Sustainability assessment of Bhutanese vernacular wattle and daub houses

The modern construction technologies mostly dependent on nonrenewable resources so impose grave challenge to the environment; thus, widespread concern can be found in terms of sustainability of modern construction materials. Earth technology is the ideal tool to tackle the global crisis of environmental degradation; however, such constructions are limited worldwide. Unlike other countries, Bhutan has a considerable fraction of wattle and daub houses. This study reports the construction technology of traditional wattle and daub houses in Bhutan and performs sustainability analysis. The conventional sustainability assessment framework is modified with three additional parameters. Furthermore, sustainability of brick and stone masonry constructions is compared with wattle and daub systems. The sum of findings highlights that wattle and daub houses are more sustainable solutions than other dominant structural forms in Bhutan.

Automated summary

This study examines the construction technology and sustainability analysis of traditional wattle and daub houses in Bhutan, finding that wattle and daub houses are more sustainable in Bhutan compared to other dominant structural forms.