CHAPTER 2Temple Town of Thripoonithura
The ancient port town later developed into a temple town with Poornatrayeesha temple as the focal point and palatial buildings in the temple precincts. It was considered auspicious to live in proximity to the temple. Initial developments happened along the temple periphery and then extended outwards, of which many of them had colonial influences in their construction style and spatial layout. With the roads and streets laid in access to the temple and other buildings around, the ceremonial road leading to the temple remains the central spine of the town. Temple tank was attached to the temple complex which served the local inhabitants as the abundant source of water. Not only temple, but many individual palaces and residences too had their own individual tanks. With the initial buildings in pure traditional Kerala architecture, the later ones with Dutch and British influence, and the contemporary buildings, there exists a mix of styles within the temple precincts.Individual houses with their private water bodies did not have to depend on the common water sources or temple tanks which were more of social in nature. These water tanks were placed within the site based on the vastu principles. The earlier homestead culture of placing the building within the yard and the narrow entry through padippura was replaced by road-side residences of colonial period. Due to the colonial influences, the side open verandahs with charupadi were replaced by glazed ribbon windows and wooden louvers. The interior courtyards and the water bodies vanished and the room heights increased though they used the same materials-laterite, timber, lime plaster, etc which were available locally. The climatic response was poor as compared to that of traditional structures. Sun shading and protection from rain became minimum since the deep and wide eaves disappeared. The use of glass and larger heights provided more light to the otherwise darker interiors of traditional buildings. The street character too changed where they were lined with buildings on both sides, as against the traditional streets/walkways with no building in near vicinity, but located far and inside the yards.
The ancient port town later developed into a temple town with Poornatrayeesha temple as the focal point and palatial buildings in the temple precincts. It was considered auspicious to live in proximity to the temple. Initial developments happened along the temple periphery and then extended outwards, of which many of them had colonial influences in their construction style and spatial layout. With the roads and streets laid in access to the temple and other buildings around, the ceremonial road leading to the temple remains the central spine of the town. Temple tank was attached to the temple complex which served the local inhabitants as the abundant source of water. Not only temple, but many individual palaces and residences too had their own individual tanks. With the initial buildings in pure traditional Kerala architecture, the later ones with Dutch and British influence, and the contemporary buildings, there exists a mix of styles within the temple precincts.Individual houses with their private water bodies did not have to depend on the common water sources or temple tanks which were more of social in nature. These water tanks were placed within the site based on the vastu principles. The earlier homestead culture of placing the building within the yard and the narrow entry through padippura was replaced by road-side residences of colonial period. Due to the colonial influences, the side open verandahs with charupadi were replaced by glazed ribbon windows and wooden louvers. The interior courtyards and the water bodies vanished and the room heights increased though they used the same materials-laterite, timber, lime plaster, etc which were available locally. The climatic response was poor as compared to that of traditional structures. Sun shading and protection from rain became minimum since the deep and wide eaves disappeared. The use of glass and larger heights provided more light to the otherwise darker interiors of traditional buildings. The street character too changed where they were lined with buildings on both sides, as against the traditional streets/walkways with no building in near vicinity, but located far and inside the yards.
1 comment:
good compare and contrast piece there :-) and good evaluation on the pros and cons...
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