PRASADA

Consultancy

Shri Venkateshwara Temple of the United Kingdom, Oldbury

This project, the first purpose-built south Indian temple in Britain, was granted £3.3 million by the Millennium Commission, and the first phase is now complete. PRASADA was architectural consultant throughout the early stages of design. An ordering principle for the site is the pattern of concentric enclosures seen in the 'temple cities' of south India, though here most of the 'walls' will be landscaping features incorporating paths and changes of level. The 800 square metre main temple, set against 'ghats' descending to a small lake, will constitute the central 'courtyard', roofed over, with the towers of shrines within appearing above, surrounded by roof lights, through which they will be visible from inside the building.

Shree Krishna Temple, West Bromwich

Initial designs for this temple were produced by Adam Hardy with graduate students from the Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture, in a project that was a forerunner of the approach followed in the Collaborative Design Project of PRASADA's MA in South Asian Arts.

Adam Hardy (1993). "Architectural History and Ways of Seeing" in Architecture + Design, vol. 10 (No 4), July-Aug. 1993, pp 20-25. New Delhi.
Adam Hardy (1993). "Architectural History and Ways of Seeing" in Hardy, Adam with Teymur, Necdet (ed.) (1997). Architectural History and the Studio, pp. 187-207. London: ?tion Press. ISBN 0-946160-05-8.
Adam Hardy (1996). "A Tale of Two Temples", Architecture + Design, vol. 8 (No 4), July-Aug. 1996, pp 72-77. New Delhi.

Temple of the Vedic Planetarium, Mayapur, West Bengal

Through a series of commissions, PRASADA has been asked to advise on the elevational treatment of this ambitious ISCKON temple project. (Drawing by Adam Hardy)

Multi-faith Prayer Room at Leicester Royal Infirmary

In 1997 PRASADA was commissioned to design a multi-faith prayer room at the Leicester Royal Infirmary, to provide the hospital with a place of prayer/contemplation/meditation/spiritual replenishment for people of various faiths, both patients and visitors. The brief was to convert an internal store room. An anteroom, with washing cubicles, would lead to a principal space with a 'side chapel'. In the main space, eight columns would define an octagonal 'building within a building', where a raised ceiling, the largest of four such elements, would form a kind of three-dimensional yantra. The aim of the design was to achieve an architectural imagery that would be widely evocative - archetypal even. Symbolic resonance would be achieved through painting and clay ornament, some of which - although the project was never built - was made by students from the Leicester School of Architecure.

Adam Hardy (1997). "Religious Architecture and the Creative Process", Architecture + Design, vol. 14 (No 6), Nov.-Dec. 1997. New Delhi.

Consultancy to Birmingham City Council for regeneration of Sparkbrook

The Ladypool Road area of Sparkbrook in Birmingham is renowned for its 'Balti' restaurants. Balti, of Kashmiri origin, has become Birmingham's national dish. An improvement programme for the area is being carried out, funded partly by the European Regional Development Fund, under its URBAN programme. PRASADA first prepared design ideas for a public consultation exercise, followed by a report for Birmingham City Council on 'imagery and identity' for the area. Based on the theme of 'playful pavilions' proposals ranged from buildings and architectural elements to graphics, including the design of a logo. Most recently, PRASADA was commissioned to design street furniture and paving patterns.

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, London

A feasibility study for the expansion and refurbishment of the Bhavan, one of Britain's principal centres for Indian culture, was carried out by PRASADA in 1999.

Temple and Community Centre for Hindu Cultural Trust Centre, Hounslow

PRASADA has been the architect for this temple complex, for which the foundation stone-laying ceremony took place on 19 November 2000. Entrance and ancillary facilities will be in a separate pavilion at the front of the building, with steps leading up to the temple itself, which sits over a partly sunken community hall, treated as a podium. As in traditional Hindu temple architecture, each element, whether functional or ornamental, is seen as a microcosm of the whole. Typified in the complex form of the copper-clad spires, the whole is seen as a combination of shrines and images of shrines, giving a unity which runs from the scale of the building itself to the miniature scale of ornament and detail. A strategy has been developed for the continuing enrichment of the building through works of art and craftsmanship, inside and outside.

Mural at Leicester Haymarket Theatre

The foyer of Leicester's Haymarket Theatre now has as its centrepiece a mural created by students from PRASADA, inaugurated by the Lord Mayor of Leicester in September 1999.

Heramb Arjunwadkar, Neeti Gupta and Dipti Khera (architects), with Sudip Ray (sculptor and painter), did the mural as their 'Collaborative Design' for the MA course in South Asian Arts. Entitled 'Parampara', meaning an ever evolving tradition in the Indian arts, the work was commissioned by NATAK, the Haymarket's Asian theatre initiative. The story depicted in the mural, on one level at least, is that of Asians 'who made their courageous journey across three continents to arrive and make a new life in Leicester.'

Mughal pavilion in Small Heath Park, Birmingham (BBC)

PRASADA was invited by the BBC to take part in the creation of a "Moghul Garden" in Small Heath Park Birmingham, for Charlie Dimmock's TV programme "Charlie's Garden Army". Students from the PRASADA MA course worked with Adam Hardy on the design and decoration of three pavilions, and appeared in the programme when it was broadcast in August 2000. The main pavilion stood on the central axis of the garden, as its focal point: unfortunately it was burnt down by arsonists on November 4th. A related project in Birmingham has been PRASADA's designs for street furniture and paving in the "balti zone" of Sparkbrook, for the City Council.

Temple, Cambridge: conversion of former library hall

An Indian community in Cambridge is converting an Edwardian former library building into a community centre for use by the Asian community as a whole. Hindu shrines are to be installed at one end of the main hall. Designs have been produced by PRASADA using the vehicle of the 2001-2002 MA Collaborative Design Project, and it is hoped that in due course PRASADA will be involved in making and ornamenting the shrines.