Presented at Faculty Development Program at GITAM, Hyderabad. (2 November 2020)

1. VERNACULAR
ARCHITECTURE – Climate
change and Adaptive
Architecture.
DR JANMEJOY GUPTA
ASSOCIATE PROF & HEAD, DEPT OF ARCH.
SPA,VIJAYAWADA.

2. vernacular
architecture
• The vernacular architecture of any
place is evolved through ages by
consistent and continuous effort for
more efficient solutions. The
vernacular architecture of any place
is known for its respect to climate wrt
use of passive methods for a
comfortable indoor environment.
• The word ‘vernacular’ is derived from
the Latin word “Vernaculus”
meaning local or native. Hence
vernacular architecture refers to
“native science of building”.

3. introduction
• Many architectural publications advocate that
traditional and vernacular homes form the basis of
environmentally conscious design. In developing
countries, where most of the population remains in
rural areas using traditional buildings and
technologies, the only feasible way to provide them
with better living conditions is to upgrade traditional
and vernacular homes.
• Source:
• Meir, I.A. and Roaf, S.C., 2006. The future of the vernacular: Towards
new methodologies for the understanding and optimization of the
performance of vernacular buildings.
• In: Asquith,L. and Vellinga,M. (Eds). Vernacular architecture in the
twenty-first century: Theory, education and practice. (Abingdon: Taylor
& Francis Press), pp. 84-90.

4. DETERMINERS OF
VERNACULAR
ARCHITECTURE.
• Broadly speaking, however, vernacular
architecture of a region is primarily
influenced by the following
characteristics:-
1. Climate.
2. Locally available building materials.
3. Indigenous Construction Techniques.
4. Local customs and Social Traditions
also influence and mold vernacular
architecture of a region.

5. Sustainable
way of life
• Vernacular buildings record
lifestyles of the past when
people had to find a sustainable
way of life or perish, just as we
will have to now. The new
importance of vernacular
building is that it has vital
ecological lessons for today.
• Source: Pearson,S. and Meeson,R. (eds) 2001.
Vernacular Buildings in a Changing World:
Understanding, Recording and Conservation. York,
Council for British Archaeology.

6. climate
and
culture
• Although housing typologies are a
result of multiple determinants,
climate and culture are the two most
important determinants. Materials,
construction, and technology are
best treated as modifying factors,
rather than form determinants. They
make possible the enclosure of a
space organization decided upon for
other reasons, and possibly modify
that organization. They facilitate and
make possible or impossible certain
decisions, but never determine form.
• Source: Rapoport Amos, 1969. House, Form and
Culture. Prentice Hall Publications.

7. Need for
recognizing
vernacular
values by
incorporating
them
• The orientation of buildings’, internal
arrangement of spaces, the presence
of internal court-yards, use of locally
available materials and other factors
have combined together to create the
desired conditions. Other than
improved thermal comfort, the
vernacular architecture gives a
number of pointers towards
betterment of architectural quality in
modern architecture with respect to
planning principles, aesthetics and
building materials used in built form.
• There is a need for recognizing
vernacular values by incorporating
them into our contemporary built
forms.

8. At a
glance.
• Climate.
• Local building materials.
• Local customs &
Traditions.
• Social & Cultural influence
on built form.
• Indigenous Construction
Techniques.

9. Sample Regions Studied-West
Bengal , Kerala and Gujarat.
(Warm Humid & Hot Dry)

10. FINDING CONTEXTUALITY
IN VERNACULAR: A Matrix.
Click to add text
Click to add text

11. Evolution In
Vernacular-
Bengal

13. TRANSFORMATIONS.

14. VARIANTS

15. Materials
• The common building materials
used for vernacular construction in
Kerala are mud, laterite, red brick,
granite stone blocks (in
foundations), lime mortar, wood,
bamboo, clay roofing tiles and
coconut palm leaves. Clay is used
in many forms - for walling, in filling
the timber floors and making bricks
and tiles. Palm leaves are used for
thatching the roofs and for making
partition walls. Timber, abundant
in the state, is the other most
important structural element used
in Kerala.

16. Indigenous
Technology
• Soft laterite available at shallow
depth can be easily cut, dressed
and used as building blocks. It is
a rare local stone that gets
stronger and durable with
exposure to the atmosphere.
• Block of this stone may be
bonded in mortars of shell lime
– the classic binding material
used in traditional buildings.The
major building material used was
a locally available inferior variety
of laterite stone, locally known as
''cheekkal ''.

17. Indigenous
Technology
• The skilful choice of timber, artful assembly and
delicate carving of wood work for columns, walls
and roofs frames are the unique characteristics
of Kerala architecture, using accurate joints.
(Source:Dr.
HarimohanPillai,
http://www.archiestud
io.in.)

18. CLIMATE-
RESPONSIVENESS.
The wet tropical environments of Kerala
create typical architecture with the
following characteristics:
 1. Use of shingle roofs and protruding
eaves as response to tropical rain, wind
and other natural elements .
 2. Use of grilled windows and porous
walls as response to tropical sun glare
 3. Significance of the rectangular I-
shaped building mass .
 4. Open lay-out living spaces.
(Source:Dili, A.S., M.A.Naseer, T.Zacharia Varghese,
2010. International Journal of Earth Sciences and Engineering
ISSN 0974-5904, 03(01): 1-5.)

19. SOCIO-
CULTURAL
INFLUENCE
• The environment sought reflects many
socio-cultural forces, including religious
beliefs, family and clan structure and
social organization.
• The houses and the villages are
symbolic of the fact that societies share
generally accepted goals and values.
• Vernacular dwellings are more a result of
the aims and desires of an unified group
for an ideal environment.
• Source: Rapoport Amos, 1969. House,
Form and Culture. Prentice Hall
Publications.

20. SOCIO-
CULTURAL
INFLUENCE
• In the district of Kottayam there is a
traditional strip of canal-settlement with
a couple of rows of traditional-vernacular
houses facing the river and the boulevard
flanking both sides of the river.
• These strips mostly belong to traders and
merchants who are Muslim and Christian
Syrian.

21. SOCIO-
CULTURAL
INFLUENCE
• The house types are popularly considered
Christian Syrian and perform the eclectic
vocabulary of Kerala, Southeast Asian,
and Portuguese styles. The seashore
settlements, especially those around the
ancient trading ports, show the most
extreme eclectic features compared to
those in inland Kerala.
• Source: Susilo, I., 2010. The Living Culture and Typo-
Morphology of Vernacular-Traditional Houses in
Kerala,
atwww.asianscholarship.org/asf/ejourn/articles/ind
ah_w.pdf.

22. Agraharams.
• The Agraharams of Kerala is the standing vestiges of the
history of a group of people who were basically Brahmins
who had migrated to this land and made it their abode.
• The name originates from the fact that the agraharams have
rows of houses on either side of the road and the temple to
the village god at the centre, thus resembling a garland
around the temple.
• An agraharam is held to be two rows of houses running
north-south on either side of a road at one end of which
would be a temple to Shiva and at the other end, a temple to
Vishnu.
• The design and layout of the Brahmin agraharams are in
contrast to the traditional architectural style followed in
Kerala

23. Bhungas-Kutch,Gujarat.
Gupta,J. and Mazumdar,S. (2016), How sustainable are
vernacular dwellings? , Architecture time space & people,
Vol. 16, Issue 2, February 2016, pp. 34-40. (ISSN 0973-
8339).

25. Hasan Fathy's
Pioneering Work
 Hassan Fathy (1973) built
thick mud walls and
traditional courtyards, in
his works at New Gourna
Village for 3,000
families.
 He created opportunities
for passive cooling and
enlisted the villagers as
builders
 Fathy used the stack
effect to good effect in his
designed dwellings,
 with intelligently placed
courtyards and proper
openings at different
levels.
Inducing stack effect through
well designed courtyards and
properly placed openings at
different levels by
Hasan Fathy. (Source: Fathy,
1973)​

26. Conclusion:
Lesson learnt
from tradition
to take
forward.
 Traditional Indian way of living was inherently energy cautious.
 A multi-faceted life-style with strong linkages to the environmental
and climatic context, appropriateness of materials and technologies
used.
 Many of the traditional features are replicated in some modern
buildings, but the functional utility of the buildings are lost while
replicating them.
 Traditional materials and techniques can be analyzed in terms of
energy consumption, in future studies.
 The Vernacular strategies in existence in India, irrespective of the fact
that not much quantitative studies have been done in the field,
possess immense potential in this regard and need further research.
 Appropriate planning devices like courtyards, suitable orientation,
envelope design, responsive roof design and appropriate
fenestration design should be employed.
 Stress on locally available materials without major modifications in
their organic states along with the use of local crafts and skills should
be done.

27. Re-interpreting....
Traditional homes in warm-humid
climates using light-weight construction
with openable walls and shaded outdoor
porches, raised above ground.
Modern Day interpretation of the Traditional timber frame roof in concrete
Kerala.(Source:Dr.Harimohan Pillai,http://www.archiestudio.in/linkages.)
(Source: www.climateconsultant.com)

28. Other Indigenous
Vernacular
Techniques.
• Rammed earth domes - The walls, which
formed a hexagon on the inside, were
also made of rammed earth. To transfer
the thrust from the dome to the
foundation, buttresses were integrated
with the walls.
• The Nubian dome technique has been
known in Upper Egypt for thousands of
years. In this technique, circumferential
courses of adobes are laid using a
movable guide.
• Persian dome with wind catchers.rs.
Persian dome with wind catchers.

29. Compacted Soil Block
• The technique of production of compacted soil
block is relatively young in comparison with other
methods.
• Compacting the soil in a small form produces a
block, which by means of the increased density, is
both stronger and more water resistant than an
ordinary mud brick.
• Compressing the prepared soil "pre-designed
mixture of clay, sand, and fine gravel" in a dry-
moist condition (humidity 8-12%) under high
pressure (60-100 Kg/cm2) in a small steel moulds.
• When moist earth is compacted in a manual or
powered press, the compressed elements so
formed are called “soil blocks.”
• In their unbaked state, bricks produced by an
extruder in a brick plant are called “green bricks.

30. Way Forward...for
fighting climate
change thru essence
of vernacular
architecture.
• How to recreate the thermal properties of traditional materials
like mud with cow-dung layer, rice husk, and thermally insulative
khapra (clay tile) layer with modern day industrially produced
materials .
• Calculating thermal conductivity, transmittance and insulation
properties of bamboo reinforced rammed earth walls and explore
other fusions of bamboo and earth to make composite materials
with good thermal performance in tropical climates.
• A comprehensive study of the thermal properties of non-
stabilized compressed earth blocks with the goal of having it
published in ASHRAE and in the building standards of India should
be made.
• The Bureau of Indian Standards has already brought out a code
of practice (IS: 2110-1980) for the construction of rammed
cement soil walls for rural houses. Further codes for rural houses
need to be brought for construction with compressed earth
blocks and rammed earth walls to bring uniformity in construction
practices with mud in different parts of the country.
• Use of rationalized traditional technologies needs to be
researched upon and encouraged as has been done and displayed
at the Rural Building Centre of National Institute of Rural
Development, Hyderabad (NIRD), a HUDCO initiative, in line with
16 diverse climatic areas of India including Kutch, hot-dry area,
coastal high-rain areas, Deccan Plateau, etc.

31. Thank You, It's been a
pleasure presenting
this to you.