Ladakh :The land at risk!

Ladakh has one of the most extreme climates known to mankind. It is cold and arid - with temperatures ranging from minus 30°C in winters to plus 30 °C in summers. Glacial melt is the only source of water here and many regions experience cold and dry howling winds periodically. Yet, the Ladakhis have not merely survived but thrived through indigenous wisdom and knowledge passed from one generation to another. Their architecture and building techniques are testimony to this.Traditionally, the Ladakhi communities and villages would get together and build houses using material available in their immediate surroundings – their walls were built of stone or mud (rammed earth or sun-dried adobe bricks), roofs were made with beams of local poplar wood and willow shoots covered with grass, straw, mud or clay that also served as insulation. The doors and windows were small, walls were thick and solid, and the roof was used to store straw or animal dung thereby making the building design intuitively suitable for the extreme climate.Though these buildings were the best for their times, they still were quite cold. In winters, for instance, all the members of the family would occupy just one room, mostly the chansa where the bukhari was kept to heat the room.The so-called modern buildings now-a-days use materials, design and work force that are not alien to the region’s peculiarities. Houses with a freezing indoor make them uninhabitable in winters. Therefore, people either become winter refugees or rely on extensive solid and fossil fuel for space-heating. Passive Solar Design – drawing energy from the nearest star! In an interesting contrast, the extreme cold climate of Ladakh and its high altitude is blessed with 300 sunny days every year. It receives some of the highest solar radiation in India. With passive solar design strategies this free energy can be used to meet space heating needs of the buildings with high efficiency. This would not only save hundreds of crores of rupees in foreign exchange but also help in maintaining quality of life of its residents while reducing the burden of greenhouse gas (GHG) and black soot emissions. Passive solar heating design strategies coupled with earthen construction techniques would put Ladakh on the fast-track mode to achieve the Prime Minister’s vision of a Carbon Neutral Ladakh besides, it would also improve the health of its residents and provide basic facilities like tap water to every house.Several organizations like Ladakh Ecological Development Group (LEDeG), Students& Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL), The Himalayan Institute of Alternatives, Ladakh (HIAL) and Sheshyon Innovations have been trying to promote this clean technology for decades. Sheshyon is there on the scene with 30 years of experience backed with extensive research on new construction materials and design to achieve new performance benchmarks that were beyond imagination in the initial stages! Sheshyon proclaims: “we prefer to use the free earth below our feet and the free sun above our heads to design and construct comfortable living spaces for all.”PSH Earthen Buildings - A Boon for the Occupant and the Environment Passive solar earthen buildings are simple, reliable, cheap, have a relatively longer system life and offer crucial basic facilities like optimum moisture control and year-round flowing tap water. The trick of the technology is in the effective design of the building and the correct use of different building construction materials. A passive solar building needs special designing skills and a trained site supervisor for flawless execution. We have successfully demonstrated that much can be achieved using commonly available local building and insulating materials. Research shows that the cost of Passive Solar buildings almost equals that of the conventional buildings. In fact, the cost of heating a conventional building in 10 years exceeds the cost of construction of a passive solar heated building. These buildings also remain naturally cool during the summer because of the same design features which help in heating in winters. How it works:These buildings are oriented towards the solar south (different from magnetic south) and have a double-glazed façade on the south for maximum heat capture from low-lying sun during winters. This heat is stored in the modified Trombe walls, other internal walls and floor (as applicable) made of concrete blocks and water bottles. The stored heat is slowly released into the interiors at night and cloudy spells. All the other surfaces are highly insulated, and all openings are airtight to prevent heat losses.Benefits and implications of PSH Buildings:These techniques help to achieve an optimal temperature of +15 to 17 °C indoors even when the outside temperature is -14 to -20 °C, eradicating need for any artificial heating systems. This saves several tons of GHG emissions a year. And make passive solar heating a regenerative solution for the extremely fragile climate of Ladakh. An optimal comfortable indoor temperature during winters also helps boost the productivity of its occupants, which in turn helps boost the economic growth of the region. The adoption of Passive solar buildings by Looms of Ladakh is a step towards realising the vision of a carbon neutral Ladakh through ‘Citizen movement’ and an initiative towards“Sustainable Energy for all”.Adoption of Passive solar buildings by Looms of Ladakh is a step towards realising the vision of a carbon neutral Ladakh through ‘Citizen movement’ and an initiative towards “Sustainable Energy for all”.

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Ladakh :The land at risk!

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