Mereja.Forum

A splendid Gurage house with Jefwor, or green avenue or grassed street.
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Nice houses, excellently imagined traditional roads and yards but don’t forget these houses now are exorbitantly expensive!

Odie wrote: ↑

16 May 2025, 09:01

Nice houses, excellently imagined traditional roads and yards but don’t forget these houses now are exorbitantly expensive!

They can still be built to economy of the individual. They would still be much better than the shacks of the north and very small and short houses of the Oromos and Sodos.

House models start getting impressive as you travel from East Gurage to the West, attaining their most splendid form in 7bet.

That is right. I lived in one of them. I even assisted in building one. They are modernizing them. They separate animals and humans, make windows etc. More importantly these houses live for 30 or more years without repair. That amazes me. After that you can change the grass tops and any broken woods and retain the house for long (ጉዋር ስፐረ= the renovation process). Unfortunately, now a days are going for corrugated iron houses and traditional city houses to show how rich they are drifting them away from the tradition. Since the region is close to Addis, just under 300km, it risks urbanization. Rural area, where I grew up now all wheather roads, light, smart phones and even beverages made it which was not known when I was a toddler. Obviously this brings it’s own challenge to the community.

The ages of the wood and grass houses of Gurage can be prolonged by use of wood presrrvaties against fungi, bacteria and insects.
Also settlements or sinking of these houses can be eliminated by the use of different kinds of concrete foundations.
Obviously, these construction materials will cost more but can be designed to "What's your budget?"