KVPT’s Patan Darbar Earthquake Response Campaign - Work to Date - September 2016

established that the building is one of the rare examples
of a major temple whose core structure appears to be surviving
original construction. Having withstood the 1833
and 1934 earthquakes, the core structure with its large
scale timber frame has already served the building wel;
based on its structural viability and venerable age, the
temple is all the more worthy as a model project.
Char Narayan Temple:
Strategic rebuilding of Newar architecture’s iconic
multi-tiered temple
While the Vishveshvara Temple is a model and an extension
of previous retrofit projects, it seemed most important
after the devastation of 2015 to also identify
a high-profile project for the rebuilding of a collapsed
multi-tiered temple, in order to bring our experience to
bear on the opportunities and challenges that would be
unique to the rebuilding assignment. The selection of
the Char Narayan temple as a model project was rather
straightforward, as it was both the earliest remaining
Malla-era multi-tiered temple in Patan Darbar Square,
and had collapsed down to its plinth in the 2015 earthquake.
In our rebuilding project, the exquisite carved
timber elements of the temple, some of which are structural,
were almost all salvaged, are being restored, and
will be reused.
This significant rebuilding project, which the Trust
announced just weeks after the earthquake to create an
atmosphere of hope, exemplifies seismic strategies and
techniques to address many of the problems typical to
the iconic multi-tiered temple type, with its characteristic
top-heavy structure and classic Newar construction
details. Notably, because of the building’s collapse and
necessary rebuilding, we have the opportunity - and the
obligation - to strengthen the foundation. Here, in contrast
to in situ repair schemes such as the Vishveshvara
design and the many retrofits we have executed over
the years, we are working to develop a strategic design,
ideally more cost-efficient and effective than difficult
retrofits. An improved foundation structure is the one
strengthening measure that can unify or tie together the
structure from the foundation up. Including the foundation
is an imperative that must become part of our
de facto approach to this type. The significance of this
approach in particular as a model is that it will be applicable
to a large number of similar buildings. It is also
an important example because so few rebuilding projects
have been executed in the past.
Similar is the nearby Harishankara temple, another collapsed
multi-tiered temple, whose historic elements were
rescued and whose reconstruction is envisaged as part
Char Narayana Temple before (left)
and after (right) the earthquake of
25 April 2015.
Photographs by Rohit Ranjitkar, 2013
and April 27, 2015
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