Module 5

bed
altar
theatre
tomb
fortress
throne
 Hearth
• Place of the fire
• Traditional significance in many
cultures:
• heart of the home or the focus of a
community
• a source of warmth, for cooking
• a point of reference around which
life revolves
 Hearth
• Forms
• The circle of scorched earth may be contained
with a circle of stones
• Set against a large stone which protects it from
excessive draught and stores some of its heat
• May be flanked by two parallel walls of stone
that channel draughts and provide a platform
for cooking.
• With cooking pot hung from a tripod (aedicule)
over fire
Terra Amata
 Hearth
• A chimney can be space
defining element e.g. FL
Wright’s Prairie Houses

Pylos Palace: Plan of Megaron – 1300-1200 BC

 Bed
A place for sleep, sex, sickness

A bed may be an aedicule,

provided with its own roof
supported on columns, or walls.
Bed – a place for sleep, sex, sickness

According to Robert Kerr, the English Victorian architect, the English gentleman’s
bedroom should be arranged so that the bed avoided draughts; one should be able to draw
a straight line from the door to the hearth without it cutting across the bed. In French
examples, he said, beds were protected from draughts by being provided with their own
alcoves planned into the bedrooms.
Altar – a table for sacrifice or worship

Altar

Stonehenge

Altar

At Stonehenge the place of the altar is identified by a circle and a horseshoe of

standing stones. The altar is positioned not quite at the geometric centre of the circle,
offset in response to the approach to the circle and the open end of the horseshoe.
Altar – a table for sacrifice or worship

In the pyramid temple of Cheops, the altar is hidden away at

the end of labyrinthine corridors. The spirit of the god king
would come to collect the food through an false doorway that
‘connected’ the chamber with the inside of the pyramid.
Altar – a table for sacrifice or worship

The spire of a traditional church acts as a marker identifying the place of the altar in a way
that can be seen for miles around.
Altar – a table for sacrifice or worship

In the church of S. Maria del Mar in Barcelona,

the geometry of the structure focuses on the altar
at its heart. In St. Peter’s, Rome, the altar stands
near the focus of two axes.
Altar – a table for sacrifice or worship

The place of the altar in a

traditional church is identified
by the axis of the building.
Often the entrance is placed so
that people coming into the
church do not confront this axis
directly.
Altar – a table for sacrifice or worship

The axis of a church is part of a perspective

that focuses on the altar.
Altar – a table for sacrifice or worship

Alvar Aalto’s design for the Vuoksennisks Church at Imatra in Finland is asymmetrical in its plan. But
still, by various means, the building focuses on the altar.
1. Memorabilia of a favorite football club.
2. A museum curator may place precious object on their own altars.
3. A grandmother might put photographs on her piano, making it into an altar to her
family.
4. A bar might be considered by some to be an altar to drinking.
5. A table to eating
6. A kitchen stove might be like an altar to cooking
7. A mantelpiece can be an altar to the fire in its hearth and a support for ornaments.

8. A dressing table is an altar to one’s self.

9. Many games are played on ‘altars’: a gaming machine is an
altar to the acquisition of money by luck, a pool or snooker
table is an altar to a mystical game of skill and chance.

10. An operating table might be seen as an altar on which

patients are treated by ‘high priest’ surgeons.

11. A mortuary table is an altar to their failure.

Tomb
Tomb
 • 69 megalithic monuments spread over a small area
• Built around 2000 BC (Archaeological Survey of India –
ASI)

• ASI has declared it a

centrally protected
monument
 Fortress
• A fortification, a defensive military construction

Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur, India

Fortress

Rock of Gibraltar
 • Ceremonial chair for a sovereign,
Throne bishop, or similar figure

Throne of St. Peter

Throne
Theatre – a place for performance

When a clown performs on a patch of ground it becomes a stage.

Theatre – a place for performance

The ancient Greek amphitheatre is a formalization of performance places in the landscape.


Theatre – a place for performance
The proscenium arch in a
theatre is a metaphorical
window between the
ordinary world and an
imaginary world. The effect
of separation is enhanced
by the contrast in light
between the auditorium and
the stage. Similar effects
can be achieved in more
everyday situations: a
window looking onto a
street; a park seat in dark
shade watching people pass
on a lit path; a veranda
overlooking the ever-
changing sea.
Theatre – a place for performance
Vernacular architecture
The Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the
World defines vernacular architecture as:

“...comprising the dwellings and all other buildings of

the people.

Related to their environmental contexts and available

resources they are customarily owner- or community-
built, utilizing traditional technologies.

All forms of vernacular architecture are built to meet

specific needs, accommodating the values, economies
and ways of life of the cultures that produce them.”
 E.g. Defence – Catal Huyuk, Turkey, 7500-
Theories on house form 5700 BC – Neolithic settlement

PHYSICAL
• climate and the need for shelter
• materials and technology
• site

SOCIAL
• economics
• defence
• religion
‘House form and culture’ Amos Rapoport, 1969
Kerala Architecture
• Notes already given
Assam, Sikkim
Vernacular Architecture
Ikra house, Assam & Sikkim
Three main aspects
 Assam-type house or Ikra
• Usually single storey house; two-storey houses also found
• Plan: rectangular with the long side running along the slope,
and the access is from the hill slide with veranda facing the
valley side
• Earthquake resistant: stable configuration, light-weight
materials used for walls and roofs, flexible connections between
various wooden elements at different levels, etc.
• Plinth of the house is raised above the normal ground
level to avoid marshy ground, run-off during rains, and stray
animals and reptiles
Construction Process
(Ikra – a wild growing weed, found in river plains and adjoining
lakes across the state of Assam, is extensively used in the walls and
roof of the house)

• Wall panels made of bamboo frames infilled with

shoots of Ikra reed
• Ikra are cut in size of the panel and laid vertically;
horizontal members usually bamboo
• Roof truss covered with thick stack of Ikra reed
• Ikra is left to dry for few days, then plastered on both
sides with mud mortar. Three layers of plaster are done
after dying of each coat
• Finished coat is of liquid mix of mud and cow dung
 Construction Process

• Buildings are maximum

of two storeys
• Building is symmetrical
on both sides.
• 1st floor is connected
with a timber stair
case. • Open spaces in
front and behind the
house
Assam
Climate
• Tropical monsoon rainfall type - high levels of
humidity and heavy rainfall
• Moderate climate all throughout the year, with
warm summers and mild winters
• Four distinct seasons - summer, monsoon,
autumn and winter
 Wattle and Daub
Construction
Assam

Good sources:
https://www.slideshare.net/AbhishekSharma592/vernacul
ar-architecture-of-assam
http://www.world-
housing.net/WHEReports/wh100172.pdf
Wattle and Daub
Wattle and Daub
• Wattle - A fabrication of poles interwoven with
slender branches, withes, or reeds
• Daub - Crudely cover or coat with soft adhesive
matter
• Wattle and daub: A composite building material
woven lattice of wooden strips
called wattle is daubed with a sticky material usually
made of some combination of wet soil, clay,
sand, animal dung and straw
• Low-impact sustainable building construction
method, in use for 5000+ years
 Wattle and Daub House, Assam

• Structural system:
• Flooring - Rammed earth, plaster finishing
• Roofing – Thatched roof supported on wood purlins
• Fondation – Wall
Vernacular houses
Sikkim
Vernacular houses of
Sikkim
Lepcha house
 Lepcha House

• Two storeyed rectangular structures

• Ground floor partially enclosed; domestic animals kept
• Houses made of split bamboo plastered with mud
• Roof: Thatched with reed, straw and bamboo
• At least two rooms, main room (sitting and dining and
kitchen) is bigger than others
• The hearth is the centre of all activities
• Separate room for altar where grains are also stored
Lepcha House

Ground floor
• Elevated pillar structure prevents the
house from sliding during natural
calamities such as floods or land slides
• Roof
• Sloping - rain, snow and hailstones slide
off easily
• Thatched grass reeds absorb the direct
heat from the sun; house very warm in
winter, cool and airy in summer
Lepcha House
Section
 Toda Hut
Traditional shelter of Toda tribal community in Nilgiris
Toda hut
 Toda hut

• Oval, Bent-shaped construction

• 10‘ (3 m) high, 18’ (5.5 m) long and 9’ (2.7 m) wide
• Small door 3’ (0.9 m) x 3’ (0.9 m); can be entered only by
crawling; only means of ventilation
• The small entrances serve as protection from wild animals and
extreme weather
• Each hut is enclosed within a wall of loose stones.
 Construction

• Built with bamboo, cane and rattan and thatched with dry grass
• Thicker bamboo canes are arched to give the hut its basic bent
shape. Thinner bamboo canes (rattan) are tied close and parallel
to each other over this frame. Dried grass is stacked over this as
thatch.
• Front and rear of hut made of dressed stones usually granite and
decorated with art work
 Igloo
Traditional shelter of the Inuit
 Igloo
• Entered by crawling through a narrow, semi-
cylindrical tunnel about 10’ (3 m) long, with vaults for
storing supplies
• Cold wind kept out from the main room by
• low entrance facing away from the wind
• sealskin flap hung over the exterior entrance
• low, semicircular retaining wall that is sometimes built out
a few feet
• A hole left at the top for ventilation
• A clear piece of ice or seal intestine is inserted for a
window
 Igloo
• Built of blocks of snow in a
circular form in which the
walls curve inward toward the
top to form a snow vault
• The arched ceiling is self-
supporting
• Raised out of independent
blocks leaning on each other
and polished to fit without an
additional supporting
structure during construction
Section – a catenary arch
Stable structure
 Igloo temperature

• The inside of the igloo is terraced

• Uppermost level: sleeping space - Warmest
• Middle: fire and work place
• Bottom: Sink for cold air
• Principle: Coldest air from inside the igloo runs downward off
the terraces and collects in the bottom, thus allowing the
upper portions to stay warmer.
Turkish Vernacular
Houses

- Beehive
- Timber-framed
 Beehive Houses of Harran, Turkey
• Shaped a little like beehives
• Constructed out of adobe, brick and stone found
locally
• Can be built quickly, making it a very practical
construction for the nomadic population
• Resistant to heat and cold
• Ventilation holes
• on the sides provide cooling air-circulation through cross-
ventilation
• on top of the dome one acts as a chimney
• Beehive houses are no longer used as homes
due transition from nomadic culture into a
more settled one
Beehive Houses of Harran, Turkey
Timber-framed houses:
Timber-framed houses
Mostly found near the coastline or inner regions of Turkey
Roof Forms:
• Pitched on all four sides
• Has a simple form, avoiding indents or extensions
• Eaves are wide and horizontal
Construction:
• Local materials are used as filling material: adobe, clay, brick,
stone, earth, etc
Multi-storeyed buildings:
• Most have at least two storeys
• Ground floor generally has a high, solid stone wall
• Upper floor is the main living area and may extend over the
street