VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE (VA) OF

TSUNAMI PRONE AREAS OF TAMIL NADU(TN)

Ar. S. Hananeel
17RMAR009
Ist M.Arch (2017-2019)
Faculty of Architecture, Karpagam University

DESIGN SYSTEMS (17MARS112)

What is Vernacular Architecture?
 Vernacular Architecture is a term used to categorize methods of
construction which use locally available resources to address local needs.
 Vernacular Architecture tends to evolve over time to reflect the
environmental, cultural and historical context in which it exists.
 Vernacular Architecture can perhaps be defined as architecture born out
of local building materials and technologies, an architecture that
is climate-responsive and a reflection of the customs and
lifestyles of a community.
 It is different from traditional architecture in that contemporary
architecture can also be “vernacular” if it is generated from an
understanding of local materials and indigenous methods of building.
 Vernacular does not aim at good aesthetics, it aims at comfort
and in its use of natural materials to achieve that comfort, it
comes about to be also an aesthetically sound architecture.
TSUNAMI PRONE AREAS IN TN
 Vernacular houses in coastal regions of TN are successful examples of
building constructed in the tsunami prone area.
 The climatic aspect of this region is warm humid.
 The coastal belt of TN can be segregated into 3 parts; the first part is the
coast from Chennai to Pondicherry, the second coast is from
Pondicherry to Rameswaram and the third coast is from Rameswaram
to Kanyakumari.
 In the coastal stretch, i.e., from Chennai to Pondicherry, the settlements
were found to be temporary and fragile in nature and there is no
evidence of traditional or vernacular settlements.
 But in second part, the vernacular settlements are found in
Parangaipettai of Cuddalore district, and Tharangampadi and Nagore of
Nagappattinam district.
 Subsequently in third part, the vernacular settlements were found in the
Thoothukkudi district of Tamil Nadu.
  While tracing such houses, we can find that these towns were very
ancient (around 150 to 200 years old) and was old port (harbour)
towns.
 By keeping the age in mind, the houses are classified into four major
categories and with respect to the climate designed elements they posses
like courtyards, ventilating systems, thickness and materials of walls,
etc,.
Typology Place of house House description View of the house
Type – 1 Nagapattinam Vernacular houses with country made
tile in sloped roof with wind catcher.

Type – 2 Tharangampadi Vernacular houses with country made

tiles in sloped roof with courtyard.

Type – 3 Thoothukkudi Vernacular houses with country made

tiles in sloped roof with sky vent (clear
storey window) and sky lighting.
Type – 4 Parangaipettai Vernacular houses with country made
tiles in sloped roof without courtyard.
Wind Catcher House @
Nagappattinam
Basic Form and Planning Principles
 Vernacular settlement pattern of Nagappattinam has narrow
streets and common wall structures which forms a dense urban
fabric that breathes through the smaller indoor open spaces like
courtyards.
 The overall urban form is very compact with a combination of flat
and slopping roof forms.
 These houses were built on a linear rectangular plot, which forms
a linear pattern alone the coastline.
 These houses were generally oriented towards east-west
directions.
 A floor plan of a typical vernacular house illustrates with an
outside veranda for guests in the front of the house, which leads to
courtyard(s) that is mainly used for carrying out their day-to-day
activities and ceremonial functions.
 These linearly designed houses form a dominant axis from the
front entrance door connecting the courtyards and corridors
which finally ends in the rear door.
 This axis is mainly to allow the sun and air to enter into the house
and to facilitate better air flow throughout the house.
 As we enter the house through the veranda, the raised platform
(thinnai) becomes the front sit out for the occupiers and the
guests.
 The thinnai marks the transition space, with wooden pillars as a
decorative architectural element, after which the house is entered
through a finely carved wooden door and a vestibule.
 At the end of the vestibule, the mutram (open courtyard) becomes
the central space around which various other private spaces like
bed rooms, store rooms, etc., are functionally arranged.
 The wind catcher is located at the top of the courtyard, thereby
bringing ventilation (air movement) in to the house.
Materials in Construction
 The common building materials used for vernacular construction in the
coastal regions of Nagappatinam are mud, brick, lime mortar, thatch
roofing, country roof tiles, timber, bamboo, etc,.
 The wall thickness is normally 450 to 600 mm thick for mud walls
(cavity walls) and 230 to 300 mm for brick walls.
 Brick lintels are seen in most of the houses over the ventilators and
windows.
 Mud walls are usually built in course to a maximum of 4500 mm height.
 Local mud is thoroughly mixed with water and straw, there are
sometimes reinforced with rods.
 The soft mud (raw clay 70-75%) and sand (25-30%) are mixed
and used as the binding material (mortar) and also used as
plastering material (mortar).
 Mud plastering is the most commonly used technique.
 Sand is mixed with clay to reduce shrinkage cracks.
 Lime is yet another locally available material and most economical
too and is sometimes used as binding material (mortar) in brick
masonry.
 The walls are white washed with liquid lime.
 The interior walls are mostly plastered in mortar (mud/lime) and
lime washed. The inclusion of lime in a mortar promotes more
intimate contact between the mortar and the masonry units.
 Lime mortar generally leads to improved water resistance.
 For roof frames (mostly sloped roofs) normally country timber or
bamboo are used and for roof covering hand-made burnt country
tiles are commonly used.
 The thermo physical specifications of these materials are the
important factors in warm humid regions. These materials have
thermal resistance, high heat capacity and they absorb the sun
radiation by their external surfaces.
Activity Areas
 A typical house consists of a veranda (thalvaram) which is the benevolent
social extension of the house and it provides shade and protection for
the passers. It protects the building wall from sun and rain. It acts as a
transition space between house and street.
 The steps lead to the raised platform (thinnai) which is shaded by the
roof overhand that is used to sit and relax.
 The roof overhang of the thinnai shades the walls and windows from
harsh radiations, therefore reducing the heat gain into the building.
 A typical house has a courtyard mostly covered with wind catchers
(kaatru pandhal) located above the courtyard.
 The courtyard plays the major role in the entire house; they are used as
the place for worshipping, socializing activities, etc,.
 The courtyard is surrounded with a corridor which leads to various
other private spaces like bed rooms, kitchen, store rooms, etc,.
 The verandah at the rear side is used for utility.
Qualitative Analysis
 The vernacular residential buildings nearby the sea experience
high humidity and high solar radiation which makes the thermal
condition uncomfortable during summers.
 The general orientation of this urban setting is based on the
coastline and wind direction.
 The main principle used in these buildings here is to reduce heat
and humidity by using natural ventilation.
 The buildings were designed to achieve cross ventilation through
courtyards, wind catchers, etc,.
 These buildings are usually designed by arranging the spaces
around a courtyard and the building materials used are of low
thermal capacity.
 The houses also have large overhangs above windows which will
considerably reduce the sunlight entering inside the building.
Orientation of Building
 In these buildings more than the orientation of the buildings,
the orientation of the wind catchers are more important.
 These residences are strictly oriented towards east-west axis.
 The longer side of the building faces the North and south,
hence the walls are less exposed to direct sun.
 Therefore, there is lot of air movement into the building,
which is required in a warm humid climate.
Internal Courtyard
 A courtyard primarily provides light and is used as an open space for number of other
activities like cooking, sleeping, working, playing, gardening and worshipping.
 It is typically encircled with high (3m) and thick (450mm) brick walls with mud mortar
and mud plaster.
 During the summer day time, when the sun is at peak (April to May), the courtyard is
fully shaded and thus delaying the heat gain, keeping the interior cooler.
 The heat gain from the sun is more in the upper part of the courtyard; this makes the air
in the upper part of courtyard warmer and lighter, causing the air to move upwards.
 However, due to the presence of the wind catchers above these courtyards, the wind
movement causes a peculiar effect.
 Thus, due to the principle of buoyancy, low pressure develops in the courtyard and it
included an air movement from inside that flows towards the surrounding spaces so as to
move out through the opening (doors, windows and ventilators) in the leeward end.
 During the night times the same courtyard becomes a heat sink and by natural convective
cooling, this courtyard allows the hot air to move up and thereby acts as an excellent
thermal regulator and creates a comfortable living environment.
Openings and Use of Natural
Ventilation
 Most of the vernacular houses in these areas have huge
openings above the courtyards which are oriented towards
the south direction so as to receive the breeze inside their
home and these are called as wind catchers which are typical
of its kind in India.
 It is believed that it is a traditional Persian Architectural device, which was used
for many centuries, but there is evidence that the idea if the wind-catchers dates
back to the early Pharaonic periods.
 Wind-catcher is one of the important elements of hot and humid architecture
which is used for cooling and ventilation of internal spaces.
 It acts both as sucking and pulling agent, the basis of the action is that wind
blowing is used to suck the cold air to the inside of the building and the reaction
of it is used for sending out the hot and pollutant air from inside the building.
 Its function in these regions is to pull wind from external air stream and induce
it to the building and courtyard in order to cool the occupant directly by
increasing the convective and evaporative heat transfer from the body surface.
 It cools the occupant indirectly by remove the heat stored in the building
structure.
 When wind is blowing towards the catcher and the building it serves; a wind
pressure develops on various apertures.
 Air enters from the windward openings, with positive wind pressure
coefficient, and leave the leeward openings, with negative or lower values of the
pressure coefficients.
 They are designed to pull and drive airflow through top opening which usually
faces the prevailing wind.
 During day time the operation mechanism of the wind catcher is dependent
on the wind effect due to air pressure difference across inlet and outlet.
 The catcher traps and channels down air at higher velocity and lower
pressure than ambient air. This is known as Venturi effect.
 During night time, the relatively lower outdoor air temperature helps to
cool the building.
 If there is no wind then the heat released by the wind catcher heat up the air
inside it and sucks it outside the building and the rooms are replaced by the
cool air from the courtyard (stalk ventilation).
 In wind catcher, the driving forces for the airflow are all natural.
 When wind catcher is placed on the roof of a building, a blowing wind will
generate a high pressure on the windward side of the wind catcher and
lower pressures inside the building and on the leeward side of the wind
catcher.
 These pressure differences are often enough to drive the fresh air from the
wind in to the building and extract the stale air out through windows and
ventilators (reverse stalk ventilation) and again all the rooms will get cool
air from the courtyard.
 When moving air strikes an obstacle such as building, this will
slow down the air flow but the air flow will exert a pressure on
the obstructing surface.
 This slowing down process effects a roughly wedge shaped mass of
air on the windward side of the building, which in turn diverts the
rest of the airflow upwards and sideways.
 A separation layer is formed between stagnant air and the building
on one hand and the laminar air flow on the other hand.
 Due to its momentum, the laminar air tends to maintain a straight
path after it has been diverted, therefore it will take some time to
return to the ground surface after the obstacle.
 Thus a stagnant mass of air is formed on the leeward side at
reduced pressure. This is not stagnant and a vortex is formed, the
movement is light and variable and it is often referred to as wind
shadow.
 The material used in the wind catcher also plays an important role.
 The texture of wind towers is polished with natural color of tiles and
other sides are painted with white color, which also ensures that the
wind towers do not absorb rays.
 They trap the desired wind currents and transport these to the interior
spaces.
 It serves it function effectively through appropriate utilization of wind
currents, the ration of its length and its width to height is important.
 Lots of survey on wind catchers shows that 60% of all wind catchers are
less than 3m high above the roof parapet wall.
 If the wind current is at lower level, wind catchers may receive it in
lower height.
 The fundamental function of a window is to provide natural ventilation,
light and views depending on the activity being performed inside the
room.
 Small ventilators are provided high on the gable wall. They provide
diffused, externally and internally reflected daylight to the interior.
 The small grills or cement jallis fitted to the ventilators eliminates most
of the externally reflected light.
Walls and Roofs
 Thickness of the walls vary from 0.60-0.70m and it is made of mud or
brick which has a low U-Value (U=1.02); hence it serves as a good
insulator.
 It works in the principle of thermal mass where the thickness of the
brick wall delays the heat gain.
 The requirement of high thermal mass to maintain higher time lag so as
to provide capacitive insulation was well understood by the local
builders.
 The time lags of these walls are high, they store heat during the day time
and radiate it into the room at night, when the outside temperature is
below the comfort range.
 The light colored surfaces of the façade are used as a mechanism for the
protection of the high thermal mass walls against solar radiation as they
absorb less heat in summer, thus preventing the rise of internal
temperatures.
 The interior walls are painted in white allowing good internal reflection
and results in high levels of indoor illumination.
 The roofs are most often single pitched (slope < 30°) and supported on
wooden trusses or rafters.
 The gable walls are plain and often have a small ventilator near the ridge.
 Many varieties of local timbers are used for roof trusses, which are built by
local carpenters.
 Thick stone wall plates receive the roof trusses, which are often supported on
the courses of brick on edge. These brick on edge courses through spring
action, providing resistance against lateral thrust, often found in walls
supporting the sloped roofs.
 In order to increase the heat capacity of the roof, tiled roofs are provided with
air gaps (200mm thick), these country tiles are fixed to the wooden purlins.
These tiles are laid to a very gentle slope in battens supported by wooden
purlins.
 The pitched roofs give adequate protection from rain and sun.
 The triangular space below the pitched roof is sometimes used for storage
facilities.
 Therefore, higher volume of air is available for circulation, while hot air is
accumulated near the ceiling and exits from the ventilators provided at a much
higher level than the occupant’s body level.
Thermal Insulation
 The sloping roof is made of timber or bamboo.
 Timber being a bad conductor of heat does not allow the
horizontal surface to gain any heat throughout the day.
 The horizontal surface insulated the inside from outside
creating a temperature zone helping the courtyard to become
a heat sink.
 The flat roof is made of timber.
 The sun path during the summer shows the percentage of
walls which is shaded during peak summer.
Day lighting
 The day lighting required for the entire house is achieved through
the wind catcher.
 The wind catcher prevents sun’s radiation to enter into the
building directly whereas the open courtyard does not allow it.
But it traps the wind as it is oriented against the wind movement
inside the building.
 The day lighting through the wind catcher spreads evenly within
the building sufficiently for carrying out various activities.
 Other than wind catcher, ventilators at the side, the openings at
the front and back façade provides additional day lighting within
the building.