Friday, July 18, 2008

Kerala Architecture

14.Bed rooms
As per Vasthu Master Bed room should preferably come at South west corner of the house, with head of the cot facing south.
Bed rooms have got bed space separate and a space called dress which acts as entry to toilet, thereby hiding toilet door to bed space. Dress if made spacious enough can be used to keep a dressing table. Toilets now have shower cubicles for bath instead of bath tubs. For medium size houses with two storeys, two bed rooms are preferred in Ground floor
15. Kitchen
Traditionally Keralites used to have their Kitchen in the North East corner of the house, close to well which is in the North east corner of the plot. Even though position of well is at the proper place as per Vasthu,Kitchen as per Vasthu should come preferably at South East and if not possible due to some other considerations, it can come at North West as a second option. Due to better awareness of Vasthu, present day houses have the position of Kitchen relocated.
With modular kitchens coming, proper Kitchen is kept as a show piece Kitchen and a work area is added for cleaning of vessels, cutting for food preparations etc
Earlier there used to be a Store which was just a storage room. Modular kitchen provides lot more storage space compartmentalized, and hence no need for an unorganized storage space.,
Items like Arakallu, Washing machine, Grinder for grinding of granules for making Dosa and iddlies are kept in the Work area space
16. Rear Foyer
This is a new addition to Kerala houses. It is normally provided in the rear with access from the Dining room. Mostly three sides of this covered area are kept open to have a feel of the open area. Floor level for this area is kept at ground level of the plot. Some times, grass floor is used instead of formal flooring. This is one area where family members and close friends or relatives can sit and relax, without noticing by outsiders ,when they use sit out or Poomukham

2 comments:

Seema said...

Traditionally Bedrooms were not ensuite.
Is there a reason for preferring two bedrooms in the Ground Floor for medium size two storey houses. All the houses I have seen in kerala seems to have the same plan with different layout.

Unknown said...

I think you have not seen modern houses in Kerala much.They really differ and a lot of new features are coming in new Kerala houses.For example Home theatre is a new addition.Rear foyer is a new addition.
It is better to have two bed rooms in the Ground Floor as one of them will be occupied by elderly person/persons
So it will be difficult to attend to them by their children if there is no second bed room in the Ground Floor