Tag Archives: Indigenous Architecture
PUBLIC: Remembering Didi Contractor, a Champion of Indigenous Styles in Built Environments
I wrote something for The Wire in memory of Didi Contractor who passed away on 5 July, 2021. Many thanks to Himanshu Burte for his encouragement. Please find the article here.
Fieldwork: Indigenous Building Practices, District Kangra, Himachal Pradesh
Latitude: 30N; Longitude: 75E Altitude: 250-6975 m Average Annual Rainfall: 1539 mm Average Precipitation Days: 86 Max. Summer Temperature: 34-35 degree Celsius Min. Winter Temperature: 0-3 degree Celsius Languages of Indigenous Craftsmen: Pahadi, Gaddi, Punjabi, Hindi Local Materials: Kacchi inth (Adobe), Gaara (Mud mortar), River stone, Blue gun patthar (Blue sand stone), Baans (Bamboo), Cheer […]
Public: The Earth House, Himachal Pradesh
This interview was published in October-November 2015 issue of Elle Decor India. Photographs courtesy Sumit Mahar. Details Eco Buzz – Oct-Nov’15. Walk us through the idea behind Earth Guest House. The Earth House is a 1500 sft. Guest House in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh for a travel company called Linger (www.linger.in). They […]
Public: The Role of a 21st Century Architect in Rural India (2)
The article was published in Domus India, September 2015 edition. Can be downloaded here. Yakshi Inter Generational Learning Centre, Telangana, India Yakshi (http://www.yakshi.org.in) is a Non- Government Organization based in Hyderabad, India. They are a team of indigenous educators, theatre activists, artists, researchers, community organizers and leaders, primarily from adivasi communities who work with adivasi communities in India, […]
Public: The Role of a 21st Century Architect in Rural India (1)
The article was published in Domus India, September 2015 edition. Can be downloaded here. Introduction In the first part of this article, we took a journey through different rural regions of the Indian Subcontinent trying to understand the materials, methods and ideologies used by the indigenous people to build their spaces. What we learnt is that although all […]
Public: Ecological Interiors-Mud and its many hues
The following article was featured on 27th July 2015 in http://www.sawdust.online on ecological interiors and the use of mud for the same. When designing and building in rural areas, mud should be the de facto material of choice. Excavated right from the foundation for the building or from an adjoining farm, it has a very low […]
Public: Ar. Siddharth Menon
The following interview was featured on 27th July 2015 in http://www.sawdust.online on the challenges of mud architecture in India. When did you build your first earth building, and could you describe some of its features? I built my first earth building at the Auroville Earth Institute (www.earth-auroville.com) in Auroville, Tamil Nadu in 2011. I was training […]
Teaching: Critical Architectural Practice (South Asia)
4th April 2015 Continuing with our series on Indigenous Architecture, we now look at architectural practices in India that are doing some very interesting work within these parameters in the Indian context. This is a personal list of people that have inspired me over the past 5 years. There are architects, engineers, artists, social reformers […]
Urban & Economic Geographer 