The Building of a Modern India

 

The Bahá’í House of Worship, popularly Lotus Temple, was designed by Iranian architect Fariborz Sahba and completed in 1986. The international governing body of the Bahá’í community selected Sahba to design the temple in 1976; he worked on it for 10 years.

In accordance with Bahá’í scripture, the temple is circular, with nine sides that comprise 27 ‘leaves’ (Grecian marble-clad, free-standing concrete slabs) organised in groups of three on each side. The leaves are classified into three: Entrance leaves, outer leaves and inner leaves. There are nine entrance leaves on each side; the outer leaves serve as the roof to ancillary spaces; the inner leaves approach, but do not meet at, the tip of the worship space and are capped with a glass and steel skylight.