Lotus Temple Case Study: Petals, Shell Structure and Construction (Fariborz Sahba)

The Lotus Temple is the Bahá'í House of Worship in south Delhi, designed by Fariborz Sahba and dedicated on 24 December 1986. It is a reinforced concrete structure of 27 thin shells, the "petals", set in three rings of nine and clad in white Greek marble, over a central hall cooled by air drawn across nine pools. Below: the brief, site, geometry, plan, section, construction, climate strategy, reception and lessons, with MOA diagrams.

Lotus Temple: the facts

Architect: Fariborz Sahba (spelled Fariburz in many 1980s sources), who also managed the project. Structural engineers: Flint & Neill Partnership, London. Main contractor: Engineering Construction Corporation, the ECC Construction Group of Larsen & Toubro.

Client: the Bahá'í community of India; the Universal House of Justice approved the design on 3 August 1977.

Location: Bahapur, south Delhi, on land once part of Bahapur village.

Dates: foundation stone 17 October 1977; contract awarded April 1980; first concrete 30 July 1980; dedicated 24 December 1986; open to the public from 1 January 1987.

Type: a House of Worship with a central hall, plus a reception and administration block. Seating: 1,300 (The Bahá'í World, vol. 20); an earlier account gives about 1,200 seats with room for about 1,000 more in balconies. Site: about 26 acres (vol. 20); an earlier report gives 22 acres.

Status: in use as a place of worship and open to visitors of every background.

Lotus Temple architect and the brief

Sahba was invited to design the temple rather than winning a competition. In his own account in The Bahá'í World, volume 18, Dr Raḥmatu'lláh Muhájir suggested he prepare a design for India while Sahba was an associate architect on the Seat of the Universal House of Justice in Haifa. He had received his master's in architecture from Tehran University's School of Fine Arts in 1972, according to his website.

The brief, as the sources describe it:

A hall for worship open to all. Sahba's project page says people of all backgrounds are welcome. The hall has no images or pictures, as Ranjit Sabikhi noted in 1987.
New, but familiar. In Bahá'í News (June 1986), Sahba said he wanted something "new and unique, at the same time not foreign but familiar in a way."
Supporting buildings. An ancillary block with a reception centre, library and administration, and a toilet block. Sahba later designed an information centre for the site.

Site and context: a bowl cut into rock

Volume 18 describes a hilly site of about 92,000 square metres in five plots, once part of the village of Bahapur. To found the building, Sheriar Nooreyezdan reports, the builders carved a bowl about 150 m across and dug seven sets of nine pits in concentric circles for 63 columns and abutments. Hard rock was reached in every pit, some at thirty feet. About 6,000 cubic metres of rock came out without machines, carried away in head-loads. The building stands on a raised podium among lawns, so the petals are seen across open ground rather than from a street. For the materials ordinary houses in the city use, see our guide to building materials in Delhi NCR.

Concept: why a lotus

The lotus was Sahba's starting point: "I resolved to justify the lotus as a concept for the House of Worship," he writes in volume 18. Roger White, quoted on Sahba's project page, reads it as a flower of purity rising from murky water. Two ideas follow from it:

The number nine. As S. Naharoy of L&T's ECC group wrote in "The Flowering of a Faith" (Bahá'í News, 1986), "each component of the Temple is repeated nine times": nine entrances, nine arches, nine pools and three rings of nine petals.
A bud, half open. The innermost leaves stay partly closed with only their tips turned out, so the hall is roofed by a bud while the outer rings open around it. The top is open, covered by a glass and steel roof that lets in daylight.

For students, the point is that the image is not decoration on a box: the petals are structure, roof and walls at once.

Lotus Temple architecture plan: nine-fold rings

Read from the centre outwards, the plan is a set of rings, each divided into nine bays at 40 degree intervals (Naharoy):

Central hall. About 35 m across (volume 20; volume 18 gives 36 m), set below the walkway. Sabikhi describes "a circular space with seating facing a simple lectern."
Nine arches around the hall, carrying almost the whole superstructure.
Outer annular hall under the outer petals, from which nine entrances open.
Podium, walkways and pools. Nine pools, each about 500 square metres (volume 18), crossed by nine walkways, bridges and stairs.
Gardens on the rest of the site.

A basement under the podium holds the electrical and plumbing services, and Sabikhi notes that four of the pools were lowered to basement level to bring it light and air. He also found that the circular route pulls visitors round the edge, so the hall lacks a single focal point: the cost of a plan with no front and no axis.

Schematic plan of the Lotus Temple as concentric rings with nine-fold symmetry: a central hall about 35 m across ringed by nine dark arch blocks at 40 degree spacing, an outer annular hall with nine inward arrows for the entrances, a podium walkway ring, nine pools separated by walkways, and gardens outside; a key lists the three rings of nine petals above the plan: entrance leaves, outer leaves and inner leaves — Everything in the plan repeats nine times around the centre, from the arches to the entrances and pools. This shows the principle only, not the real layout. Diagram: MOA

Lotus Temple shell structure: three rings of petals

Every petal is a thin concrete shell, and each ring has its own shape and job. Figures are from Naharoy's 1986 article; the heights match volume 20.

Element	Role	Geometry	Size in sources
9 entrance leaves	Canopies over the entrances, opening outwards	Parts of spheres	18.2 m wide, 7.8 m high
9 outer leaves	Point inwards over the outer hall	Doubly curved shells	15.4 m wide, up to 22.5 m high; 135 mm thick at the bottom to 255 mm towards the tip
9 inner leaves	Close over the hall as a bud	Two toroidal surfaces per corrugation	34.3 m above the inner podium; up to 14 m wide; 200 mm thick
9 arches	Carry almost the whole load	Plane, conical and cylindrical surfaces	At 40 degree spacing

Sources differ on the outer leaves. Thomas Fisher in Progressive Architecture (June 1987) gives the inner leaves as "a uniform 7.8 inches thick", which matches 200 mm, and the outer leaves as 5 to 10 inches, but thickening from top to bottom, the opposite of the contractor's figures. Check the engineers' paper before drawing a wall section.

Inside the bud is a second structure. Three ribs spring from the crown of each arch, one running up to a central hub and two meeting the ribs of the neighbouring arches, with two layers of 60 mm shells between them up to a certain height. This interior dome rises about 28 m above the hall floor (volume 18). Near the top, nine radial beams brace the leaves and meet at a hub, sitting on a neoprene pad so that the dome can move with temperature and wind.

The engineers, Flint & Neill of London, had also worked on the Bahá'í temple in Panama. Volume 18 records that wind tunnel tests were run on a scale model and that structural drawings were checked in Geneva by Prof Hushmand Naimi. The full engineering account is A. R. Flint, D. I. Cooper and S. Naharoy, "The structural design and construction of two Bahá'í Houses of Worship", The Structural Engineer, March 1987.

Schematic half section of the Lotus Temple from the centre line outwards: the inner leaves rise to 34.3 m above the inner podium over a ribbed interior dome about 28 m above the hall floor, with a glass and steel roof and a fan chamber at the crown; nine arches stand at the edge of the central hall; the outer leaves rise to 22.5 m and the low entrance leaves open outwards; a basement for services lies under the podium and a pool lies outside; a dashed blue arrow shows air cooled over the pool, drawn in at low level, rising through the dome and out at the top — Three rings of thin shells sit on nine arches, and air cooled over the pools rises through the hall and leaves at the top. Heights and thicknesses are the ones the sources give; the rest is schematic. Diagram: MOA

Lotus Temple construction details

Turning a flower into numbers

Naharoy explains that every surface was defined as part of a sphere, cylinder, torus or cone, so that it could be written as equations, analysed and set out. The detailed drawings took more than two and a half years; Sahba's site says the working drawings were finished in his London office by 1979. Coordinates for each 40 degree segment were computed at IIT Madras, and the curves were set out with a one-second theodolite and stepped templates. Because the shape repeats nine times, one segment solved is nine solved.

Formwork and continuous pours

Staging. The inner formwork stood on a steel space frame of radial and circumferential members, covered by more than 150 drawings (Naharoy).
Climbing shutters. The outer formwork rose one row of panels at a time. Volume 19 says the team devised its own climbing shutter system because modern equipment was not available.
No cold joints. Each shell was poured in one continuous operation, up to 22 m high and lasting more than 48 hours (Naharoy), with about 300 people per pour (volume 19). Fisher called this "a much more traditional path" than the precast shells of Sydney.
Beating the heat. With air at up to 45°C, the concrete was kept below 30°C with ice in the mix and aggregate pre-cooled in air-cooled bins.

Volume 18 dates the first arch to 26 March 1982 and the ninth to 26 July 1982. A labour strike stopped work until 16 January 1984, and the last part of the superstructure, the roof of the fan chamber at the top, was concreted in December 1985 (volume 19). Workforce figures differ: about 800 workers and 40 engineers and supervisors (Naharoy, volume 20) against about 400 labourers in volume 19's report.

Lotus Temple construction materials

White concrete: white cement imported from Korea, dolomite aggregate from Alwar and white silica sand from Jaipur.
Galvanised steel: all reinforcement and binding wire, so rust could never stain the concrete; steel spacers replaced cover blocks on the inner face.
Exposed inner surface: no plaster or paint, just light brush-hammering. Sabikhi found it a "pleasantly sensuous surface".
Marble cladding: white marble from Mount Pentelikon in Greece. About 10,000 square metres was checked in Italy, where Marmi Vincenti cut the double-curved slabs using gypsum dummies and a full-scale model of the arches (volume 19). Each panel is bolted to the shell with stainless steel anchors, so it moves independently of the concrete. Full-scale mock-ups settled the joint pattern, which follows the lines of latitude and longitude of each sphere or torus.
Floors: white marble in the hall and on the steps; red sandstone on the outer walkways.

For how marble compares with Kota, granite and sandstone, see our natural stone guide.

Light, climate and services

The temple was designed to stay comfortable without air conditioning. Volume 18 describes the system: air is cooled over the pools and fountain sprays; the hall floor is lowered by three feet and the gaps between the steps act as louvres; warm air rises through the dome and escapes at the top, helped by impellers and expellers in the fan chamber; and the system can be reversed in winter. Smoke tests on a model checked the design.

Daylight enters through the glass roof at the top of the bud, so the dome is "translucent to the sky by day" (volume 19). At night, lights are concealed in the interior dome, and the outdoor lighting won a 1988 award from the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America.

Our reading: cooling over open water works best in Delhi's hot, dry months and less well in the humid monsoon. The sources publish no measured temperatures inside the hall.

The Lotus Temple seen from the podium walkway: white marble-clad petals in three rings, the low entrance leaves curling outwards at each side, larger leaves framing dark arched openings, and the inner leaves rising to a closed bud at the top, with marble joint lines tracing the curves; a line of visitors walks along the railing at the base under a cloudy sky — The three rings of petals in October 2019, seen from the podium walkway: the marble joint lines follow the curve of each shell. Photo: Shagil Kannur, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Reception: what critics and visitors said

Awards. Volume 20 lists the International Federation for Religious Art and Architecture (1987), the Institution of Structural Engineers in the UK (1988), the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (1988) and the American Concrete Institute (1990).
Progressive Architecture, 1987. Fisher set it against the Sydney Opera House and concluded that "high-tech concepts do not always demand high-tech solutions".
Architecture (AIA), 1987. Sabikhi credited a concrete structure built "on a scale never attempted before" in India, but found the marble joint lines "a disturbing element": "the best views of the temple are from a distance."
Visitors. Volume 20 counts more than 13 million visitors from December 1986 to April 1992. In The Caravan (2011), Shivam Vij called the interior "disappointingly unremarkable compared to its facade".
Weathering. In 1994 Down To Earth reported the marble peeling, blamed on dust and emissions. Sahba said it was meant to last a thousand years, and concluded the remedy was regular washing with water, monthly and after the rains.

What designers in India can take from it today

Our reading, from the sources above:

Rationalise the form before you build it. The petals look free but are spheres, tori, cones and cylinders, which is what let a 1980 team analyse them and set them out with a theodolite. Parametric tools make free forms easy to draw; the same discipline makes them buildable.
Plan concrete for Indian heat. 48-hour pours at 45°C worked because the team cooled the mix and kept a site laboratory. Any large summer pour in north India needs the same temperature plan.
Design the joints and the cleaning. The marble hangs on stainless anchors and its joints were tested at full scale, yet critics still noticed them. White stone in a polluted city needs a washing routine from day one: write it into the brief.
Use water and height for comfort. Pools where the air comes in, a low intake and a high outlet move air through a tall hall cheaply. They will not replace cooling in the monsoon, but they cut the load in the dry heat.

Documenting it for a studio? Our case study field checklist gives a sheet layout, and our thesis topics by typology lists public and religious buildings worth studying.

Visiting the Lotus Temple

The temple is open to visitors of every faith. Check the Plan a Visit page on the official site of the Bahá'í House of Worship, New Delhi, for days, hours and rules; we do not print timings here. For drawings, start with the 1986 Bahá'í News article and the engineers' 1987 paper; the diagrams in this post are MOA's own schematics.

Want an architect who can carry a bold idea through to how it is built? Find an architect on MOA.

FAQ

Who designed the Lotus Temple?

Fariborz Sahba, an Iranian-trained architect, designed it and managed its construction. Flint & Neill Partnership of London were the structural engineers, and the ECC Construction Group of Larsen & Toubro was the main contractor.

When was the Lotus Temple built?

The foundation stone was laid on 17 October 1977, construction started in 1980, and the temple was dedicated on 24 December 1986. It opened to the public on 1 January 1987.

What is the Lotus Temple made of?

Reinforced white concrete shells, made with white cement, dolomite aggregate and galvanised steel, clad outside in white marble from Mount Pentelikon in Greece fixed with stainless steel anchors. The walkways are red sandstone.

How many petals does the Lotus Temple have and how tall is it?

27 petals in three rings of nine: entrance leaves 7.8 m high, outer leaves up to 22.5 m and inner leaves rising 34.3 m above the inner podium. The interior dome is about 28 m above the hall floor.

How is the Lotus Temple kept cool?

Air is cooled over nine pools and fountains, enters at low level through gaps between the hall steps, rises through the dome and leaves at the top, with fans to help. It was designed to avoid air conditioning.

Sources

Bahá'í News No. 663, June 1986, S. Naharoy: "The Flowering of a Faith" and an interview with Fariburz Sahba, via Bahaiworks (accessed 4 Nov 2026)
The Bahá'í World, volume 18 (1979 to 1983): The Institution of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, with articles by F. Sahba and Sheriar Nooreyezdan, via Bahaiworks (accessed 4 Nov 2026)
The Bahá'í World, volume 19 (1983 to 1986): The Institution of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, via Bahaiworks (accessed 4 Nov 2026)
The Bahá'í World, volume 20 (1986 to 1992): The Institution of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, via Bahaiworks (accessed 4 Nov 2026)
Universal House of Justice: Plans for the dedication of the Mother Temple of the Indian Subcontinent, New Delhi, 24 February 1986, via Bahaiworks (accessed 4 Nov 2026)
Fariborz Sahba: Bahá'í House of Worship, New Delhi and project management, The Architecture of Fariborz Sahba (accessed 4 Nov 2026)
Progressive Architecture, Thomas Fisher: "A Second Sydney", June 1987, via Internet Archive (accessed 4 Nov 2026)
Architecture (American Institute of Architects), Ranjit Sabikhi: "Temple like 'a lotus bud, its petals slowly unfolding'", September 1987, pp. 72 to 74, via Internet Archive (accessed 4 Nov 2026)
Down To Earth: Tainted dream, 31 March 1994 (accessed 4 Nov 2026)
The Caravan, Shivam Vij: Peeling back the petals, 1 November 2011 (accessed 4 Nov 2026)
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of India: Bahá'í House of Worship, New Delhi: Plan a Visit (official site)
A. R. Flint, D. I. Cooper and S. Naharoy: "The structural design and construction of two Bahá'í Houses of Worship", The Structural Engineer 65A(3), March 1987, Institution of Structural Engineers (cited for reference; the full paper is behind the institution's site)