Srinagar, May 3 -- It was a quiet summer afternoon in 2024 when we reached Vevan, a remote mountain village tucked deep into Kashmir's Bandipora district. We had come as engineers, hoping to learn from the land. But what stopped us in our tracks wasn't a new building or some eye-catching innovation. It was an old, broken mud house, abandoned and half-swallowed by wild grass.

The roof had caved in. Wooden beams, once solid and proud, were now warped and splintered. The mud walls were scarred with water damage. No one lived there anymore, but it was clear that someone once had.

We stood there for a long time, quietly taking it in.

That house, built entirely from local materials-earth, straw, timber-was more than a structure. It was a mem...