You know, long before air conditioners became common, Indian architecture had its own solutions for dealing with extreme heat. You really know the real solution is jaali, made not only for design and beauty but also for comfort.
India has a 600-year-old traditional legacy, serving as a passive cooling system that uses basic aerodynamics and thermodynamics. Every house has a different type of jali now in this era. A well-designed jaali does more than decorate a wall. It softens harsh sunlight, encourages airflow, and provides privacy without completely closing a space off from the outdoors.
If you want to find jali samples and see how it looked in the old days, you can go to Rajasthan and visit the Hawa Mahal, which is the best example. Also, you can find some old houses in villages; there you can also find old jali.
Ancient India's jaali: The word "jaali" means "net," and it was a natural air conditioner. Jali was able to keep direct heat out of a building by creating many tiny holes in place of a large window.
We let you know that the best-known traditional jalis are made of sandstone or marble. However, depending on the region and the architectural style, they have also been made with terracotta, wood, and lime plaster depending on the region's areas and cultures.
In traditional jali, the holes were precisely the same size as the marble or sandstone used. Traditional examples of passive cooling in India, such as courtyards, jaalis, thick walls, and stepwells, like Rani ki Vav in Gujarat, are notable examples of India's passive cooling heritage.
Today, jali is available in various options. But long before air conditioners existed, Indian builders used jaalis to keep homes and palaces cooler during hot summers. Jali, it is an extremely well-designed form.
Today's jali idea came from traditional Indian architecture. You can see examples, like temples, forts, and havelis, all over India. It is traditionally made of stone or molded terracotta; they weren't mere decorative carvings but precisely perforated screens made to counteract India's warm climate.
Since the 16th–18th centuries, jaali (lattice screen) has been a distinctive architectural feature in India. Between 1631 and 1653, during the construction of the Taj Mahal in Agra, exquisitely carved jaalis created a harmonious interplay of solid and void, concave and convex forms, lines and curves, and light and shade.
One of the best-known examples is the Hawa Mahal, or “Palace of Winds,” built in 1799 in Jaipur by Rajput rulers. Its hundreds of small windows and lattice screens allowed air to circulate through the structure's design. These allowed cool air to circulate through the palace while maintaining privacy and reducing heat.
The Hawa Mahal in Jaipur was built in 1799. Its hundreds of small windows and lattice screens allowed air to circulate through the structure while helping residents remain unseen from the street below.
These lattice screens not only lend an artistic quality to buildings but also provide air circulation, shield from the sun, and offer privacy by screening what is inside. Architects are now revisiting the ancient design for environmentally friendly cooling in buildings with low carbon footprints. They take ideas from old-generation works.
At its core, jaalis are panels carved with floral or geometric patterns. They are precisely constructed openings that permit air and light to pass through in a controlled way. When the hot outside air penetrates through the tiny holes, it breaks down into multiple tiny streams. This also slows down the movement of the air and the intensity of heat entering, so the inside stays cool properly.
They support natural ventilation by allowing continuous airflow, particularly in hot regions. Cross-ventilation is promoted, with hot inside air escaping and relatively cooler air from shady areas moving inwards.
Solar heat is considerably reduced as the jali screens break direct sunlight into smaller bits, so the inside is neither too brightly lit nor too warm. The thick stone or terracotta material absorbs much of the heat, slowing down its transfer to the indoors.
They ensure privacy as well as openness; inside inhabitants can peep outside while still not being readily visible to people on the outside, which is quite important for private rooms and palaces.
In some cases, they complemented courtyards, water bodies, and shaded galleries to enable evaporative cooling. Warm air moving over water bodies or stones cools slightly before reaching the jali and subsequently entering the premises of the house, further helping to maintain coolness indoors.
Modern glass facade architecture
Over the past few decades, many buildings have abandoned climate-friendly features like jalis (lattice work) in favor of glass facades. Modern architecture, and specifically glass-facade buildings, adopts and uses a completely different style.
Though glass-facade buildings are elegant and stylish, they allow a lot of solar radiation to enter; in fact, glass often traps the heat. Warming up the indoors considerably, thereby making one heavily dependent on air conditioning.
This is where modern materials like WPC decorative grills find use. Although they do not offer a stone carving replica, they are similar in the design principles used. WPC grills add an extra layer to the facades, balconies, or window sections of buildings. Their perforated patterns not only block direct sunlight from entering but also minimize the heating effect on window surfaces or interiors.
They also facilitate the free passage of air due to their open pores, preventing stagnant hot air from building up around the edges of a building or window. Like jaalis, WPC grills also grant a good measure of privacy to the building occupants and are quite elegant-looking but require less maintenance than traditional jaalis.
In simple terms, you can say WPC grills are a more modern interpretation of the basic design of jaalis in ancient India. This concept combines pattern and design to reduce regular heat and light. Also, they provide natural ventilation in buildings. They work as a reminder that to stay cool naturally, you might simply need to recall some old traditions.
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