Mud Preferences
Thursday, May 8, 2014
The scorching heat leads me to think about the solutions we can have to tackle with it. And we have many easy options available. Pakistan is the cradle of ancient civilizations that was the most developed in its time and inspired many to follow. The architecture of Moenjodoro and Harrapa - a collective heritage for the world – is a case in point. The traditions based on centuries old wisdom was followed through till the Moghul reign and it kept improving over. It was during the British occupation that uprooted us from our heritage and injected a lot of alien concepts that did not match with our culture, lifestyle or local environment.
One such change is in architecture. Our forefathers lived comfortably in summers in their wide spacious dwellings that were primarily build of mud. Those houses had high roofs and thick walls with wide windows and ventilators for minimizing the effects of scorching heat. And without any electricity and air conditioning they lived quite comfortably.
An architect from USA during his stay at Lahore was fascinated when he visited an old house. So immersed he was in viewing the style that he forgot to look anywhere else, “When you have houses like this why build new houses.” he asked while comparing called modern but uncomfortable house with the old and comfortable house of yester years. Later, he worked on the mud architecture and considered it a perfect style for developing new housing for future.
Labels: Mud Architecture
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 9:23 AM,
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