Global Science and Technology Journal Vol. 1. No. 1. July 2013 Issue. Pp.63-70

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Social Sustainability Adaptation: The Case of Bangladesh Traditional House

Rumana Rashid

Bangladesh traditional house reflects social, cultural heritage of peoples and also encapsulate traditional forms values. Traditional house is designed by the owner according to occupants demand in a creative way. It based on low investment, local materials, combined with the assistance of relations, friends and neighbors. Among other advantages they claim, is the benefit to be derived from centuries of experience in adapting social cultural life, form and materials selection to achieve sustainable relation to regional culture of Bangladesh. Social privacy and security feelings are closely related to sustainability. The aim of this paper is to gain knowledge base of the social sustainability through learning from practical performance of the traditional house in Bangladesh. Traditional house has been acknowledged as an important source of inspiration for sustainable architecture design in warm humid tropical regions. The analysis of the practical performance to understand the transference of the factors of sustainability, which is controls the heredity of the society. The contribution of the empirical study is to reveals the social-cultural inner logic from the tradition to the sustainable house design.

Keywords: Bangladesh Traditional House, Sustainability, Social Life, Culture, Form 1. Introduction

Social sustainability is focused on the development of programs and processes that promote social interaction and cultural enrichment. It emphasizes protecting the vulnerable, respecting social diversity and ensuring that we all put priority on social capital. Sustainable development is a socio-ecological processes and a resource use that aims to meet not on the present but also for future generation. Social sustainability is also related to more basic needs of happiness, safety, freedom, dignity and affection. Social sustainability is related to how we make choices that affect other humans in our "global community" -- the Earth.

It covers the broadest aspects of business operations and the effect that they

have on employees, suppliers, investors, local and global communities and customers. Agriculture is the main occupation of rural people of Bangladesh. Local silted riverbanks or alluvial deposits increase the fertility of the cultivation land’s during flood. Local community based efforts again using to collect the earth from river. Bangladesh traditional house design also influence by local people’s occupation. Traditional house features are reflect the social, cultural heritage of local community and also encapsulate the traditional forms values. Traditional house is designed by the owner according to occupants demand in a creative way. It based

______________ Ms. Rumana Rashid, Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology (AUST), Dhaka, Bangladesh. Email: rashid_rumana@yahoo.com

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on low investment, local materials, combined with the assistance of relations, friends and neighbors. Among other advantages they claim, is the benefit to be derived from centuries of experience in adapting social cultural life, form and materials selection to achieve sustainable relation to regional culture of Bangladesh. The aim of social Sustainability is to improve quality of people lifestyle for all local communities and as improving relationships between people and there indigenous practice over time. Progressing and measuring social sustainability need to develop a set of internal measurements in a comparable way, to help the community understand where people need to target there improvements. It is important to measure our social performance in the local community based development process. To gain trust and thereby benefit from vital feedback of the development that can enhance social performance. Involved in local communities have provided excellent learning and development programs for local society around the Bangladesh. However, it is only since 2000 that can honestly say that Bangladesh have put the social dimension of sustainability at the core of people vision, alongside social sustainability and economic profitability. The aim of this paper is to gain knowledge base of the social sustainability through learning from practical performance of the traditional house in Bangladesh. It is an element of the community's dwelling area with its own social and spatial environment, in which exist many different forms of houses, different architectural styles and designs. The facts of sustainability are discussed in the section 2. Vernacular house description, literature review and methodology are briefly explained in following sections. 2. Sustainable facts

Definitions of sustainability in literature are environmental aspect of sustainability (Costanza, 1991). The principal concerns are the biosphere and climate, pollution, biodiversity and the like (V.Brown & Barner 1991). It is interpreted in the practice as “minimizing or maximizing solar gain, thus reducing energy or other resource use, reducing pollution, supporting particular population numbers, supporting particular forms of work organization, helping rationalization and cooperative decision making, and so on” (V.Brown & Barner 1991). Late some researchers extend the connotation of the term from the direct meaning of ecology sustainability to ;he indirect meaning of cultural and social sustainability. They set out from the relationship between human and environment, and concern the human aspect in sustainability (Rapoport, 1994; Tzonis, 2004). For Rapoport, it refers to the survival and supportiveness of cultural and social quality, such as culture, forms of social organization and activity systems, lifestyles, and values (Rapoport 1994). This leads to open-ended environments, which allow for greater participation and stronger identity, at the same time expect new activities (Cai Hui, 2006). Hence sustainability discussed in this paper is a term dealing with the relation between the socio-cultural and economical aspect.

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Figure 1: Three Dimensions of Sustainability (Goodland and Daly, 1996)

3. Mode of vernacular house

The possibility of the construction of a house with one’s hands which is in fact the essence of the traditional mode will always remain marginal in our civilization. The vernacular is not only a unique and special approach to building; it is also a form of life that will always be attractive to human beings. On the other hand, there is a problem it becomes apparent when this vernacular drive is forced to survive in an environment dominated by the modern mode of architecture. Massive migrations from the land to the big cities have produced strange effects, the result of skillful and resourceful people living in a rationalist architectural culture but forced to use vernacular mode of building (Nur Endah, 2006). The more attention needs to pay on social and economic function not on only aesthetic values. Bangladesh traditional houses have a balance between social and economical functionality with the aesthetic design features.

The domestic vernacular in most cultures has depended on readily available or

easily portable resources (Oliver, 1997) they argue with those who consider that the use of locally available materials is a fundamental defining quality of Natural adaptation and balance between function and design features were shared with the academic mode(Poomchai, 2006).

Advantages of the traditional house, is the benefit to be derived from centuries of

experience in adapting form and material selection to achieve comfort in relation to the local climate. The culture and religious values had clearly dominated over rational climatic responses in determining such features as orientation and the size and position of elements such as window and door (Kevin 2006). The religion changed the way of life of people in the society, and indirectly the people modify the traditional house (Mehdi, 2006).

Most of the traditional houses have been determined by the local natural and

climatic conditions, traditions of ethnic culture, and social, economical and technical progress. All these study is to explore the vernacular or traditional house adaptation process in term of the issue of sustainability. 4. Literature review

Previous study for the interrelationship between performance, operation and morphology will also help to understand the transference of the “gene” of

Environment

Economy Society

Social Sustainability Cultural Identity

Empowerment Accessibility

Stability Equity

Environmental Sustainability Ecosystem integrity Carrying capacity Biodiversity

Economic Sustainability Growth Development Productivity Trickle-down Human Well Being

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sustainability inside tropical vernacular (Cai Hui, 2006). The designer can only make the decision in as integrated and sensible way as they can (Lawson, 1997). Many of their decision based on their assumption of validity of these traditional houses in related to sustainability, which will inevitably lead to some errors in design. Hence this study attempts to look for explanation of such phenomenon by probing into the unknown process of traditional adaptation in design.

In the west sumbanese traditional clan houses are always constructed by the

community itself. The house can be conceptually divided in three parts as the top, the middle and the bottom, in which their ancestral spirits, the people and their livestock live, respectively (Teow, 2006).

Sustainable housing should be well available, high-quality, economical,

ecological, aesthetical design, comfortable and cost one, which would better suit the needs of a person (Vida, 2009). 5. Methodology of study

The main information in this study was acquired through a field survey conducted from April to June 2007. Some examples were studied of traditional houses in Bangladesh. Data varied from direct documentation to socio-demographic information, interview data, drawing and data for analysis. The techniques of photographing, sketching, measurement and drawing provided a way to create lay-outs, plans and calculate elevations. The house transformation patterns, typical materials, groups of construction characteristics were then investigated and defined for further analysis. 6. Social Sustainability Adaptation in Traditional House

Development

Bangladesh traditional houses natural adaptation and balance between socio-cultural function and design features were shared with the traditional mode. Traditional artistic training, lead to the imposition of a kind of highly sophisticated technological architecture in Bangladesh that nevertheless, is vulgar, aesthetically. The evolution of the traditional houses throughout history has been a response to factors such as geography, climate, socio-culture, craftsmanship and materials. The use of local natural materials is considered to be one of the major principles that denote traditional houses. Mud, wood, bamboo, jute stick and grass thatch were primary materials available for the traditional houses in Bangladesh. Culturally people of Bangladesh cultivate trees, bamboo and other natural building materials as the resources for use in constriction and repair. Planting should be done in rural areas as income generation source. Economical bamboo farms established to demonstrate potential of improve and sustainable bamboo production and to address the environmental implications of the decline of this local resource. Improving bamboo cultivation methods have been developed by the Bangladesh Forest Research Institute (BFRI). Such farms founded on the principle of sustainable production of bamboo would allow generating sustainable livelihoods for local cultivators, artisans, manufacturers a entrepreneurs. The farm can work as a model of how bamboo cultivation can be part of the rural environment and serve a variety of domestic and community needs of a village for social sustainability.

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Figure 2: Homestead Rose through Community-Based Program of CARE in Kurigram (ADPC)

For flood-prone areas in Bangladesh, an indigenous practice is to build the traditional house on a raised mound. It is built with earth from the excavation of canals and ponds. Community-based groups were formed to collect earth from local silted riverbanks or alluvial deposits, or nearby canals or ditches. This earth was used to raise existing homesteads or to build new raised homesteads above flood level (ADPC, 2005). It is important that the piled earth is compacted properly, again using community based efforts with locally available hand tampers and rammers to adopt sustainability.

The basic requirement for housing is land, which should ideally be suitable for

construction. However, in Bangladesh because of high population density and competition for land, acquiring suitable land for settlement is difficult and sometimes impossible for low-income households. Therefore, the framework of organized housing programs is arranged by community development organizations. Organizations contribute to the quality of efforts to build adequate flood-resistant sustainable traditional housing.

Figure 3: Typical Layout in Bangladesh Traditional Houses of Courtyard

Concept. (ADPC)

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Typical Layout Features in Bangladesh traditional houses follow a courtyard concept. A group of separate units surround an open space and thus define the courtyard. Each unit is essentially a one or two roomed structure accommodating different functions such as dwelling units for extended family members, kitchens and granaries. Toilets and outhouses such as cowsheds are located on the periphery of the homestead. The layout is introverted, that is, the units face away from the outside and are accessed through the courtyard. Entry into the compound from the outside is through gaps between units. The surroundings are extensively planted with trees along the boundary and strengthen the introverted layout. Traditionally, the courtyard is an activity space, accommodating various household activities, drying clothes and other items such as condiments, working, winnowing and husking rice receiving guests, etc. The court yard serves a function even it in some cases, only as reception or circulation space. Such courtyards are in rural homesteads their surface consists of bare, beaten earth. Courtyard appears as principally cultural design element. The social and cultural meaning of the traditional courtyard has been stripped and thus, tine apparent continuity with tradition can be interpreted as somewhat superficial.

Attic space of traditional house in Bangladesh is locally known as upper space.

Upper space is the most common feature of all types of the traditional houses in Bangladesh, which plays a vital role in thermal environment of the living space (Rumana, 2007). Upper space design came from the user demand. Bangladesh is an agricultural country. Culturally, people need to store their reserve corns on the upper space of all times (Figure 4). In the post monsoon periods, people accumulated a huge amount of paddy, wheat, beans, etc at a time. So people need a huge storage space and the upper space serves this purpose. The monsoon is the longest season covering the months of June to September, a period with heavy rain 781mm to 1499 mm recorded in Dhaka, with the average relative humidity above 80% and an average temperature of 31ºC. During this period, for heavy rainfalls and melting of Himalayan’s ice, flood occurs in Bangladesh for two or three months of every year. During flood periods, floors of the house and the surrounding are flooded which force people to take their necessary household items to the upper spaces.

Figure 4: The Ladder of Upper Space Entry and Window Opening of the Upper

Space

Social privacy and security feelings are closely related to sustainability. Gain

knowledge base of the social sustainability through learning from practical

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performance of the traditional house in Bangladesh. The Bangladesh has very rich socio-culture which influences the local social life of the peoples in the Bangladesh. Socio-cultural privacy and security which is important for Muslim according to their religion and cultural need. It also influences the arrangement of the traditional house. An introverted courtyard is shut out all males except immediate members of the household. Living room is placed separate from private space and facing toward out side. Screening for privacy from neighbors is done by natural light weight material and greenery planted in the surrounding of the traditional house to block the view from outside. 7. Conclusion

The finding would indicate the factors influencing the Bangladesh traditional houses and therefore form the basis of design and development. It is also signify how traditional houses adapt to the community force in this era for social sustainability. The socio-cultural sustainability which is not resistant to change would be allowed for developing, renewing, and maintaining most of the Bangladesh traditional houses. The social sustainability methods need to be supported by the guidance from this paper to redefine the improper developments in Bangladesh. The significance of this study is to increase the awareness for sustainable traditional houses. Reference ADPC (2005), Handbook on Design and Construction of Housing for Flood-Prone

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