Sustainable building by SMA
Our design process in the beginning included number of site visits where we got to know the locals, their culture, way of life and their priorities for the community and the kind of issues that they were facing. This dialogue with the locals helped finalize the brief for the project: two home-stays and one community hall to design by assessing their needs, understanding their culture and the way they have been building for decades.
During these visits, we also photographed, researched and documented the local architecture and materials. We felt it was necessary to understand how they have been building and living in this spaces for decades before we introduced anything new into the landscape of Madi. So, we put together a Architecture Library that looked at the various ways in which the local materials were being used and the typical typologies that existed in each village. This would later on help us make improvements to the vernacular way of building so that the resulting space would be comfortable for the visitors, as well as reflect the culture in which it’s situated.
