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Temple of Work, Banaras

Part 2 Project 2009
Dhaval Malesha
Rachana Sansad Mumbai | India
The thesis is primarily an attempt at addressing the ubiquitous contradiction between the traditional Indian philosophy with the contemporary lives in Indian cities. It is an exploration of an architectural language in the present time that can exist in equilibrium with the dense historical fabric of Banaras in particular.

TEMPLE OF WORK

Banaras is known to be the city of temples. Temples, from earlier times, have been recognized as holy and sacred but above all proved to be public spaces of unbiased character. Such places of worship unifies, base lines and dissolves individuals into a harmonious ‘whole’.

God, religion and beliefs support our existence and commerce helps us survive. Negligence of either is impossible. Thus commerce or simply put as ‘work’ is analogous to religion. However the immense focus on religion and rituals in Banaras fails to see the dominance of the religious face masking the sharp defects in the commercial sector of the city.


The economic sector is the back bone for successful functioning of any system and strengthening it automatically grips everything else in place. The study of the economic setup layered in Banaras thus brought the idea of re-structuring a system in prime position, to revive its existence and help redevelop a major part of the city associated with it. To mark the presence of the economical face of Banaras, it needed to exhibit itself to be co-existent with the city and not as an underlay.
A workplace like a ‘temple’, houses people of parallel merits together, unconditioned by their background, race, religion, caste…

Hence a TEMPLE OF WORK where people would be provided with a platform to celebrate their merits as well as to be a part of the celebration.

Dhaval Malesha

2009
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