The idea for this monograph was first suggested by Dr Michael Brett-Crowther in 2009, and an attempt was made in 2010. Together with Mr A. K. Jain, (former Commissioner, Delhi Development Authority), we identified several architects who were inspired by local vernacular traditions and requested them to write about their work. The Indian Trust for Rural Heritage and Development (ITRHD) sent a proposal for a conference on vernacular architecture, in 2014 and eventually came together with the School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal (SPAB), and the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya, IGRMS (National Museum of Man), to convene a conference and hold an exhibition on South Asian Vernacular Architecture – Challenges to its Continuity and Strategies for its Future, 11th–13th December 2015.
Vernacular architecture has strong rational foundations based on geography, climate, availability of materials and cultural responses to these physical factors in creating comfortable and inspiring built forms, in harmony with their surroundings. When different cultures have come together, the resulting built forms have become more ingenious and complex in devising new solutions, and the products are unique to the geographic locations in which they are built. Even in the same geographic location and climate, different cultures have found different solutions to their built environment. There is continuity in these exchanges and transformations, sensitive to people’s needs, local geography and climate. The continuity of vernacular architecture in the South Asian region and its shared cultural heritage and identity is evident in the fact that more than 90% of its people live in houses that they have built for themselves.
Ashish Ganju argues that culture should govern choices in architecture. His point is to show that there are good reasons for continuity in forms and that conserving them benefits society. Commercial pressures crush society’s weakest members who in so many cases in India are forced into accommodation designed insensitively. The example of a Buddhist nunnery shows a sympathetic understanding of culture, climate, geography and vernacular responses to these.
Choyon Saha’s paper from Bangladesh shows that the fundamental component – the true building block, the brick – is being produced in that country with pollution, despite the laws against this. It must be obvious that bricks can be produced without pollution, to be used with beauty and utility for housing and general building purposes. Vernacular architecture need not be seen as backward. Traditional modes of doing things can be refined and improved. Pollution is preventable. Law is enforceable.
D. S. N. Gunewardene gives an encouraging example from Sri Lanka. He discusses the formation of architects from the preliminary task of working in the field, making a measured drawing of a traditional structure, a devala (a traditional Buddhist-Hindu shrine). This exercise in drawing allows the student to get into the mind of the past, to understand its practical reasons and its attractive results, and to maintain a positive attitude towards vernacular architecture.
In Afghanistan, as Abdul Wassay Najimi shows, a generation of wars has been confronted by conservation-minded architects and planners who have a huge problem of identification, restoration and the need to hand on the knowledge of the built environment to a new generation of conservationist architects and planners. Afghanistan may be singularly devastated, but many parts of the sub-continent show a neglect of structures which will approach a similar degree of dilapidation and even be threatened with demolition.
Kashmir is an instance of this. Saleem Beg draws attention to the needless destruction of a heritage building which, undoubtedly, ought to have been conserved. Kashmir’s rich legacy of vernacular architecture, mostly in timber and stone, has withstood earthquakes much better than the local modern construction. It is also very well documented in contrast with other parts of India, and boasts the first Heritage Conservation Act (2010). Kashmir’s vernacular architecture is a matter of a shared cultural enjoyment of tradition; the same forms prevailing with ‘polite’ and ‘vernacular’ structures alike. Yet political choices appear to have favoured ‘the modern’ to the detriment of this heritage.
Nepal’s devastation in the recent earthquake has destroyed much of its rich vernacular architecture heritage. The need to provide shelter to the hundreds left homeless in the wake of the earthquake has raised the question whether new houses should be in reinforced concrete or in traditional materials. Nripal Adhikary explains that there are misperceptions about the vulnerability of traditional materials as against cement concrete. Use of correct techniques, in both materials, is important for robustness. But traditional materials are plentiful and available locally, and cost far less than reinforced concrete. Again, a question of government policy is central.
Bhutan’s policy for continuation of its traditions has helped in the conservation of its vernacular architecture. Nupur Saran Saboo shows that Bhutan’s emphasis on harmony and the importance of national happiness, together with its long isolation, has allowed the traditional, vernacular forms and their relation to the available land to retain their importance. But it is clear that a system of regulation which is available in Bhutan can also be devised elsewhere in South Asia. Indeed India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have all inherited legislative and judicial systems which in theory can solve these problems. The reader must ask why so often legal measures are flouted, commercial pressures are reinforced, and the ugly, inefficient structures which follow (which no decision-maker would wish to occupy) are imposed on the powerless.
The role of climate in the design of vernacular house form and its energy saving in achieving comfort conditions are matters shared by several papers in this collection. Sriraj Gokarkonda and Ankit Kumar’s paper argues for the development of new energy codes, which they call a Passive Architecture Design Index (PADI), which measures not just ‘sufficiency,’ but ‘efficiency’ in a more economical and ecological sense. One asks whether his approach has been considered at all by those responsible for housing slum dwellers.
Samra Khan examines a courtyard house (haveli) in Peshawar, Pakistan. Khan’s paper shows that it was built on sound principles, which created cool comfort in mainly hot and arid or (in monsoons) hot and humid weather conditions. The terminology of spaces indicates a Persian influence. Since the ancient cities of Mohenjo Daro and Harappa, the courtyard house has been re-invented in a wide geographic region covering tropical to semi-arid climate types. There is a shared perception of the private, semi-public and public spaces within the courtyard houses. Yet Peshawar has lost many of its valuable courtyard houses, and the need for conservation is urgent.
Janmejoy Gupta, Manjari Chakraborty and Ritu Aggrawal demonstrate by their paper on the mud huts of Ranchi that vernacular forms can be adapted to current needs and in anticipation of climate change effects. Gupta also focuses on the disgraceful neglect of infrastructure. One can easily imagine Gandhi – and Dr Ambedkar – looking at these mud huts with approval. This is a paper where theory is proved to work with the dignity of the residents being paramount. Why should not the poor have inside toilets? This was something Britain ensured through establishing the Welfare State after 1945. Has India less reason to make changes today?
The courtyard house is generally a form for the rich. The bungalow develops from the less grand cottage of England and the distinctive rural house of Bengal. Monalisa Bharadwaj and Pushpalata Garg’s paper sketches the development of the bungalow, now widespread in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, as well as in Great Britain and many other countries. The British adapted the local vernacular architecture in undivided India to develop a house form which is ingenious and creative. The subsequent export of the Bungalow to the British Isles and to other parts of the world where the British settled is a remarkable demonstration of the trajectory of the vernacular into ‘polite’ architecture.
Hira Ovais’s paper on the architecture of the British Raj in Lahore covers a wider range of buildings with administrative, educational, religious and utilitarian functions. She also discusses the chronological and geographical dispersion in the use of Western styles in these buildings and their adaptation to the local climate and monumental forms of the Sikhs and Mughals. The Indo-Saracenic, a feature both of South Asia and South-east Asia, has not been sufficiently valued, but its use shows that the British certainly valued the Moorish and Arab components which they reinterpreted by this style. Similarly, the neoclassical and Gothic styles were very well achieved in Lahore and elsewhere in the sub-continent. Hira Ovais makes an urgent plea for the conservation of these structures.
The complex cultural influences in India’s vernacular responses to climate and geography, apparent in the Mughal and the British periods, have been contradicted and disrupted by the imported modern style adopted after India’s independence. It would seem that Le Corbusier’s ideas have pervaded decision-making and architectural practice detrimentally. India’s public housing since 1947 is an unimpressive array of unsuitable structures justified feebly by excuses such as urgency to build or economics for housing the poor.
Misra’s paper on Laurie Baker discusses his contribution to a completely different approach to architecture which respected vernacular architecture traditions, in contrast to the State supported architecture of Independent India. The soundness of Baker’s approach resonates in all the above papers as the way forward for housing millions in South Asia.
A.K. Jain’s paper discusses the architecture of Delhi over a wide span of four centuries, starting with the development of Shahjahanabad, British intervention in the 19th Century, and the subsequent planning of New Delhi by Lutyens and Baker and the need to conserve this jewel from the commercial pressures which are deforming the built heritage everywhere.
Dr Brett-Crowther has kept an eye on this project since it began and has shown great resolve and patience throughout. Many thanks to him for his oversight.
Besides the graceful harmony and beauty of vernacular architecture in natural surroundings, these papers demonstrate the skill and ingenuity of people in using available local materials to build sound and stable structures.
Guest editor
School of Planning and Architecture Bhopal
Neelbad Road, Bhauri, Bhopal 462030, Madhya Pradesh, India