Sustainability assessment of Bhutanese vernacular wattle and daub houses

Abstract

The modern construction technologies mostly dependent on nonrenewable resources so impose grave challenge to the environment; thus, widespread concern can be found in terms of sustainability of modern construction materials. Earth technology is the ideal tool to tackle the global crisis of environmental degradation; however, such constructions are limited worldwide. Unlike other countries, Bhutan has a considerable fraction of wattle and daub houses. This study reports the construction technology of traditional wattle and daub houses in Bhutan and performs sustainability analysis. The conventional sustainability assessment framework is modified with three additional parameters. Furthermore, sustainability of brick and stone masonry constructions is compared with wattle and daub systems. The sum of findings highlights that wattle and daub houses are more sustainable solutions than other dominant structural forms in Bhutan.

Appendix

Survey form

*Required-Questionaries to Manufacturers/factories/suppliers

• 1. Organization /Company's Name; *

• 2. Name of Owner; *

• 3. Product Manufactured;(types of bricks/dimension) *

• 4. Dzongkhag; *

• 5. Exact location (Gewog/ village/Thromde/.)

• 6. Machinery used for Manufacturing;( mixing/Molding /heating /.) *

• 7. Mode of Operation (Electricity/fuel/.); *

• 8. Average amount paid for Electricity or fuel in a month; *

• 9. Rate per units of electricity;

• 10. Average Number of bricks manufactured in a month; *

• 11. List of Raw material used; *

• 12. Place from where raw material is extracted; (exact location); *

• 13. Estimated duration of service life(guarantee) of bricks; *

• 14. Average transportation charges per truck to bring Raw materials to factory site from place of extraction; *

• 15. Average Number of Labor working daily to running factory site; *

• 16. Labor charges per day (Wages)

*Required-Questionaries to local people (both rural and urban)

• 1. Name of House Owner

• 2. Building type -Mark only one oval.

	Residential building
	Commercial building
	Residential cum
	Commercial office building:
	Other (specify):

• 3. Age of Building:(or Year when it was built)

• 4. What was the total Cost for the complete construction of building?

• 5. Dimensions of building: {Plinth Area} *

• 6. Number of rooms; (Would be grateful if you could provide us the Numbers of rooms in each floor): *

• 7. Floor type:

• 8. Maximum Room Size:

• 9. Height of room: *

• 10. Part of a building that needed frequent Maintenance and Repair; *

• 11. Amount of money spend for Maintenance / repairs in a year; *

• 12. Do you have hands- on experience of construction? *

• 13. Do you prefer to live in same housing typology? *

• 14. Did your construction activities cause damage to environment? *

• 15. Which type of building materials do you prefer a. concrete, b. Bricks, c. Earth products*.

• 16. Rate the previous answer in 50%, 75% and 100%*

• 17. Do you recycle any building materials, if so rate in same range in previous question? *

• 18. Rate the sustainability parameters of headings for level of importance based on a scale of 1–5 which is known as Likert Scale, where 1 is ‘least important,’ 2 ‘fairly important,’ 3 ‘important,’ 4 ‘very important,’ and 5 ‘extremely important’*.

*Required-Questionaries to field expertise (based on qualification – 1. academic qualification, 2. professional qualification and 3. number of years in work experience)

• 1. Name and option you fall from listed personnel above (1,2 & 3) *.

• 2. Rate the sustainability parameters of headings for level of importance based on a scale of 1–5 which is known as Likert Scale, where 1 is ‘least important,’ 2 ‘fairly important,’ 3 ‘important,’ 4 ‘very important,’ and 5 ‘extremely important’*.

• 3. Number of working experiences? *

• 4. Which material is socially and culturally preferred? *

• 5. Rate the sustainability parameters of headings in 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% based on their importance*.

• 6. Rate in scale of previous question the level of research undertaken in Bhutan*.

• 7. Express your opinion on building materials and its associated research*.

• 8. Which type of materials is easy to construct, rate in above scale*.

• 9. Which type of materials is durable, rate in above scale*.

• 10. Which type of materials is effective to recycle, rate in above scale*.