Natural Building Workshop at HIAL

SECMOL Solar and Natural Building Workshop

The participants of the ‘Solar & Natural Building Workshop’, organised by SECMOL, visited HIAL campus to learn about the several eco-friendly and sustainable techniques of construction.Our architects’ team oriented them about the buildings on the campus, which are all constructed using various earth building and solar passive methods. Our architects, Faiza Khan, Sameer and Sujata,sat with them for an interactive session, discussing about their doubts and queries. They elaborately discussed about various solar-passive housing techniques, given the geography of Ladakh and various other mountain regions in the world like Nepal, Ireland, Switzerland, Chile etc. with respect to their specific latitudinal and altitudinal factors.

The participants also worked with the labourers for a day to get hands-on experience of building earth-inspired constructions.They thoroughly enjoyed the session and gained interesting first-hand field experience, which is in line with HIAL’s pedagogical ideology.

Outlook Responsible Tourism Listing: Himalayan Farmstays

It is of utmost joy to announce that ‘Himalayan Farmstays’ was listed as one of the ‘Best Social Impact Project’ by the Outlook Responsible Tourism. This achievement couldn’t have been possible without the hard work of many whose consistent efforts, if not acknowledged, shall be unfair. We firstly thank Mr. Sonam Wangchuk and His Holiness Chetsang Rinpoche for conceptualizing the idea and sowing the seed. We are proud to have an enthusiastic team, Mr. Manish Adlakha, Mr. Chirag Mahajan, Mr. Rigzen Mingyur, our fellows Mr. Himanshu Dua and Mr. Srijan who are constantly encouraged by HIAL’s Founding CEO Ms. Gitanjali JB to take up projects independently.

We congratulate all the other listed organisations and hope they keep up with their good work. This listing makes us humble, and is our first step towards making a responsible change in the tourism industry.

Himalayan Farmstays Giveaway Contest: Lifestraw Bottles

Himalayan Farmstays conducted a giveaway contest with the theme ‘responsible tourism’, on @himalayanfarmstays Instagram page. The participants were expected to share their stories of travelling responsibly, explaining about their bit of contribution towards sustainable tourism.  We received great responses from travellers all over the country. Each one of them shared their inspiring stories and spoke about various concerning issues like garbage disposal (especially plastic), using personal wooden or metal cutlery and other daily use equipments, carrying reusable bags, using publics transport instead of personal vehicle, promoting local culture and community engagement so on and so forth. The winners were Mithila Holla, Abhishek Khetan and Avantika Chaturvedi.

The giveaway reward were three LifeStraw bottles, which was consciously selected as the reward. LifeStraw’s ‘Give Back’ program involves their team to visit at crucial sites around the world and ensuring safe drinking water for the local communities. They have taken major steps in ensuring the success of this initiative throughout the world by research and possible solutions. Himalayan Farmstays are always in support and appreciation of such ideas and sustainable initiatives. Thus, the giveaway reward too, symbolized sustainability, health and eco-friendliness.

HIAL’s New Joiners

We welcome Mr. Sameer Ratna Bajracharya and Mrs. Sujata Shakyato HIAL family. Mr. Sameer has joined us as an Architect and Mrs. Sujata as our Assistant Professor.  We look forward to a healthy and long professional relationship with them.