Manali Architecture Vlog

[00:00:00]This right here is a non-toxic home.

[00:00:02]This is my Manali architecture blog. I started my day by going to the famous Atal Tunnel. This is the city of Manali and all the way over here is Keylong. If you wanted to go from here to here, this was the route you had to take. It took 6 hours and that too only if the weather was good. Today, you can travel this distance in just 2 hours and it is all thanks to this amazing piece of engineering. This is the Atal Tunnel, a 9-km long road that cuts through a mountain. On a map, this looks like a straight line, but to achieve this, a mountain had to be drilled through and it took 10 long years to do it. The original idea was simple, excavation would happen from both ends so that both the teams could meet in the middle. But during winter, since the way to the other side was closed off because of snow, the tunnel during some months was only dug up from one side. So, because of this, 3/4 of the tunnel was dug from the south side and only 1/4 from the north end. There were numerous challenges in trying to build this passage, but today it serves thousands and thousands of people and ensures safer travel through the mountains. Once we reached the other side, I explored the beautiful surroundings. My mom and I even went on a zip line to celebrate her 55th birthday. But then while driving, I noticed something alongside the road.

[00:01:12]So, here, a lot of the buildings are built as dry masonry, so there's no mortar used. So, even here, there are these retaining walls to keep the mountain at bay and here you can see they have used these metal cages to sort of bind these rocks together and they are just in place. They are just one on top of another. There's no mortar or no cement actually binding the entire thing. This type of wall is called the gabion wall. Finally, after spending some time on the mountains, we came back to the other side and visited the famous Hadimba Devi Temple. Okay, so the first thing you would have noticed here is there are these four tiers [music] to this temple. Each tier just keeps receding back. The three tiers are actually made out of wood, but the top tier, that is actually made out of metal. The conical shape at the top is designed to easily shed heavy snowfall and rain, preventing moisture from accumulating and protecting the wooden structure below. And here on the woodwork of this temple, you can find some really intricate and beautiful carvings. Finally, I ended my day by visiting a non-toxic home. So, this is a house recently made by the studio North in Himachal. Constructed using local building methods, this earthquake resilient home is made out of wood, stone, and mud. The wood here provides structural strength and flexibility to the structure, while the stone is the thermal mass that retains heat, making this house very comfortable to be in even in snowy winters. The final ingredient here is the mud plaster, which is made out of clay, husk, manure, and lime. And this is primarily what the architects say makes this home non-toxic. [music] This plaster, as they say, is breathable, since they don't trap the air inside like concrete or cement plasters. And that was my day in Manali.

[00:02:52]So, what did you think of the places that I saw? Let me know in the comments below and follow Blessed Arch for more such videos.