India: Bio-climatism in vernacular architecture

Abstract

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018. Human beings have a natural instinct for bio-climatic home building. Vernacular architecture potentially leverages on this ability while responding to the sociocultural and economic needs of a population. India is a peninsula with a long coastline. A predominantly warm country, India has about 80% of the land under composite and warm-humid climates. This chapter navigates through the bio-climatic vernacular architecture of various climatic zones of India, emphasizing the warm-humid zones. It also provides examples that imbibed the bio-climatic spirit in creating a modern vernacular.