Saturday, February 27, 2010
Uttaramerur-updates - finished stuccos figures & stitching of granites!
Uttaramerur Kailasanathar temple restoration and renovation work progress news as on - Jan 2010
The renovation of Kailasanathar temple at Uttaramerur has started attracting press and public far and wide.
As on January 2010, all the stucco (limestone) figures and figurines have been completed on the vimana and few are given here in this link for you to see.
The same day, some important modern techniques were used to restore the heritage structure, thereby bridging modern techniques to save ancient marvels!
After a year full of research and consultations, testing and recording the stitching of granite using Stainless steel rods and proving their strength while being used as a stitching material along with a binder material made of epoxy, stones which lie below and the foundation level have been successfully retained without being rooted away, thus saving crores of rupees and time in removing all the stones used to build the temple! I.I.T Civil Engineering department Prof. Mathews and his PG research student Ms. Anupadma, and the company which provided the drilling and filling materials M/s.HILTI deserve our thanks and appreciation for their co-operation and services.
Cracks appearing at the bottom most part of the foundation, were 'stitched' using grooved Stainless rod thus the cracked granite stone is put back to a single repaired stone thus becoming integral using epoxy based grouting compound to bond the stainless steel rod with the granite core.
1) Drilling holes diagonally so that the hole passes through both halves of the broken granite...
2) After which the holes are cleaned to remove all the powdered granite chips and slurry
3) Then comes the pumping in of the epoxy putty grouting material
4) And the insertion of the grooved Stainless steel rod,
5) filling the holes with the same ground granite powder..
and ahoy..The crack is 'stitched'...
The renovation of Kailasanathar temple at Uttaramerur has started attracting press and public far and wide.
As on January 2010, all the stucco (limestone) figures and figurines have been completed on the vimana and few are given here in this link for you to see.
The same day, some important modern techniques were used to restore the heritage structure, thereby bridging modern techniques to save ancient marvels!
After a year full of research and consultations, testing and recording the stitching of granite using Stainless steel rods and proving their strength while being used as a stitching material along with a binder material made of epoxy, stones which lie below and the foundation level have been successfully retained without being rooted away, thus saving crores of rupees and time in removing all the stones used to build the temple! I.I.T Civil Engineering department Prof. Mathews and his PG research student Ms. Anupadma, and the company which provided the drilling and filling materials M/s.HILTI deserve our thanks and appreciation for their co-operation and services.
Cracks appearing at the bottom most part of the foundation, were 'stitched' using grooved Stainless rod thus the cracked granite stone is put back to a single repaired stone thus becoming integral using epoxy based grouting compound to bond the stainless steel rod with the granite core.
1) Drilling holes diagonally so that the hole passes through both halves of the broken granite...
2) After which the holes are cleaned to remove all the powdered granite chips and slurry3) Then comes the pumping in of the epoxy putty grouting material
5) filling the holes with the same ground granite powder..
and ahoy..The crack is 'stitched'...Labels: conserveheritage.org, Dantivarma Pallava temple, granite stitching, heritage conservation, Kailasanathar temple, Kalki. REACH FOUNDATION, temple renovation, Uttaramerur
Sunday, September 13, 2009
REACH in Kalki Magazine
Flickr or Picasa, or group file attachments, it is becoming difficult to share files as the limits are to less from either of the above sites. So, we are posting the article in jpeg form which mentions about the work of REACH and thanks to the editor and the reporter of Kalki Tamil Magazine for this good coverage. Small mis-quote is that the Varadaraja Perumal temple is more than 2000 years old and only the 100 pillar Mandapa is of Vijayanagar Period. The reporter had mentioned the temple itself as that of Vijayanagar period. Any way, thanks for the magazine to cover our story to reach more readers and join hands with us
Labels: heritage conservation, Kalki. REACH FOUNDATION, temple renovation
