Source: www.bdonline.co.uk
UNITED KINGDOM, April 23, 2010: A British architect has been commissioned to design a Hindu temple in India in a style not used for more than 700 years. Adam Hardy, from Cardiff’s Welsh School of Architecture, believes he is the only person in the world with the knowledge to design in the style of the 12th century Hoysala dynasty. This particular complex and ornate style from the south died out seven centuries ago.
The client, the Shree Kalyana Venkateshwara Hoysala Art Foundation, lacked an architect able to design the temple until it discovered Hardy’s work. “An architectural tradition can be learnt,” said Hardy. “It can be passed down by masters, but if none are around it can be learnt and internalized from its products the surviving temples, in this case.”
The end result can be a building which evokes the splendor of intricately carved Hindu temples of the 12th century.
Hardy has studied Hindu temples for over 30 years, written two books on the subject and helped construct similar buildings in the UK. A leading authority on Indian temple architecture, he has been involved in temple design in the UK before but never had the chance to design an “ancient” temple that was not a replica. He described the new temple as roughly the size of a parish church 40m-high and within a 6,000sq. m. walled complex. It will be built on a granite outcrop at Venkatapura, about 60 miles from Bangalore, and hand-carved from grey soapstone.