VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE

PRESENTATION ON WORK OF GEOFFREY BAWA

AND HASSAN FATHY

SUBMITTED TO:- SUBMITTED BY:-

AR. SATWINDER KAUR CHAITANYA 15009
AR. ANCHAL GUPTA KRITIKA DHIMAN 15018
MALVIKA RANA 15021
YUVANSH GOEL 15047
ANKITA SHARMA 15048
Hassan Fathy
Egyptian Architect (1900 – 1989)

The master builder, Hassan Fathy (1900-1989)

was one of the first architects to break with
modern architecture and to found a new
approach based on a conception of
interpreting forms and masses from the past.

He was unique in believing that this language

could exist alongside that of an aggressively
modern one that cut all ties with the past he
Designed 160 separate projects from modest
country retreats to fully planned communities,
markets, schools, theatres, places for worship
and for recreation.
 •Born to a wealthy family on the 23 March 1900 in Alexandria, Egypt.
•He moved to Cairo with his family when he was eight years old, and settled in Helwan
•A noted Egyptian architect who pioneered appropriate technology for building in Egypt, especially by
working to re-establish the use of mud brick (or adobe) and traditional as opposed
to western building designs and lay-outs

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ARCHITECTURAL PERSPECTIVES
• Ancient design methods and materials
• Utilizing a knowledge of rural Egyptian economic situation
• Space design suitable to surrounding environment
• Low cost construction without using R.C.C and steel
• Training locals to build ones own house

SIX MAJOR PRINCIPLES THAT FORM THE CRUX OF FATHY'S WORK :

• The belief in the primacy of human values in architecture

• The importance of a universal rather than a limited approach
• The use of appropriate technology
• The need for socially oriented, cooperative construction techniques
• The essential role of tradition
• The re-establishment of cultural pride through the art of building
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 DESIGN ELEMENTS

•Mud brick (Adobe) walls

•Thick walls
•Wind-catcher and Qanat
•Decorative screens
•Domes and Vaulted roofs
•Courtyard

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DESIGN ELEMENTS (ADOBE WALLS & WIND CATCHERS)

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DESIGN ELEMENTS (THICK WALLS)

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DESIGN ELEMENTS (SCREENED WALLS)

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DESIGN ELEMENTS (COURTYARDS & NUBIAN VAULTS)

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EGYPT
Geographical Location : North Of Africa, Touching Mediterranean Sea
Climate : Dry, Arid
Special Feature : River Nile Flowing From South To North
Main : Farming On The Banks Of River Nile
Occupation
• As an architect, he was influenced the most by the monumental
architecture in the Pharaonic period also, strongly influenced
intellectually by the concept of the vernacular arch. of the
Nubians.
• Hassan Fathy’s main purpose was housing the poor in developing
nations by applying the concept he was strongly influenced by
which is the vernacular architecture of the Nubians which
opened up his mind to discover the true essence of the heritage
and being inspired by the ancestor’s work.
• His goal was to combine between a comfy descent housing &
being poor, because after all, home is where the person should
feel comfy at ease serene and cool no matter what was the
temperature and the circumstances outside.
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 "Matchbox houses" were too hot in the summer • Hassan Fathy developed his own ideas, inculcating
and too cold in winter. traditional Arab styles like the malkhaf (wind
catcher), the shukshaykha (lantern dome) and the
 Nubian craftsmen were masters at constructing mashrabeya (wooden lattice screens) which could
domed and vaulted roofs of mud brick which be combined with the mud-brick
they also used for the walls. construction
• He designed complete communities
including
utilities and services, country retreats, and
special projects and homes.
• Hassan Fathy had already worked for decades in
his beloved Egypt before he designed and built for
the homeless community of Gourna, Upper
Egypt, which attracted international acclaim.

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 One would enter a home made out of local natural resources with dome shaped ceilings and
no electrical air-conditioning, to find a sudden descent of peace and calm within a cool
atmosphere.

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 1.Interior courtyard 5.Office
2.Bedroom 6.Dining Room
3.Washroom 7.Kitchen
4.Covered courtyard 8.Living Room

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 •The house consists of two storey with a double-height
reception hall, ten different rooms, service areas,
internal courtyard with fountain and open courtyard
with garden pavilion on the first floor.

•The house featured Arabic Islamic elements including

domes, mashrabiyyahs (wooden lattice work), thick
walls, enclosed patios and fountains of marble .

•Nassif house evoked the value of tradition at a time

when the influence of the International Style was
widespread because of the oil boom of that period.

• It also drew the attention of the people to their

architectural heritage and stimulated the realization that
Jeddah was the only remaining example of Red Sea
architecture in Saudi Arabia.

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 Old Nassif House,Jeddah Mashrabiyyahs Entrance from the
(Wooden lattice work) courtyard

Inner courtyard
with pavilion

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 NEW GOURNA,LUXOR, EGYPT

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 OVERALL UNDERSTANDING
• Mud brick – Low heat radiation, low cost, availability
• Thick wall – high insulation
• Small windows not facing the sun.
• Wind catcher – Air circulation, a pressure gradient used to get away with
the hot air.
• Qanat – Used with windcatcher to cool the interior air by deep cut canal in
the floor filled with water.
• Screens – Restrict glare of light
• No use of R.C.C and Steel for high heat radiation
• Courtyard with partial greenery to screen dust and sand in the prevailing
wind.

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 • Vernacular architecture is a wise thought of generation molded by culture and region in which it
flourishes.
• It is region specific and culture specific.
• Vernacular design is seen as a limitation imposed by the guide lines of region and culture or is it
learning to live with these limitation by utilization of its potentials to the maximum.
• Therefore, vernacular architecture is a result of factor that frame it.

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 GEOFFREY BAWA

• Geoffrey Manning bawa was born on 23 July 1919 in

srilanka
• Educated at Royal college and middle temple , London
and became lawyer.
• Studied architecture in Architectural Association London
in 1956.
• In 1957, at the age of 38 , he returned to sri Lanka
qualified as an architect to take over Reid’s practice .
• His international standing was confirmed in 2001 when he
received the special chairman’s award in the eight cycle of
the Aga Khan Award for architecture , becoming only the
third architect in India .
PHILOSPHY

• Respected the site and context .

• Buildings had a play of light and shade .
• Flow of spaces .
• Fused vernacular architecture with the modern concepts to Satiate the needs of the urban
population
• Used salvaged artifacts
• Roof forms as elements
• Waterbody – an essential part of Bawa’s architecture .
 TECHNIQUES BY
GEOFFERY BAWA

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• Upon graduating in 1957, Bawa returned to Ceylon where he joined with other like minded
designers and artists “who shared his growing interest in Ceylon’s forgotten architectural
heritage” and as a group they embarked on developing new ways of making and building.
• In the initial stages of Bawa’s work, he was influenced greatly by the tropical modernist ideals of
Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry – simple functionalism, cubic architecture and sharp edged
forms. Whilst his own designs changed over time in response to varying landscapes and ideals,
the tropical modernist theory would serve as the basis for the majority of his works over the
remainder of his career.
• David Robson summarizes Bawa’s career with the following passage “Architecture for Bawa
was not a means of personal expression: he enjoyed the process of causing buildings to be
made. Good buildings gave him pleasure and he took pleasure from making buildings that
gave others pleasure. He was concerned to make buildings that satisfied the aspirations of
their users, which were appropriate to their setting and function, which optimised levels of
comfort and which responded to historical and cultural context.”
• Drawing from all of these stages in Sri Lankan history, Bawa’s structures incorporated sloped
roofing, overhanging eaves, verandahs, internal courtyards, ponds and glassless windows –
each implemented to create high levels of openness, ventilation, natural lighting and
privacy.
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 • In fact some of Bawa’s design elements, such as the enclosed open to sky courtyard, double
skin tile and sheet roof and latticed bay windows, were so successful that they have been
absorbed into the everyday life of Sri Lankan residences even in the present day.
• An additional aspect of Bawa’s work which was integral to his designs, was the use of locally
sourced materials and locally trained craftspeople, a factor that allowed for the building to
harmoniously blend with the local landscape, both aesthetically and socially.
• Bawa’s buildings were designed with the intention that they would settle into their natural
surroundings and grow from the site – rather than keep nature out or control it, the space was
designed to embrace its environmental context, to age with its tropical surrounds and reject
pristine facades for heat and rain weathered exteriors.
• For this reason alone, Bawa strived to minismise the barrier of indoors and outdoors, and in its
place allow the building and landscape to merge as one. As Robson quotes, for Bawa
“architecture should play to all the senses – the smell of vegetation after rain, the sound of birds
and the wind in the trees, the texture of clay floor tiles and rough plaster” – by removing the
concept of indoor and outdoor, this senses based experience was possible.

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 • Elements such as courtyards, verandahs and eave roofs, allowed for this immersive experience
to take place, even in times of extreme heat and monsoon rains.
• Bawa recreated this ideal on a larger scale in the form of holiday resorts, allowing the landscape
to be the focus and the building, minimalist in its form, to submerge within it.
• Building within Sri Lanka, Bali and India, he used features such as long open corridors that face
the outdoors and encourage natural ventilation, private courtyards attached to bungalows, pools
surrounded by tropical plants and even an outdoor dining room beneath a hanging boulder – all
created in response to the local environment and climatic context.

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 • Geoffery Bawa always designed with the site rather than against it.
• He used the terrain and the landscape to create a sense of place and tried to break down the
barriers between inside and outside space.
• Using locally sourced materials added to the sense of place but also supported the local
economy and reduced transport costs.
• Working before the advent of widespread air conditioning, he strove to create energy-efficient
buildings that were cooled naturally.

LANUNGANGA

BISHOPS’S COLLEGE : AN EXAMPLE

OF TROPICAL MODERNISM
INTERIORS OF
A COURTYARD IN BAWA’S CAMPUS FOR LANUGANGA
THE UNIVERSITY OF RUHUNA
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THE GARDENS OF LANUGANGA
 SRI LANKAN PARLIAMENT BUILDING BY GEOFFERY BAWA :

LOCATION :

• The new parliament of Srilanka is located about

ten miles east of Colombo.
• It was built on a twelve-acre island reclaimed
from a historic diyawanna oya, an ancient
waterway in Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte with
the construction of massive retaining wall 3600
feet long, 6 feet high, 6 feet board at the base
and tapering to one and half feet all around the
island.
• The building is surrounded by 300-acre Lake
and it covers an area of 48000 sq m.
• The lake gives a moat like protection and also it
enhances the serenity of the location.
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 SRI LANKAN PARLIAMENT BUILDING BY GEOFFERY BAWA :

PLANNING :

• The parliament of Sri Lanka is a simple rectilinear structure bound on all sides by water.
• The building, island and water make a beautiful composition emanating a sense of balance in the
elements of nature and an ambience of peace and harmony.
• The complex connects to the neighbor through an access named the ceremonial drive and
service road with drawbridge at the rear. 
• The ceremonial drive bifurcates into two approaches, one leading to the entrance for the
members of parliament on the east and the other to the entrance for the staff on the west.
• The form of building was organized into a hierarchical system.
• The roof of the parliamentary house or the assembly hall stands tallest and high in the sky.

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 SRI LANKAN PARLIAMENT BUILDING BY GEOFFERY BAWA :

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 SRI LANKAN PARLIAMENT BUILDING BY GEOFFERY BAWA :

• The chamber, the focus of power, lies within

the main pavilion with balconies and
galleries rising three storeys.
• The tiered terraces below hold administrative
and committee offices. Other pavilions
accommodate rooms of varying functions.
• Traditional wood and stone columns,
reminiscent of ancient palaces and temples
supports the copper roofs.

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 SRI LANKAN PARLIAMENT BUILDING BY GEOFFERY BAWA :

• The new Sri Lankan Parliament is an

asymmetrical group of colonnaded
pavilions with striking copper roofs, built
on an island the ‘floating on a man- made
lake’.
• Building is designed in a style of regional
modernism, while the building is an
example of modernism, it still respects Sri
Lankan vernacular architecture.
• The parliament complex has the illusion
of symmetry, which contrasts sharply
with the organic form of the lake it is
located in.

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 SRI LANKAN PARLIAMENT BUILDING BY GEOFFERY BAWA :
REGIONAL ELEMENTS IN BUILDING :

• In their final form, the parliament roofs are an abstraction of the traditional Kandayan roof.
• The use of copper in place of tile gives them the thinness and tent like quality of a stretched
skin, transporting them far from the realms of historical artwork while recalling the fabled
‘Brazen roof’ of Anuradhapura.

KANDAYAN
ROOF BRAZEN ROOF

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 SRI LANKAN PARLIAMENT BUILDING BY GEOFFERY BAWA :
THE CHAMBER :

• The centerpiece of the whole building, on which

meticulous care has been lavished, is gorgeous and a
place of arresting beauty it is accommodated in the
four storied main building.
• It is rectangular in shape and occupies the height of
two floors.
• The chamber has sitting capacity of 232 members
and it can take in 16 more without any structural
alteration.

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 THE HERITAGE MADURAI
• Built in 1974, the Madura Club can be termed as one of
Bawa's best buildings which represent his design
philosophy in its letter and spirit. The club building has
been constructed on a sprawling site which was dotted
with huge trees and overlooks distant hills.

• The low-lying structure of the club was conceived as a

series of spaces encompassing nature to blend perfectly
with its locale. Preserving the decades-old banyan trees
and accommodating them in the plan comprised the main
theme on which the club was designed.

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 PLANNING
• To achieve clarity in function, the
building has been segregated in two
distinct zones on either side of an
entry court and the zones are
interconnected by an open
colonnaded walkway. The guest
rooms have been kept on one side
of the entry court to ensure privacy.
On the other side is the main club
which comprises a reception,
lounge, library, bar, dining room,
kitchen and a deck facing the
playing courts and a swimming
pool.

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 LOCAL FEATURES
• To give an organic character to the building, traditional materials with their natural colours, shades
and textures have been used in the contemporary idiom with exceptional skill and simple methods.
Granite stone is extensively used in the building, utilizing ancient techniques of splitting this stone.
The 3.65-metre-high rough-hewn stone columns and beams support timber rafters and a purlin
network with flat and curved clay tiles above.
• Antique roof-hanging lamps in a row lend a certain charm to the colonnaded galleries. Although the
plan looks simple, the well-maintained relationship between enclosed, semi-enclosed, and open
spaces provides a variety in experience.

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 LOCAL FEATURES
• The ceilings are lined with hand-woven cotton. The hardware for windows and doors is hand-cast in
bronze. The architect’s idea of reusing a few carved 18th century columns and antique doors, brought
from old demolished houses, in the internal rooms has given the building a distinctive character.
• The footpaths are paved with granite stone slabs as large as 3 by 1.5 metres each and edged with
pebbles and stone slabs, thus creating continuity between outdoor and indoor-spaces. As a result of
using local materials and techniques, the club building has become very much a part of the land to
which it belongs.

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