Swaminarayan Hindu Temple, Birmingham

We were commissioned to design a temple in Birmingham for the Swaminarayan sect. Our brief was to design the footprint and volume of the Temple building, to be detailed by Temple architects in India. Additionally, we were to design ancillary buildings including the large prayer and community hall, the study rooms for religious teachings, together with rooms for visiting priests, communal areas, a library and bookshop, and a sports hall.

The Temple is metaphorically protected from the outside world by the contemporary buildings surrounding it. We selected Portland stone for the Temple while the other buildings were clad in modern materials. The views illustrate how the Temple was to be approached, down a ramped entrance from the street to the basement, gradually making the Temple grow in stature, disappearing on entry, and then seeing the detail as one re-emerged on the ground floor.