1738 SPATIAL ATTACHMENTS and SCOOPED SPACES

1738 SPATIAL ATTACHMENTS and SCOOPED SPACES -Gautam Shah

Verandahs have several architecturally synonymous forms, and as many unique names. There are two functional qualities that are consistent across all types of verandahs ‘like’ interventive spaces. These occur in tropical climates, between the outdoor and indoors, and reflect an immaculate identity of free or informal space.

Verandah spaces have many names. Some words have traceable and common ancestries. But cross-cultural exchanges (migration, colonization, tourism, films and media), have caused derivative forms, names and functions. Verandahs have connections to India, Pacific and Indian ocean islands, Iran, and adoptions in Portugal.

Word roots like, var, vara, bar or bara, have base in India, Persia and Portugal (Vasco da Gama ’s voyage to Calicut in 1498). The variant words include, Veranda, Varanda, Verandah, Varandah, Baranda, Barandah, Barmda, Baramda, Barandilla and Varada. The Persian word Baramda, consists of bar+amadah =coming out, with a sense of outdoors and barāmad =to acquire, possess or receive.

Other terms depicting the interruptive or mediating spaces are Lanai (Hawaii islands of the same name), Piazza, Stoop, Galilee, Portico, Porch, Solarium, Sun-porch, Sunroom, Sun-Parlour, Awning, Engawa, Arcade, Colonnade, Porte-cochere, Patio, Deck, Dukah, Balcony and Gallery.

Other contextually equivalent forms are, Osari, Padvi, Padavi, Padsal, Padsala, Parsal, Pad-osri, Oti, Osaro, Oto, Apadana (Sanskrit= for unprotected space, to arrive at), Iwan or Liwan (Iranian).

At places, house forms with varied spatial arrangements have been called as, tarma, ‘iwaq, talar, ursi, hosch, sofa, eyvan, engawa, hayat, lywan, etc. These house forms had no outward transgressions, but inwardly scooped areas.

1176 APADANA IRANIAN form of VERANDAH

1176 APADANA IRANIAN form of VERANDAH -Gautam Shah

Apadana is the direct ancestor of the medieval and modern architectural term, Al – Iwan, Liwan or Iwan. It is an old Persian word that represents a hypostyle hall in Persepolis, Iran. It was an audience hall attached to a palace.

The word Apadana, literally meant unprotected (space). It was a verandah like structure, open on one side, fronting an open landscaped ground. In later days, similar forms were devised as Chowk like open to sky courtyards, but inside the dense localities.

The word Apadana derives from apa =away + da =to put, make, create (dana =container, receptacle.) In Sanskrit Apadana means ‘to arrive at, where the Da has roots in Sanskrit =dadhāti -giving.

This name, Al – Iwan, Liwan or Iwan has no certain etymology. It perhaps has some connection with the Ancient Greek Iōánnēs ( ωάννης), which in turn is a form of a Hebrew name Yôchânân / Yehochanan , meaning ‘graced by Yahweh, God is gracious’.

Iwan or Liwan (La+Iwan) also defines an unprotected place referring to the verandah-shaped structure open to the outside elements, (apadana), in Parthian and Sasanian architectures. A Riwaq is a longer or stretched out arcade or portico for transition. The formal gateway to the Iwan is called Pishtaq, Such verandah like forms were used in non-religious architecture before the 12th C, including houses, community spaces, and civic structures.

1127 LANAI -Hawaiian outdoor space

1127 LANAI -Hawaiian outdoor space -Gautam Shah

Lanai is a covered space that intermediates the outdoors and indoors. It is rather a ‘term’ that has formed a cultural brand image in Hawaii and similar pacific islands’ places of balmy weather.

In Hawaii, Lanai is an architectural feature that allows many levels of outdoor living. It is usually a ground-based facility. It offers an extension space for living and a luxurious domain for relaxation. It is roofed, open-sided structure that has some similarities of balcony, deck, patio, gazebo, porch, pergola, terrace or verandah. But it has a unique character in Hawaii Region that as one, rests, the eye site stretches along the low-level roof eaves, very similar to Japanese Engawa.

Lanai is essentially a climate-characterization of the living space, where the high level of humidity, and warmth, discourages the compact living and too hectic lifestyle. Its ideation is the siesta. It needs a view of a long flat seashore edge. Other appendages may include, a ceiling fan, fly mesh screens and thin furniture that allows lots of air-movement.

Lanai structures began to emerge as Hawaiian architectural entity after 1850s. It referred to traditional Hawaiian structure with open sides. Lanai, most often were independent structures as semi-open work spaces. The Honolulu Academy of Arts celebrated and ‘rediscovered’ the Lanai through an exhibition in 1949. Lanai was termed as ‘all-pervasive lanai’, and as ‘the room with the missing wall. Lanai has now become a tourism feature, with many corrupt forms.

There is an island named LANAI, in central Hawaii, west of Maui island. (140 sq miles).

1119 ENGAWA -edge in Japanese dwelling

1119 ENGAWA -edge in Japanese dwelling -by Gautam Shah

Engawa is the connecting entity that brings together, the inside-outside and people with nature. It is the edge of the house. It is a strip of veranda with boarded floor and raised by short wood pillars of the floor. Engawa could be a back or front yard edge space, but also like peripheral hallway connecting multiple rooms. It is often called a ‘fluid street’.

Engawa is a buffer space with extended eaves overhead and an emphatic threshold marked by multiple screens like amado, shoji and often glass shutters. The amado (storm shutters), engawa and shoji offer multiple combinations to modulate the interior environments, while offering variegated diurnal and seasonal experiences of the nature.

A front side engawa becomes an entrance area. The engawa on the backyard, once related with agriculture activities and place for social interactions with neighbours. Temples have extensive long engawa, as participatory space.

Engawa has been an ambiguous as well mystical tradition of the Japanese architecture. It has roots in prehistorical, Buddhist, Zen and Shinto traditions, listing its purpose, functions, scale and relationships with what occurs beyond its edge. ‘The dwelling manifests as a roof rather than through the walls. The roof projected its presence at its edge, through the eaves. The slopping eaves relate to the ground’. The Engawa was the connecting entity. The linearity of the eaves’ edge and the Engawa as a strip of verandah, together run to the infinity, on both sides.

Engawa as spatial entity became part of the dwellings of the aristocrats as a style and status symbol. It developed intimate relationship with the styled garden of visual nature. Engawa became a vista for contemplation. ‘The garden and the house are indeed the same thing, thus it is a reunification instead of an integration between the two’.

Engawa has a symbolic function as the genkan (location for the removal of shoes). The engawa is accompanied by a large brick or stone piece called kutsumugi-ishi, (meaning stepping stone for your shoes). Here one will change into uwabaki slippers or shoes intended for indoor wear. Engawa became the soft transition from indoor and outdoor.

976 COURTYARD SPACES in DWELLINGS

516 FORMS of ADJUNCT SPACES in HOMES

363 IWAN –Verandah of Persia

356 VERANDAH -Etymology and Root

239 MULTIFARIOUS and POLYONYMOUS VERANDAHS