The wooden palace, dating back almost 500 years, is a prime example of traditional Keralite architecture, with lattice windows, sloping roofs with gables and a unique floor finish. The finishing process of the palace floors begins with burnt coconut shell, used as a charcoal to stain the floors. A mixture of banana and egg whites is used to seal the floor, and then the floors are polished by hand with coconut husk. The coloration left behind by this process is a deep mahogany, slightly darker than the three woods used within Padmanabhupuram: teak, ebony, and mahogany. This is truly a wooden palace. The traditional Kerala window is also a wood construction, termed by some lattice windows, the frame extends in a curvature off the side of the building, with slats moving vertically up at a slight angle. The lighting through this “window” or wall system is bright, without creating a heat path into interior spaces. Another unique condition formed by this frame is the ability to view out, without those outside viewing in. Laurie Baker adapts upon this character of the Kerala window in his formed brick jallis. The term jalli stems from a Hindu word jail that translates to mesh or screen. One last interesting tidbit about the Wooden Palace is one of its methods of cooling. Beneath benches on secondary levels of the palace, water tanks are held which perform convection cooling of the main spaces. Often times the cooling was scented and a light perfumed breeze would permeate through the palaces upper levels. Combined with the wooden jallis placed throughout the palace, the rooms maintained a pleasant condition in Kerala’s warm climate.
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