the presentation talks in details about the sustainable housing system of Bangladesh from more than 60 years ago, by using natural local goods.

1. SUSTAINABLE HOUSING SYSTEM
IN BANGLADESH
Done By
Azra Maliha

2. Index
 Introduction
 Climate
 Local resources
 Sustainable housing system
 Housing techniques & Materials used
 Bangladesh’s heritage monuments
 Conclusion
 References

3.  “Regionalism in Architecture” is a concept which is based on a particular region’s major
determinants, like culture, climate and resources.
 In the early days of civilization, the housing systems of Bangladesh purely derived from
cultural and traditional determinants.
 The architectures were simple, made with subtle building materials found easily in the
rural and semi-urban regions naturally, which are now, in the modern day labelled as
sustainable housing materials.
 The importance of studying these is that we can apply their techniques in today’s design
and achieve something more unique, yet with love for the environment.
INTRODUCTION

5. Climate
Bangladesh has six seasons in a year, Summer, Monsoon, Autumn, Late Autumn,
Winter and Spring. So the climatic conditions vary after each two months. The climate
of the region is warm-humid The Mean. Maximum Temperature during the summer
and the monsoon months starting from March and continuing up to October varies
between 29°C and 32°C.
Heavy rainfall take place in the summer and monsoon seasons. As the country has
abundance of small and big rivers all over, there are a lot of flood prone areas, nearly
one-third of the country’s low lands.
In the winter months, from November to February, temperature may occasionally fall
below 8°C. The hilly regions of Bangladesh receives more rainfall due to the green
forests.

6. Local resources (which can be used as sustainable materials)
 There is an extensive resource of fresh water all
over the country because of the rivers and rivulets.
Also there are ponds, tanks and reservoirs to supply
water.
 Bamboo is collected from the vast bamboo gardens
in villages.
 Woods of different types comes from both natural
forests and man made cultivation forests.
 The rural highlands contain enough clay and mud to
produce clay and pottery products as well as to use
in house making.
 Cultivated jute can be turned into jute mesh and
ropes.
 The leftover dried rice plants, also known as Straws
are largely available.

7. Sustainable housing system
 A typical rural Bangladeshi house consists of
individual, independent small houses or “huts”
which are similar to rooms in urban systems. the
space is planned in a way that it has an open
space or “yard” in the middle and the huts are
surrounded by it.
 Each hut also has veranda, which is used for
siting, households works or cooking. Some
houses are consists of separate shades just for
cooking purposes.
 Overall, the space and furnitures are kept
minimal and simple which brings out the
traditional simplicity to it.

8. Housing techniques & Materials used
 The rural houses are specially made up of mud, bamboo mat, timber, jute stick, steel
sheets, straw or red bricks. The mud walls are made thick by stacking wet mud and then
smoothening them, eventually giving the shape of a house.
 The houses or huts are made on a thick mud platform in order to prevent flood water to
enter inside the house.
 The mud walls carry both vertical and lateral loads. The mud platform helps distributing
the gravity load of the roof equally. Although excessive rainfall washes away some of
the wall and platform mud, which is later fixed by adding more mud. Any cracks or
breakage on walls or floors can also be fixed just by wetting a piece of cloth and
smoothening the mud.
The house:
Reuse, Avoid Toxin, Protect nature

10. Roofing and ventilation system:
• Roofs of the mud houses are made with straws, bamboo mats, timber, different type of
mangrove plant branches along wit jute mats, thatch, terracotta tallies, etc.
• Tallies are burnt clay tiles which are very good for houses where there is excessive rainfall
as the water drains outwards by itself.
• The other types of materials, when used as roofs allow air to pass in and out of the huts.
• Houses have small windows with grids made with bamboo sticks. Mud houses have small
openings occasionally made on the walls for ventilation.
• The door and windows are made from wood or bamboo mats.
Coping with winter, summer and monsoon:
• The earthen flooring and walls are very comfortable in summer as they help in keeping the interior
cool. Also the other materials when used for housing are good for summer as they allow air to enter.
• In the cold seasons they sometimes cover the straw roofs with jute mats or wooden planks. They
also block the openings to stop cold air to come.
• Terracotta roofs are very useful in all the seasons. In monsoons, if destructed, they fix the roofs and
houses again as the materials are always available to them with very low or almost no costings.
Reuse, Recycle, Avoid Toxin, Protect nature

13. Lighting:
In the daytime, sufficient amount of light can enter inside the house through the windows, openings
and the roofs (except tally roofs). The verandah also provide lighting as most of the house works
take place here. The front courtyard is an open space, so there is a lot of scope for lighting and
ventilations.
At night however, they use oil lamps, lamps made with bamboo sticks or small timbers or small
bonfire created in the middle of the courtyard.
Water source and storage:
The villages consists of a number of ponds, lakes, wells and small rectangular water reservoirs.
Also they collect water from rivers, if it is adjacent with the village. They carry water in pots called
“Kolshi”, which can be both of clay or tin. Clay pots helps the water to be cool, because of the tiny
pores in them. Tube well system came into action before few decades where water is taken from
underground.
Reduce, Protect nature

15. Some other facts:
• The people build their own
stove out of mud, which can
be reused again and again by
fixing with water, similar to
fixing the walls and floors of
mud houses.
• They use fallen branches of
trees, dried leaves, young
bamboo sticks, jute, straws,
etc. for cooking fire instead
of using up timber.
• They have separate shades
for cattle, also made with
straws and jute mats and
bamboo as the pillars.

17. Bangladesh’s heritage monuments
1. The Somapura Mahavihara
• Built in 8th century AD, consisting a central
stupa surrounded by 177 cells for monks
and meditation.
• Terracotta plaques, coins, ceramic, stone
sculptures, etc. has been found buried
underground.
• The style of architecture was influenced by
Barma.
• The area it covers is 27 acres (110,00meter
square)

19. 2. The Mosque city of Bagerhat
• Listed by Forbes as one of the 15 lost cities
in the world. Consisting 50 Islamic
monuments.
• Planning of city was done in Islamic
architecture style ( Mughal & Turkish), with
360 mosques in total.
• The famous one is The mosque with 60
domes.
• The material used for architecture was
Baked Bricks.
• The minarets which are two floors high
were surrounded by corniches and façade
and windows were situated in mid height for
light and ventilation.

20. 3. Lalbagh Fort
• Built in 1678 by Mughal emperor Muhammad Azam Shah.
• The fort consists of a mosque, the tomb of Bibi Pari and Diwan-i-Aam, which is the
residence part.
• The residence part had a huge bathhouse, under which another underground room was
discovered. It was found that water used to be heated in this room and supplied through
terracotta pipes above to the bath house for hot water.
• The fort had a huge rectangular water reservoir, 71.6 meters each side
4. King & Jamidar Palaces
• These all palaces had sophisticated architectural designs and intricate ornaments made by bricks
and stones.
• Usually the palaces had long corridors on all the levels for light and ventilation purposes.
• Some palaces had yard in the middle, so that they get direct sunlight.
• The windows were made with colored glass (green, red and blue), so that when sunlight falls on
them, the shadow on corridor made colorful mosaic pattern.
• On each level near stair cases they had openings on walls with design borders.

25. Conclusion
“ Important asset of mud building is its ability to breathe”. Since the beginning of time, humans have
been using sustainable methods for building houses, without even knowing the amazing properties
of these resources. One of the earliest use of mud house was in China, in 5000 BCE. Being the land
of river, Bangladesh is rich in sustainable natural resources, which are available till today, but used in
a more advanced and modern way. These are both easily available and cost effective, allowing even
the poorest of people to have a shelter, unlike many developed country where there are homeless
citizens.
If these concepts from decades and centuries back are taken into action with modern touch, we can
create dynamic sustainable design.

26. References
• ftp://ftp.shef.ac.uk/pub/uni/academic/A-
C/ar1mb/HH_EthnicHousingPatternToCopeWithTheEnvironment.pdf
• https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-
quarterly/bangladesh/chittagong-hill-tribes-bangladesh
• https://www.interaction.org/newsroom/blog/house-on-the-hill
• http://stourismbangladesh.com/package/archaeological-tour-in-rajshahi-rangpur/
• http://nijhoom.com/bangladesh-village-picture/
• http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Bangladesh.aspx
• http://www.everyculture.com/A-Bo/Bangladesh.html
• https://www.travelblog.org/Photos/3560011
• www.Wikipedia.com
• www.google.com
• www.youtube.com

27. THANK YOU