5. September - October 2010

ARCHITECTURE
The Tara Gaon Hostel
During 1971, the chairwoman of
Nepal Women’s Organization was
planning to build a small village with
little bungalows for foreign visitors,
preferably young researchers or
artists who were staying several
weeks or months in the valley for
professional reasons. Carl Pruscha
convinced her to choose a special
house type for temporary usage
which became the standard unit
for the Taragaon Hostel in Boudha,
Kathamndu.
As a result, a central small plaza was
created with the cluster of 16 small
units grouped around a communal
building, for which the brick vault
commonly used for pilgrims’ lodging was selected instead of the
pitched roofs commonly found in the valley. The building was
constructed outside of the large stupa of Boudha, one of the most
important centres of the northern Lamaism.
Be it Taragaon hostel or CEDA, in most of the buildings he designed
during his stay in Nepal, Pruscha was continuously experimenting
to evolve a new form of architecture using bricks. Gradually, he was
successful to prove that it was truly possible to build traditional and
modern both at the same time.
All these projects, for which he did not charge any fees as an
architect, were actually not part of his obligations to the United
Nations. But for him, they were important examples to demonstrate
practically what he was to talk and propose as the adviser in
physical planning.
Later, he was also asked by the Government to
prepare a plan for the development of Lumbini.
But after visiting Lumbini, he realized that it
was still an untouched site almost unchanged
since the days of Buddha. It was a place of
such sacredness that he felt overburdened to
touch it. Thus, he requested UNESCO to ask the
architect Kenzo Tange, whom he knew from his
studies at Harvard to serve as their consultant.
Tange visited the site and invited him to join his
planning team in Tokyo, where both of them
collaborated for several months. Unfortunately
none of the proposals became implemented.
Thanks to Pruscha, apart from his own
contributions to Nepal he also proposed many
personalities of outstanding reputation like
Sekler, Tange, Kahn, Zielinsky, who otherwise
would not have been put in the position to
contribute in Nepal.
Beyond Himalayan Vernacular
After spending about ten years in Nepal, Carl went
back to Vienna where he served his following
ten years teaching architecture at the Academy
of fine arts. Another twelve years he served
as the Rector of the University of Arts. Upon
retirement, he was invited by the Getty Institute
in Los Angeles as a head of Studio for Habitat,
Environment and Conservation research scholar
to spend six months there. The outcome of this
research was the publication titled as ‘Himalayan
Vernacular’. He is also an honorary member of the
Senate of the Academy of fine arts, an honorary
professor of the Technical University, Vienna and
the chairman of the Austrian committee of the
arts.
“More than any of the other arts, Architecture
is place-specific. This is why Nepal has been so
crucial in the development of Carl Pruscha...Like
birds that migrate every winter from Siberia to
North India, and then back again, some instinct
brought him out to Kathmandu. There he came
to life. Perhaps it was because he was young and
full of creative energy, but somehow his work
in Nepal is truly extraordinary, producing in his
architecture a sequence of brooding monumental
images, as mythic and enigmatic as the
Himalayan ranges that lie all around.” mentions
Charles Correa in the book ‘Himalayan Vernacular’.
Pruscha’s contributions in Nepal were more like
the telescope of Greuber. They gave Nepal, a new
vision to see beyond its existing boundaries.
It was a fresh new beginning for the country
to understand and appreciate what a planned
regional development can do for a nation.
Tara Gaon Hostel Master Plan
www.spacesnepal.com 38
September-October 2010