HOMEmade – Family Houses in Bangladesh

Architect Anna Heringer has recently completed three projects that were winners of the world architecture community awards. These three family houses are the results of a hands-on workshop for students and young architects conducted in a remote rural area of Bangladesh. Eight students of the BRAC University in Dhaka (Bangladesh) as well as five Students from the University of Art in Linz/ projectstudio BASEhabitat (Austria) came to a small and remote village in the North of Bangladsh, Rudrapur, to continue what has started with the Handmade METI-School: to work together with the local people on a model for a sustainable, modern architecture in a dynamic process. The goal of the HOMEmade project is to improve the living conditions of the local population and to strengthen national identity while maintaining the current high level of sustainability with regard to home construction. This is accomplished by building three model houses for low-income village families designed by young local architects and built by local craftsmen who have been trained in the modern mud and bamboo building techniques. It is the expectation that the young architects will be able to carry their knowledge and skills to other regions of Bangladesh and the trained labor will be able to use their skills to build other modern mud homes in the region.

Ancient Rammed Earth Observaory

Only recently rediscovered. An ancient site in the port of Qingdao has revealed the oldest known observatory in China. The Chinese Astronomy Society, learned of the finding at its annual convention. Experts point to historical evidence, that the Langya Observatory in east China’s Shandong Province, was built during the Warring States Period— more than 22-hundred years ago. The three-storey structure stands about nine meters. The original structure was made of rammed earth. The observatory was evidently erected as a site for studying the stars as well as for monitoring conditions at sea. [ Watch ]