Uploaded on 2020-06-13 by Sneha Moorthy

This picture was clicked from my ancestral home, in a remote village called Umayalpuram. As seen on the left side of the picture, traditionally, all houses in the village are constructed local materials. Plinth is made using stone and bricks. The walls are made using bricks and plastered using mud, lime, sugarcane molases, spices. The columns, joinery, are made using wood. The roof is made using wood, bamboo and clay tiles. Any flat slabs are constructed using a technique called madras roofing using clay tiles, bricks and mortar. All new construction are made using bricks, cement, concrete, steel, asbestos bought from neighboring cities. Inside these homes, they have used tiles imported from Italy and show pieces bought from China. Even the accessories, fixtures are bought from various parts of the nation/ world. This is the landscape viewed in the right side of the image. Since this type of construction (materials and design) does not keep the house cool, ACs are installed in some of these houses.