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GN Heritage Matters, Mehsana (2026)

05/05/2021

The team loves: The Sun Temple, Modhera.
Located in the Mehsana District of Gujarat, this beautiful temple complex is dedicated to the Sun God. The earliest parts of the complex - the temple and the Kund - are dated to the early 11th century, while the Sabha Mandapa is dated to the latter half of the 12th century.

A fascinating feature of the temple is that it is said to be built on the Tropic of Cancer.

Image 1. View of the Kund and Sabha Mandapa.
Image 2. Several sculptures of the Sun God can be found on the walls.
Image 3. Every inch of the Sabha Mandapa is carved.
Image 4. Beautiful sculptural detail
Image 5. A birth frozen in time

Meet the team:
Akhila found her calling in architectural conservation when she realized during her architectural education that she felt no joy in designing new structures. She joined the Heritage Matters team in March 2016. Akhila is at her best when she is in historic structures and loves to peel the fabric of the structure to understand how it was put together during construction. Figuratively, of course.

05/05/2021

The team loves: Heritage in Europe.
Image 1. Prague Castle, Czech Republic – It was built in the 9th century and is the official office of the President of the Czech Republic. Prague Castle is the largest ancient castle in the world. The castle buildings represent many architectural styles of the last millennium. Most of the castle areas are open to tourists and are among the most visited tourist attractions in Prague.

Image 2. The Hungarian Parliament Building, Budapest, Hungary - A notable landmark of Hungary, and a popular tourist destination in Budapest, it has been the largest building in Hungary since its completion. Designed by an Hungarian architect in neo-Gothic style, the building is situated on Kossuth Square in the east side of the city, on the eastern bank of the Danube.

Image 3. Colosseum, Rome, Italy - Also known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, it is a large artifact or structure in the city of Rome. It is oval in shape and the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheater in the world today, despite its age. The Colosseum is built of travertine limestone, tuff and brick-faced concrete.

Meet the team:
Prajwal V. C. desires to share that monuments are not only civil structures but they are live examples that communicate culture, architecture and skill of people. He loves travelling and exploring new places. Prajwal joined GNHM in December 2020 as a project manager. He is slowly building his passion towards the heritage sector and trying to understand the marvelous, splendid, precision work done by our forefathers.

Photo Credits:

03/05/2021

The team loves: Rivers and living heritage along its course.
Image 1. Northern India - Haridwar: Documenting age-old ghats of this religious town. It is the place where River Ganga exits the Himalayan foothills and enters the Indo-Gangetic plains.

Image 2. Southern India - Hampi: Working on management of this world heritage site that is located along River Tungabhadra. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire in the 14th century and was known to be the world's second-largest medieval-era city after Beijing.

Image 3. England - York: Studying conservation in this ancient Roman city that nestles between Rivers Ouss and Foss. It is famous for its architectural fabric and is known to be the cultural heart of England.

About the team:
Apoorva D. Goyal believes that work needs to be passion driven and the love for her country is what drives her to conserve its invaluable heritage. She has been working as a Conservation Architect at GNHM since 2014 and her interests primarily include - heritage management and curation.

Photo Credit: .d.goyal

02/05/2021

The team loves: Raya Gopura, Melukote, Mandya district, Karnataka.
The Rayagopura is an unfinished temple probably built during the Vijaynagar empire. The pillared entrance is called as Gopalaraya entrance.

The monument has 4 symmetrical pillars with intricate carvings on them but no gopura and probably this is what makes this monument look stunningly different and famous.

The inner walls and pillars of this gopura are beautifully carved with sculptures of Vishnu, snake charmers, elephants and women standing on makara etc., which reveals the workmanship of those days.

Similar monuments and sculptures are found in Mahabalipuram and Madurai in Tamilnadu.

Meet the team:
Raksh*tha N. is a junior engineer with GNHM since Jan 2021. Her interests includes estimation, restoration and repair techniques of old heritage buildings, understanding old construction methodology and adapting new techniques in conservation.

01/05/2021

The team loves: Hyderabad British Residency.
The Hyderabad British Residency was built by James Achilles Kirkpatrick, when he was a British resident of Hyderabad between 1798 - 1805. The building with its classical portico is in the style of a Palladian villa. It features in William Dalrymple book ‘White Mughals’.
Durbar Hall — Decorated pressed paper ceiling contains 650 panels. The panels were nailed to the ceiling with great perfection with numbers and accurate measurements.

Image 1. Imaging goes beyond posterity as the Residency documentation project made us recognise the purpose such as the study and interpretation of the cultural and physical history of assemblies and their conservation with imaging. The experiments, explorations and knowledge developed from the documentation methodologies had its impact in our other projects as well.

Image 2. This image was taken in 2016, prior to the restoration work of the decorated pressed paper ceiling. This is a wide-angle shot (14mm), which showcases the state of the ceiling. Imaging, rather than an end in itself, becomes part of a methodology to answer initial questions and then combines other appropriate investigative technologies.

Image 3. Digital imaging is a subset of digital heritage, which was also the subject of a 2003 UNESCO charter. They are objects of conservation policies themselves. This image records the art of conservators restoring the damaged parts in the individual panels.

Image 4&5. Ortho image (scale rectified) of the decorated pressed paper ceiling, after restoration, was taken during November 2019. Visual and metric information plays a key role in ensuring that various stakeholders gain a clear understanding of the heritage value and character-defining elements of historic places as they speak the same language when communicating about it.

Meet the team:
Maniyarasan R. has been working as a visual documentation consultant. He teaches at CARE School of Architecture, Trichy. His PhD research focuses on architectural documentation as primary research. He loves exploring various visual documentation methodologies in architecture and conservation practice.

30/04/2021

The team loves: The Kalyani, Mysuru
A kalyani is a water body structure and this ancient kalyani featured here is located on the Mysore-Bannur road near Teresian college.

Built in the year 1815 by Mummadi Krishanaraja Wodeyar –III, this water body measures 100 ft in length, 100 ft in width and 36 ft in depth. The kalyani is enclosed in a compound wall with rich iconographic stucco figures and relief made from brick and finished with traditional lime mortar. The figures are highlighted with paint made from traditional natural colour prevalent in the period of Mysore’s Wodeyar dynasty.

There is a temple within the enclosure that is unique as there are three deities - Bramha, Vishnu and Shiva, known as the trimurthis’. However, its Shiva or Mahadeshwara, the main deity, that’s worshipped everyday.

Meet the team:
Anilkumar Halehatti V. is a conservation and costing engineer, who has been coordinating with a team of conservation architect professionals for various projects mostly in the Deccan region. His expertise lies in estimating costs and providing engineering solutions as per regulations of the universal conservation principal guidelines set by GNHM.

29/04/2021

The team loves: Gadodia market (Serai Bangash), Khari Baoli Street, Old Delhi.
1. Gadodia market – a lost Mughal Serai, is a bustling wholesale spice market at Khari Baoli in Old Delhi that boasts of a rich yet forgotten history. The Gadodia market, located to the west of the Fatehpuri Masjid Complex near the Lahori Gate, forms part of an active spice trade dating to the late Mughal period and early colonial period (according to the Map of Shahjahanabad, 1850 by Thomas Krafft).

2. Before being converted into a spice market, the Gadodia market was a Mughal caravanserai, known as Serai Banagash, an inn for travelers attached to the Masjid, established by Rabia Begam of the Bangash tribe in the 18th century.

3. It’s believed that the present day Gadodia market is built on the footprints of a serai named Serai Bangash. This is a fine example of dual-purpose development in a city as the Gadodia market was designed by Seth Laxmi Narayan Gadodia to be used both for commerce and for people to reside. Today it’s one of Asia's biggest spice markets.

Meet the team:
Lithish Wesley joined as an intern while studying for his masters program in 2018 and joined GNHM soon after post graduation considering his interest towards the value for heritage and its history. He is the happiest person while doing fieldwork, be it documentation, mapping and conservation or adaptive reuse. His interest lies in restoration methods and repair techniques at heritage structures.

29/04/2021

The team loves: Leh Palace in Leh, Ladakh
1. An ancient structure, perched atop Tsemo Hill in the Himalayas, Leh Palace stands as a mute testimony to the changing times. If palaces could have a soul, this place would have seen an evident change in Leh’s metamorphosis.

2. A former royal palace overlooking the town of Leh, constructed in circa 1600 by Sengge Namgyal also known as the ‘lion king’, is a great example of medieval Tibetian architecture.

3. The palace is nine storey high with elongated hallways and intricately carved wooden balconies. The entrance is decorated with wooden carved figurines, upper floors were used for royal residential purposes while the lower floors were utilised for storerooms and stables. Some interesting features of this palace include the Namgyal stupa, the mural filled Chandazik Gompa and the Chamba Lhakhang temple.

Meet the team:
Kruthika Chillara loves to learn about vernacular architecture of different countries and understand usage of different materials, their intangible heritage and how architecture has been evolved by each culture. She also enjoys travelling to lesser-known monuments in India. Her interests primarily include adaptive reuse, museology, abstract sketching, documentation and research.

Photo Credit:

27/04/2021

The team loves: Padmanabhapuram Palace, Kanyakumari, Tami Nadu.
The direct connection of common and private open spaces to the sky and earth, series of open, semi open and closed spaces, dynamic roof heights, play of light and darkness, human scale of micro spaces, display of local culture and craft through the biggest and smallest details - all contribute in making this complex vibrant and alive.

This does not feel like a non-living monument at any point of time during a visit. The roofs with bigger spans descend into delicate and humble scaled, well thought out details - like ornamental brackets, wooden screen of windows, wooden railings etc.

It’s almost impossible to grasp the scale and spread of this magnanimous complex in one visit, as you are so engrossed in absorbing what is in front of you. It also makes you understand how flexible traditional architecture is, as it allows extension and addition of different spaces and structures at different time periods as per requirements, eventually culminating in ultimate uniformity.

Have a look at the unique details of how rafters are fixed as per the slope and angle of the roof.

Meet the team:
Neeraj Kulkarni enjoys spending most of his time on the site working with the local masons and craft persons. It is the every day challenges that he comes across while restoring and conserving heritage buildings, is what excites him the most. Structural conservation, exploring and understanding old versus new techniques of construction, vernacular and traditional architecture, artwork repairs and new architecture in historic context are a few of his many interests. He has been part of the firm since December 2015.

27/04/2021

The team loves: Mattancherry Palace, Kochi, Kerala
1. The Mattancherry palace is a Portuguese palace popularly known as the Dutch palace, in Mattancherry, Kochi. The palace was built and gifted by the Portuguese to the king of Cochin around 1545.

2. The glory of the palace rests on a large number of murals, executed in the best traditions of Hindu temple art, which are religious, decorative, and stylized. The murals have been painted in rich warm colors in tempera technique.

3. The paintings are attributed to the artistic bent of mind of Veera Kerala Verma.

Meet the team:
Aswathi has been working as an architect with GNHM since 2016. She joined as an intern during her bachelors and rejoined GNHM’s team soon after her graduation. Her interests are sketching, documentation, adaptive reuse, designing and 3D modelling.

25/04/2021

The team loves: Kailasa Temple, Ellora
The Kailasa Temple is the most remarkable of all the cave temples. It was built in the reign of Dantidurga and Krishna I, between A.D 757 and 773, dedicated to lord Shiva. The architectural style of the temple tells that it is later than Papanatha temple at Pattadakal but earlier than the great Shiva temple of Virupaksha Deva.

The temple complex has scooped out freestanding forms carved out of a huge hillside, which stands as the epitome of rock-cut architecture in India.

The hierarchy of the plinth levels and the journey through collective spaces define the concept of separation between the materialistic and the spiritual worlds. The configuration of spaces in the volume and the kinetic movement within them provides a strong spatial perception to the patron throughout the entire journey.

Meet the team:
E. Yuva Naga Sreelekha has been working as an architect with GNHM since 2020. She is interested in studying concepts of traditional architecture, art conservation methods, history, researching and documenting.

25/04/2021

The team loves: The Wellesley Bridge in Srirangapatna.
1. The Wellesley bridge is a 200 year old road bridge across the river Kaveri at Srirangapatna.
(Pic 1 - Close up of the bridge spanning over the river Kaveri)

2. While constructing this bridge they used very simple engineering concept i.e., "All arches are subjected to only shear force and the bending movement every where is zero".
(Pic 2 - General View of the bridge)

3. The unique aspect of this bridge is in the plan - the bridge is arch shape, that’s the reason this bridge is still standing on the river Kaveri.
(Pic 3 - Detailed documentation made by Prajwal R.Y)

Meet the team:
Prajwal R.Y. is working as a junior engineer at GNHM since 2020. His keen interests are - site work, civil engineering related drawings, estimation and quantification.

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