“Niketh”

The Housing Chronicles of India

An initiative of
Centre for Sustainable Infrastructure and Engineering Systems (CSIES),
Mahindra École Centrale, Hyderabad, India.

ARTICLE
Traditional Neighborhood in Modern Himachal Pradesh: The Thathara
House

Prepared By
Patel Sahaj Ruchirbhai and Patel Hardik Mineshkumar

Guided By: Prof. Rihan Maaze

Department of Civil Engineering
Nirma University Ahmedabad
Introduction
Dated back to 400 years, a common construction of houses in Ravi river valley in Chamba district of
the state of Himachal Pradesh which is in Northern part of India were found, the houses which were
built are known as “THATHARA HOUSE”. This type of construction can be observed for houses and
temples in the high altitude areas of Himachal Pradesh.

Thathara term is locally used for wooden planks, also known as Tholas. Basically tholas is a
combination of timber and stone.

Figure 1. Camping site which is made through Thathara type of construction

The houses built using this type of construction is mostly rectangular in shape, with 2-3 storeys and
holes are made in wooden planks for the ventilation as shown in Figure 1. This type of construction
do not share any common wall with adjacent building.

As this region has cold climate and witness heavy rainfall during the rainy season as well as snowfalls
in winter. So all climatic condition were taken into consideration while constructing this type of
house, like small openings, a verandah to take sun but prevent from rain and snow, wooden and mud
interiors which are good insulators and keep the interiors warm, sloping roofs with adequate
projections as well as many other features also. As this region is located in the Himalayan ranges, the
area has experienced numerous strong earthquakes and this type of construction technique has
eventually evolved to resist seismic reactions.
As this type of construction has been practiced for more than 400 years , nowadays people are not
practicing this type of construction as people are loving to construct their house with more western
aspect without thinking of the their own cultural, architectural and regional aspects and also there is
ban in cutting of trees in this region. This type of housing have many architectural as well as
structural aspects so to promote India’s as well as Himachal Pradesh’s lost culture, tradition and
architecture in this so called Modern world. In order to promote the lost attribute of traditional culture
we choose this topic to promote India’s and Himachal’s rich heritage.

How can we understand Science, Engineering and Technology behind this

housing?
Science: - The Himalayan region has a cold and rainy climate with more rainfall and snowfall. This
region, throughout the year remains cold, so the materials used for plaster are clay and wood.
Clay and wood is used as they are available in plenty and acts as wonderful interior humidity and
temperature regulator. As this materials are good insulator and helps to keep the house cool in the
summer and warm in the winter. The temperature difference in the house can be of 5 to 6 degree
celsius which makes the house more comfortable to live in.

Engineering and Technology: -

These buildings usually are on hilly surface.Therefore,depending upon the slope of the site there are
two ways to create flat shallow foundation.In steep slope case flat sit created by making retaining wall
of stone masonry which is below the superstructure. And in gradual slope case flat sit created by cut
and filled skill technique.

The main load-bearing system of this building typology consists of 'Tholas' and wooden beams.Tholas
are provided at corners and/or ridges of the building and support the horizontal beams which in turn
support the inclined rafters and purlins. A positive connection between Tholas and beams has
generally not been observed and the beams are simply kept over the Tholas.

Wooden structures are constructed with dry materials because high percentage moisture content
reduce the strength and causing shrinkage in the structure.In the uppermost storey, generally wooden
frames and planks are used as partition material to reduce the seismic weight of the
building. The original construction practice involving use of wooden planks for roof covering was
also motivated from the concept of reducing mass at the top. In verandahs, where larger openings are
required, wooden frames are used in place of masonry walls. These wooden frames result in reduced
seismic mass and better lateral load resistance. Himachal Pradesh weather is harsh cold and rainy in
climate therefore they provided small and few window for protection. Thathara houses were not
demolishing in earthquake due to great performance of Seismic action.

These structures have been standing for more than 200 years with some regular maintenance.
Exterior walls need to be plastered every year after the rainy season in order to take care of
any cracks or damage, whereas finished with slurry of mud and cow dung every month for
cleanliness.

References:-
1. Earthquake Engineering Handbook, Written by Wai-Fah Chen and Charles Scawthorn
2. B. C. Punmia, Building Construction, Laxmi Publications.
3. W. B. Mckay, Building Construction Metric Vol. I to IV, Orient Longman.
4. Timber-reinforced Stone Masonry (Koti Banal Architecture) of Uttarakhand and
Himachal Pradesh, Northern India. Rautela, P., Girish, J., Singh Y., and Lang, D.H.
(2011) Report no. 150, World Housing Encyclopedia, Earthquake Engineering
Research Institute, United States.
5. Links