AR6911 Urban Design

UNIT – 1

COMPONENTS OF URBAN SPACE AND THEIR INTERDEPENDENCIES

D E TA I L S + M A T E R I A L S

Register No. - 724416251033 Name – SP Vandhiyathevan

 Details and Materials – Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
 Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu, attracts
many visitors either as tourists or as part of its
large workforce. The vast majority claim Chennai
is one of the best cities in India. We know that
Chennai is popular for IIT and for being an IT and
industrial hub. The city is also renowned for its
passion for music.
• Chennai architecture is a confluence of many
architectural styles. From ancient Tamil temples
built by the Pallavas, to the Indo-Saracenic style
(pioneered in Madras) of the colonial era, to
20th-century steel and chrome of skyscrapers.
Chennai has a colonial core in the port area,
surrounded by progressively newer areas as one
travels away from the port, punctuated with old
temples, churches and mosques.
 Details and Materials – Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
• In the city, one can notice the British influence
in the form of old cathedrals and the mix of
Hindu, Islamic and Gothic revival styles that
resulted in the Indo-Saracenic style of
architecture.
• Native Indian styles were assimilated and
adopted in the architecture. All these factors
led to the development of Indo-Saracenic
architecture towards the end of the 19th
century. Victorian in essence, it borrowed
heavily from the Islamic style of Mughal and
Afghan rulers, and was primarily a hybrid style
that combined diverse architectural elements
of Hindu and Mughal with gothic cusped
arches, domes, spires, tracery, minarets and
stained glass
 Details and Materials – Chennai, Tamil Nadu
• The Indo-Saracenic style of architecture dominated Chennai's
building style just as Gothic style dominated Mumbai's building style,
before the advent of Art Deco style.
• After the Indo-Saracenic, the Art Deco was the next great design
movement to impact the city's skyline and it made way for the
international and modern styles.
• Just as Bombay developed an intermediary style that combined both
the Gothic and Art Deco, so too did Chennai with a combination of
Indo-Saracenic and Art Deco in the University Examination Hall, the
Hindu High School and Kingston House (Seetha Kingston School).
• However, many buildings are either being defaced by modern
ornamentation or being completely demolished to make way for new
constructions.
• An example is the Oceanic Hotel which was classic Art Deco and
which has since been razed to the ground for an IT park. The
language department of the University of Madras is another.
 Details and Materials – Chennai, Tamil Nadu
• In the early 20th century, several major modern
institutions such as banking and commerce, railways,
press and education were established in the city,
mostly through colonial rule.
• The architecture for these institutions followed the
earlier directions of the Neo-Classical and the Indo-
Saracenic.
• The residential architecture was based on the
bungalow or the continuous row house prototypes.
From 1930s onwards, many buildings in George Town
were built in the Art Deco style of architecture.
• Art Deco, a popular international design movement
that flourished between the 1920s and 1940s, was
adapted by cities such as Bombay and Madras almost
immediately
 Details and Materials – Chennai, Tamil Nadu
• Prominent structures in the Esplanade region include the Madras
High Court (built in 1892), the General Post Office, State Bank of
India building, Metropolitan Magistrate Courts, YMCA building, and
the Law College.

• Chepauk area is equally dense with these structures with Senate

House and library of the University of Madras, Chepauk Palace, PWD
Buildings, Oriental Research Institute and the Victoria Hostel.
• Southern Railway headquarters, Ripon Building, the Victoria Public
Hall, and the Madras Medical College's anatomy block are examples
of Indo-Saracenic-style structures foundin Park Town. Structures such
as Bharat Insurance Building, Agurchand Mansion and the
Poombhuhar Showroom are found along the Anna Salai, and Amir
Mahal is in Triplicane. Structure found in Guindy include College of
Engineering and Old Mowbrays Boat Club.
• Egmore is dotted with several such structures including the
Government Museum, Metropolitan Magistrate Court, Veterinary
College, State Archives building, National Art Gallery, and College of
Arts and Crafts. St. George's School Chapel and the Southern Railway
Offices in Aminjikarai are other examples of the Indo-Saracenic
structures in the city.
 Details and Materials – Chennai, Tamil Nadu
• After Independence, the city witnessed a rise in the
Modernism style of architecture.The completion of the
LIC Building in 1959, the tallest building in the country
at that time,marked the transition from lime-and-brick
construction to concrete columns in the region.
• The presence of the weather radar at the Chennai
Port, however, prohibited the construction of
buildings taller than 60 m around a radius of 10
km.The floor-area ratio (FAR) in the central business
district is also 1.5, much less than that of smaller cities
of the country.
• This resulted in the city expanding horizontally, unlike
other metropolitan cities where vertical growth is
prominent. On the contrary, the peripheral regions,
especially on the southern and south-western sides,
are experiencing vertical growth with the construction
of buildings up to 50 floors.
 Details and Materials – Chennai, Tamil Nadu
• Some residential areas like Tiruvallikeni (Triplicane) and Mylapore have
several houses dating from the early 20th century, especially those far
removed from arterial roads.

• Known as the Agraharam, this style consists of traditional row houses usually
surrounding a temple. Many of them were built in the traditional Tamil style,
with four wings surrounding a square courtyard, and tiled sloping roofs. In
sharp contrast, the apartment buildings along the larger roads in the same
areas were built in 1990 or later.

• Typically, agraharams can be seen where an entire street is occupied by

Brahmins, particularly surrounding a temple.

• The architecture is distinctive with Madras terraces, country tile roofing,

Burma teak rafters and lime plastering. The longish homes consisted of the
mudhal kattu (receiving quarters), irandaam kattu (living quarters), moondram
kattu (kitchen and backyard) and so on.

• Most houses had an open to sky space in the centre called the mitham, large
platforms lining the outside of the house called the thinnai and a private well
in the backyard. The floors were often coated with red oxide and sometimes
the roofs had glass tiles to let in light.

• The agraharam quadrangle seen in Triplicane is around the Parthasarathy

Temple and its tank, while that of Mylapore is centred around the
Kapaleeshwarar Temple and its tank. About 50 families continue to live in the
agraharams in Triplicane.
 Details and Materials – Chennai, Tamil Nadu
• The buildings built in India by Indo- Saracenic style of
architecture were built according to advanced British structural
engineering standards of the 1800's including infrastructures of
iron, steel and poured concrete.

• The British colonial styles tended to be very formal and

rational, based on strictly symmetrical designs that featured
pitched roofs, shutters, and the occasional column or pilaster
for a decorative touch. They were usually made of wood or
brick.

• he material that's the backbone of the modern architecture,

concrete is composed of cement, fine and coarse aggregates
bonded together in a fixed ratio. ...Also Brick, Glass, Aluminum,
Natural Stone,wood.

• Art Deco buildings feature distinctive smooth finish building

materials such as stucco, concrete block, glazed brick or mosaic
tile.

• Agraharam style uses Wood, lime mortar, Granite, Cement,

steel, manglore tiles,Madras roof terrace,clay .
References
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture_of_Chennai#cite_note-Hindu_MadrasInherited-10– - Wikipedia

2. https://www.andrewwhitehead.net/blog/chennai-3-the-last-of-the-agraharams- Agraharams of mylapore

3. https://chennaites.in/chennais-traditional-homes-vanishing/ - Agraharams