GUWAHATI: At a time when Assam is witnessing a spurt in concrete structures, there are still a few places in the state that are still dotted with historically and aesthetically beautiful buildings known as ‘Assam Type’ houses.
Experts believe that such heritage structures require preservation and restoration.
Sloping roofs, louvres, gables, awnings, skylights, bay windows and a porch are some of the features that make them distinctive, along with their sustainability and resilience to withstand earthquakes, experts point out.
“Architecturally, a typical Assam Type house has features which are aesthetically soothing and at the same time sturdy enough to withstand the vagaries of nature,” former Assam chief secretary Jishnu Barua was quoted as saying by PTI.
This type of architecture is a style developed during the late 19th century and is primarily found in Assam and other Northeast states along with Sylhet in Bangladesh, Barua, who has a keen interest in the heritage and preservation of these structures, said.
“These fascinating houses are disappearing fast with the onslaught of concrete structures changing the architectural landscape of the state, and there is an urgent need to document, preserve and, where necessary, restore the buildings,” heritage activist Nandinee Kalita told PTI.
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Assam Type House History:
Assam Type houses are a type of designs developed by the colonial British administration in Assam after the massive earthquake of 1897.
The British started constructing buildings and housing structures with thick walls in colonial Assam from 1826 onwards as they did elsewhere in India.
But the earthquake at the turn of the century destroyed all those structures making them think in constructing earthquake-resistant houses.
They modified the traditional Assamese houses made of thatch roof with bamboo walls plastered with mud mixed with fresh cow dung to make Assam Type houses with wood, reed, mud plaster and hay after studying the climate and topography of the entire region.
These houses and buildings were not destroyed in the massive earthquake of 1950 in Assam.
High roofed, parallel widened doors, parallel windows, walls and ceilings made of knitted weeds in wooden frames plastered with mud—prepared from the sticky earth dug from wells, cow dung and outer skin of mature beetle nuts, parallel wide sky windows at the upper portions of walls—facilitating cross ventilation inside marked the minimum features of the Assam Type houses.
Cities like Shillong, Guwahati, Dibrugarh and Jorhat are dotted with such Assam Type buildings and bungalows that distinctively fall to one particular type of house style.
Significantly, all the government buildings—administrative blocks, judicial courts, hospitals, educational institutes residential quarters in Assam were designed on this pattern from the beginning of the twentieth century till the early 1980s.
After that multi-storied RCC structures began to appear in both public and private uses in the state leading to the present day urban-scape.