Buildings

I wanted to photograph this scene, just off of Haddows Road, because it represents a) the range of architecture here; and b) the way things are all jumbled together.

The hut in the foreground, made of coconut palm fronds woven into mats, is a watchman's hut for a construction site. You can put one up in any empty space -- a river or canal bank, space left over at the end of a cul-de-sac, on the side of a road. Slums composed of these huts can spring up almost overnight.

The plastered-brick or cement block buildings in the middle are also very common, and represent most of what you actually see here.

There are lots of modern buildings like the one in the back -- Chennai has been undergoing a building boom in the last few years. But they still seem somewhat incongruous, or at least noticeable, because they are not the norm.

Here's an article with pictures of three houses which have been used as locations for popular local TV serials: a wealthy person's beach house, a traditional town house (very charming to me, though I don't know how it would be to live in it), and a prosperous middle-class house.