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
