Perception - Observation - Expression

On A Random Day

HILL ARCHITECTURE

Revolving around the quiet reserve of the hills, it is the architecture that resiliently responds to the climate on the hills where the structures are allowed to rest in the lap of mountains and buildings cling to the terraces creating a setup befitting a picturesque frame.

The vernacular architecture in the hills effectively survives on the fundamental materials locally available letting the architecture not overlook but surrender beautifully to the nature. Though merging, it still emerges.

Swinging in architecture: "This piece is based on a random architectural observation and how a simple façade could be thought provoking drawing the lines on hilly realms."

As I sit swinging under the partial shades of the Deodars, I am caught by a carved design on

. the wall parallel to the level of ventilating windows. Ventilating windows, high enough as I see them for a single storied residence. This floral attempt as I perceive is an aesthetical addition  to the western façade of this old British colonial residence in a little far from front. Symmetry has been a prevalent design element of British colonial residences. With a fairly high plinth owing to the climate of Dalhousie, the residence is roofed with intervals with chimney and skylight shooting up. Windows are running continuously on this western façade to trap the heat from sunlight. This building envelope has employed the fundamental building materials – stone and prominently wood.

Wood being an indigenously versatile material is found in windows , walls, floors, roofs and is known to provide coziness with a sense of belonging. The stones forming the four treads and a number more risers measuring down the plinth speak of an aged grace. The tiles in the  contemporary setup would turn to be incongruous in the vernacular assembly. The plinth projection projects an image of the unmoving and firm-footed residence. As we move up, the wooden logs run puncturing the wall in between, meeting the windows. Thick walls are adding to the climatic response along with the windows. Thick walls in architecture have always put limitation on the openings in the envelope but the façade I am facing majorly appears to be breathing through its windows. The good old wooden logs are, so, the timber posts in disguise of the reinforcement which is helping windows survive.

There are two doors providing the transitional space between either sides of the wall. Doors over a period of time have been modifying their functions in the form of a barrier, protecting element, a movement indicator and either a merger in façade or a piece of focus. Currently the doors I am seeing over the two little flights are double shutter with pieces of glass fixed in the rectangular voids of the wood. These types of doors are observed in several British colonial buildings. The door height appears to be much taller than the regular door that we see today.

Moving up, there is the first level of sloping roof supported by a wooden truss meeting the second line of wall inside the residence. The wall moves further up denoting the floor to ceiling height of the residence is high enough. Here we reach at the beginning where the floral design beside the ventilating window was being talked about. The ventilating windows are not square boxes but a half cylindrical wire mesh rolling out. It enhouses a rectangular wooden clear glass window which is hinged both sides centrally and therefore can be manually operated or rotated with the help of a hanging rope inside. High walls and ceilings challenge the confinement of the chambers giving a spacious feeling.

Sloping roofs are a distinct feature of hill architecture. To a passer-by, the roof looks like a hill while a critical watch unfurls the functional aspect of the slope. Dealing with a combination of loads due to the weather, the angles of the roof vary from place to place depending upon the aesthetical demand and more upon the frequency plus substantial amount of rain, hail or snow.

Swinging under the immense greenery, to my left, rests an old building. Down the road level, this is an old school which is now running into the new concrete buildings behind the British residence. The primary section of the Sacred Hearts stands still in reverberating silence. The building looks to be abandoned and is waiting for its destructive fate. New constructions are concretely in store perhaps after this sturdy structure gets dismantled. The roof profile of the school depicts how a sloping roof can be played with. The dormers projecting from the pyramid are looking out seeking the sun in the cold surroundings. The roof does not overlook the tall surroundings in which this monumental piece lies and therefore the idea of these old buildings successfully merge with the natural setting which they are placed in.

They express the permanence of  nature while accepting their own impermanence. This surrender to the nature by architecture has let these buildings stand gracefully in peace for decades serving their purpose unquestionably. 

So why not create an architecture that stands with all its humility and resilience in the hills letting the hills remain still remote and mysterious!

Why not create an architecture keeping in view the permanence of nature and impermanence of humankind to create a setup beautiful & humble ...– still swinging.