Building practices in rural areas have developed in response to a variety of interrelated factors like climate, local physiography and socio-cultural traditions. The rural house is as much an agrarian product as the crops and livestock depending on a balanced eco-system. It is characterised by a dependence on the immediate natural environment for materials, high labour and low energy inputs in construction. Unfortunately, depletion of natural resources, changes in resource management structures and rapid monetisation of the rural economy have had abrupt and often detrimental effects on the condition of rural shelter. / This research attempts to understand the characteristics of rural building systems in order to identify the nature of interventions required to facilitate the process of shelter upgrading. From a study of six villages in Jhansi district of Bundelkand region, the study demonstrates that indigenous building practices and delivery processes can form effective links in the process mentioned. Local building materials, techniques of construction, service transaction, and methods of skill and information transfer are studied to analyse the factors which influence appropriation of available options by users. / This study indicates that effective and sustainable interventions in resources, technologies and delivery processes in rural India will need to utilise the potential offered by the 'network nature' of rural building systems. Any new or improved systems of construction will have to be supplemented by increasing users' access to them and will need to pass through the tests of: (1) Enlarging the range of available options, (2) Augmenting (at least not limiting) the variety and flexibility in delivery options and, (3) Increasing the level of local control in construction and management.

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