Work in Murad Khane

One of the projects we are working on here is renovation of some historically significant buildings in the old part of the city called Murad Khane. We are currently working on two buildings in the area and are working on securing a few more. All of the houses in the area are made of mud brick with mud plaster and wood ornamentation. A view across the neighborhood.The area as a whole has been neglected for so long that a significant amount of clean up work needs to be done prior to starting work on the buildings themselves. We started with removal of garbage from the streets. Seems like a small thing, no? In the past several weeks we have removed over 150 truck loads of garbage that has compacted in the streets. On some, removal of the garbage has resulted in lowering of the street level by over a meter. One of the long-time residents commented that there has been no garbage removal in the area since the mid-1960’s. Amazing. We’ve had to be quite careful about some of this work however. On one street in particular, over time, the density and height of the garbage has acted as a retaining wall for some of the existing mud brick walls. When the garbage was removed down to the original level of the street, a wall collapsed. Of course we have rebuilt it, and the owner couldn’t have been more pleased to have a new wall for his yard. Below, our engineer demonstrating the new street level – you used to have to duck to pass thru this doorway.
Here is the first house we are working on, known as Peacock House, due to the decorative peacock motif on the wood screens. Hard to believe, but a family was living in this house up until just a few months ago.