17th century Pune temple gets UNESCO award

The result – it has been recognised with an ‘Honourable Mention’ in the 2015 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation.

The prestigious UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation programme recognises the efforts of private individuals and organisations that have successfully restored and conserved structures and buildings of heritage value in the region.

Altogether, 36 projects were received from 12 countries across the Asia-Pacific region. Out of the 36 projects, 12 projects won awards in different categories, namely: Awards of Excellence, Awards of Distinction, Awards of Merit, Honourable Mention and Award for New Design in Heritage Contexts. The jury included eight international conservation experts.

The restoration work was carried out jointly by city-based firm Behance, Rohan Builders and Chandrashekhar Babhale, temple trustee and priest. While the entry for the UNESCO awards was sent in March this year, the awardees were informed about the awards September 1.

Prior to the restoration work, the temple, informs Kalamdani, was in urgent need of structural consolidation and internal repairs to counter the corrosive effects of weather, usage, general deterioration over time and insensitive additions and alterations done over the past few years.

“Since it is an old temple, it was in a dilapidated condition with many problems from leaking roof to broken walls. Given its historic importance, we used traditional carpentry and masonry building techniques and materials to not only preserve its dilapidated elements but also maintain its authenticity,” said Kiran Kalamdani, city-based architect and partner at Behance.

He further shares that the temple was earlier renovated by Jijamata, the mother of Chhatrapati Shivaji in the early 17th century.

The restoration work was carried out in parts at ‘gabhara’ (inner sanctum), ‘mandap’ (outer pavilion), ‘sabhamandap’ (assembly pavilion), ‘shikhar’ (roof) and the main entrance gateway.

The temple complex covers 887 sq m ground area. At the gateway, the decayed and damaged brick wall was dismantled and rebuilt in stone. The door was repaired as per detailed drawings for the gateway.

On the other hand, at the pavilion, exterior brick walls were replaced with teak wood railing on a stone base up to 7 feet high. The brick wall, which was not a part of the original temple was later built asa security element for the temple sabhamandap.

“Replacing the brick wall with the railing not only improved light, ventilation and partial privacy but also enhanced to a great extent the visual transparency and spatial continuity,” said Kalamdani, adding that in the outer pavilion, the brick walls were removed and replaced by teak wood grilles.

The oil paint used over the original stonework and woodwork was removed carefully without damaging the surfaces.

The flooring in the Mandap, which was polished marble stone, was removed to reveal the underlying basalt stone. Sensitive partial replacement work was required for the inner sanctum.

When the enamel paint used over the original stonework and woodwork was removed carefully without damaging the surfaces, many structural defects like leakage, flaking in the stonework and wood work were revealed and were rectified with minimal intervention.

For the removal of paint from the exterior walls, an experimental technique was conducted using fine garnet powder under controlled compression of a jet, he added.