UNIT V:WESTERN INFLUENCES ON

VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE OF
INDIA
• Evolution of the Bungalow from the traditional bangla,
Victoria Villas
•Planning principles and materials and methods of
construction
•Settlement pattern and house typologies in
Pondicherry and Cochin

CONTENT
• This hut is peculiar to Bengal and is called by the natives as ‘banggalo’ (bangla)
• One hut to a number of huts
• A wealthy Hindu family had a group of ten huts – average size 15’ x 12’
• Number of huts depended on size and social standing of the family
• Rooms included areas for man, wife and child, servant storeroom, temple, guest
room,
• Larger huts used for entertaining.Also had spaces for cattle and watchman
• At lower end there were 2 huts – one for sleeping and the other for cow and
for cooking purposes.
• Materials – Mud 18” – 20” depth
• At the base, the wall is 26” – 30” thick tapering to about ¾ of its breadth at the
top
• Thatch called kuss/ common wild grass is used for roofing
• 3 basic roofs – curved ridge, roof protrudes and forms curves, protruding roof
forms a gallery

THE INDIGENEOUS
BANGGALO
• Hut called ‘Chauyari’ – This form is adopted by the Europeans in their cottage,
when they use a thatched roof.
• The following were the 3 typologies:
• SQUARE BUILDING – Four sides with triangular (Pyramidal) roof
• RECTANGULAR BUILDING – Two ends are triangular.Two sides triangular
truncated at the apex and form a straight ridge.
• Europeans made improvements to this kind of building by:
• Surrounding it with a gallery/ verandah to exclude heat
• Introducing windows
• Dividing into convenient apartments
• Suspending cloth from ceilings to free them from insects that occupy the thatch
• THIRD ALTERNATIVE – Centre square with one or two apartments
• Thatched roof extending over sides to form a verandah around the building
• Improving on this, verandah enclosed by erecting mat or brick walls converting
them into rooms.
• Bungalows are generally raised on one or two feet plinth
• One storey plan – one large room in the centre for eating and rooms at the
corners for sleeping and covered by thatch roof
• The space between corner rooms are verandahs or porticoes to sit during the
evenings.

BANGLA - BUNGALOW
• With colonisation, a new chapter began.Though the Dutch, Portuguese
and the French made substantial forays, it was the English who had a
lasting impact.
• The architecture of the colonial period varied from the beginning
attempts at creating authority through classical prototypes to the later
approach of producing a supposedly more responsive image through
what is now termed Indo-Saracenic Architecture – a mixture of Hindu,
Islamic and Western elements.
• Institutional, Civic and utilitarian buildings such as post offices, railway
stations, etc. began to be built in large numbers over the whole empire.
• The British rulers also contributed to the vast Indian architectural arena.
The edifices built by the British, were not designed to be palaces, but
were more of civic buildings and commemorative structures.

COLONIAL
ARCHITECTURE OF INDIA
• Towards the turn of the twentieth century, the bungalow emerged as
a new urban dwelling form on the domestic landscape as an
alternative to the medieval system of wall-to-wall housing in the
dense and over-crowded inner cities of India.
• It was adopted first by the elite of the society and later by the
middle classes.
• From 1900 to 1970s several structural changes took place in the
social setup.
• Families began to move away from the tradition of a joint family by
being increasingly nuclear.The role of a woman underwent a slow
but definite transformation during this period.
• The bungalow, as it grew popular, also went through spatial and
stylistic changes.

COLONIAL
BUNGALOW FORM
• Pre-modern urban settlements dense and compact
• Social division of the population reflected in the morphology of the town
• Settlement segregated into micro-neighbourhoods based on well-defined,
cohesive communities
• Typologically most houses deep with narrow frontage that opens onto a street –
an introverted spatial organisation with a courtyard in the centre
• The bungalow was a object in a defined compound – a historical revolution in
plan, form and structure of the dwelling unit
• Gradually more sophisticated and opulent, coming closer to the European Villa –
variations in size, style, variety and ornamentation and eventually a mainstream
housing type
• A favourite option during the heyday of the Modern Movement till the 1970s.

DEVELOPMENT OF
BUNGALOW
TYPOLOGY
THE EARLY BUNGALOW (UP TO 1900)
•Simple and utilitarian in military cantonments as well as
civic lines
•Single-storeyed structure with a symmetrical layout, having
a wide, multi-functional and extensive verandah around
•The kitchen and servant quarters located at the rear end
of the house
•Spatial organisation reflecting the colonial attitude of the
British including gender biases

DEVELOPMENT OF
BUNGALOW
TYPOLOGY
MODERNIST HOUSES (1950 TO 1970 ONWARDS)
•Yet another metamorphosis in the form of the bungalow
•Modern Indian architects develop a new vocabulary and explored
expressions in western styles based on the principles of the Modern
Movement
•Use of new materials
•Preference of nuclear family structure and limitations in family size
•Fewer servants and some women work outside of home
•Radical transformations in the notions of privacy as well as personal
space
•More open floor plans, living/dining a combined space – integration of
the kitchen into the living/dining configuration
•However, throughout the bungalow remains a symbolic representation
of the place of the woman in the patriarchal order that governs the
household

DEVELOPMENT OF
BUNGALOW
TYPOLOGY
 • COLONIAL HISTORY OF
PONDICHERRY
•Portuguese set up a factory –
1523
• PRE-COLONIAL HISTORY •Dutch buy textiles - 1618
• Pallava Dynasty - 325 - 900 •Danes set up a factory - 1624
• Chola Dynasty - 900 -1279 •First French settlement - 1674 -
1693
• Pandya Dynasty - 1279 - 1370
• Dutch rule - 1693 - 1700
• Vijayanagar Empire - 1370 -
•French rule - 1700 - 1761
1614
•British rule - 1761 - 1 765
• Sultanate of Bijapur - 1614-
•French rule - 1765 - 1778
1638
•British rule - 1778 - 1783
•French rule - 1783 - 1793
•British rule - 1793 - 1815
•French rule - 1815 - 1954

HISTORY OF PONDICHERRY
• REFER THE PRINTED PAGES FOR
PONDICHERRY SETTLEMENT AND
HOUSING TYPOLOGY

SETTLEMENT PATTERN AND

HOUSING TYPOLOGIES
IN PONDICHERRY
• HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF KOCHI
• The development of Kochi as a prime city of Kerala is closely linked with the political and administrative
history of the Malabar Coast.
• Kerala was an important maritime country in the dawn of the Christian era. Its early rulers had their
capital at Tiruvanchikulam located about 18 km north of Kochi.
• The ancient port of Muziris (now Kodungallur on the southern part of Thrissur district) served as an
international centre of trade and the main emporium of transit of goods between China and Rome.
• The trade links attracted settlers to Muziris from many maritime commercial nations of ancient world.
• The erstwhile rulers of Kochi established their headquarters at Thripunithura, the present neighbouring
town of Kochi, most probably since the present Ernakulam was a waterlogged area then.
• Cochin Port was formed in 1341, when the heavy floods of that year silted up the mouths of the Muziris
harbour and the surging water forced a channel past the present inlet into the sea.The old merchants of
Muziris shifted to Kochi as soon as the new outlet became more or less stable.
• As the harbour gained prominence, the then ruler of the region shifted his capital also to Kochi, giving
impetus to the growth of the town.
• The early settlement of Kochi was at Mattancherry, facing the protected lagoons in the east, which
provided safe anchorage to country crafts in all seasons.
• Mattancherry was linked to the entire coastal stretch of Kerala through these inland waters.
• Thus gradually it grew into a busy settlement.
• Nicolo Conti recorded that, by 1440, Kochi was a city 5 miles in circumference and that Chinese and
Arabs carried on brisk trade with the natives of this town.

SETTLEMENT PATTERN AND

HOUSING TYPOLOGIES
IN COCHIN
• MATTANCHERRY MARKET TOWN
• Mattancherry, meanwhile, had developed as a typical oriental market town, with
commercial activities distributed along the waterfronts.
• Agricultural produces from the vast hinterland flowed to its markets to be sold
or exchanged for textiles, metals and other products of the European countries.
• Jews and Muslims had their settlements at Mattancherry.
• Trading communities from Gujarat and the emigrants from Goa also established
trading centres in Mattancherry along with the native Hindus and the early
settlers.
• The then rulers found this an opportunity to strike balance of economic power
with the European traders.
• Mattancherry grew into a market town with cosmopolitan character attracting
foreign traders.
• However developments in the adjoining Fort Kochi were strengthened by the
foreign traders.

SETTLEMENT PATTERN AND

HOUSING TYPOLOGIES
IN COCHIN
• DEVELOPMENT OF FORT KOCHI
• From the 16th century, Kochi witnessed rapid changes through the trading and
colonizing attempts of European powers.
• Portuguese were the first to arrive at Kochi.
• They founded Fort Kochi, established factories and warehouses, schools and
hospitals and extended their domain in the political and religious fronts.
• The fall of the Portuguese in Kochi came with takeover of the Fort by the Dutch
in 1663.
• The Dutch East India Company tried to persuade the local rulers into giving them
monopoly in pepper trade. In this attempt they came across varied interests of
the English and the French.
• For the next hundred years, Kochi became the centre of political and commercial
battles.
• In 1795 the British took over Kochi from the Dutch. Fort Kochi thus became
British Kochi. It became a Municipality in 1866.

SETTLEMENT PATTERN AND

HOUSING TYPOLOGIES
IN COCHIN
• DEVELOPMENT OF ERNAKULAM
• By 1840, Mattancherry was so much crowded that the activities
spread to the eastern side of the backwaters to the Ernakulam side.
• Public buildings and educational institutions were setup in Ernakulam
befitting the splendor of the Maharajas. Roads were laid out, markets
were established and temples were renovated.
• Regional connectivity was improved with the commissioning of the
railways in 1905.
• Ernakulam thus gradually started developing as an administrative
town.
• Mattancherry rose to the status of Municipality in 1912 and was
followed by Ernakulam in 1913.
• However it was to a large extent the Port that catapulted the
importance of Kochi.

SETTLEMENT PATTERN AND

HOUSING TYPOLOGIES
IN COCHIN
• DEVELOPMENT OF COCHIN PORT
• In the early nineties the existence of a sand bar in the sea mouth prevented large ships from
entering safely into the backwaters of Kochi.Western industrialisation brought in revolutions
in overseas trade with the wrought iron ships of greater draught and the consequent need
for deeper and safer harbours and stronger moorings.
• The opening of Suez Canal in 1869 further emphasized the importance of the Port at Kochi
as a coaling station for this route.The idea of making it a great harbour, out of the unique
lagoons in Kochi was mooted as early as in 1870.
• Though Kochi had proposed for a dredged channel leading to the inland harbour, due to the
non-availability of adequate technology for dredging at that time, it was only in 1920 that the
port works were initiated.
• Under the direction of Sir Robert Bristow, the sand bar at sea mouth was cut open and a
deep shipping channel was dredged to the backwaters.The spoils of the dredging were used
to reclaim Wellington Island from the backwaters.
• Road and rail connectivity to the west Kochi and the island from the main land on the east
were completed in 1940 when Government of India declared Kochi as a Major Port.
Wellington Island developed with its wharfs, quays and other infrastructure as a transport
terminal complex.
• Cochin port gradually became the focus of the city. Centered on the port facility grew a
large number of business and commercial establishments providing the economic base to the
city and the environs.

SETTLEMENT PATTERN AND HOUSING

TYPOLOGIES IN COCHIN