Leh, Ladakh: 

 Ladakh, being a cold desert, is largely dependent on heating sources during winters, be it burning fuels like wood and cow dung or burning kerosene. With the supply of electricity, there is also the option of electrical heaters. This leads to carbon content in the atmosphere and is a major contributor to climate change, which is directly affecting the surroundings in Ladakh.

With a rise in population and the need for more residential houses, eco-friendly solar buildings emerged as a one-stop solution for chilling winters and a sustainable future.

Konchok Norgay, a solar home builder, who has built more than 50 projects, highlights the need for solar buildings in recent times and why it is a better option than burning fuels. He says, “Every year the requirement for fuel such as wood is increasing and with time price is also increasing and thus burning fuel is an expensive practice. Secondly, for our health, burning a bukhari inside our house is not good. Burning the wood takes in most of the oxygen in the room and also produces smoke, which affects our health.”

The windows that are south-facing are made big with double glass to trap the heat. A solar building can be made with mud blocks which are traditionally used in Ladakh and rammed earth which makes this one-of-a-kind building an eco-friendly and sustainable house. A solar building is first made south facing and the walls are constructed thick compared to normal houses. To trap the heat, the walls are insulated with materials such as thermocol, saw dust, wood shaving or some other insulating material. 

Konchok Norgay shared that he has received many positive stories from the solar buildings he has constructed where they tell him that we didn’t have to use heating even once in winter. For the betterment of our future solar building is an essential part as there is a constant rise in pollution, he says, “As the saying goes every drop makes the ocean, so is the case with burning fuel, every individual that burns fuel thinking that one person won’t make a difference, there are hundreds of individuals. This is not just about one year as winter will come every year and smoke will keep rising, thus to protect the fragile ecosystem of Ladakh, solar buildings are a very viable option”.

Rammed earth uses the soil available and there is no requirement for good quality soil like that for mud bricks. Kunzang shares, “ A solar building will never have a minus temperature and the usual temperature is usually 15 degrees. A rammed earth home can add solar insulation and this makes it a fully eco-friendly home with natural heating. In the rammed earth process, the soil is poured within the shutters and pressed down which gives it a good finishing”. Kunzang Tsepal, another solar builder from Ladakh shares that traditional homes made from mud bricks and stones were made given the environment. Rammed earth which is a traditional process is gaining more traction right now due to it being sustainable, and there are ancient buildings in Ladakh such as the wall at Shey village which have used this process. 

“There was a time when people started building extensively with cement as they could see quick results but they did not understand the long-term effect. Homes made with cement are extremely hot during the summer and cold during the winter. Our traditional homes made from mud bricks didn’t have this problem. People realised this after staying in cement homes and are back to the traditional way now,” adds Kunzang.

Kunzang says that it is important to use traditional methods but also to add modern techniques to better the durability and quality. For instance, he says, “With climate change there is an increase in rain which may affect the rammed earth building. To prevent this, we add 5 per cent cement or lime to make the wall strong and survive the rain.”

With the impact of climate change the temperatures during summer have also increased. Solar homes act like a thermos keeping it warm during the winters and cool during the summers. Other than that when made from traditional materials such as poplar trees and other materials available from the earth, a home such as this is the most eco-friendly abode you could imagine.

To promote green buildings and sustainable homes, Stanzin Phuntsog is working meticulously towards building homes from natural materials and imparting this education to future architects and students by giving on site workshops through his venture Earth Building. He says, “Using local materials is our utmost priority and we try to get most materials from the village itself. For instance, using mud bricks in Shey-Thiksey region and using stones in Nubra region as that is easily available there.”

He adds, “The youth these days understand the value of being connected to our roots. There was a time when modern materials came to Ladakh and people started using it as it was a new exposure and easy to build or use. The same is the case with architecture and buildings where people started using cement and aluminium sheets. However, things have changed and people now understand the value of traditional methods. However, it is also necessary to mix modern techniques with our traditional methods to get the best results.”