Abstract
Architecture with a gender lens has a crucial role in achieving sustainability in an urban built environment in healthy living and energy efficiency considerations. Households are one of the most energy-demanding sectors and consume almost 80% of total energy. Women are considered primary users due to their prominent involvement in household activities in Asian contexts like Nepal. Nepalese household energy consumption is at a crossroads, and national policy matters for its future development. However, it focuses less on architecture, healthy planning, and gender considerations. Historical buildings and settlements have set examples of sustainability, resembling healthy living with less energy use. Scholars have started to emphasize the improvement and interconnection of the built environment in terms of a green building design. Gender participation also contributes to economic and social development. With these considerations, this study emphasizes identifying environmental behaviors and gender roles' understanding in three different built environments of various socio-economic contexts of Kathmandu. It has examined 623 household questionnaires and six indoor air quality tests. The study indicates that the lower income groups use a more significant share (13%) of their monthly income for household energy needs. However, they live in poor indoor air quality environments and lack proper ventilation. 37% of inner-city’s kitchens lack proper ventilation, and 71% of urban kitchens have only one window. Even though females of all generations are aware of energy-saving practices reflecting higher gender participation in household energy and are poor air quality kitchens without proper ventilation due to lacking proper health-sensitive energy-efficient building regulations, proper building regulations can achieve the energy-saving potential of architectural design in terms of building elements in orientation, form, and materials with inclusiveness in design.
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Shrestha, B. (2023). Importance of Architecture and Gender Perspective for Healthy and Energy-Efficient Households to Achieve Sustainability: A Case of Kathmandu. In: Mostafa, M., Baumeister, R., Thomsen, M.R., Tamke, M. (eds) Design for Inclusivity. UIA 2023. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36302-3_3
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