Jayakrishnan Vu
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Sept 6: Buildings in the Unit I and Unit II markets in the capital city, whose design and construction was originally inspired by the city’s rich heritage of Buddhist and Jain architecture, now struggle to preserve those marks of history. Heritage conservationists and urban planners have urged immediate measures to be taken to preserve the unique architectural symbolism embedded in these buildings.
Both municipal authorities and shop owners have made irreparable damages to these buildings’ architectural elements by altering their unique designs, symbols and structures over the past decades by conducting renovations without any proper consultation.
“The pressures of change brought about by a market-oriented culture have pushed these modern symbols from Orissa’s rich heritage into the backburners of the city landscape today in an unfortunate manner,” said Piyush Rout, an eminent urban planner who has studied the changes effected in and around the buildings in the Unit I and Unit II markets in the city.
Several parts of the market buildings, currently hidden from view behind large billboards for consumer products, bear design elements and motifs from the cave-temple architectural styles of the Buddhist and Jain era, said Rout.
“Bhubaneswar’s original town planner and eminent German architect Otto Konigsberger had used the cave-temple design style in 1955 for design of these buildings. The design elements were inspired by the Buddhist and Jain architecture styles of the Khandagiri and Udayagiri caves. Konigsberger had envisaged the market buildings as a part of the city centre,” said Rout to Orissa POST.
He said the original design of the buildings, made in 1948, aimed at recreating the feel of the Jain and Hindu temple architecture with elaborate use of the tall pillars, red bricks, decorative symbols such as betel leaves and lotus still present in many buildings. These motifs were unique to the Jain and Buddhist styles and Konigsberger used them in these buildings as a way to keep Orissa’s rich architectural heritage alive.
Elevated steps were used in these building, taking a leaf out of the cave-temple architecture, to create the feel of one entering a dark cave. The presence of a number of ventilators ensured circulation of cool air in the buildings even during scorching summers, said architects.
“Unfortunately, Konigsberger’s original plan for the city was never followed completely, except in the construction of the main market and the existing Unit I police station,” said INTACH’s Orissa chief co-coordinator Anil Dhir.