Re-Energizing the'Interrupted' Cultural Landscape : A Proposal for post Disaster Reconstruction of the village Khokana, Nepal

Abstract

A s a person lives life, one’s narrative begins to etch meanings in a particular space, causing it to become a place.” Eric O. Jacobsen. Historic(al) landscapes with their heritage values—cultural landscapes—represent a closely woven net of inter-relationships between people, events and places through time; they are a symbol of the growing recognition of the fundamental links between local communities and their heritage, people and their natural environment and are hence crucial to their identity. Places within the landscape in a cultural setting comprehend a built, social, and cultural environment evolved through the needs, activities, and occupancy of the user that gives places a meaning. This unique collection of qualities and characteristics of a place creates human association and belongingness, which therefore plays an important aspect in the cultural context by integrating people and places. In architectural projects like post-disaster reconstruction, which revolves around the needs of the user of a built space and communities decimated by the disaster, decisions taken become critical as they have a long-term impact on both the community and their built environment. It hence requires us to take into account the cultural, social, and environmental context. The report herewith, is a culmination of an undergraduate architectural thesis project that takes the case of the cultural heritage of Khokana, a satellite Newari settlement of Kathmandu valley to study the spatial configuration determined by its socio-cultural activities through the lens of collective memory mapping. It further analyzes the repercussions sustained by the community in terms of their intangible values and tangible built environment due to the impact of the 2015 Nepal earthquake; thereby, proposing parametric design reconfiguration for enhancing their existing cultural landscapes in the reconstruction process