‘Team Ezha’ of School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi earns UNESCO honour for restoring Kerala temple Mandapam
Architects Swathi Subramanian, Savita Rajan and Ritu Sara Thomas were on cloud nine after they got to know that their project of restoring the 600-year-old temple mandapam has been bestowed with Unesco’s Asia Pacific award for cultural heritage conservation.
Their journey towards restoring heritage sites began when they formed ‘Team Ezha’ while studying in the School of Planning and Architecture in Delhi.
The trio of conservation architects was behind the restoration of the 600-year-old karnikara mandapam of the Kunnamangalam Bhagawati Temple through sustainable methods, which earned the UN body’s recognition.
Ezha mainly focuses on heritage conservation, documentation, heritage interpretation, and restoration of heritage structures and historic interiors.
According to Swathi, their first project was part of a national-level competition organised by the Indian Institute of Architects on the theme ‘reviving Kozhikode’. It aimed to revive the Comtrust factory building in Kozhikode.
“We were part of the entire revival process and were fortunate to get an award during the Young Architects Festival for our work. The project prompted us to continue our passion for restoring heritage buildings,” Swathi said.
Archival and Research Project (ARPO) invited Ezha to document and design restoration activities in karnikara mandapam.
They were approached by ARPO executive director Shruthin Lal with a daunting task of a tottering temple structure on the verge of collapsing.
Chasing the deadline to finish the work before the March festival, they started in January and followed the ‘Jeernotharna’ restoration technique. For this, they approached local masons and carpenters to make the temple’s architecture style.
“During the work, we used traditional building techniques. The biggest highlight was that the whole team behind the project including architects and temple committee members were women, not to mention the deity,” Savita said.
Presently they are entrusted with the task of documenting Sri Mahishamardini Temple in Kasaragod. Later, they will also be preparing a sustainable model for the restoration of the Kunnamangalam temple.
