Cardiff University - Architectural reincarnation

An architectural scholar is to help build a Hindu temple in a style that has not been employed for hundreds of years. Adam Hardy, chair of the architectural history and theory group at Cardiff University's Welsh School of Architecture, has been commissioned to design a Hindu temple of a kind developed during the Hoysala dynasty, which ruled parts of South India from the 11th to the 14th century. The charity financing the project, the Shree Kalyana Venkateshwara Hoysala Art Foundation, was able to find Indian sculptors with the necessary expertise in carving the intricate design in soapstone, but needed to look further afield for an architect to lead the ornate temple's construction. Dr Hardy said: "This project is particularly exciting ... it is not a copy of a medieval temple that the clients are asking for, but a new creation coming out of that tradition." The structure will be built at Venkatapura in Karnataka.