Oral histories in design: Learning from the case study of a contemporary handmade house in the Indian Himalayas.
The Himalayan region is seeing unprecedented growth in tourism
in recent years, giving rise to a range of rapidly changing building and interior landscape – many
of which are unsuitable and unsustainable for the local climate and communities. Spacehouse
Himalayas, an artist residency in the Indian Himalayas has been an atypical design and
architecture venture. It was designed by a Scandinavian architect, along with several other women
designers, and built almost entirely by hand by Indian craftspeople. The project involved
translating Swedish engineering ideas using local materials and skills to create a modern day
climatically controlled space that used minimum energy to cool or warm itself.
