What We Lost When We Lost the Veranda |
Understanding Loneliness
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Transitional spaces allow low-intensity social belonging and connection without demanding full participation.
Need for such transitional or "in-between" spaces is a near-universal design wisdom developed across cultures.
Modern design valued efficiency, privacy, and speed over shared social space, removing transitional areas.
Reimagining architecture means designing for human connection, not just maximizing square footage.
This post is written by Sarah Rezaei, Sr. Research Assistant, Department of Psychology, Monk Prayogshala, Mumbai, India, and Ar. Komal Chokshi, Design Consultant specialized in Neuro-architecture, Founder of Kolab Studios, Ahmedabad, India.
There is a particular quality of afternoon light that belongs only to a baramda (veranda). It catches the steam from a cup of chai, lands on a worn charpoy, and finds someone's grandmother watching the street from above, not for any reason, just to be present. A neighbour passes and slows. A few words are exchanged. These are not the kinds of moments that seem important, but over time, they become familiar. Someone notices when the chair is empty. Someone wonders where you were yesterday. And yet, something quietly essential is happening.
Such spaces regulate the nervous system in ways modern environments rarely do. Human beings are not designed for either total isolation or relentless stimulation; we function best within gentle gradients of social and sensory exposure. A baramda (veranda) creates precisely this condition. It allows someone to remain partially connected to the world without demanding full participation in it. From there, the mind absorbs passing sounds, shifting light, fragments of conversation, footsteps on the street, and the movement of ordinary life. Sociologists sometimes describe this as a form of low-intensity social belonging: the quiet reassurance that one exists within a living social fabric, even in moments of solitude. The veranda did not merely connect the house to the street architecturally; it connected the individual to the surrounding rhythm of community life emotionally and psychologically.
In dense traditional neighbourhoods, the veranda functioned almost like an external nervous system for the home.........