This documentation project draws together a selection of the traditional newar architecture developments as well as some variation with other residential buildings. During our documentation work, we came across scholars and the accomodating people. We would like to express our sincere gratitude towards our supervisor, Dr. Rohit Ranjitkar and Shrish Bhatta for their incredible guidance, precious suggestion and invaluable encouragement throughout the documentation work. The successful completion of work is only possible with their moral, technical and expertise support. We are sincerely gratified , not only for the extreme care and attention they showed but also for their critical insights that they put into our works and feedback given us in the whole work. We also like to express our sincere gratitude to Mr. Gyaniraj (the care taker of the residential building), for his meaningful interactions during the visit in his house, Dhokasi, Shankhamul- Lalitpur and we thank the house owner for her moral as well as physical support throughout our documentation project work.
Amit Pokhrel Bhakta Laxmi Maharjan Sabila Joshi Renu Maharjan
Table of Content Glossary.................................................................................................................... List of Figures............................................................................................................ Chapter1.Introduction................................................................................................ 1.1 Background.................................................................................................. 1.2 Objective...................................................................................................... 1.3 Scope and Limitations.................................................................................. 1.4 Methodology................................................................................................ 1.5 Structure of the Documentation................................................................... Chapter 2. Literature Review..................................................................................... 2.1 Evolution of Neplease history........................................................................ 2.2 Transformation-Traditional residential architecture....................................... 2.3 Introduction to traditional dwelling................................................................ 2.4 Physical structure............................................................................................ 2.5 Planning and use............................................................................................. Chapter 3.Documentation.......................................................................................... 3.1 House of Mrs. Shrada Shrestha at Dhokasi-09, Shankhamul, Lalitpur 3.2 Element of the House..................................................................................... 3.2.1 Dhalin(Joist).................................................................................................. 3.2.2 Nila (Beam)................................................................................................... 3.2.3 Musin (Rafter)............................................................................................... 3.2.4 Thayma (ridge beam).................................................................................... 3.2.5 Opening and member ties.............................................................................. 3.2.6 Foundation design (jaga)...............................................................................
Chapter 4. Summary of the Case study...................................................................... 4.1 Staircase............................................................................................................ 4.2 Partition wall..................................................................................................... 4.3 Bamboo partition............................................................................................... 4.4 Wooden partition............................................................................................... 4.5 Brick partition................................................................................................... 4.6 Floor detail........................................................................................................ 4.7 Central wall in second floor.............................................................................. 4.8 Brick partition wall on second and upper floor level........................................ Chapter 5. Conclusion................................................................................................ Reference.................................................................................................................
Glossary Appa (Apa)...................................................Traditional bricks of various kinds Chikkan Appa...................................................................Hard burnt clay tiles Pakwocha................................................................................................Hut Newar..........................A Nepali ethnic group with high artistic and cultural flair Phalcha..................................................................Resting place for travellers Peti.............................................Raised platform along the perimeter of a house Salla..............................................................................................Pine wood Than.....................................................................................................Posts Sattal.........................................................Public resting place for long journey Dachi Apa.........................................................................Special facing brick Dhathu Anga............................................................................... Central wall Than..........................................................................Column, normally wood Si chuku......................................................................................Timber pegs Tole...................................A small area denoting a compact neighbourhood unit Polan Apa...........................................................Jhingati/Traditional small tiles Nas..............................................................................................Wall plates Kausi Pachha..........................................................................Waterproof clay Agahtah.............................................................................................Crosstie Bhaupa......................................................................................Smoke outlet Bhyaysi...................................................................................Principal rafter Dhalin..................................................................................Joist, eaves beam Kopu Apa........................................................................................Ridge tile Thayma.......................................................................................Ridge beam Tha......................................................................................................Pillar Tunah....................................................................................................Strut Lakansi....................................................................Base plate of the king post Baigahtha........................................................................................King post Musin..................................................................................................Rafter Meth..................................................................................................Capital Dhalipakha.................................................................................Lower eaves Thayma........................................................................................Ridge beam Musin.................................................................................................Rafter Sah.....................................................................................................Joint Chuku.....................................................................................Wooden pegs
Dachi Appa: Wedge-shaped traditional baked bricks of high class finish used in the external skin of the main facades of the important buildings; normally called conical brick.
List of Figures Figure 1: Map of the Lalitpur city............................................................................... Figure 2: Documentation objective............................................................................. Figure 3: Traditional buildings.................................................................................... Figure 4: Development of building height.................................................................. Figure 5: Traditional roof structure............................................................................. Figure 6: Section of a traditional newar building........................................................ Figure 7: Section of a traditional newar building with space at different levels......... Figure 8: Street and courtyard facade of the building................................................. Figure 9: Ground floor plan and first floor plan.......................................................... Figure 10: Interior of the first floor............................................................................. Figure 11: Cracks developed on the wall at sill level.................................................. Figure 12: Second floor plan....................................................................................... Figure 13: Damaged beam........................................................................................... Figure 14: New position of staircase on the second floor .......................................... Figure 15: Top floor plan............................................................................................. Figure 16: Inclined beam capital and post................................................................... Figure 17: view of the terrace before demolition........................................................
Figure 18: Top floor after demolition.......................................................................... Figure 19: Dhalin placed close together on the second floor...................................... Figure 20: Joist and plank detail on the first floor....................................................... Figure 21: Joist running horizontally and connected by chuku................................... Figure 22: Orderly placement of vertical members supporting the floor.................... Figure 23: Musin placed at regular interval................................................................. Figure 24: Tang on window......................................................................................... Figure 25: Inner view of window................................................................................ Figure 26: Typical foundation detail........................................................................... Figure 27: Plinth depth at the main street.................................................................... Figure 28: Staircase on first floor and second floor.................................................... Figure29: Typical traditional staircase........................................................................ Figure 30: Wooden partition on the first and second floor.......................................... Figure 31: Sipu bhikha and ghringi khapa................................................................... Figure 32: Floor detail................................................................................................. Figure 33: terrace area with cement punning.............................................................. Figure 34: Second floor without central wall..............................................................
Chapter 1. Introduction 1.1 Background This documentation project work stems from the study of newari residential buildings of dhokasi-09, shankhamul, lalitpur city, which has the stock of the traditional buildings and residential dwellings rich in physical and cultural view. The city is rich in its heritage expressed through harmonizing building materials and its crafted techniques with construction style or techniques. The artistry of Nepalease woodwork is renowned and is a prime essence of traditional Nepalease architecture. Most of the world monuments are build in their own local technology and have their own local materials and technologies yet it is not well studied and well documented. Because of this reasons; it is our duty to understand the use of the materials and techniques and tie up them in the form of documentation.
Site
Figure 1: Map of the Lalitpur city
The system and the scientific justification behind the technologies of our heritage at present exist on an oral version. for these reasons, this documentation has been carried out. 1.2 Documentation objective This documentation only deals with the private residential dwelling. The main documented question is: what are the physical aspects of the traditional newar buildings? To answer this kind of technical question, this documentation is carried out as well as this documentation objective will help us to know the exact situation of the residential dwellings which has its own importance from traditional architecture 1.3 Scope and limitations This documentation project work will focus its study on following aspects: Building types and age of the building Oral and written account of the building Detail types and drawing details Terminology of the building elements This documentation cover the different elements,decorative elements and all part of the building. this will be limited to structural elements and members that are the true skeleton of the building details of functional requirements. 1.4 Methodology This documentation project work deals with an analysis of the typical newari residential dwellings located in dhokasi-09, shankhamul, lalitpur . the placeis listed in heritage zone and is well known because of its richness in arts, crafts and architecture. the methodology adopted to study the traditional newari residential dwellings are summarized as follows: It will review various literatures concerning the traditional Newar building with respect to building technology The documentation will collect all the existing data and verify helps to understand different techniques used in this kind of traditional newari residential buildings
Defining the context and limiting the supervised area Relevant material Literature review Project/documentation preparation Collection of data and information
Primarydata and secondary data Analysis of information
Figures/ Tables/ Drawings/ Photographs/ Text report writing Conclusion and recommendation Figure 2: Documentation objective
1.5 Structure of the documentation The whole work of the study is distributed over 5 chapters, chapter 1 comprises the basic introduction relating the background, objectives, scope and limitation, methodology. chapter 2 presents the review of the literature related with the documentation work. The review is broadly classified into different headings namely history of nepalease architecture, transformation from pakwocha to traditional residential architecture, introduction to traditional dwelling, physical
structure, space planning and uses and others construction techniques. A number of literatures regarding the documentation are presented. chapter 3 mainly focus on the description of case study that have been conducted during our documentation project work. In chapter 4, the overall conclusion and in chapter 5 references. Chapter 2. Literature review
2.1 Evolution of Nepalease history S.No
Period
Date
1
The Gopals
up to c 1000 BC
2 3
The Kirats The Lichhavis
700 BC-110 AD 110 AD- 879 AD
4
The Thakuris
879 AD- 1200 AD
5
The Mallas
1200 AD- 1768 AD
6 7 8 9
The Shah The Ranas Later Shah Federal Democratic Republic
1768 AD-1845 AD 1845 AD-1950 AD 1950 AD-2008 AD from-May 28, 2008
There has been limited documentation done on the historical development of Nepalease architecture, the typology of the building and their change in style during the past centuries. Based on the analysis of the manuscripts and the existing buildings, this kind of traditional residential buildings existed from last 200 years and may be more as long as there was no western influence and building style followed the tradition pattern. The dramatic change to the enormous white plastered palaces based on the neoclassical style from the west built by the Rana rulers, brought certain changes in dwelling design particularly in facade for at least the richer section of the populace with the massive influx of western ideas at the begining of the second half of the 20th century , a total change in the design of dwelling took place. Those within settlements were able to make minor alterations only because of the limited space
within a block of houses, but new houses outside the dense settlements were able to use new materials, modern designs and construction techniques. The break with tradition was so rapid and harsh that over the last few years a positive trend has emerged to find a modern nepali style and at least building materials, such as traditional type of bricks, tile, stone and wood is again being used in many places as originally intended. 2.2 Transformation of traditional residential architecture The architecture from the ancient time followed traditional technology and locally available materials to construct the shelter that would protect people from harsh rain, sun and their buildings from dacoits and many other threatening things
Figure 3: Traditional buildings (Pakocha) The initial buildings in the valley gradually developed from a simple hut built up of sun dried brick to a kiln brick house, while now most of the buildings are constructed with modern technology.The initial form of building known as pakwocha is a temporary shelter for guarding crops which is constructed with mud, sun dried bricks and wood structures. These are used for shelter mainly during agricultural activities such as rice plantation when farm workers gather and had their lunch at fields, or use as the store house for fire woods or as a farm house.The architecture of the pakwocha may be the begining from which the traditional Newari dwelling later transformed.
With the appearence of three storied buildings, and later on four storied stuctures, malla town newar private houses were allowed to increase the height of the houses to three floors or construct new ones to that height ,which were not only terraced houses but also courtyard houses. With the begining of this types of house, a further vertical expansion of building volume was made possible. The resultant problem that residential narrow streets and gardens were, cast in shadow by these high buildings which was to some extent compensated by the subsequent inclusion of openings, sunlit, roof terraces directly adjoining the kitchen to form a further external space proved to be most expedient. The need for even more space with increment of family follwing the centuries led to a further rise in the height. Thus, in the Shah and Ranas period, four storied buildings were often constructed. Frequently, this increase in heights was achieved by the addition of a new floor. Houses constructed in this century , especially those from after the horrible earthquake of 1934, are quite often four storied till early 1970. Increasingly, the height of the building is significantly raised in some cases over-extended from an original room height of 1.60-1.90 m to 2.50-2.90 m. Simultaneously from 1970 onwards new building style arose in, mostly modern elements from other architectural styles.
Figure 4: Development of building height
It is evident that the original building regulation as to height limitation served an obvious regulatory purposes. It is also manifestly clear that this regulation is no longer observed today. It is thus possible that a modern five or six storey building is planted next to an old three storey house, towering above all the neighbouring houses in an already very densely built environment, with negative effect on buildings safety as well as sunlight and ventillation is concerned. In the above illustration not only is the increament in the number of floors outlined, but also the simultaneous horizontal expansion which runs parallel to it from a single bay to a double bay construction. This was probably first introduced during the Rana period. 2.3 Introduction to traditional dwelling In contrast to the well documented descriptions of religious buildings, the historical information concerning private buildings or dwellings is almost nonexistent. A jesuit traveler, Father Giusppe who visited Nepal nearly 200 years ago gives probably the earliest description of the dwellings: “The houses are constructed of brick, and are three or four storey high; their apartments are not lofty; they have doors and windows of wood, well worked and arranged with great regularity”. The traditional building from Malla period differs from the building of Shah and Rana period. The major difference which can be seen visually, is floor height, window style, and carvings on the wooden members. However, traditional buildings are considered to be three or four storied high between 1.8 to 2.4 m connected by a narrow and steep wooden staircase. The plan is usually of simple rectangular from depth about 6m and lenght varying from 3m to 10m. The building is constructed in brick masonary structure with mud mortar as binding material while the material for foundation is stone or brick. Timber is used for window, door frame and carved elements, staircase, beam, strut, purlin. The roof is a good architectural feature of the whole building, which is usually in slope with tile roofing, called locally as “Jhingati”. It is constructed with wooden
beam over which wooden boards are placed and then thick layer of mud topping is applied as the base for jhingati.
Figure 4: Traditional roof structure Wolfgang Korn also elaborated that a characteristic and universal features of this kinds of design is the vertical room arrangement, which is not dependent on the size of the house. security considerations, and the need to use a little irrigable land for building purposes, caused the Newar house to be vertically orientated. Generally it is three storeyed, but two storied houses occur among the poorer inhabitants on the town’s fringes, and four storied in the centre of the town. The uniform depth facilitates the building of additional houses on to existing ones, to form blocks of houses. the extensions were of equal height, the depth being determined by that of the main house, and either of the full depth of 6m or only half that depth was used. 2.4 Physical structure The buildings that overlooks the main access roads and those that occupy key positions in large enclosed space are usually of architectural importance. Their facades are generally symmetrical and contain finely detailed and carved windows and doors. Symmetry is achieved on a central axis on each succeeding floor with the central window of each floor emphasized by both its size and quality of detail. The houses are usually of two to three storeys set above a ground floor.
Ridge
Ridge
Timber peg
Rafter
Purlin
Eaves
Eaves
Door
Post
Post
Figure 6: Section of traditional newari building
Figure 7: Section of a traditional newar building with space at different levels
2.5 Planning and use The private house exhibits many zones with different use association and significance. This differentiation applies both on a horizontal as well as on a vertical plane. It is at its most emphatic in the classical three storied or four storied town house with extended roof. In low buildings the zones are often mixed and overlap considerably in tall ones however, certain areas tend to repeat themselves. Chapter 3. Documentation 3.1 House of Mrs. Shrada Shrestha at Dhokasi-09, Shankhamul,-Lalitpur Location: Dhokasi-09, Shankhamul, Lalitpur, Nepal Owner: Mrs. Shrada Shrestha History Kathmandu valley has been listed in world heritage sites list, every traditional and culturally important building are important from that view, but due to lack of recording, these kinds of dwellings are vanishing day by day. People are converting their tradtional look to modern ones and this kinds of historically important buildings are in a way to lost.So by this kind of method, we can at least try our best to preserve traditionally and culturally important buildings. We surveyed the building located at dhokasi, ward number -9 at Shankhamul, Lalitpur.While surveying the building, it is found to be constructed in two phase, whole building was constructed after 1990 B.S and currently the topmost part is under construction for adaptative reuse as an apartment. According to the owner’s grandmother, the building was built two to three years after a devasting earthquake of 1934(1990 B.S) which gives the time period of building is about 76 years old. As stated by owner’s grandmother, this building encountered many natural disaster but was not damaged so it is standing till today inspite of many later earthquakes.It was formely used by the single residence of that family but with the passage of time, the family number of the owners has multiplied and various parts of the house have been acquired by members of the family.Due to the lack of care and maintainence, the upper part has been damaged and the front wall have cracks. Since then restoration measures have been under taken in this building.
a. Current description of the house This residential building has been constructed in the rana period which can be approached through a common courtyard as well as main street linking Sankhamul to Mangal Bazzar. There are many changes done on this house from the maintenance point of view. The local construction technique with locally available
Figure 8: Street and courtyard faรงade of the building material has been used to build this building. Earlier the building had been made up of mud, burnt bricks and timber but due to introduction of modern materials, the owner has adopted all the new materials for the physical maintenance and reduced most of the traditional components from the house. One of the main reasons behind is failure to preserve or safe guard the traditional materials and technology. Due to many such reasons, people are being modernized for the building point of view too. Due to western impact and greed on physical improvement, people are throwing their entire traditional look to modern ones and due to advantages of new material, traditional things are in the way of extinct.
The house from the ground floor to upper floor is being changed now. The roof is introduced by corrugated iron sheets and due to introduction of steel and glass panels, people went for adding all that materials for the aesthetic point of view too. Same condition was found during the documentation of the building.
b. Existing condition of the house There are two rooms in the ground floor, one given on rent and other used for storage. Toilet on the North West corner lacks ventilation and the space under the staircase has been used for storage as well. Use of new modern material such as cement on floor and wall shows that there had been work of repair and maintenance before to prevent dampness. Beams and wooden planks seem to be replaced with new ones probably due to the weak condition. The wooden doors (Pasa dhi) facing the man street has been added later.
Figure 9: Ground floor plan and First floor plan The first floor seems to be quiet intact in terms of traditional Rana building characters like vertically extended windows, less decorative wooden post, and wooden planking with mud flooring above. But cement plaster had been done on the walls on later period. Whole room has been painted green on walls and blue on
ceiling. Usually Malla traditional buildings were not painted as colors was not being introduced in that period. There is a small store room which was earlier known as dhukuti, this room can be approached through small wooden door and has been partitioned by wooden planks. There are built in cabinet on the southern wall for storage purpose. Cracks have been developed on the sill of the new modern window that could be either due to the poor workmanship during the installation of the new window or due to earthquake damage. The present living room has been partitioned with plywood on east part of the staircase and brick wall on the west part of the staircase. Typical wooden sliding door has been used as a barrier for outsiders to permit directly on the upper floors.
Door leading to the store
Figure 10: Interior of the first floor
Figure11: Cracks developed on wall at sill level
The second floor also seems to have gone through modifications like use of new modern glass windows on opposite walls facing east west. The wall on the southern part has been plastered and seems to have been constructed later. The floor height is less compared to the first floor and room can be approached through wooden door one which connects one room to the other. Here, rooms have been partitioned through wooden Figure12: Second floor plan
planks at the passage area and brick wall to separate each other. Niches can be observed, two on the plastered wall and other small one on western part used for some storage purpose. On this floor the position of the staircase was not directly above the below one rather, it was straight from the landing part connected to the opposite wall. But the position has been changed and now it is directly above the previous one. Most of the horizontal members like beams are damaged and the centrally running middle beam is inclined to the southern wall. Displacement between post and capital could be seen resulting overall inclination of the central beam.
New New position position ofof thethe staircase staircase
Figure 13: Damaged beam
Glass windows
Figure 14: New position of the staircase on the second floor
Figure 16: Inclined beam leading displacement between capital and post Figure 15: Top floor plan
Since upper most storey of the building was dismantled for the changes, only wall on western part was remained. However, we got the photographs of the building which was taken before it was dismantled. According to the photographs, CGI sheets had been used that was inclined towards the main street. But the remains of mud and roof line could be seen on the wall of the adjacent building, which clearly depicts that earlier there was two way slope roof and material used was polan appa.
CGI Roof
Figure 17: View of the terrace before demolition
Fig 18: Top floor after demolition
According to the care taker Gyaniraj, the house went on many changes and maintenance from the very beginning.
3.2 Elements of traditional House Structural members, which are used in Newar dwellings, are systematized. The members are likewise named as its function and placement. They all are well arranged and joint together with different joining techniques like sa (joint), chuku (peg) and other such techniques. The above assemble drawing shows the perfect placement of each members with its particular name. The function of the structural members, its size and orientation are described below as per the case study and observation during the visits. 3.2.1 Dhalin (Joist) Dhalin (joist) is the horizontal structural member which holds the different weight of ba: (floor). Dhalin are placed closer in the Newar style dwelling. On the case of this buliding, dhalins are being closely placed together on the ground floor and second floor. While on the first floor they are being placed at certain gap compared to the lower floor. Figure 19: Dhalin placed close together on the second floor
Chuku
Figure 20: Joist and plank detail on first floor
Figure 21: Joist running horizontally and connected by chuku
The cross-section size of Dhalin (joist) is gradually being changed and also the spacing of dhalin (joist) has been changed from compact to expanded form in different floors. 3.2.2 Nila (Beam) Nila is the primary beam which carries the whole load of the dwelling. The nila (beam) has been placed in mattan (first floor),chota (second flor) and upper floor replacing dathu aanga (central wall). This is rest on the than (post) which may be single or double according to the building volume.
Nila Pagadi
Tham
Figure 22: Orderly placement of vertical members supporting the floor 3.2.3 Musin (Rafter) Musin (rafter) is a structural member which holds the weight of kolapu (wooden peicesplanking), cha and polan apa (roofing tile). This is an inclined member called rafter, is rest on the thayma, a ridge beam. the size and spacing of musin (rafter) are different in different dwellings. The musin (rafter) had been provided earlier on this building but most of them were already removed during our study period.
Figure 23: Musin placed at regular interval
3.2.4 Thayma (Ridge beam) Thayma (ridge beam), a traditional ridge beam also called as baiga nila, is the main beam to hold the whole weight of the roof. This thayma*ridge beam is specially designed. As the two way slope roof had been replaced by one way CGI sheets ridge beam was removed later in this building. 3.2.5 Opening and member ties Most of the traditional Newar dwellings have double frame in openings, Lukha and Jhya. The external is called as pichuthan and inner is called as duchuthan. These two thans (post) are fashioned by the timber member called tan (interlocking member), at four places. These tangs are again joined by means of chuku (pegs) or sa (joints). In this house, the system of joining Jhya (window) and lukha (door) are similar in case of older ones. There are different types of joints (sa) used in assembling the members and they are as Thapu (upper plate), Chuku (wedge), Kopu (lower plate), Chuku Sa: (Tabling or Scrift joint) and other kinds of joints as dog matting joint, dove tail joint and bearing joints. But new doors and windows in this building are being assembled by holdfast and nails.
Duchhu than Tang
Figure 24: Tang on window
Figure 25: Inner view of the window
3.2.6 Foundation design (Jaga) Foundation (jaga) is the critical part of all buildings. The whole structure of the building stands on it. This is an important part of dwelling which need great care and maintenance. But here in the observation most of the buildings at foundation level are damaged due to dampness and resulting into decay. It is difficult to predict the depth of foundation (jaga) in this building. According to the care taker, it is conformed that building stands on the high depth foundation; Normally it is 1m to 2m in depth and width of the foundation (jaga) is 60cm. The wall below the plinth level is massive, constructed with burnt brick, mud as mortar and stone. Some about 70cm thick lohan aanga (stone wall) is provided and then burnt brick wall on it is constructed. This is constructed up to the plinth level. Here in Newar dwelling, there are no damp proofing materials, but for prevention from damp, they provide a layer of stone.
Figure 26: Typical foundation detail
Figure 27: Plinth depth at the main street
Chapter 4.Summary of the case study 4.1 Staircase (Swona) Staircase is the primary element in multi-storeyed building. It is the vertical means of connecting the floors. Different types of staircase are found in Kathmandu valley with different styles.Most frequently used are steep and narrow flights of steps with seven to nine steps. The height of the storey rarely exceeds 2.10 m to 2.20 m. In this building, the minimum height of the floor found is 1.70 m and the maximum is 2. Mostly the staircase in the building is placed nearby the main door orienting either north or east or west direction (mu:lakha). no staircase (swona) is oriented to south direction because of the religious aspects and belief. The staircase is oriented only when a person is dead and his or her healthy soul has to remain in peace. The staircase is either rest towards central wall (dhatu aanga) of the either sides of facade wall i.e. external wall (pithu aanga). and also staircase are always placed and positioned parallel to the dhalin (joist). A dhalin is shorten and placed perpendicular to the other main dhalin (joist) which is the resting points of staircase (swona). This is known as half joist (betwadhalin) more or less similarly to primary dhalin (joist) size. This betwadhalin or half joist is placed to create a void (space). The deisgn , style and matreial use here is same as mentioned above.
Figure 28: Staircase on first and second floor
Figure 29: Typical traditional staircase 4.2 Partition wall (Bhikha) Partition wall (bhikha) is another sub structural element in the Newar house. Generally the spaces and the functions in the residential dwellings are separated by (a thin brick partition wall) or the other light structural materials like bamboo (paanh) or wooden planks (sipu). Nowadays a thin plywood (veneer) and CGI-partition has been adopted. These are easy mode of partition which are easily available in the market, but the traditional method of construction of partition (bhikha) is rather much difficult and quite
interesting too. Different types of partition has been found here and some of them are: a. Wooden partition (sipu bhikha) b. Ply wood partition c. Aanga (brick partition)
Figure 30: Wooden partition on the first and second floor 4.3 Wooden partition (Sipu bhikha) This type of partition (bhikha) is generally design by carpenter.During the construction of the sipu-bhikha (wooden partition), well measurement of inner dimensions has to be taken. The main frames, sipu maa thancha, are grooved so as to pile up other wooden plank (sipu) as desirable size. This works totally depends upon the carpenter. Figure 31: Sipu bhikha and ghringi khapa second floor Most often the wooden partition (sipu bhikha) is punctured , which as door (khapa), sliding door (ghringi khapa) or feast hole (bhya po). The style or sipu (wooden plank) is designed according to the placement of sipu maa thancha.
4.4 Bhikha, aanga (Brick partition) Awa and Dakarmi are the specialist for the construction of wall (aanga) that is centre wall (dathu aanga), pithu aanga (external wall) and bhikha aanga (partition wall). The only different in bhikha aanga, brick partiton wall is the construction of thin wall to separate and generate interior space. Generally the brick partition walls are constructed with kachi apa, but during the supervision of works, most of the bhika aangas are constructed with sija apa (burnt brick) and ma apa (burnt brick). This is due to easily available of materials.Here, brick wall partition has been done on ground floor and first floor only.
Figure 32: Floor detail The vertical division of space is generally defined by floor. (newari term-ba). The floor is another important part of the Newar dwelling. The floor are mainly two types: one is internal floor and other is external floor. Among the inernal floor, the common floor are a. Dhalin + kolapu + cha + siyucha b. Dhalin + kolapu + cha + chikanapa c. Dhalin +dhalin + kolapu + cha + chikanapa d. Dhalin + dhalin +cha + chikanapa e. Dhalin + sija ata + cha + siyucha Among the external floor (ba) are a. Dhalin + kolapu + kausi paancha + chikanapa b. Dhalin + sija ata + kausi paancha + chikanapa
While talking about the internal floor, list number a and b are very common floor (ba). The only different one among them is c. The type a floor has been observed on first floor and third floor while a layer of brick soling with thick floor has been observed on second floor. Since, major modifications has been done on the ground floor along with cement punning on the floor area. The external floor is mainly paved on flat terrace (kausi). The kausi ba: is specially constructed. The kausi is a place for sun bath and drying a grains and vegetables. This space is a multi-functional where every member enjoys. This kausi is constructed as similar to internal floor:, Cement as the major difference is only in the new material placement of kausi paancha in place of normal cha. Figure 33: Terrace area with cement punning The kausi paancha is a water tightening material which acts as damp proofing material. Method of construction of the external floor are mainly two types these are listed above. While in this studied building cement punning had been done on the kaushi which we observed during the first visit.
4.5 Central wall in the second floor Most of dwelling does not have central wall (dhathu aanga) in the second floor (chota). The second floor level is a wide open space which is Remains true from literature and the existing of the wall visualization, but here we small part of central wall was there which had been already removed during our study period however, remains of the wall can be seen on the post. Figure 34: Second floor without central wall
Chapter 5. Interior views
Fig: Flooring of the first floor
Fig: Wooden Partition
Fig: Centrally Placed Wooden post
Fig: Horizontal and vertical members supporting the structure
Chapter 5. Conclusion This research work is a documentation of the traditional Newar residential dwelling which has its own importance and the different architecture found here in Kathmandu Valley. This studied dwelling was built in a time sequence from 1990 onwards. Though many research studies of the dwelling constructed between the periods from 17th C to 20th C and analyze them in a time sequence is most necessary.During the study we came across different materials and construction technology used in the typical traditional dwelling and the changes like use of modern materials and techniques that occured in sequence of time. The Newar dwellings are easy to construct, as all the construction materials like brick, mud, timber or the product of mud are easily available within the surrounding environment. These materials are emotionally attached and provide comfort.The traditional buildings are well assembled and show harmonized combination of the materials. Different structure assembling techniques had been observed during the study,which are not found in existing literature on Newar building construction. In addition, it has brought a considerable extent of terminologies and this is important because each terminology is a meaningful invention of our past tradition on different architecture of the Kathmandu Valley.
Reference 1. 2.
3. 4.
5.
6.
7. 8. 9.
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