SOS Tharparkar
For the SOS Village in Tharparkar, the design intent has been to create a project that is situated in the desert, one with the desert and made from the desert. Located in the vicinity of Islamkot, sits within an extremely hot and arid climactic context.
Locally in Islamkot the local citizens build round mud houses referred to as Choras, Hathas or Bhungas. These work well contextually to curb the heat gain into the interior spaces and build up of sand that could be caused by more orthogonal forms in a desert landscape.
A construction methodology developed by Iranian Architect Nadir Khalili, Earthbag or Super Adobe Construction has been proposed. The 18 inch thick walls and domes help to reduce heat gain by the action of thermal mass, similar to that of the local mud houses.
The master planning of the village further iterates upon the schemes built at the Villages in Jamshoro and Khairpur. The clusters of dwelling units here are conceived as Vandos (a cluster of Hathas). Here the facility also incorporates a Children’s Home in addition to the Youth Home.
Project Team:
- Laiba Memon
- Muhammed Saleem
