“The crumbling walls of Kashmir’s traditional homes reveal sophisticated building practices that once mastered sustainable living. From rooftop gardens to climate-adaptive designs, these architectural relics offer crucial lessons in an era of global warming.”
Suheel Rasool Mir
V.S. Naipaul in his observation of Srinagar as ‘a Medieval City’ writes in his 1964 treatise An Area of Darkness:
“Beyond the Bund, it was a medieval town…it was a town, damp or dusty, of smells: of bodies and picturesque costumes discolored and acrid with grime… a town of narrow lanes and dark shops and choked courtyards… yet much skill had gone into the making of these huddled wooden buildings; much fine fantastic carving and woodwork remained… and in this medieval town, as in all medieval towns, the people were surrounded by wonders… but the builders had receded beyond history into legend: fabulous personages of whom little was known except that they were very handsome or very brave or very wise”.
In the heart of Kashmir valley continue to stand these silent sentinels of a fading era – structures that once pulsed with life, now standing as eloquent testimonials to both architectural genius and cultural loss.
Kashmir’s Crumbling Relics
Old and unkempt, many of these crumbling structures are relics of the unfortunate exodus of a very important minority in the Kashmir, making them repositories of traditional heritage that testifies the achievements of a civilization.
To study Kashmir’s vernacular architecture through these abandoned homes is to navigate a complex maze of emotions and history. These structures serve as repositories of architectural wisdom – each wooden joint, every carved panel, and all intricate brick patterns speak volumes about sustainable building practices that evolved over centuries.
The traditional techniques employed in their construction have outlasted modern buildings, standing resolute despite years of abandonment. A visit to the abandoned and old dilapidated homes reveals the traditional architectural mastery of Kashmiri craftsmanship that has withstood the test of time.
Yet, these architectural treasures face an existential crisis. The relentless march of modernization, with its concrete uniformity and quick-fix solutions, threatens to erase these last remaining vestiges of Kashmir’s architectural heritage. Their survival depends on the conscience and resources of their inheritors or current custodians, who alone can choose to preserve them individually.
Sustainability In An Era of Climate Crises
These buildings are not merely structures of brick and wood but are chronicles of a civilization’s journey through time. In their weathered walls and intricate details lie encoded the architectural vocabulary of a people who understood the delicate balance between beauty and functionality, between tradition and innovation.
As they stand today, these homes serve as both monuments to what was and reminders of what could be lost if we fail to recognize and preserve the architectural heritage they embody.
The relevance of these traditional architectural practices extends far beyond Kashmir’s valleys, resonating with global environmental challenges. As the Arctic’s unprecedented warming threatens Siberian settlements – where thousands of structures built on permafrost face potential collapse – the wisdom embedded in traditional construction takes on new urgency.
This contemporary crisis is so real that construction conservationists and green builders are increasingly turning to traditional and sustainable innovations to combat the modern challenges.
This return to tradition isn’t merely rooted in cultural mores. Harmonising tradition with modernity is the practical response to our sustainable future. Kashmir’s vernacular architecture, like many traditional building practices worldwide, embodies the same principle of ‘less is more’ through the process of evolution and local adaptation.
These old homes, standing resolute despite decades of neglect, offer more than just heritage preservation – they provide crucial insights into mankind’s quest for sustainable living, making them not just relics of the past but blueprints for our future.
Poetry & Romance of Zoon-Dub
My personal favourites are the cantilevered balconies that are mesmerizing to the eyes whilst representing the cultural values of the time, like revisiting history in a time machine.
Let us look at the Zoon-Dub, or the moon-watching balconies (Zoon means Moon in Kashmiri) of traditional Kashmiri houses.
These balconies will immerse oneself in the romance of poetry and mysticism, kindling the imagination of women like Lalleshwaris, Habba-Khatoons, or Zoonis (as she was called) of Kashmir sitting in their Zoon-Dubs and pouring out their literary, poetic and creative genius as they gazed at the moon through their intricately crafted dubs.
Zoon-Dub is an architectural poetic expression in itself. These balconies represent a glorious history always in the process of archiving on a palimpsest, only to get frozen in time after 1990.
The finesse with which pinjarakari (wooden meshwork) is placed as outside panels on the windows of these Zoon-Dubs adds to their appeal.
The intricately carved pinjarakari designs on Zoon-Dubs can be seen only on the existing old structures, either downtown or along the banks of Jhelum within Srinagar city.
Taaq & Dajji-Dewari
The traditional vernacular architecture of Kashmir recognises two primary construction styles – Taaq and Dajji-Dewari – their unique characteristics are revealed in stark detail through the weathered homes that still stand.
Within these crumbling structures, the exposed layers and deteriorating elements unveil sophisticated architectural techniques that construction conservationists like Randolph Langenbach have meticulously documented through detailed geometrical studies, graphs, and technical sketches.
Each exposed brick and timber reveal both an architectural lesson and a poignant reminder – fragments of construction wisdom emerging even as they mark the fading memories of what Kashmir once was, and what it lost.
The two styles, Taaq and Dajji-Dewari, were used, alongside each other in the construction of a house. Both heavily relied on the use of thick wooden logs/timbers, clay/mud paste, and locally produced bricks termed Maharajji bricks.
Langenback in his 2009 detailed project report, backed by UNDP and UNESCO, writes about these two as:
“In Kashmir, there are many examples of houses where both the Taaq and the Dajji-Dewari are used side by side in the same structure. The Dajji-Dewari is frequently found used for the party walls between buildings, whereas the Taaq is used for the front walls.
In principle, the Dajji-Dewari is lighter in weight, allowing for its use on walls that are cantilevered over the street. Taaq, consists of load-bearing masonry piers and infill walls, with wood ‘runners’ at each floor level used to tie the walls together with the floors.
The second system, Dajji-Dewari/Patch quilt wall construction, consists of a braced timber frame with masonry infill.”
Lagenbach critically titled his work ‘Don’t Tear It Down’. His work was based on validating these architectural designs as seismic-proof.
His detailed graphical representations of these structures revealed how these are some of the world’s most efficient regionally produced earthquake-proof designs.
Another aspect of these structures that makes them geographically suited to the huge shifts in seasons in Kashmir is the use of clay/mud and the floor designs that acted as insulation and breeze-vents, both in winter and in summer, thus making them well suited to live in both the seasons.
There were no hamams (heat-room) of the present day and still, the houses were considerably warm as compared to the modern structures. The clever use of clay/mud/bricks and timbers in these designs made the entire structure flexible enough to crack at multiple areas thus sharing the load lest, should one single cemented crack tear them down completely.
Khatambandh and Turf Roofs
The Persian influences in the form of fake-ceilings or khatambandh were later additions, and are still widely popular.
Another effective way to make architecture suited to seasons was the construction of turf roofs, which was mud placed over birch/burza-teak roofs planted with lotus buds that grew beautifully in spring.
This sophisticated architectural art has largely disappeared from contemporary practice. While rooftop gardens are now being celebrated as an innovative solution in today’s urban heat islands, it’s worth noting that Kashmir had already mastered this practice throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Past as a blue-print for the future
As Kashmir undergoes widespread modernization, these traditional building practices gain renewed relevance. In these environmentally critical times – when even Srinagar experiences increasingly severe heat waves – the wisdom of this architectural heritage demands fresh attention.
Perhaps it’s time for the community to rediscover and readapt these time-tested sustainable solutions.
The old crumbling houses can be pioneers and can be used to preserve such heritage knowledge. In my opinion, grants should be given to each family specifically to rebuild their homes on the same traditional designs they stand on today and convert them into heritage homes.
But nothing can happen until the community realises that the rich Kashmiri tradition comes with its rich architectural heritage which offers the wisdom of sustainability, of living in harmony with nature.
Now, more than ever is the need for such sustainable urbanization as Srinagar is growing and expanding by leaps and bounds. The world can learn from the innovative designs that shall strengthen tradition in modernity by the apt combination of both.
But this can only happen if Srinagar and the rest of Kashmir preserve conserve and innovate first and take the lead.
(All photos by Suheel Rasool Mir. The pictures are the remnants of the Kashmiri houses in and around district Bandipora, Kashmir)
*Suheel Rasool Mir is a Kashmir-based sociologist working on the borderlands of Kashmir and Ladakh, the sociology of ethnicity and sociology at the margins. He is the author of the Cultural Encyclopedia of the Dard Tribe. He can be contacted at Mirsuhailscholar@gmail.com
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