Kerala Vernacular Architecture

 Kerala Architecture has its own unique features

Selection of place for construction of House

 Place where the house has to be built is first selected.
 In a larger plot, Plot has to be divided into four equal parts and the North
eastern part of the divided parts is taken for construction of the house
 House is preferably built facing East and other options are considered
only if there is no road or access to the plot from the east.
 Other options of front of the house are North, West and South in that
order

Padippura
 It is a structure containing a door forming part of Compound wall for the
house with a tiled roof on top.
 It is the formal entry to the compound with the house.
 At present the door is not there as car will have to enter the house through
the entry.
 Still tiled roof is provided preferably with a traditional type lamp below
the roof.
 Instead of door of entry, we now have the Gate

Poomukham
 It is where you enter the house climbing up steps in the front.
 Traditionally it has a slope tiled roof with pillars supporting roof.
 Sides are open.
 In the earlier days, the Head of the family called Karanavar used to sit
here in a reclining chair with thuppalkolambi (Spittoon) by the side of
chair.
 This chair will have long rails on either side where the Karanavar will
keep his legs raised for comfortable rest
Chuttu verandah
 From the Poomukham you can walk through Chuttu verandah to either
side in front of the house through open passage called Chuttu Verandah.
 Chuttu verandah will have hanging lights in equal distance hanging from
its slope roof

Charupady
 By the side of Chuttu verandah and Poomukham, wooden benches with
carved decorative resting wooden pieces for resting the back are
provided.
 This is called Charupady.
 Traditionally the family members or visitors used to sit on these
Charupady to talk

AmbalKulam (Pond)
 At the end of Chuttu verandah there used to be a small pond built with
rubble on sides where water living plant called Thamara (lotus) or Ambal
used to be planted .
 Both Lotus and Ambal have very good wide and beautiful flowers
floating in the water

Living Room
 After Poomukham, we enter Living room where formal seating
arrangement is provided for formal meetings with family members and
guests.
 This is one of the larger rooms of the house.
 Preferable measurements can be 20 feet by 13 feet (600 cm by 390 cm) or
whatever the Architect may find suitable for the plot

Nalukettu type House

Front Foyer
 From the sit out, when you enter the house, you can have an area called
Front foyer from where you can go to Formal Living room,
 Office room and Stair for going to First Floor .
 This area will thus be used more as a passage

Nadumuttom
 Traditionally Nadumuttom or central open court yard used to be there in
bigger houses of Kerala.
 There is an open area usually square shaped in the exact middle of the
house dividing the house in its four sides.
 Due to this four side division of the house by having a Nadumuttom.
 Houses with one Nadumuttom used to be called as Nalukettu house.
 Similarly there was Ettukettu and Pathinarukettu which are quite rare
with two and four Nadumuttom respectively
 Nadumuttom will be normally open to sky.
 In the modern houses due to security reasons this open to sky feature is
being avoided.
 Instead a slope roof much above other roof is provided above
Nadumuttom with sides above other roof protected with steel railings for
safety reasons.
 Air passage is possible through this steel railings thereby bringing fresh
air to the middle of the house from above.
 Even though Nadumuttom is an old feature of Kerala Architecture, in
present day houses Nadumuttom is coming back with more people going
for it.
 I myself am now building houses featuring Nadumuttom now

Pooja Room
 Pooja room should preferably be in the North East corner of the house.
 Idols should be placed facing east and the person praying should face
west.
 At present, woodden paneling is done on Pooja room walls and there is a
standard design for Pooja room which can be given to clients interested in
having traditional Pooja room
Family Living Room
 As the formal living room will be used to meet guests and for formal
meetings, this area is where family members can relax and watch TV or
listen to music.
 Present day houses in Kerala have this area or room as a standard feature

Usual items of use in old Kerala houses

a) AattuKattil-It is a swinging piece of wood, wide and long enough for two or
three persons to sit. Four corners of this wooden piece will be firmly fixed with
thick coir to the roof. One or two people will sit and somebody will push it for
swinging. It is used to be fixed in large living rooms in old houses In present
day houses also, people who like this feature fix it mostly in family living area
where family members can sit and swing in this as part of relaxation

b) Kindy-It is a brass utensil filled with water used to be kept at the steps of
Poomukham for cleaning feet of those who enter the house. It has a side
opening just like a tap so that a person can easily use it to clean his feet before
entering the house In present day houses, probably you can see this as an
antique item displayed and nothing more than that

c) Montha-It is similar to Kindy made of brass. Only difference is that it has a

wide opening at top and side tap like arrangement for pouring water is not there.
It is not kept at the entry. It is kept inside the house for storage of drinking
water; milk etc.While milking the cow by the house wife Montha was used to
collect milk pressed out of the mammary of the cow

d) Uruly-It is a larger vessel to cook food for large gatherings and to keep
cooked food stored. Usually made of brass

e) Arakallu-Grinding stones-It is two pair of stones, one large with a level top
and tne other round in cross section with length less than width of the base
stone. It is used for manual grinding of spices and coconut for preparing curries
with the main meal, rice

f) Ural-This is a granite piece almost cylindrical in shape with an opening at top

which has a central portion with slight depth to keep granules to be crushed with
a long piece of wood normally that of coconut wood with two ends fixed with
metallic crushing elements. This long piece of wood used to crush granules to
powder by repeated crushing through forcing by hand up and down by women
doing house hold work in olden days Kerala, is called Ulakka.It was a familiar
sight in Kerala houses where many women used to chit chat and crush granules
to powder in their respective Urals using Ulakka
 Bed rooms
As per Vasthu Master Bed room should preferably come at South west corner of
the house, with head of the cot facing south. Bed rooms have got bed space
separate and a space called dress which acts as entry to toilet, thereby hiding
toilet door to bed space. Dress if made spacious enough can be used to keep a
dressing table. Toilets now have shower cubicles for bath instead of bath tubs.
For medium size houses with two storey, two bed rooms are preferred in
Ground floor
 Kitchen
Traditionally Keralites used to have their Kitchen in the North East corner of the house, close to
well which is in the North east corner of the plot. Even though position of well is at the proper
place as per Vasthu, Kitchen as per Vasthu should come preferably at South East and if not
possible due to some other considerations, it can come at North West as a second option. Due to
better awareness of Vasthu, present day houses have the position of Kitchen relocated
With modular kitchens coming, proper Kitchen is kept as a show piece Kitchen and a work area is
added for cleaning of vessels, cutting for food preparations etc
Earlier there used to be a Store which was just a storage room. Modular kitchen provides lot more
storage space compartmentalized, and hence no need for an unorganized storage space
Items like Arakallu, Washing machine, Grinder for grinding of granules for making Dosa and iddlies
are kept in the Work area space

 Rear Foyer
This is a new addition to Kerala houses. It is normally provided in the rear with access from the
Dining room. Mostly three sides of this covered area are kept open to have a feel of the open area.
Floor level for this area is kept at ground level of the plot. Sometimes, grass floor is used instead
of formal flooring. This is one area where family members and close friends or relatives can sit and
relax, without noticing by outsiders if they use sit out or Poomukham

 Car porch
Current trend is to go for car porch which can accommodate two cars. Car porch is generally
considered as a show piece or status symbol showing to others the type of car the house owner
has. Hence in some cases it is kept in the front in the middle, possibly with a slope roof above car
porch with decorative round pillars. To add elegance, four pillars in the front and back with long
steps in the back is also provided. Two front pillars can come on either side of the car porch
portion. Similarly for the rear side of car porch
More convenient arrangement will be to provide car porch on any one side of the house with a side
step access to the sit out so that after getting down from car porch, one can go to the house
through side steps to front verandah and from there to the house
As per Vasthu, there are desired positions for car porch depending on to which direction the house
faces. Unlike in the west, car porch is never closed in Kerala

 AaattuKattil
This feature was quite common in old Kerala houses. Generally the old houses used to have a
large Hall like portion, with Nadumuttom in the middle. Attu kattil is a swinging piece of wood tied
to the roof on all four sides with rope. The person or persons sitting in the large piece of wood can
swing to and fro while sitting in the AaattuKattil. This feature is added to modern houses with
more decorative work for the sitting piece of wood and ropes holding it to the roof

 Chitrathoonukal
 Pillars in wood or rubble with carvings or decorative works used to add elegance to the Hall portion
of the old Kerala houses. Even though adding wood pillars is quite costly, this feature is being
added to modern houses also. Pictures are carved into such pillars of Rubble In the case of wood
pillars generally it is plain round pillars with polished surface

 Mural paintings
These paintings used to adorn old Kerala building walls. Generally these paintings depict stories
from epics of India.
Present houses have these paintings as decorative piece of art and not used extensively covering
all walls as in old houses

 Clay tile laying on roof and floor

Traditionally clay tiles were used for floor of the Kerala House and Kerala houses or rather Kerala
style of roof is supposed to be slope roofs with clay tiles laid over wooden reepers and wooden
koodu with wooden thulam,kazhukkoletc properly installed by old asaris with precision
As wood became costlier and when concrete roof became popular, Kerala Architects tried to give
similar old Koodu appearance with slope roof concrete as roof which will later have clay tiles laid
over it complete with old Mukhappu and Thoomanam. Mukhappu comes at the top of the sloping
portions of the slope roof and sometimes in the middle of one side of slope roof. This appearance
is also achieved by using steel fabricated koodu structure with tiles laid over steel reepers
Thoomanam used to be made by wood at the bottom end where clay tile reaches at the bottom.
Rain water falling on the slope roof will flow down fast due to the slope and when water reaches
the bottom of the slope roof, Thoomanam will act as a diverter to direct water directly towards
ground instead of it flowing inside to wall of the house
In the earlier days plain or carved with picture design wooden Thoomanam used to be fitted by
traditional Kerala asaris, usually painted dark blue. As wood is now costly, precast concrete
Thoomanam with attractive designs are now being used in place of wooden Thoomanam
Now clay tiles of smaller dimensions and of different shapes are available. I can give website
details of one of the clay tile manufacturers in Trichur.www.kapindiatiles.com
Even on floor we can use these clay tiles which are healthier to use as they do not have negative
energy unlike other normally used flooring materials. Here again different models and designs are
available of course with better strength and practically wear and tear resistant. If you give an
antifungal exterior paint over these tiles it will go without any fungus for about five years. Costly
baked with antifungal paint claytiles are also available which will last longer fungus resistant

 Wooden flooring
Earlier we used to have wooden flooring in Kerala houses with less finish and without modern
wood polishing. Now different type of wood in small to slightly big pieces arranged neatly to give
good appearance with good polishing which last longer is available for flooring. As wood cost is
now going up, cost of wooden flooring is also on the rise. But wooden flooring is really comfortable
and healthy also

 Interior wood work with carvings

Traditionally Kerala houses had interior wood work done with wood carvings by skilled artisans. In
the earlier days house was built with wood, brick and clay tiles. Content of wood was very high as
the cost was not high.Arappura, Pathayam, Machu (sealing between tiled roof and Room space)
were all done by wood and mostly teak wood. Verandahs and living halls were having round pillars
in wood of rosewood or teak with decorative carvings on top and bottom

Even today this wood work and carving work is used in high cost houses being built in Kerala with
all the beauty and splendor of yester years. Some of the wood work now being used can be
classified into following types
1:-Charupady for sit out and balcony (Fully covered and partially covered)
2:-Wood paneling of wall on either side of main door which can be opened as two parts to either
side with carving work and possibly with pictorial lock like manichitrathazhu
3:-Wood paneling for round pillars inside the house
4:-Wooden flooring
5:-Wood paneling with top carving work for inside room walls
6:-Decorative cots in wood with designs similar to cots of old Kings
7:-Stair case posts with carving
8:-Cup boards and sofas with carved back rest
9:-Modular kitchen with wooden cabinets for storage and proper keeping of kitchen utensils and
tools (This is a modern day addition)
10:-Wood carved Mukhappu above tiled slope roof
11:-Wood carved Thoomanam
12:- AattuKattil

EdappallyHouse,CochinPoomukham,Charupady,Verandah

Furnitures with carved teakwoodFront verandah with decorative round pillars

 Front Door with paneling Carved Stair posts in Teak wood

Mukhappuold style ,now improved

Unplastered walls Exposed Brick work

Archeswith exposed brick Teak wood Arch paneling Between living and dining
Carved wood work in teak For Balcony-old style Irinjalakuda House

Traditional Padippura