Bhubaneswar: A 100-member delegation of 34th National Convention of the Indian Institute of Architects (IIA) Friday attended a special Ekamra Walks in Old Town area and studied the unique Kalinga architecture.
As professionals, the delegates were surprised to see the precision and perfection of the Kalinga craftsmanship in building such marvellous structures with various types of stones. The delegation visited the heritage sites in two groups.
Attending the heritage trip, Mukul Goyal, an architect from Jaipur in Rajasthan, said, “We were overwhelmed by the rich cultural tradition and especially the temple building style. The story of several deities and how the concept changed into community worship gave us more insights into Kalingan architecture.”
Goyal, who has widely travelled in the South East Asian destinations, said, “There is a marked change in appearance of lions at the temples. But design wise, Kalingan influence on the temple-building and carving of the statues in the Balinese structures were very distinctly visible, here.’’
IIA National Council member and well-known city-based architect Akshay Beuria said, “We have a rich tradition of temple architecture, which, through our maritime trade links, had also gone to faraway lands in the South East Asian nations. We thus wanted our IIA delegates to have glimpses of the craftsmanship and for this our heritage tour (Ekamra Walks) provided a nice platform.”
The IIA national convention, also known as `NATCON-2017’, began December 7 with the participation of over 800 architects from across the nation and overseas. The convention has come to Orissa once again after 24 years.
PNN
