VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE OF BENGAL

22AR401- VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE OF INDIA

LECTURE-27

Presented by
Ar. R. Vijay Anand
Professor & Head, MSA
• “Vernacular architecture
comprises the dwellings and all
other buildings of the people,
related to their environmental
contexts and available resources.
• They are owner or community-
built, utilizing traditional
technologies.
• All forms of vernacular
architecture are built to meet
specific needs, accommodating
values, economies and ways of
living of the cultures that
produces them.”
• Vernacular architecture,
therefore, is an essentially social
and region specific built forms
made of local materials using
local technology in time and place
by a particular community.
 FACTORS INFLUENCING VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE

GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE :

• West-Bengal extends from

17°-49'N to 22°-34'N
latitude and from 81°-29'E
to 8T-29'E longitude on the
eastern coast of India.
• The winter is very pleasant
in Coastal Bengal.
• However the summer and
rainy seasons allowed the
local people to construct
different forms of
vernacular housing to
protect them from natural
disasters like flood and
cyclone and heat waves.
CULTURE

• The bengal houses are a reflection

of the social structure , customs
and traditions
• Bengali Hut is culturally defined by
social codes, customs and norms
which are often defined as ‘the
female domain’ and ‘the male
domain’ which correspond with the
‘inner house’ and the ‘outer house’
respectively.
• Religious beliefs also influence the
layout of hut. Muslim huts are laid
out following the cardinal
directions of the Qibla for prayer
and also to determine sleeping and
toilet orientation.
• Culture also has a great influence
on the appearance of vernacular
buildings, as occupants often
decorate buildings in accordance
with local customs and beliefs.
LOCAL BUILDING MATERIALS :
• The main factor influencing is
related to the availability of
local building materials.
• The availability of building
materials also affects the
vernacular architecture of a
particular region
• Areas rich in trees and rice
production use thatch roof,
wood and bamboo as building
material.
• It includes twigs, leaves,
thatch, country tile, Mangalore
tiles for roofing materials.
Similarly twigs/leaves, mud,
stone for walls.
• The materials used for
construction are indigenous
and locally available.
MUD HOUSES
• Mud used for the construction of
such houses is of soft type known
as atel mati.

• Bamboo stick is an important

element of mud-house. The
agriculturists and higher castes
have houses with rectangular
ground plan with rooms along all
the sides (bhita-ghara), leaving an
open space (courtyard) at the
center.

• Mud walls with a gabled roof of

thatch made of paddy stalks were
common. The more affluent had
double-ceiling houses ( dutala ghar
) with the inner ceiling of mud
plaster supported by wooden or
bamboo planks.
• This construction made it fire proof
and insulated against the summer
heat and winter chill.
THATCHED HOUSES
• This type of house is extensively seen
all over rural Bengal.
• Materials like reeds, long grass, rice
straw, and jute sticks are widely used
for roofs and walls, mainly because
reeds and long grasses are abundantly
available in char areas and on river
banks, and are also very cheap.
• The materials are usually used with
mud plastering on one or both sides,
while the roof is framed by bamboo
and covered by various kinds of
thatch.
BAMBOO HOUSES
• Bamboo is the most widely used
material in the eastern and northern
part of Bangladesh. In general,
bamboo is available in two varieties,
thick-walled and thin-walled.
• Thick-walled bamboo is used for posts
and roof rafters, while thin-walled
bamboo is split into a variety of stiff
mats and screens used as walls, as
roof cladding, and as well as wall
screens, panels, and partitions.
• The material is cheap and light-
weighted, and due it’s porous, screen-
type walls, it provides necessary
ventilation and thermal comfort.
• In rural Bangladesh, the patterns
of pastoral heritage evolved
through countless generations and
affected the evolution of the
traditional house form.
• The traditional Bengali house
form, ‘Bengal Hut’, in its basic form
is a cluster of single-storied
dwelling units around a courtyard,
which is ‘Uthan’ in local language
• The space organization of hut is
based on broad categories of
function.
• Two distinct functional domains
inner house and outer house are
found in Bengali Hut which
respectively performs family
functions like sleeping, cooking
and eating and formal functions
such as socializing with the
community.
SETTLEMENT PATTERN :

• The settlement is organic in

nature. Most of the people live
near their farmland. The village
is thus a settlement area,
surrounded by paddy fields and
made up of several small linear
settlements.
• There are vast open spaces in
the front and backside of the
building. They have gardens and
paddy fields. The trees provide
shade and the lower shrubs
channel, cool breeze for natural
ventilation in the building. The
approach road is very narrow.
• Where high land is not available,
earth obtained from excavating
ponds or channels is raised into a
mound about 2 to 3 metres high
depending on the surrounding
water level, on which a
homestead or bari is established.
Spatial Organisation
Space design has evolved over time
as per the need from single unit to
double unit and multiple units
separated by enclosed courtyard.
The orientation of the buildings was
mostly chosen on the basis of
topography, solar movement and
wind direction.
Design features have been mostly
influenced by the local skill and
craftsmanship.
A typical vernacular house consists of
a common verandah, small room for
cattle, entrance room (Bata Ghara)
and other rooms arranged around
the courtyard. It does not include
toilet which is located at the back
side of the house.
House types
In Coastal Bengal, two types of houses (ghara) are commonly found..
• Gacher ghor — house made of wood
• Basher ghor –house made of bamboo

Based on roof, houses are classified as-

• Narar- chani or chala (roof)-roof of straw(khord)
• Patar –chani/ chala-roof of big leaves
• Choner-chal- roof of big grass.
• As per the socio economic status of
inhabitant, there are two types of
Vernacular dwellings
• Chala house (Thatch roof and mud
wall)
• Pucca House (Thatch roof / pucca
roof and stone wall) in which there
is a courtyard in the center and
rooms are arranged around the
courtyard with verandah.
BUILDING ENVELOPE :
• To make the building climate
responsive, several basic techniques
are used such as steep roofs to protect
against the thrust of the wind and high
plinth to protect against floods are
used.
• The thatch roof is generally projected
beyond the walls to provide additional
shelter from rain and one side of the
roof is often extended four to five feet
beyond the wall and supported by
stone pillars to form verandah.