Sustainable Performance of Diverse Regional Vernacular Architecture of India – Case Study of I. G. R. M. S. Bhopal, INDIA

India is a large subcontinent having many diverse regions, each having its own vernacular architecture tradition. These regions are as diverse as hills, desert, coastal area, hot and humid riverine plain, humid rainforests and many more. Similarly, the vernacular forms of architecture are diverse in their layout, form, building materials, methods of construction and structural systems. There is but one basic similarity – they are climatically and geographically most suited to their original regional location.

Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya (IGRMS), Bhopal is a museum that houses examples of these vernacular structures in full scale built by their original inhabitants in natural site. The city of Bhopal is capital of the state of Madhya Pradesh (literally translates as the Central Province, and justifies that name with its central position in India) is situated ‘Humid Sub-tropical’ region of India as per Koppen's classification and offers a different context from the original site and climate situation of these vernacular structure.

This paper thus aims at assessing whether and how vernacular architecture performs consistently in regions other than its own when transplanted. Thus, it has recorded and quantified climatological data for some of these vernacular huts belonging to diverse regions to compare and contrast their construction material, design and thermal performances on a iso-climatic framework. In the research, climatic data like ambient temperature, wind velocity, relative humidity have been collected for selected vernacular houses that are originally scattered within the huge geographical area of India, and which also belong to varied climatic regions. These houses vary in terms of their layout, materials and methods of construction and so forth. These data have been compared and analysed to find their dependence on the different building features and components of these houses. The analysis of the collected database have also been used to assess the basic question of the research i.e., to assess and compare the relative performance of these houses brought together in a single place under the same climate.