架构师提供的文本描述。众所周知，印度新德里的巴哈伊宫被称为莲花寺，是伊朗建筑师法里伯兹·萨哈巴(Fariborz Sahba)设计并于1986年完工的礼拜所。

Text description provided by the architects. Popularly known as the Lotus Temple, the Bahá'í House of Worship in New Delhi, India is a house of worship that was designed by Iranian architect Fariborz Sahba and completed in 1986.  

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图片来源：clindstedt-http://www.flickr.com/photos/cu2nite

这座寺庙是世界上八座巴哈教礼拜场所之一，自建成以来已接待了7，000万名游客，成为世界上最常光顾的建筑地标之一。从宗派的角度来看，莲花寺对所有从业者开放，不分宗教信仰，更多的是作为一个对感兴趣的游客进行礼拜聚会的场所。

The temple is one of eight Bahá'í House of Worship facilities in the world and has welcomed over 70 million visitors since its completion, making it one of the most frequented architectural landmarks in the world.  From a denominational standpoint, the Lotus temple is open to all practitioners regardless of religious affiliation and functions more as a gathering place of worship to interested visitors.

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由viewfinderview拍摄的照片-http://www.flickr.com/photos/viewfinderview

乍一看，印度次大陆的母庙和乔恩·乌森的悉尼歌剧院有明显的相似之处-按照巴哈伊经的规定，莲花寺是由27片“树叶”(大理石覆盖的独立混凝土板)组成的九面圆形结构，这座寺庙的九面由三人一组成。这座建筑受到莲花的启发，可以说是当代建筑中最明显的生物模仿实例之一。

On first glance, there are notable similarities between the Mother Temple of the Indian subcontinent and Jorn Utzon’s Sydney Opera House --- in keeping with Bahá'í scripture, the Lotus temple is organized as a nine-sided circular structure that is comprised of twenty-seven “leaves” (marble-clad free-standing concrete slabs), organized in groups of three on each of the temple’s nine sides.  The structure is inspired by the lotus flower and is arguably one of the most visible instances of biomimicry in contemporary architecture.

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由dinudey-http://www.flickr.com/photos/dinudey/拍摄

上述“叶”是空间组织的组成部分，分为入口叶、外叶和内叶三大类。入口叶(共九叶)划分为综合体九面的入口处。外叶作为附属空间的屋顶，辅之以构成主崇拜空间的内叶。这些内叶接近，但在崇拜空间的顶端不相会，并有一个戏剧性的玻璃和钢天窗。

The aforementioned “leaves” are integral to the organization of the space and are classified into three categories: entrance leaves, outer leaves, and inner leaves.  The entrance leaves (nine in total), demarcate the entrance on each of the nine sides of the complex.  The outer leaves serves as the roof to the ancillary spaces, complemented by the inners leaves which form the main worship space.  These inner leaves approach, but do not meet at the tip of the worship space and are capped with a dramatic glass and steel skylight. 

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图片来源：富藤-杜莎蜡像馆-http://www.flickr.com/photos/38461777@N05

这座寺庙主要是用混凝土建造的，用希腊大理石覆盖，使莲花寺的白色外观变得纯净，而结构的内部则以真正的表现主义方式展现出来，而预制的肋形屋顶则暴露在崇拜空间中。

The temple is constructed primarily of concrete and clad in Grecian marble, resulting in the Lotus Temple’s pristine white exterior while the interior of the structure is revealed in true Expressionist fashion, with the precast ribbed roof exposed in the worship spaces.

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阿迪布·罗伊-http://www.flickr.com/photos/manunited/摄

这座建筑几乎完全由私人捐款提供资金，坐落在一片26英亩的壮丽景观上，其中包括当地的素食和围绕着寺庙的一系列池塘。莲花寺和萨巴恰当地获得了多个国际设计奖，其中包括结构工程师学会(1987年)颁发的杰出奖项，北美照明工程学会特别引文(1988年)，被中国建筑学会指定为100部标准作品之一(2000年)，维也纳环球艺术学院授予建筑师奖(2000年)。

Funded almost entirely by private donations, the structure is sited on a magnificent 26-acre landscape including native vegation and a series of nine ponds surrounding the temple.  Appropriately, the Lotus Temple and Sahba have been the recipient of multiple international design awards, included an award in excellence from the Instituation of Structural Engineers (1987), a special citation from the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (1988), designation as one of 100 canonical works by the Architectural Society of China (2000), and an architect award from the GlobArt Academy in Vienna (2000).  

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阿迪布·罗伊-http://www.flickr.com/photos/manunited/摄

有2500名从业人员，这一开创性的建筑作品装备精良，足以成为未来几年的全球建筑杰作。

With a capacity of 2,500 practitioners, this seminal architectural work is well-equipped to be a global architectural masterpiece for years to come.