60% of structure
Bamboo
Locally cultivated golden and muli bamboo, borax-treated. Tensile-strong, harvested every three years.
Architecture & Sustainability
A building should disappear kindly.
An experimental laboratory in low-cost eco construction — bamboo, earth, recycled wood and stone, designed in conversation with foreign experts and the craftspeople of the delta.
Philosophy · 01
Light footprint, long life, open authorship.
Aranya's architecture is not a style. It is a method — borrowed from the kuthi-bari, refined with contemporary detailing, and stress-tested in the wettest, hottest months of the year. Every choice is measured against three quiet questions.
- i.
Could the land return?
If the resort closed tomorrow, the wetland could re-claim every site within one growing season.
- ii.
Could the village build it?
Every detail is buildable with hand tools, by the people who live within walking distance.
- iii.
Could anyone copy it?
Every drawing is open-source. The point is not Aranya. The point is the method.
02
centuries — lime plaster lifespan
14 m
woven bamboo vault span
Materials · 02
Six honest materials, six relationships.
Nothing arrives in a sealed sack from a factory. Each material is grown, pressed, woven or quarried inside a sixty-kilometre radius.
Hover · examine
Walls · thermal mass
Earth Blocks
Compressed stabilised earth blocks, pressed on site from delta clay and rice husk. Zero firing.
Floors · joinery
Recycled Wood
Reclaimed teak and sal from decommissioned boats, jetties and village houses across the region.
Foundations · piers
Natural Stone
Sylhet river-bed stone, dry-stacked. No mortar. Foundations the rain can move through.
Sustainable roofing
Local Thatch
Layered golpata palm leaf over woven bamboo battens. Cool, breathable, replaceable in a day.
Insulation
Mycelium Panel
Grown in the lab from rice-straw substrate. Composts back to soil at end of life.
Construction · 03
Four innovations, all reversible.
01
Floating foundations
Stone piers and bamboo pontoons. Every structure is reversible — the land can return to wetland in a single season.
02
Hand-woven vaults
Bamboo vault spans of up to 14 m, woven on the ground and lifted in a single day with rope, pulley, and the whole village.
03
Lime over earth
Self-healing hydraulic lime plaster over earth-block walls. Breathable, two-century lifespan, no VOCs.
04
Open-source details
Every junction, joint and section drawing published on our public archive. Free to copy. Free to improve.
Section · Pavilion 04
Drawn by the village carpenter. Annotated by the Copenhagen studio.
Climate Design · 04
Passive first. Mechanical last.
The wetland is hot, wet and exacting. We design with it — not against it. Eighty percent of cooling, shading and water comes from the building itself.
Cross-ventilation
−6°C
Through-draft cooling via opposing louvres at floor and ceiling height.
Deep overhangs
−4°C
1.8 m eaves block monsoon sun while keeping diffuse light.
Rainwater harvest
100%
11,000 L cisterns per pavilion. Enough for the dry months.
Solar integration
112%
Roof-integrated PV exceeds operational load; surplus to the village grid.
Collaboration · 05
Foreign experts, in residence.
Aranya is built in dialogue. A rotating cohort of architects, engineers and material scientists work alongside village craftspeople — not as consultants, but as co-authors.
- Vernacular climate design
Marina Tabassum
Architect · Dhaka
- Bio-circular detailing
Studio BIG
Practice · Copenhagen
- Bamboo engineering
Ibuku Lab
Practice · Ubud
- Mycelium composites
Wageningen UR
Research · Netherlands
Craftsmanship · 06
Built by the hands that live here.
Every weaver, mason, carpenter and potter on the project lives within fifteen kilometres. Wages are set above the regional average — and a share of every booking returns to the craft cooperative.
47
Artisans
15 km
Max radius
1.7×
Above avg wage
Impact · 07
Measured. Published. Repeatable.
Every figure below is audited annually by an independent assessor and posted to our public archive — alongside the raw data behind it.
−118%
Carbon
Annual offset vs operations
94%
Local materials
Sourced within 60 km
0 kg
Concrete & steel
Across every structure
47
Village craftspeople
Employed year-round
“The point of Aranya is not Aranya. The point is the method — and the method is yours to take.”
— From the open archive, vol. iii
