ARCHITECTURE+ARCHITECTURE+DESIGNMAY 2 0 1 5

A N I N D I A N J O U R N A L O F A R C H I T E C T U R EA N I N D I A N J O U R N A L O F A R C H I T E C T U R E

VOLUME 32 ISSUE 5

architecture for divinityarchitecture for divinity

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15 ABOUT THE ISSUE

18 REFLECTIONS

20 UPDATES

ARCHITECTURE FOR DIVINITY28 Explorations in emotive, engaging and

experiential space making...

Yatin Pandya36 Incorporating Curvilinear Forms

Botta Cripta, Bergamo, Italy

Gianluca Gelmini, Bergamo, Italy42 Minimalistic Design

Shiv Temple, Pune, Maharashtra

Sameep Padora & Associates, Mumbai46 Breaking Rigid Boundaries

Sancaklar Mosque, Buyukçekmece, Istanbul

Emre Arolat Architects, Istanbul, Turkey

54 Functionally, religious centres have expanded…

Narendra Dengle60 A Spiritual Setting

Mhasoba Mandir, Kharawade, Pune

Narendra Dengle and Associates, Pune66 The White Church

Parish Church of Solace, Cordoba, Spain

Vicens + Ramos, Madrid, Spain72 Sacred Space

Universal Prayer Hall, Gurgaon, Haryana

Sikka Associates Architects, New Delhi74 A Community Church

Community Church Knarvik, Hordaland, Norway

Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter, Oslo, Norway80 The Meditation Hall

Meditation Hall, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, New Delhi

Design Consortium, New Delhi90 Centre for Inner Growth

Dhyanalinga Yogic Temple, Coimbatore

Isha Yoga Centre, Coimbatore96 The Role of the Hindu Temple for the North

Indian Community in Surrey, Vancouver

Niranjan Garde

100 EXPLORING DESIGNDesign in Ceramics

108 RESEARCHReclamation of Kunds on Govardhan Hill, Braj

Amita Sinha

116 PRODUCTS

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ARCHITECTURE+DESIGN MMay 2015 43

Minimalistic Design

Project: Shiv Temple, Pune, MaharashtraArchitects: Sameep Padora & Associates, Mumbai

SITE PLAN

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TEMPLE VIEW

1. CORBELED STONE (SHIKHARA)2. INNER SANCTUM THRESHOLD3. BASALT STONE WALLS4. APPROACH

Designed in dialogue with the priest and the people fromsurrounding villages, the temple design was acollaborative effort. Built through ‘Shramdaan’ (self-

build) by the villagers, this temple was constructed on ashoestring budget using local basalt stone as a primary buildingblock, because of its availability from a quarry within 200mfrom the temple site. The stone’s patina seems to confer age, asif the temple had always existed before inhabitation.

In realising the temple design in close consultation withthe temple priest and the villagers, the architects attemptedto sieve out thorough discussion and sketched the decorativecomponents from the symbolic. Adhering to the planninglogic of traditional temple architecture, the form of thetemple chosen evokes in memory, the traditional shikharatemple silhouette. Only embellishments integral to theessence of temple architecture in memory, actually appearin the finished temple.

The heavy foliage of trees along the site edge demarcate anoutdoor room, which become the traditional ‘mandapa’(pillared hall), a room with trees as walls and sky the roof. The

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Breaking Rigid Boundaries...

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ARCHITECTURE+DESIGN MMay 2015 47

Project: Sancaklar Mosque, Buyukçekmece, IstanbulArchitects: Emre Arolat Architects, Istanbul, Turkey

Sancaklar Mosque located in Buyukçekmece, a suburbanneighbourhood in the outskirts of Istanbul, aims toaddress the fundamental issues of designing a mosque by

distancing itself from the current architectural discussions basedon form and focusing solely on the essence of religious space.

The project site is located in a prairie landscape that isseparated from the surrounding suburban gated communities

by a busy highway. The high walls surrounding the park onthe upper courtyard of the mosque depict a clear boundarybetween the chaotic outer world and the serene atmosphereof the public park. The long canopy stretching out from thepark becomes the only architectural element visible from theoutside. The building is located below this canopy and can beaccessed from a path from the upper courtyard through the

MMay 20155 ARCHITECTURE+DESIGN54

Religious architecture would encompass manytypologies that include buildings for worship,places of deities, places associated with rituals

from birth to death, even commercial places that sellmaterial employed during rituals, places ofpilgrimages, dharamshalas, ashrams, monasteries andnunneries, places for meditation and retreat, andrelated residential buildings, treasuries, undergroundcellars, water bodies, strong geographical contextssuch as hills, rivers, the oceans, forests et al. There areindividual worshipping places, as well as, campusesthat hold many other facilities like eateries, libraries,

book shops, craft centres, chanting halls, assemblies,etc. The scope of the topic is vast; hence this essayattempts to discuss issues that mark the course ofcontemporary architecture related to religious places.

The fact that religious architecture has‘contemporised’ means that there have beendepartures in: Concepts of religion and rituals; thespread of the religion to distant places from that of itsorigin and to other social-environmental contexts; andthe methods of perceiving form and constructing themvarying from those in the past.

Departure and deviation from orthodoxy in religion

Architecture for Divinity

By Narendra Dengle

Luce Memorial Chapel, Tunghai University, Taiwan, by I M Pei Photo credit: Narendra Dengle

functionally, religious centres have expanded,based on their own visions of the utility ofreligion in day-to-day life...