Why we need the thinnai

As our cities continue to grow and we plan new neighbourhoods, can we strive to bring in a connect at the street level?

When I walk through the residential streets of Chennai today, one thing that strikes me is the disconnect between the buildings and the streets in front. Each plot is inward oriented, closed off by compound walls that cut out physical as well as visual access from outside.

Looking back in time at older neighbourhoods, residential streets were spaces filled with activities, connecting individual houses and where the boundary between the ‘private’ and ‘public’ blurred. In fact, in cramped towns and cities the streets were spaces where social activities occurred.

Social gatherings

The ‘thinnai’ was one architectural feature that provided the much-needed connect between the home and the street, a transition between the public and private spaces that invited people to stop by for a conversation as they passed by. Evening social gatherings of neighbours was a common occurrence at a thinnai. Such a space also offered the resident a shaded area to sit and unobtrusively observe streetside activities.

Unfortunately, in today’s dense urban development, the architecture has shifted from a social pattern that was inclusive of the local community to being more isolated and dependent on privacy, leaving no time (or spaces) for community social interaction at the street level. Streets and roads have become isolated and lifeless, meant only for vehicles to pass by, limiting our interaction across socio-economic strata.

During the last two years of the pandemic, there were two factors that were starkly missing as we had no other choice other than to be shut indoors — a connect to nature and a connect to people.

A tree and a bench