On my way back from Oachira ,where I went for site visit for construction of house for Abudabi based Mr.Mahnoharan Pillai I went to see 120 years old heritage house of Thekkanat Parayil at Olavipe near Cherthala
This house is in a very large compound of many acres of rustic village land far away from city life, crowd and an ideal place for rest and relaxing. This house is being used as a Home stay and foreigners come here simply to relax, walk all over the true village atmosphere without disturbance unlike normally crowded villages in Kerala. As the entire stretches of land belong to Parayil family the area is without any disturbance. It has lake nearby, greenery all around, peaceful atmosphere with no sound and hassles. For a tourist, the house gives stay with all modern facilities and food from the kitchen of the house prepared in traditional Kerala style .
Architecture of the building has few major flaws
1. Lack of proper ventilation in rooms. Even though it is cool possibly due to lake nearby and greenery all around, rooms are not designed to have light and air as we get in modern Kerala houses
2. Wastage of space in design. There are rooms and passages simply constructed without looking into utility aspects and easy passage. Passages to rooms are mostly through passages only for at purpose without adequate lighting and not adopting present technique of common area automatically taking us to different rooms
3. No toilets inside the original building as they probably considered toilets as something to be kept away from the house even at the cost of inconvenience. At present toilets are added for the convenience of home stay tourists. Originally the building did not have any plumbing at all as that aspect came into only at a later date. They did not have Electricity also at that time
There are notable good features like the following :
1. Careful workmanship in every work. Mason work done in an excellent manner
2. Wood work in plenty and that too done carefully with good wood
3. Every attempt is made to do all type of work with precision and care
4. Incorporation of traditional Kerala Architecture features like Nadumuttom(Here it is in a side and not exactly at the centre),Mukhappu with carved wooden work, sculpture works .
5. Large common areas like very long and big sit out, traditional Padippura with even rooms for stay possibly by servants or Karyasthans .
6. Apart from following Kerala Architecture, by going for Gothic arches at Poomukham and sit out, western architectural influences are also seen in the construction
7. In addition to Poomukham, Padippura ,there is also a simpler Padi vathil for the side of the house .
8. Rear side is not exactly as in present houses. House is long and has long sit outs on both front and back sides. Kitchen Comes at one end with Nadumuttom closer to it and not at the rear.Probably they were trying to have Kitchen at North east just like in all old Kerala Houses
9. It has even an old hand driven washing machine kept as an antique piece in the Nadumuttom
This house is in a very large compound of many acres of rustic village land far away from city life, crowd and an ideal place for rest and relaxing. This house is being used as a Home stay and foreigners come here simply to relax, walk all over the true village atmosphere without disturbance unlike normally crowded villages in Kerala. As the entire stretches of land belong to Parayil family the area is without any disturbance. It has lake nearby, greenery all around, peaceful atmosphere with no sound and hassles. For a tourist, the house gives stay with all modern facilities and food from the kitchen of the house prepared in traditional Kerala style .
Architecture of the building has few major flaws
1. Lack of proper ventilation in rooms. Even though it is cool possibly due to lake nearby and greenery all around, rooms are not designed to have light and air as we get in modern Kerala houses
2. Wastage of space in design. There are rooms and passages simply constructed without looking into utility aspects and easy passage. Passages to rooms are mostly through passages only for at purpose without adequate lighting and not adopting present technique of common area automatically taking us to different rooms
3. No toilets inside the original building as they probably considered toilets as something to be kept away from the house even at the cost of inconvenience. At present toilets are added for the convenience of home stay tourists. Originally the building did not have any plumbing at all as that aspect came into only at a later date. They did not have Electricity also at that time
There are notable good features like the following :
1. Careful workmanship in every work. Mason work done in an excellent manner
2. Wood work in plenty and that too done carefully with good wood
3. Every attempt is made to do all type of work with precision and care
4. Incorporation of traditional Kerala Architecture features like Nadumuttom(Here it is in a side and not exactly at the centre),Mukhappu with carved wooden work, sculpture works .
5. Large common areas like very long and big sit out, traditional Padippura with even rooms for stay possibly by servants or Karyasthans .
6. Apart from following Kerala Architecture, by going for Gothic arches at Poomukham and sit out, western architectural influences are also seen in the construction
7. In addition to Poomukham, Padippura ,there is also a simpler Padi vathil for the side of the house .
8. Rear side is not exactly as in present houses. House is long and has long sit outs on both front and back sides. Kitchen Comes at one end with Nadumuttom closer to it and not at the rear.Probably they were trying to have Kitchen at North east just like in all old Kerala Houses
9. It has even an old hand driven washing machine kept as an antique piece in the Nadumuttom
10.It has hand moved fans just like the one you see in Fort Cochin church were Vascode Gama was buried with the person driving fan standing in another adjacent room ,so that master need not suffer presence of worker near to him
Go through the pictures which will talk about the careful work done on the house which remain well kept even after 120 years offering the comforts of yester years of Kerala living to foreign tourists by the home stay arrangement. If they have provided an Ayurvedic massage centre along with, it could have been good for the tourists
Go through the pictures which will talk about the careful work done on the house which remain well kept even after 120 years offering the comforts of yester years of Kerala living to foreign tourists by the home stay arrangement. If they have provided an Ayurvedic massage centre along with, it could have been good for the tourists
Nice article sir,
ReplyDeleteBut most of these homes are created before our forefathers are born and their needs and tastes were different. Just like anything, a house is constructed according to the needs and preference of people, and the needs of people who lived some 400 or 500 years back were not ours.
Indu
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments.I do agree that the deficiencies I pointed out may not have been deficiencies for whom the house was constructed 120 years back
But as a practicing Architect,I have to comment on both plus and minuses of the building
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