$2,500 Vernacular Home

XYLab

Short description

The $2,500 Vernacular Home is a sustainable residence designed for Para Dash, the bamboo village of Modonpur, Bangladesh. All materials are sourced locally: mud, straw, and bamboo are gathered directly from nature, while bricks and tin sheets are produced nearby using local resources. The total construction budget—including materials and labor—stayed under $2,500.
The clients are a family of four: parents and their son with his wife. Given Bangladesh’s hot climate and long monsoon season, the design addresses thermal comfort and climate responsiveness through spatial layout, façade design, and roof form. A raised veranda protects against flooding, and steeply pitched roofs ensure efficient rainwater runoff. Rooms are arranged for optimal cross-ventilation, with varying window heights on windward and leeward sides to expel heat. On the tea house façade, locally made clay pots from a neighboring village are inserted into the mud wall to help cool the air by compressing airflow, enhancing microclimate comfort.
Programmatically, the house includes two private bedrooms, a kitchen, a toilet, two cow sheds, and a future child’s room. A small weaving space for the daughter-in-law is placed on the upper-level balcony outside their bedroom, allowing her to work while staying connected with the family. A tea house and small shop, supporting the parents' livelihood, sit at the edge of the courtyard along the village road, providing both privacy to the home and easy access for the community.
Due to limited electricity, the roof integrates “liter bottles of light” to illuminate interior spaces. Every aspect of the project—from materials to building methods—is grounded in local knowledge and ecology, making the home a true expression of vernacular sustainability.