Contemplative by design

A routine hiccup during many a devotee's prayers at temples is the paranoia that their shoes lying orphaned on crammed racks or in a pile by the door, susceptible to the roving eye of a joota chor (shoe thief). This might be remedied by Mumbai-based architect Sanjay Puri who has a contemporary design for the planned 200,000sqft ISKCON temple at Gandhinagar, Gujarat. You'll slip off your shoes at a 5,000sqft shoe area, from where a mechanised trolley will transport your pair to the exit point, leaving minimal scope for human contact and therefore, heist, says the principal architect of Sanjay Puri Architects.

This set-up is just a part of Puri's design for the temple that demarcates the peaceful sanctorium from all the peripheral activities devotees indulge in. So, rooms for prasadam (prasad-distribution), meditation, priest quarters, library, museum, memorabilia, free-meals restaurant and parking and footwear will thrive under a manicured lawn. Above, at the eye level, one will only see a central 100m stretch of the Adalaj-style baori (stepwell) lined on both sides with jaali (lattice) arcades that lead to the temple and its 40-feet high shikhara. “As at the Golden Temple, a long walk past a water body will calm your mind before you enter the shrine,” says Puri about his first temple project, which seeks to blend traditional elements into a largely contemporary edifice.

The temple is expected to attract upto 5,000 visitors on weekends and festivals. The site experiences high temperature, between 30-50 degrees celsius, for eight months of a year, Puri's design incorporates traditional layers to disperse the effect of the heat. So the ISKCON temple will have ornate jaalis, baoris and foliage to help maintain a cool environment.

The shikhara, pitched as the structural highlight, will comprise blocks of alternate solid and jaali panels, forming a pyramid as it soars to the sky. This set-up sees an interplay of jaali shadows and light in the sanctorium (garbhagriha), the space under the shikhara, which can accommodate a gathering of 800 around the deity, Krishna. Unlike most temples, the deity is not housed in a dark garbhagriha. “Here, the deity is in a place of natural light and contemplation,” says Puri.

The perforated arrangement extends to the underground rooms that will feature indoor plants and trees. “One won't feel as if he/she is underground because you will still be looking out at trees and will be able to see natural light streaming in from a jaali,” says Puri of his design that has already won the WA Award Cycle 24.