KVPT’s Patan Darbar Earthquake Response Campaign - Work to Date - September 2016

A "Recipe for Restoration,"
published in the 1992 ICOMOS
proceedings, describes how such
seismic strengthening strategies
were integrated into a program of
repair and rebuilding which prioritized
interventions using traditional
mud mortar, brick, and timber,
as well as the retention of historic
building fabric.
at risk, with rebuilding/new construction projects to receive
ring beams at the foundation level as well. (See Dr.
Walther Mann’s and John Sanday’s recommendations
for concrete ring beams from manuals prepared as part
of the Bhaktapur Development Programme and Hanuman
Dhoka Restoration projects, respectively.)
Such seismic design sensibility describes the early temple
repairs of KVPT. A “Recipe for Restoration,” published
in the 1992 ICOMOS proceedings, described how such
seismic strengthening strategies were integrated into a
repair and rebuilding program which prioritized the use
of traditional mud mortar, brick, and timber and retaining
historic building fabric. Adding waterproof membranes
to historic roofing assemblies was unquestioned
standard practice. As soon as water penetrated the roof,
these structures deteriorated quickly with the monsoon
rains- five years could take a building. It also went without
saying that substituting of wood planking and bitumen
tar felt for the historical lathe or tile underlayment
to the roof mud followed from the Venice Charter’s justification
of the use of modern materials. The Charter’s
Article 10 reads: “Where traditional techniques prove
inadequate, the consolidation of a monument can be
achieved by the use of any modern technique for conservation
and construction, the efficacy of which has been
shown by scientific data and proved by experience.”
This early work of KVPT, including Uma Maheswor
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