UNIT - II

THE VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE OF

RAJASTHAN, GUJRAT AND KASHMIR

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 DIFFERENT CLIMATIC ZONES OF INDIA

SOCIO
CLIMATE ECONOMIC

CULTURE

Warm & Humid

Temperate
VENACULAR ARCHITECTURE Cold
Hot &Dry
Composite

Each region has its own identity with climate responsive building design in the form of
VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE. It has very important role in shaping areas by creating
INDOOR , OUTDOOR and IN BETWEEN SPACES.
 NORTHERN AND WESTERN ZONE OF INDIA

VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE may include :

SITE PLANNING
BUILT FORM
MATERIALS
LABOUR/ WORKMANSHIP
VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE
RAJASTHAN

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 CULTURE :

• Rajasthan showcase a vibrant display of cultures, practices and

faith.
• Life in this desert land is all about traditional ways of living.
• Unique charm and plethora of celebrations, it may be
architecture, costumes, cuisine, local dialects, arts and crafts,
or its fairs and festivals and plethora of celebrations.

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FEW EXAMPLES OF VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE FROM RAJASTHAN (Built form)

Haveli Hand painting done at exterior wall

Piramel Haveli,Bagar Cluster of Mud huts

FEW EXAMPLES OF VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE FROM RAJASTHAN( Site Planning)

Map of Jaipur walled city Map of Vidhyadhar Nagar

Street of Bikaner Street of Jodhpur

Architectural features Of JHOMPRI
( HUT):
• Site: Typically found in flat terrain. They
do not share common walls with adjacent
buildings, with a typical distance of about 3m.

• Building Configuration: It is circular in

plan, with cylindrically shaped walls and topped
with conical roof
• Building typology: house (single family, 5-10
inhabitants). Bathroom and toilets are
constructed in a separate structure.
Settlements of one whole family- built on
the plinth

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• Building materials and construction:
Traditional roof consists of light-weight
conical roof of thatch and wooden
supporting members. The mud walls are
simply extended into the ground for a
foundation (without footing).

• Clustering: arrangement of open spaces

reflect their life-styles and social structure. On

a raised platform on which circulation is

carried out

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 OUTDOOR PLANING :

• As most day-to-day activities take place outside,

it is important to treat the external spaces just as
carefully as the indoors.
• Adjacent buildings, pavements, roads heat up
quickly and cause a glare onto the building
during the day and at night, they radiate the
heat stored during the day.
• One way to avoid this is to place walls protecting
external spaces, to keep out dust and winds.
• Also, landscaping like trees, plants and water in
enclosed spaces will cool the air by evaporation.
• But the best solution is courtyards. In these a
pool of night air is retained, as this is heavier
than surrounding warm air
• A small courtyard is excellent as a thermal
regulator.

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 OPENINGS AND WINDOW :

• Openings and windows are necessary for natural lighting and ventilation.
• More windows should be provided in the north facade of the building as
compared to the east, west and south as it receives lesser radiation
throughout the year.
• Windows should be shaded either by shading devices, roof overhangs or
by deciduous trees.
• The size of the windows on the west and east sides should be minimized
in order to reduce heat gains into the house in the early morning and late
afternoon.

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 MATERIAL :

1. Stone
2. Wood
3.Bamboo
4.Burnt brick masonry
5.Straw
6.Lime

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 COMMONLY FOUND TRIBES

• Bhunga- Jaisalmer
• Bhil- Udaipur
• Meena- Jaipur and Madhopur
• Gaira Lohars- (nomads) Udaipur
• Garasia- Sirohi and Kota districts
• Damor
• Dhanka
• Koli

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 BHUNGA
“Architecture without Architects”

• The Bhunga is a traditional construction type

• This construction type has been in practice
for more than 200 years
• A Bhunga consists of a single cylindrically
shaped room topped by a conical roof.

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 PLANNING CONCEPTS
• The different spaces (for men & women-
children) are not interconnected.

• Circular spaces are the main living zones,

rectangular spaces are for secondary
functions, like cooking cleaning and storing.
They are smaller and not so strong. They do
not resist very well to earthquakes or
cracks.
• A horizontal clay platform about 50 cm
high, is a way to avoid rainfalls inside
the house

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 The thick walls, made of mud, keep the interior
cool when the temperature rises to 40 degrees
Celsius in summer and warm when it beam
and posts drops to 10 degrees in winter

The walls can not bear the wood beam of the

roof, which runs across the space diagonally
and rests on two wooden posts. The beam is
often kept exposed outside the circular wall.

The roof is made of wooden top dome where

bamboo sticks are fixed with a thick layer of
grass put on roof and tied together.

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 MEENA TRIBE
• Meenas like to stay scattered
• Most of the hills have not more than two or
three houses.
• A single room
• A single entrance.
• No windows
• Door is the only source for light

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 VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE OF
GUJRAT
INTRODUCTION
The traditional architecture of Kutch is the outcome of the prevailing
topography, extremes of the climate and other natural forces. Moreover the
vernacular architecture merges well with the desert at the backdrop. The
traditional architecture forms the backbone of social and cultural set up of the
place

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CLIMATE AND VEGETATION

• It has hot and dry climate

• The summers are extremely hot and the
temperature exceed more than 49°C, posing
challenges for the survival of humans or for
that matter any life forms.
• However, the nights in Kutch are pretty cool,
with the night temperature falling
considerably.

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 CURVILINEAR STREETS
A number of streets radiate from one main street in different
directions. While walking towards the village interiors the streets
become quite narrow and finely carved entrance of row houses with
the repetitive main entrance door with two small niches and two long
windows on both side are seen. Streets take angular turns at intervals
and all houses have mangalore tile sloping roofs. Though once in 3-4
years, the initial rainfall here is high.

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 Internal
courtyards
CHOWKS

Street pattern (Y shaped) and

housing layout

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 BUILDING MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION
TECHNIQUES
• The materials used are locally available materials like Mud, Bamboo, cane leaves, of late
Bricks, stone etc.
• The plinth and the foundation consists of consolidated earth with stone and bamboo posts,
the walls consists of mud wall, split grass, earth, cane etc., and the roof is thatched, made of
wheat or maize straws.
• The Structural System consists of mud load bearing wall and the wooden nuts truss which
supports the roof.
• The structure Integrity is dependent upon Monolithic wall of mud. The corner Junction are
woods Sticks and the Foundation are simply filled with earth with the depth 2-3feet.
• The wood in the house is locally available from nearby.
• The major Structure failure in the region is due to reaction and erosion of walls due to
salinity.
• The Salinity erodes the bottom part of the wall in the outward side, so the cross section
decreases due to erosion so the whole structure is pulled in the opposite.So this reaction due
to salinity causes the structure to distort and eventually fail.

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 DAWOODI BOHRAS HOUSE, SIDHPUR,
GUJRAT

1.Sidhpur is a town in Gujarat state and an important pilgrimage centre for

Shaivismand for Hindu devotees honouring maternal ancestors.
2.Also known for its gorgeous European- influenced, especially Renaissance
styled architecture built over a century ago in the Muslim neighbourhood.

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 DAWOODI BOHRAS

1. The Dawoodi Bohras are a Shia Muslim

trading community from Gujarat with a
very distinct history and identity. A close

knit community, they have a significant

presence in Indian cities like Mumbai
and Ahmedabad, and East African
countries like Madagascar.
2. The Bohras or Vohras, as they are known
locally, invested in and built distinctive
and grand residences in their ‘native’
towns/villages after they migrated.

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DAWOODI BOHRAS SECTION

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Peculiar combination of an intimate formality, and exquisite craftsmanship in wood
enlivened further by the subtle and uplifting play with colour.

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 3 part division of the facade
1. The three-part division of
the facades, often with a tall
door or window in each part,
is of very European style—
especially when decorated
with pilasters Richly
2. The interior of the house, decorated
though, is organized around ceiling, made
of stucco
the cultural values of plaster or
community, with a central POP.
room (the one with the
“courtyard”) the everyday
family living space.
3. Windows off the raised
ground floor, with or without
window seats, are decorated
richly—they are the main
architectural elements on the
façade

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INTRICATE TIMBER RAILINGS, FLOORING , AND PARTITIONS

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 VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE OF
KASHMIR
CULTURE
Kashmir is a diverse blend of various cultures
People from different religious and social
practices of Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and Buddhist
have created a composite culture of the state
which is called Kashmiriyat. Kashmiri comprises
of Kashmiri Pundits, Kashmiri Muslims, Gujrat
and Rajasthani Rajput's.

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TRADITIONAL CRAFTSMANSHIP
• Bamboo weaving
• Wood crafting
• Stone crafting
• Silk and cotton weaving

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 CLIMATE

 MODERATE CLIMATE
 TEMPERATURE VARIATIONS :
• Extreme summer temp reaches to 46˚c- 34˚c –June month.
• Extreme Winter temp reaches to 4˚c-12˚c and below –January month.
• Precipitations 340mm from driest to wettest month.
• Annual temperature-21˚c

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 BUILDING CONSTRUCTION IN URBAN

• This state is a multi hazards prone region with natural disasters like earthquake
,floods ,land sliding ,avalanches ,high velocity wind an snow flow.
• URBAN-‘Dajji Dewar’ and the ‘Taq’. In both these cases the houses are Multi Storied
and single storied house.

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 ‘DAJJI DEWAR’ METHOD:

• Thinner and lighter form of wall

construction it consists of timber framing
with in fills of brick, and in a few cases stone
masonry.
• This walls will have greater ductility and
damping.
• The horizontal and vertical cage formed by
the timber are braced diagonally against
shear.

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• This framing also results in breaking up the
upper level masonry walls into smaller
multiple panels.
• The collapse of any one panel will not result
in the complete collapse of the wall, and
therefore the structure. Small masonry
panels surrounded by timber elements have
greater safety against out of plane collapse.

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PROCESS OF WORKING:

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 ‘TAQ’ METHOD:
• Taq, refers to load bearing masonry piers
with infill walls. In many cases these are
expressed by a different use of material.
• The piers may be made of stone and the
infill walls of brick. Timber runners at each
level tie the walls.
• The infill walls have timber embedded in
them to increase their elasticity.

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• In this construction 2-3 ft thick brick
piers are supporting the wooden floor
beams which is basic structure of the
building
• The distance between the 2 brick piers
used to be 3-4 ft and was called as TAQ
• The gap between the each taq is filled
with brick masonry or window
• The roof comprised a layer of each
covering over birch bark and wooden
planks resting on wooden rafters.

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 TIERED WOOD SHINGLE OR PLANK ROOFING
o The pyramided roof covering the entire structure was historically ,three tiered
and composed of rafter having planks above ,covered in earlier times with turf
then with shingles .
o The mud wood shingles roofing that was once used in most structure has been
replaced by the CGI sheeting on account of economical and availability

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 RURAL- CONSTRUCTION METHODS
• Rural buildings constructed in Kashmir are in a traditional way by the
people become an integral part of the local cultural heritage.
• They are a manifestation of architectural systems optimized over
time for a particular context with regard to climate, soil or the threat
of natural disasters.
• Number of building system in
various parts of Jammu and
kashmir had developed overtime to
accommodate local climate and
cultural factors including the
impacts of earthquake.
• The buildings have depended
completely upon stone, mud, bricks
and wood for roofing as well as
walling. Until very recently, non-
local materials did not represent a
valid option for local constructions.

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 FLAT MUD ROOF ON TIMBER STRUCTURE
• Traditional Flat mud roof on timber structure with stone masonry wall.
• Winter is cold which is common in kashmir, Thick walls of brick and stone
with mud plaster provide excellent protection against this, as does a thick
mud-timber roof.
• The lighter, pitched roof made of timber and CGI sheets in combination
with the attic floor also ensures livable conditions inside the house in
winter and summer.
• The steep pitch of the light roof permits little accumulation of snow and
prevents any water leakages.

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 END

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