We’re excited to share our involvement with the Pillaiyar Kovil Trust on their journey to establish a Hindu temple and cultural centre at 14 Hasketts Road, Templeton. Formed in 2021, the Trust is a registered charity with a vision to build the first non-affiliated Hindu temple in the South Island, offering a welcoming, open space for people from all walks of life, no matter their beliefs.
The Trust, led by five trustees and a board of 15 members from diverse backgrounds including India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Bangladesh, is supported by around 50 passionate volunteers who are working together to create something truly special. This temple will be a place for worship, reflection, and connection, but it’s also much more—a centre for learning, art, and community support, meant to foster unity among all who visit. The cultural centre will also serve as a hub for community gatherings, children’s groups, fitness activities, and cultural events, making it a versatile and vital community space.
Our work on this unique project included obtaining land use consent for a spiritual and community space, which included a detailed environmental effects assessment. We also offered traffic planning support to ensure the best carpark layout, along with an Integrated Transport Assessment (ITA) to support the resource consent application.
To streamline the process for our client, we collaborated with an architect and a civil engineer, ensuring every aspect was covered. Given the site’s location within the Rural Urban Fringe Zone, classified by Christchurch City Council as general rural land, we also engaged a local agricultural expert who completed a Highly Productive Land assessment to meet the requirements of the National Policy Statement for Highly Productive Land 2022. This assessment provided crucial insights that supported the consent decision.
Additionally, in order to address the unique aspects of this proposal, we provided a detailed explanation covering both the history of Hindu temples and the significance of their architectural design. Another challenge was justifying the religious significance of the temple’s size and height, while also addressing the potential impacts of the proposal’s scale of activity within the Rural-Urban Fringe Zone. Traditional Hindu temple structures are composed of multiple elements, each carrying deep spiritual and symbolic meaning. For example, the temples often feature towering structures, known as shikharas, which are highly symbolic within Hinduism, representing a sacred mountain that reaches toward the divine. This towering structure was actually the cause of one of the non-compliance issues we needed to address in our consent application, as it exceeded the permitted height limits for buildings within the Rural-Urban Fringe Zone. Given the cultural importance of this feature, we had to provide a thorough justification to help convey the architectural and religious significance of this design element while also considering effects on the environment and neighbouring properties.
We’re honoured that the Pillaiyar Kovil Trust entrusted Avanzar Consulting to help bring this vision to life. We’ve attached some early renderings of the beautiful space, and we can’t wait to see it completed and ready to welcome the community!
If you’re planning a similar project or looking for expert guidance on the development of your site, get in touch with us—we’d love to help you with your development aspirations!
