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A study of transition spaces in traditional houses of Tamil Nadu

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Title A study of transition spaces in traditional houses of Tamil Nadu
 
Creator Kalaivani, P
Pongomathi, S
Priya, R Shanthi
 
Subject Activity
Architectural thresholds
Thinnai
Traditional buildings
Transition spaces
 
Description 426-432
Architecture is inevitably a mechanism for social purposes that could impact the personal and public levels.
While architecture is used in many different ways, the arrangement and structure of places are fundamental and
essential to people's lives. Thus, the people started to create spaces allowing them to eat, sleep, worship, learn, argue,
recreate, and so on in a specific timeframe that has been subjected to the tradition and culture of people. This study is
about one such traditional transition space - the thinnai that creates connectivity between the public and private zones
in a housing typology. As evolution occurs, these structures, intended for various activities, have vanished, and
compound wall structures have enclosed the dwellings. This shortens the connectivity to the external environment. In
southern India, the thinnai spaces serve various socio-cultural activities. The typology of the thinnai spaces differs
according to the regions of settlement, occupation and religious practices. Such spaces have been recreated due to the
refurbishment of the buildings, which will not require them to serve their purpose. The main objective of the paper is
to document and analyze the transitional spaces (known as thinnai or raised platform) prevailing near the entrance in
the varied typology of traditional houses in a village in Tamil Nadu and to classify them based on the thresholds. The
qualitative study was carried out through intense documentation analysis of transition spaces near thresholds in the
varied typology of traditional houses in Mangalrevu village Tamil Nadu. The result of the study showed that the
transitional spaces that exist near thresholds in traditional buildings have demonstrated extensive functionality and lie
in harmony with the people's lifestyle. Further, the authors also classified the types of transition spaces with respect to
the thresholds. It is considered the need of the hour to replicate these structures with the same meaning in modern
dwellings without any compromises.
 
Date 2023-06-28T11:37:53Z
2023-06-28T11:37:53Z
2023-06
 
Type Article
 
Identifier 0975-1068 (Online); 0972-5938 (Print)
http://nopr.niscpr.res.in/handle/123456789/62170
https://doi.org/10.56042/ijtk.v22i2.38112
 
Language en
 
Relation Int Cl.23: E04F 13/00, E06B 1/00
 
Publisher NIScPR-CSIR,India
 
Source IJTK Vol.22(2) [April 2023]