Let's learn not to impose Design on Tribal dwellings
Hara Narayan
three distinctive parts. Daala (store) is made up of a raised wooden
platform for keeping grains and cereals. Ukusung (hearth) is placed at
the other end of the interior space, opposite to the Daala (store). in
between Daala and Ukusung, lies the space, called Kelang to be used for
drying and husking the paddy and for members of the house to sleep.
The typical Juang villages are compact settlements. In the center
of the village stands Majang (bachelors' dormitory) around which the
cluster of houses for undivided families are built on 100 to 130 square
feet of the land. The walls of the houses are made up of wooden pillars
placed vertically closed to each other with the mixture of cow dung and
mud used as plaster. The house has attached roof, where the wild grass
and dried paddy stalks and bamboo reeds are used. Each married couple
owns for itself a house while the group of children, guests and
relatives take shelter in Majang. Pigs and goats are kept in sheds made
of wooden planks.
Attempts to shift the Juangs away from their traditional houses
have not been successful. The Juangs have been found to have abandoned
the government sponsored houses, which were constructed under Indira
Awas Yojana in Keonjhar district of Orissa, as such houses are found to
be unsafe for living. The failure of such government projects to
provide dwellings to the Juangs is due to lack of proper design
concept, that should have gone with the building material and
traditional skill . Further, as the community participation in the
process of design and implementation is ignored, the failure of the
project is inevitable. Such government sponsored dwelling units were
erected on the ground without proper foundation with random rubble
masonry walls and galvanized iron sheet roofing.
Its imperative to understand the anatomy and composition of a tribal
dwelling before imposing any design element,material scince and
technological innovations.