colonial architecture of India, the legacy, pre colonial legacy, raj 'indo saracenic' and arts and crafts movement, earlier traditions in colonial times, colonial inputs into town planning, industry and architecture, colonial architecture education, architecture and nationalism, examples

1. COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE IN INDIA
Name: Vishaka Bothra
Class: T.Y.Barch
Sub.: CBF
Guided By: Ar. Kuldeep Kaur Bhatia

2. CONTENTS
• The Legacy
• Pre Colonial Legacy
• Colonial Legacy
1) ‘Indo-Saracenic’ and the Arts & Crafts Movement
2) Earlier traditions in Colonial times
3) Colonial inputs into Town Planning
4) Industry and architecture
5) Colonial Architectural Education
• Architecture and Nationalism
• Examples

3. THE LEGACY
• There is a sense of bewilderment at the chaotic variety and the
unrestrained exuberance that confronts the beholder.
• In the ever growing and ever-stretched metropolis like Bombay, Delhi,
Calcutta and Madras; in the rising second order cities like Bangalore, Pune,
Hyderabad, Kanpur, Ahmedabad etc.; and in the innumerable small and
medium towns and villages, there is a veritable riot of buildings, fueled by
the hunger for appropriate housing for the upper, middle and lower
income groups, especially the ever-increasing middle-class.

4. • Towns and cities have been stretched to their utmost by planned and
unplanned suburbs, full of either glitzy pretentious houses or box-like
apartments of unrelieved monotony.
• There are also the monumental buildings housing government offices or
public institutions, as wells as a variety of hotels , exhibitions halls, theaters
and the like, some of which are innovative.
• Exploring new possibilities of form and design; others are pure kitsch, a
pastiche of arches, pediments, glass and steel.

5. Pre Colonial Legacy :
(Beginning in the middle of the third millennium BC)
• The traditional Indian architecture of pre-colonial times was rich and multifaceted one,
and had its origin in the ancient past,
• the earliest architecture of India was pre-Vedic and grew, as riverine urban settlements.
• The name it is known by is Indus valley culture, though it spread much beyond this
limited area.
• It was an urban culture and its remains show an extraordinary development in theart of
town-planning.
• The amazingly similar towns with their grid pattern plans and utilitarian brick built
houses their citadels, granaries, the ‘Great Bath’ etc. Are however rather,
• inscrutable as we do not know much about other aspects of this architecture,
• i.e., their economy, methods of building, craftsmen, the common man’s perceptions
about architecture etc.

6. • After this, there were no structural remains of
consequence till the period of the Maurya's.
• Most of the early remains were religious, and
included cave temples, rock- cut temples and
free standing temples from a later date.
• The great age of temple building in India,
was from the sixth to the tenth century, at
slightly different times in North and South
India.
• Both north and south developed
characteristic styles exemplified by the
different types of towers or shikharas, the
Nagar and Dravida, respectively,
• under dynasties such as the Pallavas, Cholas,
Chalukyas, Pandyas, Chandellas outstanding
beauty.

7. • These buildings were built according
to the strict tenets of the traditional
texts.
• The Vastushastra and the
Shilpashastras provided the
framework for the rendering, but kept
enough space for the architects and
mason to indulge in their originality
and ingenuity.
• The tradition of the Master craftsman
working with his apprentices on site
and producing the carvings, or
cutting the stone according to need.

8. Colonial Legacy
• Amidst this rich and varied architectural legacy of the colonists, Portuguese, Dutch,
French and British brought with them a long tradition of architectural and technological
development.
• The Portuguese, who were the earliest Europeans to settle in India in the sixteenth
century introduced the architecture which flourished in Europe.
• At Goa, Diu, Daman ,Bassein and Chaul, but specially at Goa, a significant number of
churches another buildings exist which exerted some influence on local architecture.
Similarly the Dutch.

9. • French and Danes constructed buildings on Graeco -Roman as classical styles in their
small settlements at Pondicherry, Chandan-nagore, Serampore, Tranquebar etc.

10. 2) [a] Raj ‘Indo-Saracenic’ and the Arts & Crafts Movement
• Towards the end of the 1860’s the purely European copies of neo-classical or neo-Gothic
revivalism seen in the public building changed and developed into what is referred to as
the ‘Indo-Saracenic’ style by the British themselves.
• The emphasis was on the cultural links of the British with the Graeco-Roman as well as the
medieval heritage of Europe.
• Later in the nineteenth century, when the ‘Indo-Saracenic’ phase of building started, the
emphasis shifted from this stress on European cultural links to a conscious effort to link
themselves to the Indian past.

11. • The uprising of 1857 had been suppressed and Queen Victoria had been declared the
Empress of India.
• The direct links with Mughal rule and concern with a projection of continuity was now
necessary.
• Slowly therefore the Indo-Saracenic became an approved policy.
• The Indo-Saracenic style, though historically interesting as an episode in the evolution of
one aspect of the culture of colonialism, was in architectural terms, an attempt at
syncretism.

12. 2) [b] Earlier traditions in Colonial times
• The colonial port cities and towns and in the emerging urban settings, new building
methods were more and more in evidence.
• But traditional architecture which lost government patronage in British territories was kept
alive away from the centers of total British control.
• Following the principles of the ancient texts of the Shilpashastra and Vastushastra, they
continued to build temples and mosques, bathing ghats and private mansions, the havelis
and wadas of the local gentry.

13. 2) [c] Colonial inputs into Town Planning
• The Industrial Revolution had created enormous changes, good and bad, in the
urbanization process in England.
• One significant development was the planning and layout of the cantonments which were
set up outside the old urban centres, initially as a means of military control over these
places.
• The low-density, low-rise pattern of planning seen in the Cantonments and civil lines,
have changed perceptions in the post-colonial era, and new plans have borrowed many
ideas from them.

14. 2) [d] Industry and architecture
• The new techniques and building material that began to flow into the country represented
the new art of engineering and a new faith in industrial and scientific progress that was
transforming Indian urban society.
• Important changes in construction material and in the building industry were taking place
at the beginning of this century, with acceleration of activity, it became a lucrative field
for private investment by English firms in India.
• Synthetic products and prefabricated parts were imported into the country in large
quantities. Beginning with prepared columns and statuary (often used as ballast in ships)
to floor tiles, corrugated iron, iron frames, glass, synthetic stone, Portland cement, and
later the new substances like Malthoid and Valmoid used in roofing were imported from
British factories.

15. 2) [e] Colonial Architectural Education
• The education of Indians in the emerging architectural scene began at
first at a low level.
• The PWD structure were designed by European engineers and 12
architects.
• Indians participated as junior supervisors, assistants and draftsmen. Some
had been trained at the engineering colleges.
• Contractors were mostly Indians, and some became very wealthy
supplying materials and labor for the big projects.

16. • The first school to teach architecture in modern way, was the School of Architecture set
up in Bombay, in 1910, as a part of its School of Art. (J.J. School of Art) beginning as a
four-year course, it was soon expanded to a five-year diploma course, later affiliated to
the Royal Institute of British Architects (R.I.B.A.)

17. Architecture and Nationalism
• If government schools had an ambivalent attitude to design, nationalist politicians
hardly gave it any thought. Declarations regarding an architectural policy for the future
were conspicuous by their absence.
• Artists and intellectuals of what is known as the neo-Bengal school, were trying to
create a modern historicity and revival, and an enthusiastic rediscovery of the past.
• They were led by two stalwarts of the art world, E.B. Havell, Principal of the art school,
and his foremost student Rabindranath Tagore.
• A civil engineer and practicing architect, Siris Chandra Chatterjee, tried to ‘interest
important intellectuals and some national leaders into formulating some sort of
national policy for architecture.

18. Examples
• Se cathedral de Santa
Catarina
• Basilica Of Bom Jesus

19. Name: Se cathedral de Santa
Catarina
Location: old goa
Country: India
Denomination: roman catholic
History
Founded: 1619
Dedication: cathedrine of
Alexandria
Consecrated: 1640
Style: Portuguese - gothic
Se cathedral

20. History
• One of the most ancient and celebrated religious buildings of Goa, this
magnificent 16th century monument to the Roman Catholic rule in Goa
under the Portuguese is the largest church in Asia.
• The Se Cathedral was built to commemorate the victory of the Portuguese
under Afonso de Albuquerque over a Muslim army, leading to the capture
of the city of Goa in 1510. Since the day of the victory happened to be on
the feast of Saint Catherine, the cathedral was dedicated to her.

21. • It was commissioned by Governor George Cabral to be enlarged in 1552
on the remains of an earlier structure. Construction of the church began
in 1562 in the reign of King Dom Sebastiano. The cathedral was
completed in 1619 and was consecrated in 1640.
• It had two towers, but one collapsed in 1776 and was never rebuilt.

22. Architecture
• The Se Cathedral is built in the Portuguese-Manueline style.
• This style of architecture was extremely popular in the late 16th Century.
• The exterior of this great cathedral is of the Tuscan order of architecture,
notable for its plainness and simplicity.
• The church is 250 feet (76 m) in length and 181 feet (55 m) in breadth. The
frontispiece stands 115 feet (35 m) high.

23. Plan

24. • The church is a false basilica (no clerestory windows between the nave
and aisles) with nave, two side aisles and side chapels, transept and
choir.
• The façade shows three bays with portals in the first storey and
rectangular windows in the second.
• The additional central bay linked to its sides through curved walls
resolves the height difference between nave and aisles and hides the
roof behind it.
• An entablature between the storeys marks the gallery floor level over
the entrance.
• Portals, windows and niches have detailed, erudite architectural frames,
very close to the figures shown in the treatises, especially those of Serlio.

25. • The Cathedral has been built
on a raised plinth of laterite,
covered over with lime
plaster.
• There is a long nave , two
aisles and a transept.
• A bell tower is located to the
southern side of the façade.
• The nave is barrel-vaulted
while the crossing is rib-
vaulted.

26. • Massive pillars support the vault in the nave and the choir, while the
chapels on either side are separated by internal defences.
• The building is oblong on plan but has a cruciform layout in the interior.
• The main entrance in the façade has Corinthian columns on plinths
supporting a pediment containing an inscription in Latin.

27. • There are four chapels
on either side of the
nave, two of which
have perforated
wooden screens across
the entrance.
• On the right of the
nave, is the other
screened chapel, the
Chapel of the Cross of
Miracles.

28. • In the nave are two
wooden pulpits projecting
from two columns on the
right.
• In the transept are six
altars, three on either side
of the main altar.
• The arches
accommodating four of
these altars are decorated
with paintings depicting
scenes from the lives of
the saints.
Six altars Main altar

29. • In the nave, near the altar, to
the right is a projecting
gallery on which is kept an
18th century organ.
• In the nave near the altar
are seats for the canon and
a throne for the archbishop.
• To the right is a door that
leads to the sacristy, which is
a barrel-vaulted structure
with gilded altar showing a
church modelled after St.
Peter's Church in Rome.

30. Section

31. BASCILICA OF BOM JESUS
• Name: Borea Jezuchi Basilica
• Location: Old goa
• Country: India
• Denomination: Roman catholic
History
• Founded: 1594
• Consecrated: 1605
• Dedication: St. Francis Xavier

32. HISTORY
• The Bom Jesus Basilica, perhaps
Goa's most famous church and
among the most revered by
Christians worldwide, is partially in
ruins but still a model of simplicity
and elegance, and a fine example
of Jesuit architecture.
• This Church is dedicated to “Bom
Jesus”, the word Bom Jesus refers
as “Infant Jesus” or “Good Jesus”.

33. • It was designed by 17th century
Florentine sculptor, Giovanni
Fogging. Construction was started
in 1594 and completed in 1605 on
May 15th.
• The Church holds the burial place
and mortal remains of St. Francis
Xavier. His remains are ensconced in
a glass container encased in a silver
casket in the Basilica.

34. ARCHITECTURE
• The Basilica of Bom Jesus is a monument
typical of the classic forms of plane
architecture, introduced by the Society of
Jesus, otherwise known as the Jesuits.
• The façade, which is of granite,
represents features of five styles of
architecture: Roman, Ionic, Doric,
Corinthian and Composite.
• It measures 183 ft in length,55 ft in
breath, and 61 ft in height. The main altar
is 54 ft high and 30 ft broad.

35. • The interior of the church is built
in Mosaic Corinthian style and is
remarkable for its charming
simplicity.
• The imposing facade built out of
black granite in an exquisite
combination of the Doric,
Corinthian and composite styles,
is remarkable for its simplicity.
• The pillars and detail are carved
from basalt which was brought
from Bassein.

36. Plan

37. • The roof was originally tiled.
• The church is cruciform on
plan.
• The flying buttresses on the
northern side of the church are
recent additions. A single-
storyed structure adjoining the
church on its southern wing
connects it with the professed
house.
• The three-storyed facade of
the church shows ionic, Doric
and Corinthian orders.

38. • It has a main entrance
flanked by two smaller ones,
each having Corinthian
columns supporting a
pediment.
• There are two chapels, a main
altar and a sacristy besides a
choir inside the church itself.
There is a belfry is at the back.

39. • As one enters,
beneath the choir, to
the right is an altar of
St. Anthony and to the
left is an exceedingly
well-carved wooden
statue of St. Francis
Xavier.

40. • Opposite the cenotaph,
projecting on the southern
wall is a profusely carved
wooden pulpit with a
canopy on top. The pulpit
has on its three sides the
figures of Jesus, the four
evangelists and four
doctors of the church. The
bottom of the pulpit
depicts seven figures as
though supporting it.

41. • A projecting gallery, which
was intended for the use of
dignitaries on solemn
occasions, runs along the
two longer sides of the
Church.
• The main altar at the end of
the nave is flanked by two
decorated altars in the
transept, one dedicated to
Our Lady of Hope and the
other to St. Michael.
• In the transept on the
northern side is the Chapel
of the Blessed Sacrament. Main altar Chapels
flanking the
main altar
Projecting Gallery

42. • Adjoining the Chapel of St.
Francis Xavier is a corridor that
leads to the sacristy, entered
through an exquisitely carved
wooden door. It is an oblong
vaulted structure with an apse at
the end.
• In the altar at the apse in an iron
chest containing a golden rose
blessed by the Pope Pius XII and
gifted to this city in 1953.

44. Thank You