Architects through a book, and they had done a lot of pretty solid work without the typical expert help. So, I was interested in how people worked on their own and how they got things done. I guess Barefoot is most known for its solar panels and cookers as well as its rainwater harvesting tanks. They have done some pioneering work in making this village and others like it much more sustainable. So much of India still lives in villages, as someone put it, “As the villages go, so go the cities.” Getting things right in the villages could make a huge difference in the strain being put on the cities. Maybe. Anyway, I took a local train. People found me qui...

The flight into Kathmandu was amazing as we were right next to Mount Everest , and since it was a clear day, we were afforded magnificent views. Yet, immediately on the other side the plane, the views were not so nice, as the extreme pollution of the Kathmandu Valley became very evident. Flying into Kathmandu did not elicit the same memories of my visit 10 years ago. This was not the, old, mountain city with unique character that had somehow resided in my memory (I did see a very limited part of the city then). It was a sprawling metropolis with massive pollution, obscuring any view around. From the plane and then the taxi ride, I could see the majority of certain parts of the city were being built incrementally. And I really felt like we had entered the true developing world. We quickly found out that things are not that great in Kathmandu . There is only 6 hours of electricity a day. And there are major gas shortages. I tried to order a steak, and the waiter s...

Our taxi driver who took us to beautiful and frozen Yamdrok Tso the day before picked us up. His kid was along for the one hour ride to the airport to catch a flight to Kathmandu . Driving past the new economic development zones and new buildings constructed on the edge of Lhasa , the Chinese influence is clear. I also looked at the new houses along the way in a different light. Yesterday, I was pretty impressed with quality and size that I had seen. I asked someone about it, and they laughed, saying that the Chinese were trying to improve the look of the rural areas, and were forcing farmers to move to the roads and into new housing. I later heard that the Chinese had passed an edict, stating that all Tibetan houses would have to be rebuilt to Chinese standards within 7 years. Clearly, this is what was happening. Some farmers now had a huge space with nothing to put in it. So, why not give people more space and better quality materials? That is development, right...

An interesting answer lies in the capacity for people to develop and create their own spaces to better afford their needs. A good example of this was a home visit to a friend’s family. They were living in a two room apartment in old part of Lhasa . There were six people who were living there, including a two month old baby. One room housed two beds and the altar, and the other room held two couches (which doubled as beds), a TV, and some chairs and side tables. Since they were government employees and retired, they were able live in a space that the government provided, without paying too much. Because the father is the only one that works, they are very limited in what their housing options are. The word is that new apartments are being built further away, and since the area is in the center of the city, there might be better uses of such buildings than housing low-income people. There was a rumor that their building was going to be torn to build a supermarket....

I don’t know why I was really surprised to see Lhasa expanding and developing and facing the challenges of any other city these days. I guess it is because I just have never heard anything about it. There is even a store in Berkeley called Lhasa, selling Tibetan goods, but it just never really registered with me. It certainly does now. Lhasa now contains about 400,000 people and is growing rapidly. It is hard to know how many of these are Chinese, but the Chinese government has been encouraging the Chinese to move there, and most Chinese find better income opportunities as well. The growth is happening at a pretty good clip. Constructions cranes are around the city is expanding east and west in the valley. Development pressure is abound. At our friend’s home, there are rumors of the government taking over the land to build housing and other projects. They do not feel their tenure is secure. Our friend cited the story of the woman who delivers milk to them everyday and has done so for t...

Lhasa is still a distinctly Tibetan city, but the Chinese certainly rule the day. In front the Potala Palace stands a new massive square with the Chinese flag and center across from a massive Chinese monument (celebrating the liberation of Tibet?) Arriving from the train station, we drove through the new part of Lhasa, which is basically all Chinese businesses and buildings, and looks like any other Chinese city (at least smaller one). Most of the things are owned by government in Tibet. Only the businesses are privately owned, and even the, something like 80-90 percent of the businesses are privately owned. Lhasa is quickly developing and becoming a more modern city. Probably the strangest influence of the Chinese is that Lhasa is on Beijing time, which means there are no time zones. I am not sure how many miles west of Beijing we are, but it is a ton. This means that it is not light until 8 or 8:30 in the morning, and it doesn’t get until 8:30 or 9. Strange and eery. In speaking with...

The Potala Palace. How did we not study this thing in Architecture school, and how I have I maybe only seen three pictures of it before arriving to Lhasa? It is truly a great wonder of the world. Apparently, it is the one building Frank Lloyd Wright had a picture of that wasn’t his own. Situated on the highest hill in Lhasa, it has maybe a couple of thousand of rooms and used to serve as the seat of the government and residences of the Dalai Lamas. It is still a very spiritual place and one of the most significant to Tibetan Buddhists. If I could imagine the grandest palace, it would probably look like this. You just have to see the pictures. The crazy Olympic Buildings in Beijing have nothing on this. And this building has lasted 5-10, centuries, and is still as magnificent as ever. Will the CCTV tower last more than 50 years? Will the Birdsnest last more than 5 years? The Potala Palace is truly image based architecture, and much more.

Whew. Lhasa. The Shagri-La. A truly different world. The arrival to the train station is quite remarkable. Stepping out into the cold and fresh snow, the train station is massive. Its whole design does seem remarkably similar to the Potala Palace. Contextual design or an architecture of power? The first night is spent in the Yak Hotel with no heat. It is COLD. The next morning we went to have breakfast on the rooftop restaurant. WOW. I was totally unprepared and had to say WOW out loud. Couldn’t help it. The sun was hitting the snow covered mountains. All around were the tops of the buildings of old Lhasa with their roofs all at basically the same level, and they were all capped with Buddhist prayer flags blowing in the wind. One of the most amazing sights I had seen in a long time. We spent a good part of the morning and day trying to book a flight to Kathmandu (only international flight and by road it would take 5 days). We stopped in some hotels, but no one could figure out to opera...

My friend and I are on the train from Beijing to Lhasa, Tibet, and it has been an amazing experience so far. The entire trip is 48 hours, and based on a friend’s recommendation decided to go with the hard sleeper ticket instead of the soft sleeper. It is pretty tight quarters with 6 beds packed into a space of about 200 cubic feet (6x6x8). There is no door and a hallway that is about 3 feet wide with seats on it. Everyone, of course, is all up in everyone’s business. Especially ours. This is certainly the down season to visit China and Tibet, and there are very few foreigners around. Upon arrival to our cabin, we quickly met and became very well acquainted with our bunkmates and then, of course the rest of our car. One woman was headed to Lhasa, who looked much more like she was from Tibet, and a couple of the others were getting off at earlier stops. Most everyone else was Chinese. It is interesting to see who is from where, amidst some of the controversy about the impact of this trai...

In her article titled “Delirious Beijing” Euphoria and Despair in the Olympic Metropolis,” Anne Marie Broudehoux describes Beijing as a “city without urbanity, where megolomaniacal architiectural objects are built on the ashes of an organic fabric.” After a brief visit, I do get a similar sense. It feels as if, in this case, the buildings are more just objects, attempting to achieve or create something that does not yet exist. In this sense, they are not manifestations of realities, but of hopes and dreams, covering the untold realities and future uncertainties. But, they have given great pride to the people of the nation. I kept asking myself, “Is the cost worth what you are getting?” I don’t know for sure and none of us may ever, and I am probably not in a position to answer. You never really know anything for sure in China . But, I do know, watching the countryside go by, there is extreme and massive poverty, pollution, and environmental degradation. The displ...

And this is very evident in Beijing . Most embassy workers and expats live in such exclusive and private communities. It is a defacto way of life, and increasingly, the new wealthy Chinese elite choose it, so they don’t’ have to deal with the chaos and urbanity that still encompasses the majority of the population here. One of the places we went was called “ Palm Springs ” and encompassed an entire couple of blocks. Fully walled and gated, the complex had a massive internal courtyard, spa, pool, shopping, all delineated and further defined by the eight forty story towers defining its edges. At the front is a massive bronze lion with wings. Another series of these new high end communities is called SOHO (Shopping, Office, Housing, ?). These massive complexes have popped up in a number of parts of the cities, and apparently many are only 50% occupied. There was a building across from where I was staying that was almost complete, but was never finished, and had been left standing f...

While most of the construction going on there is nondescript, standardized, and sometimes even downright atrocious, the 2008 Olympics are bringing about a new image that is none more represented in the some of the new high profile buildings. With the need to show the world that China has arrived, and is espousing progressive values that will solidify its presence on the national stage, Beijing in particular has spared no expense. Four projects in particular are quite spectacular and have garnered immense media coverage, interest, and costs. The ‘Egg’ (National Performing Arts Center at a cost of $350 million), the ‘Birdsnest’ (Olympic National Stadium at a cost of $400 million), the Watercube (National Swimming Center at a cost of $100 million) and the CCTV tower (at a cost of $600 million) are all designed by foreign architects and are quite extraordinary buildings in their own right. The technical, aesthetic, and performance characteristics of each of these buildings ...

Beijing has been quite an extraordinary experience experience, It was more infused with doses of the expat life, having meals with other embassy workers, where our host drove us around to most places. Natalia arrived on Saturday and we had some of the most amazing food, and soooo much of it. Dumplings, steamed buns, chicken, candied apples, pork, peking duck, on and on and on. I am going to struggle to eat most Chinese food in the US now. Beijing is probably even more extraordinary than Shanghai , purely based on the visible changes taking place there. It is absolutely mindboggling and astounding the amount of construction going on there. The numbers tell it all. Within the last 10 years, one billion square feet and $160 billion dollars of building will have taken place, which is the equivalent of three manhattans. And this is in one city alone. But, the building boom certainly extends beyond the city. The entire country now accounts for half the world’s use of concrete an...