India, being the home to many cultures and ethnicities is one of the largest nations with its diverse lands found anywhere in the world with 29 states. Each state has its own unique culture, language, traditions, and religion. It has been recognised as a country with a unique and distinct culture. Being home to over a billion people, accommodating incredible cultural diversity between languages, geographic regions, religious traditions, and social stratifications, India is very distinct from other countries in its way. The distinct differences are not only in the culture and tradition, but it also reflects in the way they choose to style their homes.
Most south Indians still consider Vastu while buying a house whereas their north Indian counterparts are more inclined towards the climatic conditions and its impacts, while purchasing a house. In the north people opt for spacious spaces with a functional design and open balconies as opposed to the south where Vastu plays a vital role in designing the structure of the house.
Right from the design of the exteriors of the house to the various house painting colour combinations the houses in the north and the southern region tend to have very distinguished features. Following are a few distinguishing features of houses in India.
The Exterior
The façade of your home forms the first impression of your space. There is a significant difference between the exteriors of houses made in the south and north India. These houses are constructed keeping the weather conditions in mind. As the south is more prone to rain, we can find all houses with a gable roof, the term ‘gable’ typically refers to a triangle shaped spot formed when two pitched areas of the roof come together. In the north, most houses can be seen having a flat roof, people generally apply reflective paints on their roofs in the north to prevent themselves from the heat during summers.
Colour Combinations
Houses pan India can be seen having extremely different opinions in terms of their choices in colour. Indian house painting outside colors can vary from bright pink to sober whites depending on the region that you are in. The houses in the southern region seem to be fonder of vibrant colours whereas the houses in the northern region are mostly seen choosing white, yellow, or blue to paint their façade.
Storage Space
Most houses in the southern region invest in having a separate room for utilities and storage. It is built in and designed for during the initial phases of design and planning. Hence, people in the southern region do not generally invest in storage spaces separately.
In the north, it is not a common practice to have storage rooms built in the homes during the construction phase, due to which they feel the need to invest separately for storage spaces.
Flooring
Most houses in the northern region install Kota stones or Indian patent stones as their flooring. Houses located in cold regions can be seen having wooden flooring installed as they are made of natural products and can hold warmth better than any man-made laminates.
Installing Air Conditioners and Geysers
In the north having geysers and air conditioners installed during the construction is quite common practice as the northern region is more prone to extreme weather conditions. Almost all houses in the north can be seen having prior arrangements made for the same. Whereas in the south, since it is not prone to having cold winters and extremely hot summers, the majority of the houses do not have geysers and air conditioners pre-installed in them.
However, as time changes, we can now see that most houses both in the south and the north are having a modern approach and are opting for contemporary designs that are in line with their beliefs and design.