Pavapuri Guest House

Pavapuri, India has grown into a large religious campus containing temples, prayer halls and residential facilities. With its rapid development a new religious guest house is built by Matharoo Associates, it stayed true to its spiritual roots while providing pilgrims with comfort. Jainism is a religion that has approximately 4.2 million followers in India; most of its customs include living in the wilderness devoid of all encumbrances s such as clothes, abstaining from any physical contact, fasting for more than 100 days, walking barefoot for distances exceeding 1000 miles and plucking each strand of hair from their head to remain bald. The design of the guest house needs to express these intangibles through the paradoxical creation of a void, the core beliefs such as extreme nonviolence, absolute renouncement, strict solitude and severe austerity are represented in the building. There are 24 rooms in the guest house, each self-sufficient having its own services and circulation. The modules are tied together by an elevated walkway bathed in light from above through the translucent roof, locally available materials are used such as the Nimbada stones. To keep with the essential tenants of Janism, a 100mm wide separation is retained between all the elements of the composition.

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