A Study of Planning, Design and Construction of Buildings in Hilly Regions of India

Abstract

The architecture on hills always seems to be beautiful, attractive and soothing to eyes of the people, but there is a challenge for architects and structural engineers for planning, design and construction of these buildings. The planning and design of buildings in a hill settlement is a tedious and challenging task due to difficult terrain, steep gradient, adverse climatic conditions, rich flora and proneness to natural hazards. Numerous multi-storied buildings with contemporary materials and techniques are being constructed in different hill settlements without respecting the context, which affect health and wellbeing of residents and cause severe damage to sensitive fragile environment in and around hill settlements. The building regulations, which are enforced in hill settlements to regulate development and minimize its ill impacts on environment, are contextually not appropriate and lead to contextually inappropriate development and environmental degradation in environmentally sensitive hill settlements. Since vernacular practices are proven to be sustainable, therefore it is essential to take lessons from sustainable vernacular practices for new development and formulation of building regulations for achieving contextually appropriate and sustainable development in hill settlements. This paper analyses the planning, design and construction considerations of buildings in hilly regions in India. In this paper qualitative research method has been used. The systematic literature review of the construction systems of the hilly regions have been explored through internet and secondary data from relevant published academic literature from journals articles and research papers.