Murbad Temple

The tribal temples of this region have their turns once a couple of years to have a prayer at the temple. Preparing for the same, the villagers collectively give a facelift to the temple. This time, the villagers collected around Rs. 60,000 for this activity. The villagers approached Design Jatra asking how the fund could be best utilised. As a first step, the problems were identified. The roof was slightly shaky and it was at a lower level causing a heating issue.

Coincidentally students of the School of Environment and Architecture were also in residence, and together with them, we build a model and gave a presentation to the villagers. The suggestions made were to raise the height of the roof with the existing budget. This was to be done so that additional spaces could be created around the temple in continuation with the same roof, as and when the funds for the same were received. A lot of different activities could happen in these additional community spaces.

The villagers liked the idea. They collectively built a beautiful jaali wall and re-did the roof at a height. The temple is very personal to Pratik's family as the land for it comes from them, and it is donated to the village for all the village activities. One of the best parts of this whole exercise was that the design and planning were very participatory. The model of the temple extension was discussed with all the villagers and with their input, the execution of the project went ahead.