SPARC

Society for the Promotion of Art and Culture

Straw + Simplicity = Quake Resistance

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A women’s community center was built of straw bales in Jabori, Pakistan in 2006. Read the story by By ANDREW C. REVKIN at Ny Times

Related: Appropriate Housing

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 8:00 AM, ,

Nepal Project

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I was in a village called Kasur, near Lahore. They had some flat roofed earth buildings which were just fascinating. The mud plaster, craftsmenship, the roof were exquisite. But unfortunately they are being replaced by modern construction material. I asked an elderly person about his perception on the mud building and he said, there is a “firman” that when all the mud buildings are replaced, then the prophet will come back again. Is that a common perception?

But anyways its a great initiative. We are doing similar stuff in Nepal, please check http://www.abari.org by Nirpal.

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 9:19 AM, ,

Gaza's New Mud Homes

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The Muslims of Gaza are now re-building their lives using mud bricks! A Palestinian had travelled to South Asia and saw how the people lived in mud dwellings, and used the idea in Gaza. Now it is recieving funding and help, and the people are building their own mud brick homes.
From BBC

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 9:12 AM, ,

Students of Architecture from Lahore on excursion trip to TGD

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Thatta Ghulamka Dheroka, commonly called Dolls Village, has special attraction for all those who are interested in architecture and those who are interested in traditional housing. Thanks to the long standing experiences of the TTTC with simple technology and mud housing, combined with the cooperation with SPARC in Lahore that the common perception about local and environment friendly materials has undergone a fundamental change. Through the initiative IEC@BNU and through the FPAC Foundation, which publishes the quarterly magazine GREEN MAG, for the first time architecture students and professors have visited the project intentionally in order to acquaint themselves with the traditional mud architecture and how it exists in Thatta Ghulamka Dheroka. On their way to the village, between Lahore and Okara, the group also visited a Bio-Gas-Installation facility. Here are some images of the trip.
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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 8:46 AM, ,

Fine Art of Mud Architecture

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 10:20 AM, ,

Fine Art of Mud Architecture

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 9:13 AM, ,

PhD in Architecture

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University of Southern California, Los Angeles is seeking students to join their doctoral program in architectural technology in Fall 2010 in their globally diverse program.

The University is looking for students interested in all aspects of the building envelope: sustainability, daylighting, structures, computing, BIM, energy performance, power generation, glare, intelligent skins, etc.
We have substantial scholarships, an outstanding new facility, and extraordinary faculty. This year we hired three new tenure track faculty members in architectural technology.

For more information, please contact: Douglas Noble, FAIA, Ph.D., Chair of the Ph.D. Program School of Architecture, University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA 90089-0291, USA

Email: dnoble@usc.edu or www.usc.edu/

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 10:20 AM, ,

SPARC Overview

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 11:21 PM, ,

Housing in Rural, Urban and Fully-Autonomous Entities

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Prof Dr Norbert Pintsch (DGFK, Germany) & Aaron Pinsker (IPC, USA)
In Cooperation With:
SPARC (Ghayyoor Obaid) & TTTC (Omar M. Ali), Pakistan
CAT (Njini King Caro), Cameroon
TM (Ricardo Coslez), Colombia


Introduction
This article again refers to “housing”, the architectural, economical and philosophical aspects of which have already been discussed. In this article we will discuss the scientific and technological aspect (Architecture, Urban & Regional Planning) which however are not totally independent of other areas of the culture. As clear-cut diagrams and illustrations mean more than words for the engineer and scientist, the accompanying text may be considered a literary explanation of the important inter-relationship. A very simple text for the illustrations would probably not appropriately describe the total picture.

Housing in Rural, Urban and Fully-Autonomous Entities
In the following we will discuss the very basic questions of "housing" and describe the range of possibilities between the Rural Entity and the Fully-Autonomous entities, in the middle of which is the most widely practiced concept of Urban entity. Seen from a total perspective, the Urban entity is the subject as well as the object, because the actors in this system are not able to act freely as they are bound by the compulsions and dictations of economy. The actors are forced to act in the way as they do because the system does not allow any other alternative. And: the actors in the system don’t even realize that they are not acting of their own but actually are being acted upon !
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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 10:47 PM, ,

Contacts Mud Village Project

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Monitoring: SPARC / SES, Anees Yaqub, 042-3631 43 83
summit@brain.net.pk

IPC / SPARC, Norbert Pintsch, 0300-8461 226
pdp33@hotmail.com

Profile / IPC, Ghayyoor Obaid, 0333-452 4 222
ghayyoor@hotmail.com

SPARC / C and I, SAJ Shirazi, 0300-8131855
sajshirazi@gmail.com

Tikedar: Muhammad Iqbal, Harappa, 0300-69 20 826
qamarzaman23@hotmail.com

Appropropriate Technology: Farooq Achmed / AFA (NGO)-TTTC, 0300-41 74 360
farooqrai@hotmail.com

Plot: PeerzadaGroup / RPT, Faizaan Peerzada, 0300-842 40 10
faizaan.peerzada@peergroup.com.pk

COMSATS Lahore, Prof Dr Rafq Malik, Chairman Faculty of Architecture, 0342-416 95 89
drrafiqmalik@ciitlahore.edu.pk

Prof Shahnawaz Zaidi, 0321-94 31 994
shahnawazz@hotmail.com

Prof Ehtesham Hussain, 0300-98 19 149
ehtesham_hussain@comsats.edu.pk

Punjab University, Lahore, Prof Dr Anis A. Siddiqi, Dean, Faculty of Architecture and Design, 0321-840 5273
anissiddiq2001@yahoo.com
anis@cad.pu.edu.pk

COMSATS, Abbottabad, Prof Dr Amir H. Malik, 0300-58 11 639
ahmalik@ciit.net.pk

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 10:01 PM, ,

Use of Mud Architecture in Pakistan

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Sample of Mud Architecture from Pakistan

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 9:13 PM, ,

Making sense of social media

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See how I got PageRank increase on May 3, 2012

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 11:16 AM, ,

Thatta Kedona

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Volunteers: Dr. Senta Siller, Dr. Norbert Pintsch, Jane Carew-Reid, Dr. Karola Groch, Inge Keindl, Uta Moeller, Dr. Sophie Kuppler, Berhard Staeck, Erika Burchhardt, Gertrud Baier, Renate Perner, Lutz Fluegge, Dr. Nadine Jaeger, Isabel Merkel, Marleen Hamid, Monika Kuppler, Sabine Piltz, Stephanie Walter, Gundula Gomoll, Alexandra Scherer, Rainer Schmitt, Helga Schmitt-Pritz, Dr. Tobias Leonhardt, Marlies Bartkiewitz, Dr.Gwendolyn Kulick, Gittebritt Pintsch, Dr Leila Siller, Dr. Elizabeth Carew-Reid, Ursula Huette, Dr. Amir Malik, Khalid Javaid, Lok Virsa, S A J Shirazi, Ulrike Vestring, Omar M. Ali, AFA (NGO)

Thatta Kedona cooperation with: SPARC, FPAC, BNU, IPC, DGFK

Projects: Kite-project, LC-project, Village Museum, Internet Radio Station, Buffalo Pond, TTTC, WAC, BHU, WaterProject, IEC@BNU

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 12:47 AM, ,


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