$2,500 Vernacular Home

The $2,500 Vernacular Home is a sustainable house designed in Para Dash, the bamboo village of Modonpur, Bangladesh. Built with a budget under $2,500, including labor and materials, it uses only local resources: mud, straw, bamboo, bricks, and tin sheets. The home accommodates a family of four, consisting of parents and their son and his wife. To address Bangladesh's hot climate and long monsoon season, the design uses a raised veranda, steeply pitched roofs for rain runoff, and a layout that ensures every room catches the breeze. Varying window heights on windward and leeward sides enhance ventilation. Clay pots from a nearby village are embedded in the tea house façade to cool the air through airflow compression. The house includes two bedrooms, a kitchen, a toilet, cow sheds, and a future child's room. A weaving area for the daughter-in-law sits on the upper-level balcony, allowing her to stay connected to the family while working. The parents' tea house and shop are placed along the village road for accessibility and courtyard privacy. Due to limited electricity, 'liter bottles of light' are used on the roof to brighten interiors. Rooted in local knowledge, the design reflects true vernacular sustainability.
This design comes from the social responsibility of architects. In today's world of rapid technological advancement, there are still regions plagued by poverty and underdevelopment. People living in these areas are more directly exposed to the challenges of the natural climate, yet they deserve the right to live a better quality of life. As architects, we should not only consider how to adapt our designs to local conditions, making use of available materials and creating housing that is practical and scalable, but also respond to the most immediate needs of these communities, ensuring that every family has the opportunity to improve their living environment.

Tin sheet: 2' width * 8' length
Brick: 9 5/8" length* 4 5/8" height * 3" depth
Pottery: large opening is 5" R, and the small side opening is 1.5" R
The mud wall is 10" thick
Bamboo: 1.5" R