Video 3.

6: Golconde Dormitory, Pondicherry -

A case study of bio-climatic architecture in the warm-humid tropics

Golconde, located in Pondicherry on the southeast coast of India, was designed by Antonin
Raymond and George Nakashima in 1935, as a multi-story dormitory of Sri Aurobindo’s
Ashram. This building has a world stature, both architecturally and in its bio-climatic
response to a tropical warm and humid climate. It has the reputation of being a well-
maintained, comfortable building, although it has no mechanical cooling system.

While gaining from the practical experience acquired in the vernacular buildings of
Pondicherry, the architects have tried to translate them into materials that are offered by
the modern world. The local climatic conditions were taken into consideration and the
building was given the most logical shape dictated by the local conditions.

It is an exposed reinforced concrete frame structure with traditional lime plaster on the
brick walls. The fundamental principles of architecture – simplicity, economy, beauty and
closeness to nature – were consciously and consistently observed.

Golconde is truly timeless in its essence and a masterpiece of architecture.

The roof is made of large and thin precast curved cement-concrete elements creating a
ventilated air space over the third-floor concrete slab. The ends of these precast curved
elements on the north and south are sealed with perforated concrete slabs. The double roof
was important because of the almost continual intense heat of the tropics: the convection
of air keeps the top floor rooms almost as cool as the ones below.

Both North and South facades are fully openable with louvers, which can be fully opened,
half opened or closed by a series of simple state of the art brass bars with notches to adjust
the angles. Interestingly, all along the north façade there is first the corridor which connects
all the rooms. The decision to keep the corridor in the North side is an important one since
Golconde is situated on 12 deg North latitude, with summer sun penetrating on the North.
This is how the rooms are kept cool, all the year round, even in the hot weather. The louvres
are easy to operate individually and allow for personal preferences.

Rooms are separated from corridor by wooden sliding doors that allow air to circulate
freely when open.

The walls of the rooms are of brick work, covered with seashell lime plaster. There is no
need to paint these walls and they retain their hygroscopic quality even after 85 years.

The landscaped gardens on the south and north have a sense of wideness due to the angle
given to the building. Enclosed on all sides by high walls, they become peaceful cloisters
where one can walk and relax.

The simple landscaping of the surrounding garden, with its trees and grass and shallow
pools, carries out the effect of coolness that is realized structurally in the building itself. The
high protecting wall holds in the air that is cooled by the attractively landscaped garden, and
keeps out the heat of the surrounding heat islands of unshaded streets.

To further the cooling current of air in summer, as often there is no movement of air at all,
the garden on the northern side of the building was left rather bare whereas the garden
space available in the southern side was planted with many trees and shrubs, By these
means, the rooms at Golconde are always cool and did not require any mechanical
ventilation.

The rooms are provided with a ceiling lamp for general lighting and a desk-top lamp for task
lighting.

They were initially not even equipped with ceiling or table fans for ventilation. But over the
years construction activities around the town and hard surfaces have contributed to urban
heat island effects; as a result, some rooms are provided with table fans used for personal
cooling only when it is really necessary.

In articulating an unambiguous stance towards minimal resource consumption and bio-

climatic architecture, the building champions a unique aesthetic. The story of Golconde
dormitory – in both design and construction – remains quintessentially international. Having
outlived its designers, it celebrates their ideals of a progressive vernacular modernism,
simultaneously resonant in the local and global context.