Tracing Temples

It has long been speculated whether the architecture of ancient South and Southeast Asian temples owe their compositional characteristics to adherence to treatises, the interpretation of priest-architects or the usage of earlier examples as architectural models for later ones. The fragmented discontinuity of textual accounts, lack of graphical representations and heavily eroded early remains make the process of establishing the lineage of formal continuity difficult.

This research examines the extent to which South and Southeast Asian temple typologies can be related directly to Indic canons or historic architectural sequences using photo-based methods. Fragmentary evidence from diverse sources has been pieced together to create three dimensional reconstructions, the empirical ground to study linkages (or lack thereof) in the genesis and development of these temples. More precisely the research analyses how methods of recording influence and are influenced by interpretations, and the role of representation as an active constituent in the evolution of how these buildings can be understood in relation to historiography, conservation and reconstruction.

Outputs

Beynon, D. & Datta, S. (2021) ‘Architectonic Connections: virtual reconstruction to disseminate understanding of South and Southeast Asian temples’, Hawkins, S. [ed.] Access and Control in Digital Humanities, Routledge, UK.

Datta, S. & Beynon, D. (2019) ‘Scaffolds and Dissections: Computational Reconstruction of Indic Temples and their Architectural Production,’ Architectural Theory Review, 22:3, 410-432.

Beynon, D., Datta, S., Hollick, J. (2018) ‘Digitised Connections: Reflections on the image analysis and spatial modelling of Southeast Asian temples’ digital cultural heritage: FUTURE VISIONS, University of Queensland, Brisbane.

Datta, S. & Beynon, D. (2016) Digital Archetypes: Adaptations of Early Temple Architecture in South and Southeast Asia, Routledge (Ashgate), UK.

Beynon, D. & Datta, S. (2013) ‘The Construction Geometry of Early Javanese Temples’ in Open, Proceedingsof the 30^th Annual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australiaand New Zealand: 30, vol. 1, p 327-340.

Datta, S. & Beynon D. (2008) Compositional Connections: Temple Form in Early Southeast Asia, in History in Practice, the Twenty-Fifth Annual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand

Beynon, D. & Datta, S. (2007) Travelling Cultures in the First Millennium, in Panorama to Paradise: The Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, Napier, New Zealand

Datta, S. & Beynon, D. (2005) ‘A computational approach to the reconstruction of surface geometry from early temple superstructures,’ International Journal of Architectural Computing, 3/4, pp. 471-486.

Beynon, D. & Datta S. (2005) Celebrating the generation of architectural ideas: tracing the lineage of Southeast Asian temples, Celebration: proceedings of the 22^nd annual conference of the Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand, Napier, New Zealand.