Building Practices- OLD KOLHAPUR HOMES
-Riya Israni, Dishita Galchat
Jaysingpur is a small town which is 40 km away from Kolhapur and 13 km away from Sangli. It was named after Jaisingh Maharaj, the brother of Shahu Maharaj. The town is planned in a way where all the roads are at an angle of 90 degrees i.e. like a chessboard. Being an agro- belt, it was difficult to transport crops from Kolhapur to Sangli as the distance was more. In order to ease the transport of goods, Jaysingpur was setup because it was located very near to both the locations. Hence, agricultural business was setup.
People from other states like Karnataka, Rajasthan, Gujarat, etc. started migrating to carry forward the business. The houses got shaped and their typology got defined as home as an integrated enterprise. The shops faced the streets connected to the living space behind. A veranda separates the living space from the warehouse. This kind of building practice got evolved.
One of the house which I closely looked at is 'Attar Wada' which is situated in the prime location of Jaysingpur. It was the marketplace where majority of the business took place. It was built 100 years ago and belongs to a Muslim family. The entire plot was a lake earlier which was then filled with sand. The house was designed by the owner himself sitting at some other place. The house was built only on the ground floor at the first stage. When they realised that this space was not sufficient for the family, they constructed the first floor. The Wada is built with all the locally available materials like stone, wood, etc.
It is a load bearing structure with stone walls, wooden framework for roof with Mangalore tiles. The house was constructed in a traditional way. They didn't use detailed architectural drawings for construction instead they just made a rough sketch and started constructing directly with ideas on the site.
But now as the generations passed, the house got divided into parts and some parts were sold to others for business purpose. Now, the spaces got transformed into new program space. The warehouse space is now converted into living space and some living spaces have storage spaces for their shops.
They have added timber posts for supports, constructed a new roof to protect from rain entering inside since it was destroyed.
This is how the building practice evolved. This practice still exists in some parts of Jaysingpur. Now, the Wada type houses are transformed into bungalows, apartments, row houses, etc.