8/14/2019 Laurie Baker Appropriate Building Technolog

1/2

Appropriate Building Technology in Pithoragarh

Written by Laurie Baker

Distinctive architectural styles were not designed by some famous ancient

architect who decreed that a certain style will be used in Japan and a certainother style will be used in Peru and yet another style in Punjab. The upturned,

horned roofs of buildings as found in Kerala, China and Japan arc the direct

result of the people of those places making use of the most common, plentiful,

useful material: bambooto house and protect them from natural enemies

such as sun, rain, hurricanes and wind. A completely different set of styles has

evolved in hot, dry, treeless, desert areas, as in parts of Egypt, Iran and India;

in almost every district in the world these natural styles have grown to the

patterns that could be seen in the first half of this century.

Our 'backward' ancestors had learned how to live with and cope with the

problems of climate. They had teamed that a pitched or a sloping roof lessened

the effects of all these hazards. They knew the movements of air currents andplaced their wall openings almost at ground level. They knew that hot air rises

and allowed it to travel upwards from the low eaves to the openings at the ends

of the high ridge. They understood and applied principles of insulation; their

roofing materials formed hollow cellular protective layers and their storage

spaces provided insulation from the midday sun. They had understood that wall

surfaces can absorb and retain just as much heat as a roof surface, so they

kept these walls as small in area as possible and never left them unprotected.

They knew that eye-strain from working out in the sun could be alleviated by

rest in an area where glare was eliminated and they used smooth, hard, light-

coloured surfaces sparingly and left the natural materialswood, laterite,

brick, stoneexposed. Their practical knowledge of the properties of these

differing building materials was amazing. They knew, for instance, how todesign their timber and wood work to avoid warping, twisting and cracking.

Village planning and site utilization were equally functional and delightfully

simple. Usually there were rows (terraces) of houses all joined together with

common dividing partition walls; sometimes when anywhere from three to ten

or twelve brothers lived in such a row of houses, the front veranda was

common to all. These multi-housed rows of dwellings were usually under one

big long common roof. The row followed the contours wherever possible, and

as a consequence was sometimes curved. The row of houses was usually sited

Work Section

Bakers ArchitecturalPrinciplesOn 'Laurie Baker' ArchitectureWriting by Laurie BakerBooks & Writing on BakerList of Architectural WorkAwards & RecognitionCOSTFORD

Architectural Writing

LimeMudOn Being an ArchitectA Rural HouseAppropriate Technology

Tools

HomeView or Sign GuestbookContributions & FeedbackSearch

Home Work Architectural Writings Appropriate Building Technology in Pithoragarh

Home Personal Work Photos and Videos More

search...

Page 1 of 2Appropriate Building Technology in Pithoragarh

12/21/2009http://lauriebaker.net/work/work/appropriate-building-technology-in-pithoragarh.html

8/14/2019 Laurie Baker Appropriate Building Technolog

2/2

to overlook the terraced fields below, to catch the sunshine, and to get

protection from rain, snow and cold winds from the forest or steep hillside

behind. The foundations were almost invariably built on stone straight off solid

rocka foundation of Mother Earth herself. Very rarely did the people use

earth that could be terraced or cultivated, but they chose their building sites

along rocks, ridges or spurs of the mountains where cultivation would be

impossible. Their foundation problems were therefore nil, and the rock they

quarried for building the foundation and basement walls was split or blastedout from the same bed rock on which they would build. I never saw any rubble

being carried more than a hundred yards and, of course, it was all carried on

someone's head.

The superstructure walls were also built of the same quarried-on-the spot

stone. Sometimes it was big and square and chunky, in other places it was

more like thick slate in large sheets or slabs only a few inches thick. And of

course it was all built in mud mortar. The walls were heaped on the inside with

mud, or mud and cow-dung, or lime mortar or plaster. Sometimes the outside-

Was left as it was, or, sometimes, it too was treated with some sort of lime

plaster. Doors and windows were often of delightfully shaped and simply

carved woodwork using chir-pine or deodar, or occasionally some other local

country wood such as tuni. But this timber was always found within a few

hundred yards, or at most a mile or two, of the house being constructed.

The wood for the roofs was extravagantly lavish in size. Whole tree trunks

were used for the ridge-pole and purlins and trusses. Again, all these roofing

materials were close at hand. Occasionally a wealthier person would send a

few miles for a thinner quality of slate which could be shaped and squared, but

this was their form of showing off and was not a necessity and fortunately not

often indulged in. This whole roof construction over the wall construction, was

completely adequate to cope with the climatic extremes of heat and dryness in

summer, with the violent rain storms, and with the (heavy snow in the winter.

Copyright: The Baker Family, 2007. All Rights Reserved.

Page 2 of 2Appropriate Building Technology in Pithoragarh

12/21/2009http://lauriebaker.net/work/work/appropriate-building-technology-in-pithoragarh.html