Location: Darwaz, Badakhshan, Afghanistan

Date of Start and Completion: 2019

Area: 2.4 hectares

Clients: Aga Khan Agency for Habitat

Project Description:

The main objective of this project was to develop habitat planning and affordable rural housing models to set for the mountainous area of the newly identified land plot based on the Habitat Assessment.

The first part of the project aimed to prepare an appropriate site plan relocation for the Dehkhaw village. Hazardous site conditions, as determined by Aga Khan Agency for Habitat (AKAH) risk studies were determined that the best choice was to relocate the village. This project developed alternatives for site planning of Dasht-e-Dehkhaw according to the Habitat Planning (HP) framework prepared by AKAH and the “Green Planning” approach. It is worth mentioning that the green planning approach includes several components such as risk, environment, climate, culture, and economy. In this process, in-depth studies on “socio-economic priorities” and “physical and land use priorities’ were carried out to promote the HP framework by reviewing past studies. Finally, feasibility analysis and implementation considerations were provided including scheduling, cost-benefit analysis, and monitoring framework.

The second part of the project aimed to prepare an affordable housing model for rural houses of Dasht-e-Dehkhaw. The design of rural housing has various dimensions, including cultural, climatic, topological, economic, and technical. In this project, the aim was to achieve a suitable model of rural housing that could be both affordable and adaptable to the mountainous climate and to consider the cultural patterns of the Dehkhaw people and their livelihood needs. In this process, in-depth studies on “needs analysis” were carried out to provide a reasonable model for rural affordable housing, after that the incremental procedure of construction and design guidelines were provided.

Provided Services

• Habitat Planning Based on Habitat Assessment for Dasht-e-Dehkhaw (2.8 Hectare)
• Developing Affordable Rural Housing Model (Plain and Mountainous Region)
• Developing Implementation Methodology and Tools for Habitat Assessment and Planning of AKAH Framework.