ISOLA contest winner to design Jaipal Reddy memorial

Hyderabad: Smruti Balvalli is the winner of the All India Memorial Landscape Design Competition organised by the Hyderabad-based S Jaipal Reddy Memorial Foundation in association with the Indian Society of Landscape Architects (ISOLA), which is a professional body of landscape architects in India.

Out of 60 plus landscape architects who participated in the contest, ISOLA picked up Smruti Balvalli's design as the best. She bagged Rs 3 lakh cash prize from the Foundation.

Smruti Balvalli is a freelancing landscape consultant and visiting faculty at RV College of Architecture in Bangalore. The award-winning design was unveiled on the eve of the 80th Birth Anniversary of S Jaipal Reddy to the guests who visited Spoorthi Sthal, a memorial of the departed leader located at PV Narasimha Rao Marg, on Necklace Road here.

It was unveiled by the memorial foundation in the presence of several prominent personalities.

It sought designs through the contest from landscape architect led design teams and sought proposals that demonstrate excellence in the role of landscape ideas and their interrelation in the design of the memorial named Spoorthi Sthal.

Hyderabad has memorials for PV Narsimha Rao, NT Rama Rao, former chief minister M Channa Reddy and others. The landscapes of all these memorials were developed by professionals working in government departments. Spoorthi Sthal is the first memorial among many in India, to organise a nationwide contest to choose a memorial landscape expert for its memorial.

According to the Foundation, the design suggested is likely to undergo some changes, however the core concepts and intent will remain unchanged. Once finalised, it will be implemented.