Childbirth room? It’s next to the period room … the astonishing Kerala homes designed for women’s bodies

The tharavad, a traditional housing style in Kerala, India, was designed around the needs and lives of women, with specific rooms allocated for childbirth and menstruation. These ancestral homes, often dating back to at least the 17th century, were central to the matrilineal Nair community. Historically, Nair men would leave home at age 12 to train as soldiers and often slept in separate outhouses, reinforcing the tharavad's role as a female-centric dwelling. The author embarked on a journey to find her own ancestral tharavad, Palayil, located in the village of Tholanur, where her great-grandmother, Palayil Sreedevi, was the last woman from her lineage to reside. This architectural and social structure, deeply rooted in the region's history and the Nair community's matrilineal traditions, is now facing a rapid decline. The tharavad represents a unique approach to domestic architecture that prioritized women's biological and social roles within the household and community.