HOUSING AT KUTCH GUJARAT |
This housing for people of Kutch is mainly for migrated families who are settled in cities like Bombay and wanted a second home in their homeland. It is built in the traditional environment of Kutch region of Gujarat State of India. Kutch is a pluralistic place like India itself- with its diverse society, traditions, enterprising people, hostile geography, handicrafts, building skills and distinctive character of architecture collectively constituting its own unique culture.
The approach was to evolve architectural design based on the research and analysis of the context of climate and cultures of the Kutch region. We studied the entire Kutch and the research was transformed in design and construction. The architecture of new housing is an interesting reinterpretation of the characteristics of climate, living and cultural patterns, crafts and architecture of the region in site planning to house designs to construction details. It is developed through the analysis of traditional architecture and purely architectonic evolution of form, spaces and construction. The local crafts are used for new methods of building to revive certain crafts and create local employment.
The housing site is a 22 acres farmland outside the Bidada village in coastal South Kutch. The layout is a group of clusters and each cluster consists of individual houses on landscaped platform around a central open community green space. These would incrementally form a small settlement recalling the composition of circular houses around a community space as observed in Banni – the desert area of Kutch. This polycentric typology has the crucial advantage of cross ventilating every house and the entire cluster. Houses have no boundary walls and their circular profile along the street varies to take advantage of the prevailing breeze.
The house forms are circular or semicircular in plan wherein the internal spaces are arranged around a central ventilation shaft and covered by a conical r.c.c. roof. They are evolved through a climatic analysis of the circular houses (bhoongas) of Rabari community of Kutch. There are five type of houses, each with an area of 120-150 sq.m comprising of entrance verandah (delly), living (osari), kitchen (rasoda or rasoi), and bedrooms (karai) with toilets. The principal spaces of a house are arranged in levels around the central ventilation shaft, which emerges out of the conical roof. The structure being circular in form, the warm air escapes from the house in summer reducing the heat absorption and this at small scale alters the microclimate of the entire house making the living spaces comfortable.
Kutch has a rich tradition of handicrafts and inspite of the insurgence of modern machine made objects they continue to form an essential part of their colourful habitat. To create a familiar ambience the local crafts are reinterpreted and transformed in architecture through new construction methods like:
Clay decoration to impression concrete blocks,
Pottery for insulation,
Embroidery and flooring,
Textile printing to fibreglass panels.
This building activity in village provided work for local construction labour, carpenters, artisans, craftsmen, gardeners and few educated youth. Thus this housing evolved in response to climate, crafts and cultural context of the Kutch region and present changes in living patterns of the people wherein the architectural design through the form, spaces and details attempted to create a sense of belonging to the place which was so vital for the inhabitants.
FROM THE BOOK : ARCHITECTURE FOR KUTCH
PROJECT IN ASSOCIATION WITH ARCHITECT ANAND PANDIT
TEAM MEMBERS: SANJAY UDAMALE, AMOL MAHAJAN, GAURI SAHASRABUDDHE, SMITA KULKARNI, MEENAKSHI PAHURKAR
The approach was to evolve architectural design based on the research and analysis of the context of climate and cultures of the Kutch region. We studied the entire Kutch and the research was transformed in design and construction. The architecture of new housing is an interesting reinterpretation of the characteristics of climate, living and cultural patterns, crafts and architecture of the region in site planning to house designs to construction details. It is developed through the analysis of traditional architecture and purely architectonic evolution of form, spaces and construction. The local crafts are used for new methods of building to revive certain crafts and create local employment.
The housing site is a 22 acres farmland outside the Bidada village in coastal South Kutch. The layout is a group of clusters and each cluster consists of individual houses on landscaped platform around a central open community green space. These would incrementally form a small settlement recalling the composition of circular houses around a community space as observed in Banni – the desert area of Kutch. This polycentric typology has the crucial advantage of cross ventilating every house and the entire cluster. Houses have no boundary walls and their circular profile along the street varies to take advantage of the prevailing breeze.
The house forms are circular or semicircular in plan wherein the internal spaces are arranged around a central ventilation shaft and covered by a conical r.c.c. roof. They are evolved through a climatic analysis of the circular houses (bhoongas) of Rabari community of Kutch. There are five type of houses, each with an area of 120-150 sq.m comprising of entrance verandah (delly), living (osari), kitchen (rasoda or rasoi), and bedrooms (karai) with toilets. The principal spaces of a house are arranged in levels around the central ventilation shaft, which emerges out of the conical roof. The structure being circular in form, the warm air escapes from the house in summer reducing the heat absorption and this at small scale alters the microclimate of the entire house making the living spaces comfortable.
Kutch has a rich tradition of handicrafts and inspite of the insurgence of modern machine made objects they continue to form an essential part of their colourful habitat. To create a familiar ambience the local crafts are reinterpreted and transformed in architecture through new construction methods like:
Clay decoration to impression concrete blocks,
Pottery for insulation,
Embroidery and flooring,
Textile printing to fibreglass panels.
This building activity in village provided work for local construction labour, carpenters, artisans, craftsmen, gardeners and few educated youth. Thus this housing evolved in response to climate, crafts and cultural context of the Kutch region and present changes in living patterns of the people wherein the architectural design through the form, spaces and details attempted to create a sense of belonging to the place which was so vital for the inhabitants.
FROM THE BOOK : ARCHITECTURE FOR KUTCH
PROJECT IN ASSOCIATION WITH ARCHITECT ANAND PANDIT
TEAM MEMBERS: SANJAY UDAMALE, AMOL MAHAJAN, GAURI SAHASRABUDDHE, SMITA KULKARNI, MEENAKSHI PAHURKAR