Bengal Tigers

ARCHITECTONICS / Architectural Survey Bengal Tigers et back from the chaos of a major road in of Chittagong with its terraced facade Text central Dhaka is a low-slung 1950s pavilion that mimics the surrounding hills, and Kee Foong Sthat attracts little interest from passers-by. Jahangirnagar University with its striking Tere is no grand entrance and the concrete geometric shapes wrapped around a large lake. and corrugated-brick pavilion, home to the Moreover, contrary to popular criticism of University of Dhaka’s Faculty of Fine Arts, is modernist architecture, Islam’s buildings are hidden among the park-like grounds. Yet it is highly contextual and considerate of climate an architectural treasure — Bangladesh’s frst and landscape. modernist building — designed by Muzharul Islam, the nation’s most feted architect. Well- Te country can also thank Islam for its preserved and still in use today, the building architectural jewel. Invited to design the and its surrounds host students in breezy National Parliament House, he demurred, classrooms fanked by a wall of windows or recommending instead that an internationally under wide verandas and shady trees, where renowned architect be appointed. When Alvar they sketch and paint. Aalto and Le Corbusier declined (Corbusier was busy completing his master plan for the A few minutes’ walk away, another of Islam’s Indian city of Chandigarh), Louis Kahn, buildings — the university’s library — was who had taught Islam, was commissioned. completed around the same time. Extensive Commenced in 1961 when Bangladesh had renovations have, however, detracted from the yet to achieve statehood and taking more than airiness of its original design, though visitors 20 years to build, the result is a 20th-century can still admire the double-height reading masterpiece. room, hairpin ramp and vaulted rooftop. A vast lawn, stepped plaza and lake separate Islam, who studied in the United States the parliament from the entrance gate, and before returning to Bangladesh, believed the monumental scale of the complex is not that architecture, activism and politics were immediately apparent. Once inside, visitors intertwined. It was a turbulent time in what are shepherded through a maze of towering was then East Pakistan, following the end corridors to a soaring atrium — a futuristic of British rule and before independence. Te mini-city complete with street lamps and architect embraced modernism as a conscious recessed walkways. rejection of the ‘stigmatised architecture of the colonial West or the fossilised and sometimes Abstract geometric shapes cut into concrete socially repressive practices of tradition’, walls show of Kahn’s mastery of light and Facing page explains Kazi Khaleed Ashraf of the Bengal shadow. Te centrepiece Parliament Chamber The brick-fnned Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and is a magnifcent hall crowned by a parabolic facade of the University of Settlements. shell roof 35 metres above, showering the space Dhaka Library, in natural light. During the day, one can see designed by Not only was Islam a pioneer of modern clearly inside, even with the lights from the Muzharul Islam — a pioneering fgure architecture in South Asia, he believed that suspended web of chandeliers switched of. in the modern architecture could and should serve the architecture people. According to Ashraf, Islam ‘saw and Tough sadly of limits to the public except movement throughout South participated in advancing architecture as a through a tedious visitor application process, Asia nation-building enterprise’. His standout the complex is an immense source of pride Image by Randhir projects were public, including the University for Bangladeshis, an international icon in Singh 200 ARCHITECTONICS / Architectural Survey an unlikely city. To Ashraf, it represents a ‘restoration of a sacral or inefable dimension in architecture’. While there is no single Bangladeshi aesthetic, architects and planners have had to tackle common problems. As part of the world’s largest delta, much of the country’s landscape is defned by water, with severe monsoons, cyclones and fooding a harsh reality. Extreme poverty, population density and limited budgets compound the challenges. Two recipients in the most recent award cycle of the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture (who coincidentally had previously worked together on Dhaka’s Independence Museum before going their own ways) won for projects in Bangladesh, and the infuences of Kahn and Islam are visible in their works. Marina Tabassum’s Bait Ur Rouf mosque in Dhaka is a squat brick block minus the domes and minarets associated with the type, and doubles as a community centre. Sunlight pierces the dim room through perforated brickwork, while air shafts help cool the space, which sits on a raised foundation to reduce food risk. In rural Gaibandha District, Kashef Mahboob Chowdhury’s Friendship Centre is an open-air training and education complex partly inspired by the nearby ruins of Buddhist monasteries but with modernist lines. Te centre, built on lowlands within a food zone, is protected by embankments and a clever drainage system. Here, as in many of Bangladesh’s most signifcant buildings, brick is integral to the structure. While the international reach of modernism is strong in Bangladesh, it might be surprising to learn that, according to Ashraf, Bangladesh plays a conversely important role in the broader narrative of architectural modernism. Bungalows, so common throughout America, Australia and Asia, are derived from rural Bengali huts. And it was through Kahn’s Bangladesh’s National Parliament House designed by Louis Kahn Parliament Building that ‘the maligned topics is the country’s crown architectural jewel, and played a crucial of spirituality and landscape orientation in role during its nation building period. The complex has since mainstream architectural discourse’ have seen become an internationally championed icon of extraordinary modernist architecture a resurgence. Image courtesy of Forgemind ArchiMedia/Flickr (facing page, top) Images by Naquib Hossain (facing page, bottom and this page) 202 203 This page Facing page Two recent recipients of the prestigious The Bait Ur Rouf mosque in Dhaka by Aga Khan Award for Architecture Marina Tabassum is a squat brick block are projects from Bangladesh, where minus the domes and minarets typically the infuences of Islam and Kahn are associated with mosques, and doubles plainly visible. Here, the Friendship as a community centre. Sunlight pierces Centre in rural Chowdhury by Kashef the dim room through perforated Mahboob exhibits modernist lines brickwork, while air shafts help cool supported by an underlying structure of the space reinforced concrete Images courtesy of Rajesh Vora / Aga Khan Award for Architecture 204 205.

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