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The article reviews the use of bamboo shelters in flood-prone regions of Pakistan, a joint initiative by various government bodies of Pakistan in constructing prefabricated emergency shelters based on a design by architect Yasmeen Lari, now a permanent housing solution for communities in Sindh.

At the age of 78, in a key scene of the documentary movie ¶ ne suffit pas que Dieu soit avec les pauvres, Hassan Fathy was interviewed at his Ottoman-Mamluk flat, at the foot of the Cairo Citadel. Fathy discovered Nubian vernacular architecture and the significance of the vault in Egyptian history during a trip to As wan, visiting archaeological sites with students in 1941. Fathy's disillusion was such that he decided to leave Egypt, moving to Athens in 1957: 'I understood that there was no place for me in Egypt; it was evident that mud brick building aroused active hostility among important people there'. [Extracted from the article]

Renouncing conventional approaches to dwellings insuburban Shanghai, the house by AZL Architects for theSong family could be a model to replicate, writes Harryden Hartog Through the organisers of the televisionshow, the Song family were introducedto Nanjing-based architect Zhang Lei,well known for his innovative approachto local materials and traditional building-techniquescombined with modernity andfunctionality. Meanwhile, Zhang and his practice,AZL Architects, are studying how theproject can be scaled up and built asa modular system. [Extracted from the article]

The article presents information related to a rural house in Andalusia, Spain by Emilio Ambasz. Two tall white walls rising from a green sea of grass like sails to capture breezes and reflect the sun down into or shade it from, a sunken courtyard. The house crowns a headland projecting into a manmade lake in the Sierra de Seville, a range of low, verdant mountains dotted with evergreen oaks. The patio floor, like that of the ambulatory behind the arcade and the interior visible through the glazing beyond, is in smooth white marble lightly streaked in grey.

The article offers information on the lack of focus of the government in Great Britain on social housing for rural communities. Topics discussed include the lack of financial assistance from central government for housing for local population, the lack of funding for rural housing policy in the 21st century, and the efforts of organizations Bournville Village Trust and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in this regard.