If you grew up in the 1970s and 80s, there is a good chance that you grew up in one of these wood span roof top houses. This terrace embodies the natural progression of our building methods until then.
If you grew up in the 1970s and 80s, there is a good chance that you grew up in one of these wood span roof top houses. This terrace embodies the natural progression of our building methods until then.
The Madras styled roofing is one of the prominent types of roofing that dominated our architectural landscape for nearly a century. The Madras terrace method incorporated the best practices from all previous forms of roofing. They provided a natural coolness to the place and even though today Madras terrace building are very rare, Coimbatore had many glorious bungalows that embodied this style of roofing.
The style and simplicity of these buildings are quite unique and today we will take a look at one of those rare houses that has Madras Terrace.
The Grand Old Mansion
The grand old mansion in Trichy Road that houses the Vivekalaya School is a quintessential colonial era building that is a fast vanishing species in our cities. Nestled amongst huge trees, this house was built in the 1930s. “The Madras Terrace of the house ensures that it always remains cool even in the heat of summer. The ceilings are at about 12 feet high and ensure that the heat doesn’t permeate down”, says Prema Rao, the owner and correspondent of the school. Inside the house, the rosewood staircase leads up to the corridor leading to large rooms with red and green oxide flooring. The double doors of the rooms are invariably made of heavy teakwood and have skylights above the lintel to let in the light.
The Madras Terrace roofing is a method of construction that was an import of the British and was widely used in the colonial era. These kinds of dwellings are still found in areas like Ramnagar, R S Puram and Race Course in Coimbatore. It was a popular method of construction before cement and steel replaced them and such houses were found all across south India. A slightly variation of this is the Bengal Terrace houses. “Traditional hollow tiles called ‘Aachikal’ would be laid at an angle on wooden beams that are mounted on the walls. These tiles would then be packed with lime mortar and plastered to give a smooth finish. These roofs are very thick and are labour intensive to construct”, says Mr. Venkatram, Chief engineer of Srinivas Associates. “These kinds of roofs introduced the concept of permanent roofing and eliminated the need to redo the roofing periodically. Earlier tiles, straw and even mud were used for roofing”, he adds.
Senior advocate K A R Shankar is a resident of Ramnagar and his house ‘Dwaraka’ is a live example of the traditional Madras Terrace house. He has lived here all his life and says that he would never want to trade it in for any swanky cement and steel alternative. “Its strong walls are one and half feet in thickness. The large hall is the perfect spot for family get-togethers and the solid teak wood swing in the middle is the perfect place to chill out after a hard day’s work”, he says.
These houses have windows aplenty to ensure adequate ventilation. A large hall flanked by smaller bedrooms on either side is the typical design plan of such houses. The bedrooms are smaller and more in numbers while the hall in the centre is large and wide so as to enable joint family living.
Traditional methods of construction using environment friendly materials are slowly making a comeback. More and more young professionals are looking at nature friendly yet sturdy alternatives to cement and steel. Rammed earth reinforced with straw and lime and eggs as raw materials have caught the imagination of many engineersand architects.
But the Madras terrace houses would hardly be replicated simply due to the heavy labour intensive process and the lack of availability of the traditional tiles that were used. So it’s now more important for us to preserve the last of of those beautiful houses and buildings that remain.
Here are some pictures from this beautifully styled Madras Terrace Mansion:
