Stories from a CNC factory in Ahmedabad

Abstract

Around 1997, the temple making industry of western India witnessed a fundamental shift in production processes, brought about by digital modes of drawing and fabrication. This involved not only adjusting everyday working practices to the new technologies but adjusting the technologies themselves. This article is concerned with the design and making of the Shree Krishna temple in West Bromwich, United Kingdom in a CNC factory in Ahmedabad, India. Through accounts of a hereditary temple architect, a clay modeler and a software engineer it shows how digital modes of production have not only altered architectural labour in fundamental ways, but also created new understandings of improvisation, pragmatics and relations with historical artefacts. The article complicates commonly held dichotomies between “craft and automation”, and between “tradition and technology” by bringing to the fore new problems as well as creative interventions of a range of actors, producing new forms of expertise, qualities, and affects.

Keywords

• digital fabrication
• cnc machines
• indian temple architecture
• sompura
• craft