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Due respect for the old

Karl Damschen, a German, is passionate about restoring buildings to their old glory. He tells TANYA ABRAHAM how he does this in Kerala

MASTER RESTORER Karl Damschen and his wife Annaleis

Growing up in the industrial town of Gelsenkirchen in Germany, clouded with dust and soot from coal mines there, a young man set out on his canoe, plying through the waters of lakes and seas in search of something new: Travel sparked by a love for beauty, a journey that led to places and countries different. One such journey, in 1977, brought this engineer-cum-architect Karl Damschen and his wife Annaleis to the shores of Kerala, to Kochi. Karl and Annaleis made Kochi their home in 1981.

They came to Kerala for the first time in 1977 as a part of a year-long journey to Asia. Traversing countries in a caravan that Karl created from an old school bus, they began from Berne into Italy, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Maldives.

But Kochi really took his fancy. For this expert on restoration of old buildings, Kochi was a treasure trove of architectural heritage, waiting to be restored to their former glory.

Wrong elements

"Kochi is a part of history with very high value, but unfortunately buildings are being modified and elements added that never belonged here in the first place. Once we lose the authenticity of it, the place will lose its grandeur."

Not only was Karl a part of the World Monument Fund project that restored the Jewish Clock Tower in Mattancherry, he was involved in rebuilding Brunton Boatyard drawing inspiration from the buildings in Fort Kochi and the Old Harbour Hotel. With years of experience in restoration of chalets in the Alps and old structures in Berne, Switzerland, the workmanship and craft available in Kerala does not cease to amaze him.

For, he says, "I was taken aback by the level of talent of the `ashaaris' here in Kerala. It is something so special, I must, say world class." While on a project to redesign and to constructSurya Samudra Beach Garden Resort in Kovalam, Karl explains he came across numerous `illams' that were being taken apart for the wood. "To me this was sacrilegious. Especially when I saw the kind of skill that had gone into their making. We do not see such precision elsewhere, not even in Europe, and today, if we have to preconceive the making of it, especially the ceiling, it can only be done on a computer."

Karl explains that these old wooden homes were often brought down because of lack of practicality, "so I realised with a few modifications it is possible to use them. What I did was to add sockets made of bricks under the side walls giving sufficient height to the rooms. Old Kerala homes have two foundations, the first for the basement and the other, the load bearing foundation, that holds the wooden pillars or wooden walls. The sockets were added to the second foundation, thus increasing the height of the walls from the floor by 40 cms."

Tackling leakages

And as for laterite houses, he adds, it is most important to protect them from the rain. The simplest thing to do is to add a very high quality rexene sheet under the reaper and tiles. This will prevent any water from seeping through the tiles, that is the primary cause of all destruction. Once the monsoons are over, the damaged tiles can be replaced or sections of the house repaired.

He continues, that even if these houses are not used as homes, "it is vital to turn them into projects that will preserve tradition." In fact, according to Karl, it is more expensive to bring down an old home and build a new concrete house with the same architectural quality. This would mean added costs for construction, air-conditioning units with high electricity bills and repair of water-leakage.

"It is, however, very important that old buildings are always re-plastered with lime-plaster only, and thereafter a lime-wash (cheaper than plastic emulsion paint), which will allow the walls to breathe as humidity would thus pass through." Something he learnt during the restoration of the Jewish Clock Tower in 2003, where, after an intense research on the subject and input from his experience in Europe, came to the right mixture of limewater. He adds, "traditionally, the binder used was said to be either jaggery or the slime of a local fish, none of which worked, till tests proved that a little white cement into the lime plaster works best."

Right ambience

Karl, however, goes on to explain that restoration is not just about preservation, but also maintaining the ambience that exists in a place through restoration. For instance, the work that he did for Brunton Boatyard that took upon itself the style and image of buildings that already existed in Fort Kochi.

He believes it is vital to bring back what has been lost, peeling off years of modern additions to Fort Kochi's true beauty, something he hopes to do for this old town, another contribution to his large list: All this from a journey that began long ago in search of things beautiful while canoeing in Europe.

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