A crusader of vernacular architecture; Rahul Bhushan discusses his passion for local architecture

An architect, an educator and an activist—for Rahul Bhushan, all these roles converge. His studio NORTH is not just an architectural practice, but an organisation that works towards the economic growth of indigenous communities, cultural preservation, environmental sustainability, and social development. His passion for vernacular architecture is palpable, and he is on a mission to educate the world about its importance. Sustainability is more than just a philosophy for Rahul; for him, it’s the only way forward. We sat down with him for a candid chat, and what ensued was a passionate conversation about one’s roots, climate change, and the environment. We’ve often asked the question, “Can design change the world?” Rahul truly believes good design can change the world. Here’s an excerpt from the conversation.

Seema Sreedharan (SS): You speak about architecture and design with such passion. One would imagine that you always wanted to be an architect. How did architecture happen to you?

Rahul Bhushan (RB): I chanced upon the architecture entrance exam while trying to avoid the dreaded engineering degree that my family had been pursuing for generations followed by an obvious government job. I always wanted to start my own thing and I aced the exams, getting accepted into all the NITs. My childhood always
revolved around building my own team and assigning them tasks—for things like cleaning up an area in the forest to build a shivling, or starting a club in college that was a community of creative people who helped each other through their fields. More than specifically architecture, I always wanted to do righteous deeds inspired by our rich mythology. I would say looking back, I think all the dots were perfectly aligned to what I am doing now, as if I found my ikigai and followed it with a pure, undoubting faith and let the universe unfold its magic and its plan for me.

SS: Do you remember your first encounter with architecture and the impact it left on you? Were you always inclined towards indigenous architecture? During your days as a student of architecture, did you decide that you will go back to your roots?

RB: The first impact of architecture was our old wooden home in Shimla, small and compact, high risers of staircase, small wooden shuttered windows, and a hamam (wood fired water heater). There, I remember my walks with my grandfather through the colonial buildings on the Mall Road and the Mall Road itself. On the contrary, while growing up in Shimla, Kangra, Kullu and Hamirpur, I saw all the concrete buildings around, and I used to always ask why not build like old times? It had human scale, the materials had character and emotions attached to wood and stone. I used to think of myself as a magician, imagining a bird’s eye view of the mountains; I would make all the concrete buildings disappear and replace them with forests and natural wooden homes. I guess I still do that but unfortunately, I cannot make the buildings disappear. I got into Architecture and found my zone. At NIT Hamirpur, I diversified into various design disciplines, from music to photography, mural art to cultural activities. During this time, I decided to become an entrepreneur inspired by Richard Branson and Steve Jobs. I started a club in NIT for creatives, artists to come together to do impactful projects. I almost lost my interest in mainstream architecture, when during my thesis I picked up a project of Himalayan ski village. That’s when I researched Kathkuni and Himalayan architecture for the first time and reconnected with my roots.

I followed my intuition and got into CEPT for Masters, where I did my research on indigenous building practices in the western Himalayas. Since then, I never looked back and followed my gut feeling of reviving it. I found my answers for future development in that. What I imagined in my mind as an introverted kid, came out in my design practice and as the philosophy of my organisation today.

(SS): NORTH came into existence soon after your graduation. Tell us more about its genesis.

(RB): Looking at the world struggling from one crisis to another, be it climate change, environmental degradation, cultural loss or low quality of living, I felt a responsibility and purpose in dedicating myself to be a part of the solution. Hence, NORTH. I belong to Himachal Pradesh, a small state in the Western Himalayas. I started NORTH as an organisation to work towards the economic growth of our indigenous communities, while being carefully balanced with cultural preservation, environmental sustainability, and social development. We try to bring back lessons from the past and show how to apply them in today’s time. Our way of living and working is inspired from the Himachali way of life, which is also reflected in our work culture, architecture projects, along with the natural cabin where we host travellers. I realised the need for a regional centre in Himachal Pradesh—a space dedicated to empowering local communities, where grassroots-level research and development of contextual circular systems
can be built, where we are documenting our heritage, preserving indigenous oral wisdom, facilitating collaborations between artists and craftspeople. A place that flourishes and defines our culture for the present and future generations. We are constantly sharing our practical lessons and learnings with the world and hosting travellers who learn these values and live a more self-reliant life. I believe we are working with the purest intentions to improve the lives of not only people but the entire ecosystem—our coexistence with nature and a better future for all.

SS: How difficult is it to run a practice in the Himalayas? Take us through the initial days of setting up NORTH.

RB: It may be difficult if we look at it from an outside perspective, but for me this is my purpose—to work for the Himalayas. I enjoy every challenge and with each step we are growing much stronger. I love working within my local community, to tell my people of all the assets we have got, realigning them with our values, and to give them modern day solutions built upon vernacular wisdom. This is my home ground, and nothing can be better than having a campus in the village in the mountains, surrounded by nature and centuries old culture to inspire us. That’s our uniqueness and differentiator.

I started NORTH soon after my Masters. I had my research thesis as a base, and I decided to apply that by restoring an abandoned building in Himachal. I got an opportunity to do that in Naggar. So here I was, in an old British range quarter in a forest above Naggar, where I started NORTH. I restored the building with my own hands, with the help of some volunteers. I was reading, observing, documenting villages and Kathkuni houses, talking to craftspeople and I used to write a lot. I lived a self-sustaining life, growing my own vegetables, cooking my own food, developing the land, restoring the home with mud and wood. Soon, I started sharing my lessons with students through workshops. The initial days of NORTH were the most inspiring for me, when I formulated the ideas into reality. I was soon joined by interns, we did exhibitions, mapped craftspeople, cleaned forests, did crafts workshops for travellers, and soon the word spread.

SS: NORTH is different from other architectural practices. Take us through a typical day at NORTH…

RB: We live on a land surrounded by forest on three sides, on the mountain slopes looking at the wide Beas valley below, towards the west. In our campus, the entire team lives together, by the self-reliant ways of mountain living. We have a home, a studio, a workshop space and the Dhajji cabin in our orchard, beyond which we have wild meadows towards the forest. It’s a creative campus, where we live, cook, make art and architecture as we grow together. At NORTH, our interns and team host travellers, to come and stay with us and experience this life. We get to meet like-minded people, share our work and research with them, they see our passion and experience living in the kind of architecture we are promoting. They get a taste of our culture and leave with an impression of our mission and values. Here, we start early, have responsibilities to maintain our campus, work outside for some time before we start our studio, where we design projects from furniture to interiors, from architectural scale to urban scale, from research to hands-on experimentation. We work tirelessly toward one common goal— sustainable development of the Himalayas, and holistic solutions for the same.

We also build for people with our trained teams of local craftspeople, and we host artist residency programs for contemporary artists and craftsmanship workshops for travellers. Our philosophy of work is to give our best, with passion and determination, and hence there are no working hours as such; one may go for a small hike to the forest in the day and come back and finish their deadlines as per their schedules. We live together and share all of this at our campus.

SS: You’ve worked on some interesting projects – ranging from restoration to new structures using indigenous techniques. Take us through some of your current projects. Which projects are looking forward to?

RB: We are working on design + build projects, which is also our unique expertise of innovated dhajji dewari and kathkuni techniques. We are also working on large scale public projects such as the Rohtang ropeway, cultural hatts, restoration of heritage buildings, urban design of traditional mountain villages, and building/restoring Himalayan temples. Our studio practice is to adapt and be context driven, so even if it is something we have never ventured into before, we gain that knowledge, research everything about it and figure our way forward with it. In fact, that’s the exciting part of the process. I am looking forward to designing and building NORTH’s new campus, which is in an offbeat location nearby. It would be a totally off-grid campus, showcasing the best of indigenous wisdom of settlement patterns, techniques of building, Vastu amalgamated with innovative ideas and latest technology. It would be like a small selfsustaining village, but a larger version of our current campus. I will build it with my own hands, along with my team of craftspeople just like our communities used to do. I can’t wait to start this project, and I am also looking for like-minded people to join me on this project.

SS: Your thoughts on sustainability? What would you suggest should be our path to sustainability?

RB: I don’t like using that term because it is so saturated and has many meanings. I think our present is enough of a clue for people to realise that global warming is not a conspiracy theorist’s imagination. It is here and I don’t have all the answers, but there is no way forward in ignorance, it really isn’t bliss. We need to be true to ourselves, and ask whether we want our children to live in this world we are creating? Sustainability is not an option; it must be a fundamental value in everything we build. We can’t afford to be narrow minded and selfish; we need collective thinking for common good.

SS: Tell us more about your Kathkuni revival journey?

RB: Kathkuni’s revival journey has been one of the best experiences of my life. I would say through this, I have built my character. From understanding the fundamentals of this vernacular system, to the roles of craftspeople involved in the process, I spent years understanding the values and lessons embedded in it. On this journey, I learnt that even more important than the techniques and joineries, is the wisdom of the material. Exploring regional species of wood, stone, experimenting with mud and other local materials, I think of myself as a craftsman, working with the materials, having the skills and knowledge from our time-tested techniques and innovating on that.

SS: What is your vision for NORTH?

RB: The vision for NORTH is to flourish our culture and our coexistence with nature, to inspire a community-driven way of living, and to be a place where we work towards a holistic future of the world. At NORTH, we have five verticals: It starts with the Architecture and Design studio, where we do research and development of the projects; the building construction company that is bridging modern technologies with vernacular wisdom; the educational company that’s dedicated to sharing this knowledge and skills; the eco-tourism company that shares these values and way of living with people/travellers; and a foundation which gives back to our community and environment. It’s like an ecosystem, a campus that supports each other. I want NORTH to be a brand that represents Himachal and become one of the leading social enterprises/organisations in today’s time.

SS: What are your thoughts on Adaptive Reuse?

RB: We have so many buildings that were made using kathkuni, dhajji dewari in Himachal, and similarly in other parts of the world, which were made using local resources and vernacular techniques. These buildings cannot be made in today’s time, in the same scale and proportions. They carry the character of those times and our rich cultural heritage. They also have an emotional value that connects with the communities. Hence, it is so important to preserve them and put the buildings to adaptive reuse.

SS: What inspires you?

RB: My inspiration comes from a deep purpose to serve and value the assets we are given as our heritage and traditions. I see myself as a part of nature, and how can I forget that when I think of our collective future. My team and craftspeople inspire me as I have the responsibility to make things happen; they have trusted my dream and decided to join my mission. This sense of belonging as a community inspires me. When our elders feel proud of our work and young kids from villages look up to us, that inspires me.

SS: Who would you like to collaborate with and why?

RB: I would like to collaborate with organisations, philanthropists, and people who really want to make a positive impact on our communities and environment. UNESCO and other similar international organisations, foundations that are working towards these common goals, I would like to invite them to join us or contribute together, as we bring the most updated grassroot level research and practical inputs. I would also like to collaborate with private stakeholders and investors to invest in this future we are looking at, while we bring a strong foundation of our knowledge and experience for holistic development of our world. We can also be a part of CSR activities for many international brands to create positive impacts. I would like to collaborate with universities across the world, to help us educate upcoming professionals and to publish scientific research papers. The Himalayas have so much to offer to the world in terms of applied sustainability, empirical knowledge systems, time tested techniques and much more; I would love to bridge this gap and invite collaborators to join me on this journey.

SS: You recently collaborated with architect Hiren Patel on a temple. Could you tell us about the collaboration?

RB: We were invited to design and build a temple inspired by the ancient temples of the Himalayas. I saw it as an opportunity to show the world the exclusive Himalayan craftsmanship of woodwork. It was a journey outside Himachal, to explore new regions, new context and gain hands-on exposure. We built the temple in 90 working days, which itself sets a benchmark on how we look at building with wood. The temple design evolved from typical pagoda style of triple-layered pitched roof, the structural framework was made with wooden beam, and interlocked with joineries as learnt from Kathkuni architecture system, and roofing was done with overlapped slate stone. It’s also for the first time in the last century that a pagoda style temple was built from scratch. This not only brings pride to our team and craftspeople, but to all Himachalis to see us promoting our culture and indigenous wisdom. All of this was considered as something that belonged to the past, but our team of local craftspeople and passionate architects showed that it’s not the past but the future of building with natural materials and resilient frameworks. It has a
unique artistic character that can inspire mankind and give hope to how we can take the vernacular architecture systems forward.

SS: Which country/region leads the path in sustainable architecture?

RB: Japan is one of my favourite countries, then Bhutan, followed by few in Europe as well. As I understand, the key is to have strong foundations and a sense of belonging to your region/ culture. That’s where the values are, which are important to develop the right perspective towards sustainability, especially in today’s time when the word has been overused and abused. We must not forget the time-tested wisdom; those are our strong foundations to learn from and then build new ideas and innovation. Our world is so unique, be it context and terrain, be it people and our ways of living; the only architecture that will be truly sustainable is the one that sustains the holistic growth of our economies balanced with cultural preservation, environmental balance and social development. I can see these values in Japan, Bhutan and that’s my vision for the Himalayas too.

SS: If you had a superpower what would that be and what would you do?

RB: Everyone seems to know that climate change is happening, the air quality surrounding us is dangerous for lives in many cities, not just for us but for our future generations as well. We are on high alert when it comes to natural disasters, so much of nature and wildlife is on the verge of extinction. The world is moving from one crisis to another, yet most of us know this and still are just ignorant about it, as if it will not happen to us or when it happens, it will be dealt with then. The more people I meet, the more I realise that only a few feel this responsibility, and we really need to gather people together to work towards this. The only superpower I wish to have right now is to be able to convince such people to see the realities of our actions. To show them the urgency of this matter, for my voice to be heard and to act together.

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