BEST NEW PUBLIC BUILDING

TEMPLE OF STEPS, INDIA, BY SAMEEP PADORA & ASSOCIATES

Reinvigorating the physical as well as the spiritual landscape around Nandyal, in Andhra Pradesh, this compelling Hindu temple combines modernity and tradition. When Mumbai-based architect Sameep Padora was commissioned to create a temple serving the residents of a number of local villages, his aim was to connect ‘the socio-cultural expectations of a temple with the ecological framework and dynamics of and around the site’. A nearby canal, previously used to irrigate the surrounding cotton and chilli fields, had dried up, so the architect set to work reintroducing water into the landscape, redirecting the overflow from neighbouring limestone quarries to form a pond. The temple’s volumes – two shrines and a lower-lying building housing more practical functions – nod to the traditional Indian ghat, a flight of steps leading down to water, while Padora also drew on a tenthcentury temple in the city of Tirupati. Black limestone slabs form the steps and surfaces, while the structure incorporates soil and planting, helping with cooling, and further connecting the temple with its setting. sp-arc.net. Photography: Edmund Sumner