“All the houses clear and same!
May have different colour or name!
But the world outside is different you see!
That’s why this flat works for me!”
When I was doing my MBBS in Kerala; and when I used to tell my friends that many people in Bengaluru live in apartments, it was a big shock to many! Now of course Kerala has some big swanky apartments but the average Keralite would not have seen himself or herself restricted in a closed space!
They have such large houses with a courtyard and open spaces with a variety of trees in the back! The house was only a part of the whole system!
Most of the houses were big and full of green! Many times there also will be a well and then some! The average house may not be bright much but the nature as its decoration, it used to feel grand!
We city folks of course know how to live in an apartment! Of course individual houses do have their charm and responsibilities but apartments have their own good stuff! If you are part of a township or society then it a very good deal especially in the early and later phases of life!
As work increases in city though, these high-rises are the norm! I had seen one image of an apartment complex in China which made me dizzy!
Many family like to stay in independent houses if given a choice but the average worker is usually given an apartment which he or she has to share with others. That life is something different and the norm of the working class now.
Now if you thought that the apartments were a new thing you would be surprised that they were here thousands of years ago!
It is believed that the first apartment buildings were built by the Romans two thousand years ago. These multi-story structures were called insulae (pronounced insul-eye) meaning islands, because they took up a lot of space equivalent to entire city blocks. These apartments were crafted from unforgiving materials such as timber and mud so fires and collapses were common.
The rich continued to live in separate houses while the poor rented these apartment spaces from wealthy proprietors!
Bottom floors were usually taken up by shops and businesses with the upper sections reserved for residents which is so similar to the situations today!
Other evidence of vertical living has been shown around the world. In Arizona, for example, Montezuma’s cliff dwellings showcase buildings five stories high, while in the desert sands of Yemen vertical apartment buildings made of mud were beginning to show up. These buildings were built close together and are still functional today, needing additional plasterings of mud to keep the structure stable
In China’s Fujian province, squat circular structures called Tulou, three to five stories high, housed entire family clans. Looking like a pattern of radiating circles when viewed aerially, these structures housed living areas, storehouses and wells all fortified by strong exterior walls. The buildings followed the principles of feng shui and also served to keep inhabitants safe.
The elevator was a major game-changer in the history of the apartment building and a primitive model was commissioned by King Louis XV in 1743 so he could visit his ‘special friend’ housed in a different floor of the Versailles palace!
In large cities across the world, the Industrial Revolution spurred a rapid rise of the tenements with notorious living conditions. They gave way to to today’s fashionable condominium apartments especially after the building of the Dakota apartment building in New York City in the late nineteenth century, which changed people’s perceptions of apartment living as something only for the poor.
The first housing society in India started in 1914s in Grant road! While towns like Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, & Delhi soon followed suit. Ahmedabad had its first housing society called Pritam Nagar developed under the guidance of Sri Sardar Vallabhai Patel in the year 1927.
Bengaluru had its first housing society project in the 1970’s called Paresh Apartments Co-operative Housing society build in 1974 in Malleswaram town! Now of course apartments are mushrooming all over and the outlook towards them is slowly changing. What remained constant and that too for a long time was the chief ministership of Naveen Patnaik for the past 24 years! He is known as the Politician with no foes so much so that he has even been awarded the Ideal Chief Minister award!
Hoping for more administrators like him…
still praying for those affected by the apartment fire.
Shubh Ratri…
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