Post-disaster Construction Using Vernacular Traditions

Text: Yasmeen Lari
Visuals: Courtesy Heritage Foundation

In Pakistan, during the last couple of decades, recurring disasters have underscored the destructive impact of climate change on people’s lives. Their frequency and greater magnitude are attributed to changing weather patterns, melting glaciers, and deforestation, as well as increase in use of industrialized materials in construction that inflict avoidable ecological footprint. Due to the impact of changing climatic conditions, while centuries’ old archaeological sites and built heritage are rapidly turning into endangered sites, vernacular architecture is equally susceptible in the wake of floods and earthquakes.
 
Unsustainable post-disaster development leading to increased carbon footprint

Over centuries, vernacular construction in Pakistan has promoted social cohesion, fostering pride, stake and ownership through community participation and the use of local materials. These non-engineered methodologies, developed over centuries, are economical in construction and climatically highly suitable, warding off heat and cold.