PRE-INDePENDENCE ARCHITECTURE

HRIDAY DAS 13110014B. ArchitectureIIT Roorkee

Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi

Architect : Edwin Landseer LutyensTime period : 1913-1930Architectural style : The Mughal architectural designs, Persian art forms, Indian designs and the European architectural styles.Floor area :200,000 sq ftMade for : Rashtrapati Bhavan is the official residence of the Rashtrapati or the President of India.No steel was used to construct Rashtrapati Bhavan.In 1916 the Imperial Delhi committee dismissed Lutyens's proposal to alter the gradient. Lutyens thought Baker was more concerned with making money and pleasing the government, rather than making a good architectural design.

The Rashtrapati Bhavan is the biggest residence of the Head of the State in the world.340 rooms.The structure is built using 700 million bricks and three million cubic feet of stone.Rashtrapati Bhavan has Buddhist railings, chhajjas, chhatris ,jaalis and Indian temple bells in its pillars.Dome of the building is said to have been influenced by Roman architecture, it indicates an influence of the famous Sanchi Stupa.

Plan :

In the hall, the columns are made in Delhi order which combines vertical lines with the motif of a bell. The vertical lines from the column were also used in the frieze around the room, which could not have been done with one of the traditional Greek orders of columns. The hall has a 2-ton chandelier which hangs from a 33-metre height. The two state drawing rooms, the state supper room and the state library are each on the four corners of the hall. There are also other rooms such as many loggias (galleries with open air on one side) which face out into the courtyards, a large dining hall with an extremely long table, sitting rooms, billiards rooms, and a large ball room, and staircases.

The layout of the palace is designed around a massive square with many courtyards and open inner areas within. There are separate wings for the Viceroy and another wing for guests. The Viceroy’s wing is a separate four-storey house in itself, with its own court areas within. At the centre of the main part of the palace, underneath the main dome, is the Durbar Hall.Jaipur column placed in the front of the main building in east side.Mughal gardens located in the backside of the façade on west side.

The dome

The ancillary dome-like structure on top of the building is known as a CHUTTRI, an integral part of Indian architectural design. The dome in the middle involved a mixture of Indian and British styles. In the center surmounted on top of a drum, which stands out from the rest of the building, due to its height. The dome is exactly in the middle of the diagonals between the four corners of the building. The dome is more than twice the height of the rest of the building.There is also an open area in one room to the sky, which lets in much of the natural light.

Use of Chhajjas,Chhatris and Jaalis

Chhajjas are stone slabs which are fixed below the roof of a building and are designed for the purposes of preventing the sunrays from falling on the windows and protecting the walls from the rains in the monsoon. Chhatris adorn the rooftops of the building and make an exception to the horizontal line through their elevated positions. Jaalis, like chhajjas and chhatris, are also of typical Indian designs which add beauty to the architecture of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Jaalis are the stone slabs containing lots of perforations which are designed with delicate floral and geometric patterns. Lutyens very carefully used chhajjas, chhatris and jaalis and skillfully harnessed the utility of these designs by deploying them at appropriate places. In few of the jaalis that are installed in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Lutyens also blended European styles to further enhance their aesthetics and utility.

North Block

South Block

• The Jaipur Column, 145 feet topped by a bronze lotus from which rises a six-pointed glass star.

• An interesting details about the column is that inside the stone shaft runs a steel tube which attached the lotus and the star, which weigh a little more than five tones, to a concrete block in the foundation.

• Yellow Drawing Room.• Banquet Hall.• Ashoka Hall.• North Drawing Room.• Museum.• Marble Hall (Left, center and

right).• Durbar Hall.• Mughal gardens.

Other parts of the building:

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus,Mumbai

The station building is designed in the High Victorian Gothic style of architecture. The building exhibits a fusion of influences from Victorian Italianate Gothic Revival architecture and traditional Indian architecture. The skyline, turrets, pointed arches, and eccentric ground plan are close to traditional Indian palace architecture

The centrally domed office structure has a 330 feet long platform connected to a 1,200 feet long train shed, and its outline provides the skeleton plan for building. VT's dome of dovetailed ribs, built without centring, was considered as a novel achievement of the era.

The interior of the building was conceived as a series of large rooms with high ceilings The columns of the entrance gates are crowned by figures of a lion (representing Great Britain) and a tiger (representing India).

The main structure is built from a blend of India sandstone and limestone, while high-quality Italian marble was used for the key decorative elements.

The main interiors are also decorated with Italian marble and polished Indian blue stone. The stone arches are covered with carved foliage and grotesques.

Internally, the ceiling of the booking hall was originally painted blue, gold and strong red on a ground of rich blue with gold stars. Its walls were lined with glazed tiles

18th Century Tamil Building: Ananda Ranga Pillai Mansion

Ground Floor Interior - Tamil style First Floor Interior - French Style

Long Section Plan

Among the buildings owned by Tamil noble men and traders, the house of Ananda Ranga Pillai (109 on the street that bears his name), built in 1735, is one of the oldest. Spared by the British in 1761, this is one of the most beautiful examples of a traditional Tamil house with European influence in Pondicherry.On the ground floor, in typically Indian fashion, the courtyard is surrounded by exquisitely carved wooden pillars; On the first floor, the terrace is supported by elegant masonry columns of European design.This edifice is plainly the expression of the two cultures to which the great dubash of the French governor Dupleix belonged.

The ceilings are marked by heavy wooden beams and wooden joists supporting terrace roofing made of brick-on-edge masonry in lime mortar, called argamasse in French and Madras roofing in English; the main building material for all masonry works was burnt bricks in lime mortar (the lime was made by burning sea shells from the local shore or lime stone quarried from Tutipet)

Partial street frontage ,compound wall with curved panels, grand pieced gate ,parapet with pot balusters

Large courtyard with circular arched inner façade with ornate balcony . Wooden railing over wrought iron

baluster

Large hall,columns carring heavy wooden beams that support the roof.

Semi circular arched gate with engaged columns

Stucco design

Bastion Bungalow

•Bastion Bungalow of Kerala is a famous tourist site in the fort of Kochi. At present the Bastion Bungalow serves as the official seat of the Sub-Collector. 

• The structure of the Bastion Bungalow is spherical in type and has tiled roof.

•The first floor verandah gives a unique view with a wooden portion in the front.

•The Bastion Bungalow of the fort Kochi was the camp office and residence of RDO.

• http://www.presidentofindia.nic.in• http://www.britannica.com• http://phototravelings.in• www.wikipedia.org

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