Making Home and Heart in Nepal

A year ago I was introduced to Krishna Gurung, a Nepali on tour in the states to raise awareness and funds for his eco-foundation. Leela, his wife, was with him - their deeper reason for being here was to begin the slow healing after losing a child. Kevin, their seven year old son, had died the previous December 21st; they had named their foundation in his honor - The Kevin Rohan Memorial Eco Foundation (KRMEF - http://krmecofoundation.org/).

They were also grieving leaving a previous sustainable village Krishna had been central in creating - Shanti Sewa Griha Village, http://krmecovillage.com/shanti-sewa-griha/ - due to jealousy by the foreign funders over the recognition Krishna had received for his role in developing that village for lepers and otherwise marginalized Nepalis (Krishna was runner-up in the BBC's World Challenge, http://www.theworldchallenge.co.uk/ ).

Krishna and Leela's parents are lepers; they grew up in a leprosarium and were child-hood friends. Nepali society is centered on three-generational families - Krishna's parents live with them now, along with their two teenage daughters.

Last fall, my wife, Beth, and I held a house party for Krishna and Leela; by the time they went home that night I knew I was going to Nepal to help him build his foundation and Beth was especially close to them as she had lost a daughter 15 years ago. Such a loss gives one a profound understanding, which opens up a deep connection between parents.

At last fall's DC Greenfest, we supported Krishna to have a booth and created a brochure and banners. That event was the catalyst for the KRMEF to get some traction. We also introduced Krishna to an NPR reporter who was writing an article on parents who had lost a child and how they had continued to get up in the morning and what actions they had taken to slowly live into their grief while honoring their children (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121403275 ).

The KRMEF embodies Kevin's spirit and creating and developing the foundation is a way for Krishna and Leela to continue their relationship with their son.

This past summer, I developed natural building methods to build with trash - Nepal is flooded with litter and Kathmandu is extremely polluted (they still drive with leaded gas, and there are thousands of motorcycles, which pollute more than cars). The litter is mostly due to the lack of trash pickup and the shift in packaging from traditional, biodegradable banana leaves to plastic found on the junk food that the west now pumps into Nepal.

Krishna speaks fairly good English and Leela less, and while I had met with Krishna a half-dozen times while here last fall and we saw Leela twice, I can't say we fully understood each other. Yet, when we landed in Kathmandu October 20th, we instantly were old friends and felt at home. This struck me at the time and I now realize why.

Whereas the Shanti Sewa Griha Village was a discrete village, to provide safe haven for otherwise ostracized people, the KRMEF is a vibrant, abundant, life-giving cell in the body of an existing village - Kharare - about 7 miles south of Kathmandu. The basic intention of the KRMEF - to be a catalyst for ecologically minded development of an existing village - is what most excites me about their work. And they have a broad agenda, from running a health clinic, expanding the community center (our next project there), creating an orphanage, developing a local school with a Waldorf inspired curriculum (the education system there is very rigid and life-depleting), teach biodynamic gardening, local and sustainable fuel production (such as bio-gas and solar cookers), planting trees, natural architecture, raising and selling local honey, use of local resources for making and selling crafts - and creating jobs through all of the above.

Going into Nepal as a westerner, I wasn't interested in thinking I had answers for them. I had some principles of natural building that worked with trash, but I wanted to develop these with their local knowledge and wisdom. Actually, I went mostly because I had a tremendous heart for Krishna and Leela and wanted to be a part of their lives and work.

It turns out the village has a lovely (well, all Nepali we met were lovely) 62 year old man who knows many things and has a twinkle in his eye (so like my dad had, who passed four years ago). He is also a bamboo craftsman and he built the frame and roof of the model home we created, flying around spindly bamboo members like a spider. He is the last villager who knows this craft and we're going to foster his training others as we build more homes there.

They had collected hundreds of bottles and sand and clay and paper and strong bodies and we began building, not being clear as to what we'd make. This project is meant as a model and test home, and it all came together remarkably……I think due to the love that surrounded all of our efforts.

In our three weeks in Nepal, I only saw two faces with that angered, intense, crazed look you see constantly in the states. Perhaps it's due to Hinduism and Buddhism peacefully coexisting with thousands of temples and shrines with hundreds of years of imbued energy; or constantly greeting people with hands in prayer union at your heart, smiling and saying, "namaste (I see the divine in you)." I don't know, but I do know I've never lived surrounded by so much heart and joy. And they are, by our standards, poor. It reminds me of one of my favorite sayings - to be rich is not to want. We in the west have so much, but we keep wanting more. We're spiritually empty, which turns the wheels of capitalism.

So we built - Beth and I, a couple of western volunteers, and many villagers.

Most spoke little or no English, yet we communicated through the heart with charades and gesture and smiles and the Nepali head bob which means, depending, "yes" or "I understand" or "ok" or "you're a crazy gringo but I love you!" Sometimes they would speak Nepali to us or we'd speak English to them and somehow we knew what they meant.

Natural building is primal - taking what the earth offers and making shelter. Nepal now offers trash, which actually is very good to build with. Bottles set on side are very strong and limit the needed earthen plaster - clay and sand w/ chopped up straw for tensile strength, which is time-consuming to make. We also added shredded trashed paper to the earthen plaster, which gives further tensile strength and is a filler along with the sand (the clay is the binder).

Please go to my blog - http://heliconworks.blogspot.com/2010/11/building-model-eco-home-for-homeless-in.html - to see the process of making the chhapro, which is Nepali for a humble working person's home (not at all derogatory).

As always, the paradox with building is the finished home isn’t the point. What is really being made are relationships, and nurturing and responding to others - both a place and people - is what we're here to do. We are known through relationship, and each relationship further connects us to the world around us and within our hearts.

I told Beth when we got home that we were a great team - I primarily focused on the container for the love and she deeply connected with everyone there. What we helped build will endure longer than the clay and sand and bamboo, and hopefully the bottles!

Since returning home, I am developing a network and infrastructure to build more homes (and love) there, a few drops in the ocean of their need. Krishna has a broad vision and needs help with each part; there are endless possibilities, and please contact me if you'd like to be a part this work.

Bill and Beth's Home Featured in a Few Places

The home Bill and Beth built has been featured in a few places recently. When asked on the blog link below what style Bill describes his home, he said, "alive!" All projects Helicon Works does are alive, regardless of what language - style - they are spoken in.

Here is the link to a short film on their home, with an interview/tour with Bill ~

http://www.youtube.com/greenroadstv#p/u/6/eET3MBb4qTQ

And then there is this link, where their home was featured on a widely read blog ~

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/dc/beth-bills-soulful-straw-bale-retreat-house-tour--118001

Catherine Wanek, a leader in the natural building movement, featured their home in her most recent book, The Hybrid House. Even if their home wasn't featured in the book, we would recommend it as a good discussion of the holistic considerations in creating an alive home!

You can purchase it on Amazon or contact Catherine directly @ blackrange@zianet.com.

Bill is always happy to give tours of their home, to individuals and groups. Contact him at bill@heliconworks.com to arrange a tour.

Building and Living Green

At a green building conference recently, the moderator of abreakout session asked what steps we can take to "build greener." Someone responded, "Install solar panels." Someone else suggested we "super-insulate." Another replied "build with local materials."

Appreciating those as important considerations, and with some trepidation, I raised my hand and said, "Don't build."

Granted, it seems odd for an architect who makes his living from building to recommend not building. But I went on to say that perhaps 80 percent of the projects we've done over the last 20 years didn't "need" to happen. I told the gathering that when I meet with clients who want to build an addition on their home these days, I often end up talking them out of building an addition at all.

Instead, I encourage them to reconsider how they LIVE in the space they already have.

The first act of building green is to live greener -- sustainably and with an ecological awareness. To consider how we most innately live, think back to the way we lived as young children -- everything appeared to us to be alive, asking to be engaged with, whether it had a heart or was found under a rock (or both!). The central act of living, that children naturally understand, is to deeply value all things and to seek to be a part of their wondrous, mysterious ways of being. This is "living" as an integral part of our local ecosystem. And it is at the heart of living green.

Another central aspect of living green is to recognize life is a paradox and that there are always issues from both sides -- the yin and yang of life -- that need consideration. Balance is essential and we all make choices. This leads to a harsh reality - there is no absolute "green" building, only shades of green.

We cannot build one hundred percent green for a variety of reasons, which hinge on this - there are many aspects of green that need to be considered. Most simply, there is responsible material sourcing; using as little energy as possible, or even generating energy; building a healthy, non-toxic home that respects all hands involved in the building, including those at far away factories and fields. These criteria are augmented by the mantras of "build small" and "build locally," both material sourcing and labor. It takes great diligence and careful analysis to meet all these criteria with every one of the hundreds of choices.

The creative process of making an ecologically responsive home also explores other considerations. When added to the list above, we realize that green building goes light years beyond conventional construction. Here are a few more facets of green building:

* To begin, if you must build, do not build on untouched land. Consider renovations first, additions second, and then infill lots.

* Use available renewable energy sources whenever possible -- solar, wind, biofuel.

* Build highly insulated and sealed homes, which keep out unwanted temperatures.

* Create regenerative landscaping, which implements storm water management strategies as beautiful landscaping.

* And, and this is essential, build well, so our homes will endure for centuries.

Each of these notions needs to be balanced with an open-ended design, to fluidly respond to inevitable change.

But, before any of that -- and back to my original point -- ask yourself this question: Must you build at all? Many existing homes simply need to be cracked open, to breathe internally and with the land. Rather than adding a new space, why not try a bay window in an existing room? Or put a new window in a room to expand the internal flow. Or repaint an existing space. Or remove a wall or two. Or ...you get the picture.

All such considerations come after pruning clutter; new life sprouts where there's a fresh opening.

Granted, that's a daunting challenge that can only be taken on by a team of people with varied expertise and experience, usually with an architect as the manager. But everything is a step-by-step process and we all take on only what we can during each step.

Again, there is no such thing as pure green building; we all do what we is possible and what is feasible given the spectrum of life's choices and circumstances. Yet, if we have an ecological awareness and a deep desire to honor all things -- even if we have to make compromises due to issues such as finances -- we will build consciousness. Monks, after all, believe this to be our real work.

One suggestion: Before you tackle all of the pragmatic concerns above, begin with poetic inspiration and try to maintain balance between the pragmatic and the poetic, as two wings of a bird. The first creative act is to consider what "home" means as an internal image and what the land -- and existing house, when applicable -- is calling for. By its most profound definition, HOME is that which is known and nurtures us deeply, going beyond our physical house. Perhaps it's the ocean or water that gives you a deep sense of refuge, or maybe it's the stillness of the early morning. Maybe it's an open sky. Or a gentle breeze. These life-giving impulses can be embodied as the soul of your home. And each place on Earth has an equally full personality that offers qualities to be integrated into a home. At its essence, our home can form a union between us and the place In which we dwell. Life is an interconnected web of relationships and the spaces of our homes provide places for our chosen relationships to deepen.

In closing, here is an image. As a metaphor for how we create and live in our homes, consider the difference between a powerboat and a sailboat. We can live in our houses as if they are powerboats -- with no consideration of how the sun tracks across the sky, no awareness of the flora and fauna which teem with life all around us and no idea of the amazing breezes all around us . We can unconsciously flip on switches which magically provide heat or cooling or light in dark spaces, built with no thought of how the sun animates them. We can build with synthetic materials -- plastic and fiberglass -- and have no real idea how they are made.

Or we can build and live in our homes as if they are sailboats. We can shut off the engines and, in the quietness of the swirling waters, develop an awareness of the world around us -- paying attention to the elements and engaging with them as we dwell. We can open or close windows to provide cool summer breezes. We can build spaces that let in the warming winter sun while blocking out the hot summer sun. We can take pride in the materials of our vessel, asking: "What are the local resources we can use to build our home?" and "What are ways people have always made their homes in our region?" We can ask: "What do I really need?" Or "How can the home I want help me form deeper relationships with my loved ones and all occupants of the land in which I dwell?" And, if we ask these questions, and try to answer them honestly, genuinely and with reverence for the world around us, then through our making of, and living in, our home we can not only live greener, but we can be more fully alive and become an interconnected part of the web of life.

Living Building Challenge

The Living Building Challenge (LBC) takes LEED a level deeper, pragmatically and poetically. They offer a methodology for designing, building and helping occupants to live as gently on and in harmony with the earth as any system.

Also attractive re: LBC is the amazing people who have created this vision and work tirelessly towards it's implementation. An off-shoot of the Cascadia LEED Chapter (Pacific Northwest), they seemingly benefit greatly from all of that clean air and humane living!

Please go to their web site - www.ilbi.org

They have a highly energetic and thoughtfully run conference out there each May, and Jason McLennan, their CEO, will be in Washington, DC April 23rd to give an introductory session -

www.ilbi.org/roadshow

The only, yet significant, issue is LBC adds more cost in design and construction (to think through complex systems and to pay for their implementation) and none of our clients have additional resources. And our clients are not poor; as such, LBC is exclusive. But not exclusive in the intentions their system advocates, which we explore as well in each project. We're always pushing as far as our client's inclinations and budgets allow; with each project we seek less complex methods to achieve the same result.

Ecological Building and Living Workshop, Saturday, April 10th

Please see below regarding workshop details, from the announcement for the previous workshop.