Earthquake-safe Koti Banal architecture of Uttarakhand, India

Earthquake-safe Koti Banal architecture of Uttarakhand, India [1]

Despite being located in the seismically highly vulnerable region, Uttarakhand shows an elaborate tradition of constructing multistoried houses. Both the local dialects of the region (Kumaoni and Garhwali) have unique words for identifying four different floors of a building. This suggests common occurrence of multistoried structures in the region. Rajgarhi area, Uttarkashi District has a large number of intact multistoried
traditional houses with marked antiquity and distinct construction style. Detailed investigations suggest that the region had evolved a distinct and elaborate earthquake-safe construction style as early as 1000 yrs BP. This is known as the Koti Banal architecture. It exhibits elaborate procedures for site selection, preparing the platform for raising the structure,
as also for detailing the entire structure constructed on principles somewhat akin to that of framed structures of the present times. Locally and then abundantly available wood was judiciously used in these structures.

Publication Date:

25/08/2008

Author(s): Piyoosh Rautela [2], Girish Chandra Joshi [3]

Source: Current Science [4]

Vol:

Issue:

pp:

475

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