The Vernacular Furniture of N.W. India

Vernacular furniture is used in the everyday life of people of a particular region or community. It is made by craftspeople using locally available materials. In a country like India, where the vernacular fabric changes every few hundred kilometres, a region’s architecture, interior architecture and furniture are excellent examples that reflect several social and cultural aspects of that particular region. Collectively, these elements provide a unique identity to a community or a region as a whole. Vernacular Furniture of North-West India is a collaborative research project conducted with the Design Innovation and Craft Resource Centre (DICRC), CRDF, CEPT University, Ahmedabad, India. Initiated in December 2015, the project aimed at identifying, mapping, documenting and studying vernacular furniture that has traditionally been, and continues to be an inherent part of the day-to-day life in an Indian household. North-West India covers the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana. The research was executed in three phases: Phase I: Gujarat, Phase II: Rajasthan, Phase III: Punjab and Haryana.  

A resource platform has been created, www.vernacularfurnitureofindia.com, where all the research is made available for public use. These resources and outputs are intended as a foundation for future research on vernacular furniture. If you have anything to share with us on the subject, please write in on our project email, vernacularfurnitureofindia@gmail.com