Incremental Housing: Design Approach for Kathmandu

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis was to highlight and present a proactive urban strategy of incremental housing. A case study was proposed enlightening the role, design concepts, features and goals of the incremental housing strategy in the densely populated Kathmandu valley. The approach of this thesis provided a deep understanding of current housing demand and suggested incremental housing as a possible approach and solution to counteract the existing situation. This thesis highlighted the step by step theoretical and practical measures underlining the profits, challenges and overall progress of the strategy to the low-income community for improving the quality of living.

The thesis studied different existing housing types on the basis of literature, interviews and case studies. The study looked into different topics, such as material cost, energy management, building design modelling and sustainability. Furthermore, as a design approach different prototypes were created with different functions allowing deep investigation of functionality and reliability of various disciplines. The results suggested that incremental housings could be a solution of boosting quality housing for low income people in highly dense cities.