The document discusses the vernacular architecture of Pondicherry, India. It describes the distinct architectural styles of the French and Tamil quarters. The French quarters featured long streets with colonial-style buildings having flat roofs, inner courtyards and colonnaded porticos. The Tamil quarters had continuous wall-to-wall construction with shared lean-to roofs and intimate talking streets. A hybrid Franco-Tamil style emerged with Tamil features like the thinnai on the ground floor and French influences like pilasters on the upper floors. This created a unique architectural vocabulary known as "Puducherry-ness".

1. Vernacular Architecture
of Pondicherry
By
A.Shanmugga Rani,M.Arch

2. PONDICHERRY

3. TIMELINE

4. TIMELINE

5. VERNACULAR BUILDINGS OF
PONDICHERRY

6. SETTLEMENT PLAN OF PONDICHERRY

7. ARCHITECTURE
• The street facades are usually characterized by a continuous
construction with high garden walls and elaborate gates.
• The Facades are divided into smaller panels by use of
vertical pilasters and horizontal cornices.
• The balconies are often built over iron brackets. Parapets
are simple and at times feature terracotta pot designs.
• Floors are of polished and has coloured cement or tiles.
Coloured Belgian glass is set in the arched wooden frames
above doors and porticos.

9. BOULEVARDS

10. TAMIL BOULEVARDS

11. FRENCH BOULEVARDS

12. STREET ELEVATION

13. FRENCH BUILDINGS
• The French part of the town was built along the sea
on sand dunes.
• It is characterised by long wide streets with stately
colonial styled buildings. The residential buildings
are comparatively simple, solid yet varied.
• They have flat roofs, an inner courtyard with
garden and colonnaded porticos serve a double
function of protecting from sun and rain, and serving
as a transition space to the rest of the house.

14. INTERIOR

16. FRENCH BUILDINGS
The public buildings usually are
surrounded by a large fenced-in
compound. At times French models were
used, which were adapted to suit local
conditions. These buildings often have an
impressive stair to an elevated ground
floor and a colonnaded facade.

18. TAMIL QUARTERS

19. TAMIL QUARTERS
• Originally the native Tamil town
developed around the nucleus of a
group of temples in the northern
section and the streets were laid in an
east-west direction.
• The row of houses along these streets
stood back-to-back. These streetscapes
with continuous wall-to-wall
construction vary much in character
with that of the French.

20. TAMIL QUARTERS
EXTERIOR
• Their exterior facades often feature a
street veranda with platform and
lean-to-roof over wooden posts - the
thalvaram, a social extension of the
house and a semi-public portico
called the thinnai - is supported by
round wooden pillars with masonry
benches for visitors.

21. • These "talking-streets", so-called because
of their intimate scale and interactive
nature, are typical of the vernacular Tamil
architecture, and the entire street stretch is
homogeneous because of connecting
elements like lean-to-roofs, cornices
(horizontals), pilasters and engaged
columns (verticals) and ornamental
parapets defining the skyline.
TAMIL QUARTERS- STREETS

22. TAMIL QUARTER-THINNAI
• The thinnai (portico) marks the
transition space after which the
house is entered through a finely
carved wooden door and once
inside, the open courtyard -
mutram - becomes the central
space around which the various
other spaces are functionally
arranged.

23. TAMIL QUARTER-MUTRAM
• The open mutram is flanked by a covered space on
one side (or on both sides) with wooden columns
usually meant for an interaction among the family
or with intimate guests. The rear courtyard in
immediate proximity to the kitchen is reserved for
services and utilities.

24. TAMIL QUARTERS

26. Puducherry Franco-Tamil
house
• Usually within the intimate fabric of the
Tamil town an interesting morphology
of built-form is observed, ranging from
the simple country tiled single storied
houses of the old Hindu quarters, to the
two storied houses with considerable
colonial influence of the later Hindu and
Christian quarters, to the more
elaborately detailed houses of the
Muslim quarters.

27. FRANCO-TAMIL
BUILDINGS
• On the whole, a conspicuous synthesis
of two varying styles is evident,
especially in the case of two storied
Tamil buildings where the ground floor
is usually of the Tamil type with
thinnai, thalvaram and carved doors,
while the first floor displays

28. FRANCO-TAMIL BUILDINGS
• French influence showing
pilasters, columns with capitals,
arched windows, plaster
decorations and end-ornament
elements. In French buildings, the
local influence is obvious in the
use of madras terrace flat roofs,
wooden balconies and sloping tiled
roofs.

29. WINDOWS AND DOORS
• The windows are usually arched and
have wooden louver shutters.
• High ceilings, tall arched doors and
windows with louvers dominate the
space inside the houses.

30. VERNACULAR BUILDINGS UNDER
DEMOLITION

31. FRANCO-TAMIL ARCHITECHTURE
• It is a result of this cross-influence of building patterns that gives this old
town its distinct architectural vocabulary, which can be termed "Puducherry-
ness".

32. FRENCH ARCHITECHTURE

33. FRENCH ARCHITECHTURE