A Modular Bamboo Wall System for Seismically Stable, Low-Income Housing in Assam, India
Reviving vernacular seismic knowledge through modular design
H.J.L. Wehry (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
S. Brancart – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
M. Bilow – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
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Abstract
Rural and low-income housing in Assam, India, is undergoing a quiet but dangerous transition. The traditional Assam-type house - a lightweight bamboo and timber-framed structure with a documented record of surviving major earthquakes - is being replaced by unreinforced masonry and concrete, materials that perform poorly under seismic load. Two pressures drive this shift: a cultural perception of concrete as modern, and the increasing scarcity of structural timber. The result is a significant increase in seismic risk for the communities that are most vulnerable.
This thesis asks whether the structural and vernacular logic of the Assam-type house can be carried forward in a modular form that competes with concrete and masonry. The proposed answer is a modular bamboo wall system, developed using the Modular Function Deployment Adapted (MFDA) method through two design iterations. The system uses Guadua bamboo as a structural proxy for native Assam species, IS 1893 for seismic loading, and a parametric Karamba3D model to compare bracing configurations against hard and soft criteria covering modularity, buildability, structural, and seismic performance.
The final system comprises three module types: a 1×3 structural culm module, a panel cladding module, and a corner steel-cable bracing module. It satisfies all hard criteria, achieves a modelled storey drift of 1.57% against an 8% benchmark, weighs 49 kg in its heaviest module, and is buildable on-site by two people using only hand tools. The cable bracing acts as a ductile fuse, dissipating seismic energy in tension yield before any bamboo element reaches its compressive limit.
The result is a viable design proposition: a modular bamboo wall system that, pending full-scale physical testing and material substitution with native Assam species, offers a structurally sound, locally buildable, and culturally continuous alternative to the masonry and concrete construction currently displacing the Assam-type house.