At a time when the practice of urban heritage conservation has seen a paradigm shift to ‘beautification’, the meticulous restoration of St John the Baptist Church by Mumbai-based Vikas Dilawari Architects resurfaces the need for patronage in conservation.
In 1995, Vikas Dilawari Architects was among the first to break ground in restoring historic building interiors in India with the American Express Bank in Fort, Mumbai. For the past 26 years, Dilawari has been conserving some of Mumbai’s grandest structures, resisting complacent approaches and focusing on dignified restoration of a formidable architecture. The recently restored St John the Baptist Church in Thane presents a unique case in the holistic conservation of cultural heritage. Built in late 16th century – an era when Renaissance was reinvented with dynamism and grandeur, and the architecture of the Church strived for divine absolution.
Possibly the only surviving Baroque-style Church in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, the church clearly holds unparalleled historical and architectural significance.
An informed study of sites from a similar time period in India established that the church had a Portuguese influence- a hidden doorway, floral motifs gilded with gold, coffered stone concealed under an existing teak-wood vault and beautiful baroque carving on a door masked with hundreds of coats of oil paint were among the incidental findings. The roof, the main wooden altar and side altars were the few intact elements. After thorough inspection and clearances from the Archdiocese, and Heritage and Finance Committees, a proposal was prepared for approval from Thana Heritage Conservation Committee. The architect and his team commenced work in early 2014.
Balancing between conservation techniques and revival of craftsmanship, the approach arbitrates a mutual exchange of social capital between community, practitioners, and craftsmen.
In an attempt to salvage as much of the original and to undertake repairs only wherever necessary, the main challenge posed was the refurbishment of the church to a historically appropriate state within the limitations of past ad-hoc alterations. A specialised team undertook the restoration of the lime-plastered walls, marble flooring, and wooden coffered ceiling to its original state.
The work of Vikas Dilawari Architects presents a critique of the pedagogical models for design education, maneuvering complexities in sustaining the built as opposed to building anew.
Patronage for commissions in the past has enabled the architects to conserve the less prominent structures that are part of the quotidian fabric of the city. The restoration of St John the Baptist Church and its historic building interiors is foregrounded in the understanding that these structures are constructed with finesse, positioned seemingly well in a planned urban scheme or sometimes just organically fit in. Beyond the physical attributes of the architecture, townscape, roof-scape, mass and scale, it is the conjoined quality of a space and its cultural integrity that reaffirms the significance of heritage structures to a continued way of life ⊗
VIKAS DILAWARI ARCHITECTS is a firm of dedicated professionals offering consultancy in the field of Architecture, Conservation, Heritage Management and Urban design for the past twenty-six years. The firm’s work has been awarded 12 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Preservation in South East Asia. The firm has successfully worked on a varied range of projects from historic homes, palaces, residential buildings, educational buildings, hostels, churches, dharamshalas, museums, banks, fountains and hospitals. Several of their projects have received national as well as international recognition.
This project was executed with active participation from the then Parish Priest, Bishop Allwyn D’Silva, the Parish Committee of St John the Baptist Church and the Church Finance Committee.
