A Newsletter from Bengal Institute for Architecture Landscpe and Settlements
March 2016 Published by
Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements
Edited by: Mohammad Tauheed Designed by: Irteza Ameen Sketch on the cover by: Farasha Zaman
A Newsletter from Bengal Institute for Architecture Landscapes and Settlements
Bengal Centre Plot 2, Civil Aviation, Khilkhet, Dhaka - 1229, Bangladesh Phone: +8809666773311 Email: info@arch.bengal.institute, Web: www.arch.bengal.institute
Credits and copyright information of most photographs, art / design work are mentioned on the individual pages. Uncredited photographs are taken by Faisal Huda, Mizanur Rahman Khoka, Mohammad Tauheed and Bengal Institute’s participants of the Academic Programs.
Administrative Team
Executive Board
Advisory Board
Kazi Khaleed Ashraf Director General Luva Nahid Choudhury Director Administrative Marina Tabassum Director Academic Saif Ul Haque Director, Research Program Sameen Elahi Chief Coordinator Mohammad Tauheed Academic Coordinator Masudul Islam Research Coordinator Rashed Hassan Chowdhury Design and Communications Coordinator Tazrin Ahmed Research Associate Nur-e-Dipa Shamima Muttaqi Ananya Research Associate Redwan Bashar Research Associate Faisal Huda Academic Associate Fatiha Polin Research Associate Mohammad Arfar Razi Research Associate
Chairperson
Chairperson
Abul Khair Chairman, Bengal Foundation
Sir Fazle Hasan Abed Chairman, BRAC
Members
Members
Jalal Ahmad Principal Architect, J.A. Architects Ltd. Salauddin Ahmed Principal Architect, Atelier Robin Architects Kazi Khaleed Ashraf Director General, Bengal Institute, and Professor, University of Hawaii Rafiq Azam Principal Architect, Shatotto Belal E. Baaquie Professor, National University of Singapore Luva Nahid Choudhury Director General, Bengal Foundation Principal Architect, Abashan Upodeshta Ltd. Kashef Mahbub Chowdhury Principal Architect, URBANA Iqbal Habib Architect-Director, Vitti Sthapati Brindo Ltd. Saif Ul Haque Principal Architect, Saif Ul Haque Sthapati Nahas Khalil Principal Architect, ARC Architectural Consultants ASM Shahidullah Khan Chairman, Editorial Board, New Age Ehsan Khan Principal Architect, Ehsan Khan Architects Marina Tabassum Principal Architect, Marina Tabassum Architects
Anisuzzaman Professor Emeritus, Dhaka University Balkrishna Doshi Architect, Ahmedabad Kenneth Frampton Professor, Columbia University, New York Gary Hack Dean Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Rounaq Jahan Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue Suha Ozkan Architect and Architectural Historian, Bodrum/Istanbul Michael Sorkin Architect and professor, City University, New York Stanley Tigerman Architect, Chicago Shamsul Wares Dean and Professor, University of Asia Pacific, Dhaka
Issue 01 Fall Sequence 2015 Second Edition, March 2016 First Edition, February 2016
Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements A major part of the furious urban and infrastructural expansion in Bangladesh is unplanned, and much of it is a threat to the future of our environment and wellbeing. The tremendous speed and pressure of urbanisation is affecting our villages, small towns and megacities alike. To cope with this change and to be prepared for rapid urbanisation and climate-change, we need a group of people who are educated and trained about urban futures, landscape arrangements and global environmental phenomena. Bangladesh needs a locally established, global institute to produce a new group of thinkers who can take on the responsibility of researching and designing to shape the environmental future of the country. Bengal Institute is working towards developing thinkers and practitioners with a new ‘design intelligence,’ who are trained by an international lineup of faculty. The Institute is also initiating design and research activities to study existing situations, and produce ideas about future planning of our cities, landscapes and settlements. The Chairman of Bengal Foundation, Abul Khair, believes in the future prospects of Bangladesh, and that the design of landscapes and cities will bring about an effective change in realising those prospects. In alignment with the vision of Muzharul Islam, the pioneer modern architect of Bangladesh, Bengal Institute is a beginning effort towards the idea of designing and planning every inch of
the country. Kazi Khaleed Ashraf, Director General of the Institute, explains: “Dhaka is the toughest city in the world. Bangladesh is symptomatic of the gravest environmental challenges. It is in the neighborhood of such pronouncements that we find necessary to rethink the scope of environmental design, and its pedagogy and practices. With its aquatic-geological formation – in flux – and projected consequences of environmental changes, the organisation of land, water and settlements takes on an urgency that is unique to Bangladesh. Settlements patterns, architectural types, and socio-economic life-world, that are dynamically interconnected, confront new conditions raised by accelerated economic, environmental and social transformations. In such anxious times, the architectural agenda needs to go beyond problem solving and form creation. At the Bengal Institute, we think that the architectural task should extend its sights to the intellectual, ethical and creative issues facing the futures of human habitats. In this regard, a new “architectural intelligence” is needed that is more about “place-form” rather than spectacular objects. The question of systemic and integrated “landscapes,” whether as habitats or place-forms, agricultural fabrics, or natural wetlands, should be at the core of this new approach.
Developing this design intelligence requires a new kind of knowledge base, training and orientation that will uncover the original intimacy between architecture, habitation and landscape. Bengal Institute promises unique learning programs by bringing outstanding thinkers and practitioners to a common stage in Dhaka. Programs will offer opportunities to both fresh and established professionals, and young faculty, in developing their interests and imaginations, as well as their obligations to the new environmental task.”
August Session
Faculty Salauddin Ahmed Kazi Khaleed Ashraf Carey Clouse Dilip da Cunha Hasibul Kabir Anuradha Mathur Wakilur Rahman Dwijen Sharma
LANDSCAPE August Session was focused on understanding “Landscape” under a broad spectrum. Landscape is deeply interwound with dwelling, cities and regional infrastructure. Carey Clouse showed us works and concepts of environmentally organised urban farming and how architecture and landscape design are turning into one subject. Bangladesh’s popular botanist Dwijen Sharma introduced the participants to different species of local trees and plants and he also took them out to explore and learn more about it in the field. The renowned duo from UPenn, Anuradha Mathur and Dilip da Cunha questioned our typical understanding of the relationship between land and water and showed how water bodies, as we know them, may not have any fixed boundary or container. They also showed the relationship between mapping and visualising. Salauddin Ahmed, Wakilur Rahman and Hasibul Kabir conducted an outdoor design studio in which they explored different methods of landscape design that focused on celebrating the natural state of being. Kazi Khaleed Ashraf started off a month long seminar on architectural theory as a foundation to all parties and discussions.
IMAGE Top: Our first academic session began on 1st August 2015. This is a photo from day one, where the participants are gathering at the studio for orientation.
Kazi Khaleed Ashraf started off with an introduction to the participants about the Institute, explaining the ideas behind and the culture we are going to follow. Marina Tabassum, Sameen Elahi and Mohammad Tauheed highlighted different aspects of the academic and administrative facilities and the programs. The Director General of Bengal Foundation, Luva Nahid Chowdhury and the Chairman, Abul Khair, were present. The Chairman talked about his vision for the Institute and welcomed the very first batch of participants.
Suha Ozkan was the coordinator of one of the most important architectural award programs, “Aga Khan Awards for Architecture” from 1982 to 2007. Later he established the “World Architecture Community”, a popular online magazine, community portal and award program of today. From these experiences he got the opportunity to explore the works of some of the best architects around the world. In the lecture he showed the Pritzker Prize winning architects and also some of Aga Khan Award winning projects and made the comparisons of the two program. He indicated about how these mainstream award programs shaped our understanding, acceptance and sense of validity in philosophical, social and environmental aspects.
Carey Clouse’s lecture presented diverse climate and conditions of landscape design. She showed projects from urban farming works in Havana, landscape design in Ladakh’s Himalayan highlands, and also a few other projects in dense urban context. How the local community got involved in each of the works was an important part of the talk. It gave us a broader understanding of varied implication of landscape design in different situations with different communities.
Activities with
Anuradha Mathur & Dilip da Cunha Design Studio A comprehensive ‘learning by doing’ landscape design studio started off working outside in the field. Exercise placed nature in the steering wheel of conception, visualisation and design by subtle, soft interventions. Different groups of participants focused on different aspects of personal and landscape design philosophies.
Field Trip Participants were asked to bring camera and sketching materials for an excursion on the river. Professor Mathur and Cunha instructed them to observe the landscape and activities on both sides of the river Dhaleshwari. Back at the studio it turned out to be an insightful experiment about how the river interact with the community and nature, and also affect our landscape perceptions.
Studio Review Followed by the exercise in the boat trip, participants began to structure their own understanding of land-water-human relationships and they presented some deep analyses of how people interact with the river.
Anuradha Mathur & Dilip da Cunha Public Lecture
“In the Terrain of Rain� Anuradha Mathur and Dilip da Cunha questions our typical understanding of rain, water and river, and rephrases how all these are connected to our behavior towards the nature. They showed evidences of how being gentle to water and letting it flow is always better than forcing and containing it within the hardlines of dams and barrages, and how natural drainage systems can save us during the ongoing crises of climate change rather than controlling it by force.
Design Studio by
Hasibul Kabir Salauddin Ahmed, Wakilur Rahman, A comprehensive ‘learning by doing’ landscape design studio started off working outside in the field. Exercise placed nature in the steering wheel of conception, visualisation and design by subtle, soft interventions. Different groups of participants focused on different aspects of personal and landscape design philosophies.
September Session CITIES AND SETTLEMENTS
Faculty Jalal Ahmad Kazi Khaleed Ashraf Abed Chaudhury Gary Hack Saif Ul Haque Manzoorul Islam Lynne Sagalyn
This session, at its start, explored the fundamentals of human settlements with Abed Chaudhury. Syed Manzoorul Islam and Saif Ul Haque focused on shifting our focus to large scale design situations that includes cities, landscapes and settlements. Gary Hack brought in broader discussion of contemporary urban developments incorporating futuristic approaches considering designing for next several decades coping with the changing technological advancements. A relevant topic for cities is how the real-estate business sector is playing a role in urban developments, Lynne Sagalyn ran the discussions from her expertise in the above sector. Jalal Ahmad presented his works of designing villages for rehabilitated people of char areas of North Bengal. The discussion also brought in topics of how funding organisations and local community get involved in a project like designing new villages from scratch. Experts and audience from various relevant sectors joined us in discussions, forums and workshops.
“Disappearing Lands: Supporting Communities Affected by River Erosion� by
Jalal Ahmad Representative from the NGO involved in this project and also a member of the community came to BI to tell us the story of how they accomplished this amazing task of creating three new self-sustaining villages, and giving the ownership of the development to the communities.
Trip to Kanihati with
Abed Chaudhury Abed Chaudhury has been working to convert his home-place Kanihati (in Sylhet) into a rural hub of intellectual activity particularly in educational improvement and reform. Describable as the "Kanihati Experiment," the work is a demonstration of social, intellectual, agricultural and environmental transformation. This trip was an opportunity for the participants to experience and learn about it first hand and it worked as an inspirational proof of sustainable living.
Abed Chaudhury
Public Lecture 5: “Disrupting Change and Pattern of Cities” by
Gary Hack Gary Hack focused on the ‘drivers of . changes’ for cities, and how they have evolved. He highlighted five points of urban design for the present and future, Changing work habits: introduction of coworking spaces and mixed-used neighbourhoods, new technologies in transportation like autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence based traffic management systems, crowdfunding of new ideas for cities, environment friendliness of new designs. It helped expanding the boundaries of thinking about the future of cities for the audience. Gary Hack is one of the most eminent urban design practitioners and educationists in North America. He is the former dean and professor of urban design in the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania. Before becoming dean at UPenn, he was a professor of urban design and head of the department of urban studies and planning at MIT.
Gary Hack Forum with Educators Guests: Zebun Nasreen Ahmed Salauddin Ahmed Rafiq Azam Patrick d'Rozario Shamsul Wares and others Event included a discussion and exchange of ideas among local educators and practitioners with Gary Hack. Shamsul Wares and Zebun Nasreen Ahmed talked about the present scenario of architecture education in their respective schools, and the programs that are conducted there. Gary Hack emphasised on the possible future changes in education system. Kazi Khaleed Ashraf brought the topic of integration of different relevant disciplines together, stating why it is important to reconfigure the boundaries of interrelated departments like architecture, urban design and landscape design. The discussion concluded with the idea of bringing changes to architecture curricula of local schools.
CITIES AND SETTLEMENTS September Session 2015
IMAGES An experimental analysis of land ownership patterns and its consequence in urban housing and density, according to the current and possible future building codes and floor area ratio. Presented by Masum Ul Huq
Slides from Gary Hack’s public lecture: Opposite page top: A satellite image overlay of New York City, Grand Central Station area Opposite page bottom: Giambattista Noli’s diagram of 1784 Rome
ROME 1784
CITIES AND SETTLEMENTS September Session 2015
Submission for Gray Hack’s studio by Mahmudul Islam Chowdhury, explained how the line between private and public space blurs and they intervene each other constantly
Kafi Newaz Khan showed some simple ideas of using buffer elements to separate the pedestrian walkways to keep away the illegal occupation by street vendors and motor-bikes.
Amer Abdal Habib, presented an alternative idea of solving the problems of parking in Banani Road 11 area
Top: An idea of a house without a site in a riverine terrain, buildings on water by Ahammad-al-muhaymin
October Session
Faculty Kazi Khaleed Ashraf Arindam Chakrabarti Channa Daswatte Bashirul Haq
Forum Presenters Jalal Ahmad Salauddin Ahmed Kashef Chowdhury Saif Ul Haque Nahas Ahmed Khalil Ehsan Khan Enamul Karim Nirjhar Marina Tabassum
Home is at the foundation of all environmental acts; it is the beginning of all built-forms by humans. Bashirul Haq ran a month-long session of design studio and lectures; as one of the most important architects of the country, he is well-known for designing residential projects. Arindam Chakrabarti came to question the core of dwelling. He helped with planting new seeds of thoughts on being, living, home and dwelling. Channa Daswatte worked with Geoffrey Bawa and C. Anjalendran and showed the participants examples of tropical design, from the Sri Lankan masters and of his own practice. Kazi Khaleed Ashraf connected all the dots through history, philosophy and theory of dwelling. Some prominent Dhaka architects came to join us in forums to share their works and ideas about Home and Dwelling, that include Marina Tabassum, Nahas Ahmed Khalil, Saif Ul Haque, Ehsan Khan, Jalal Ahmad, Salauddin Ahmed, Enamul Karim Nirjhar, and Kashef Chowdhury.
Bottom: A project by Soniha Nuzhat Tisha, showing a simple solution of living for a migrant client
Public Lecture 07
Classes
Arindam Chakrabarti
Arindam Chakrabarti was a delightful and provocative presence in the month of October, as he extended the boundary of discussion beyond the technicality of building, towards the philosophies and fundamentals of dwelling. The classes were packed with thoughts and references from Indian literature and history, Kant, Hegel, Heidegger and Derrida.
" me cvwL N‡i wd‡i: Ni †Q‡o N‡i †divi ev¯‘ `k©b " “All Birds Fly Back Home: Home and the Door in Philosophy of Architecture” Arindam Chakrabarti started with describing the photo used in the promo poster of his lecture in which Parbati is coming home on a lion and poor Shiva walking along. Using humour and literary references, Chakrabarti continued explaining the etymology of Bengali words related to home and dwelling. He declared, there are eleven defining features of a home, the eleven conditions that turn a building or a shelter into someone’s home. The talk also shed lights on social problems and stigmas related to home and gender. He concluded with the idea that, home is the place where we can invite everyone, from the flora and fauna to the changing seasons, home is where we invite everything and everyone.
Forum:
Forum with
Arindam Chakrabarti
Ehsan Khan Jalal Ahmad Salauddin Ahmed
Renowned philosopher Arindam Chakrabarti stirred the discussions about the core understanding of home, living, neighbourhoods and dwelling in the broadest sense. He gave insightful explanation of the etymology of some Bengali words like bastu, basa, bosoti and griha references from literature, philosophy and history. The discussion questioned and made the audience think about their fundamental understanding of home and living.
Ehsan Khan, Jalal Ahmad, Salauddin Ahmed presented their works and thoughts around how an architecture turns out to be someone’s home. Ehsan Khan added that “we all know by now that home is more than a place, but a feeling…”. Arindam Chakrabarti shed light on the ideas of ‘belonging’ and ‘ownership’, how ‘what we own’ we do not belong to. And may be, how what we belong to, like our home, we do not own.
Classes with
Kazi Khaleed Ashraf Kazi Khaleed Ashraf took the participants on a journey through the history and philosophy of dwelling.
Classes with
Sonia Amin Sonia Amin explored the spaces of home especially as inhabited by women in the politics and practices that went behind. The discussion focused on home as the domain of the women. She used literature and literary figures to expand her points.
Forum:
Studio and Fieldtrip with:
Public Lecture: Works by
Bashirul Haq
Channa Daswatte
Bashirul Haq invited the participants to visit his own residence and office at Indira Road. He also took them to some of his projects around Indira Road and Dhanmondi area. It was great day out and learning experience for the participants, followed by lunch at Bashirul Haq’s residence.
From Minnette De Silva to his own works, Channa Daswatte portrayed a full picture of the modern architecture of Sri Lanka and how it took turns and evolved to become to gain its own identity. The elaborate presentation comprised with various architectural works by Sri Lankan masters like Geoffrey Bawa and Anjalendran with whom he has worked with for many years, followed by his own works. The lecture concluded with a mesmerising time-lapse video of his own residence showing how it behaves in different times of a day.
Participants were given an assignment of designing a residence for someone who came to Dhaka for work, may be a garment worker, security guard or a shopkeeper. They got around three to four days to work on it and everyone presented their design ideas in handdrawn drawings and sketches.
Marina Tabassum, Nahas Khalil
Bashirul Haq took the participants to his famous village home in Brahmanbaria near Comilla, ‘Bhatshala House’. The house itself is an exemplary work of regional vernacular modern architecture.
Marina Tabassum and Nahas Khalil portrayed their own understanding of ‘Home and Dwelling’ through stories of their family houses, personal upbringing in different towns, followed by some residence projects designed by themselves.
Throughout this studio, participants learned from hands-on experience about pragmatic, local architectural practice. It included discussions about tiny little details in working-drawing to modern theories of living and building for people.
Channa Daswatte graduated from the University of Moratuwa in 1987 and worked in the practice of C. Anjalendran. He subsequently followed a Postgraduate Diploma in Architecture at University College London, 1990, followed by a Master of Architecture in Advanced Architectural Studies from the University of London in 1991. After graduation he joined the architectural consultancy of Geoffrey Bawa and has been involved in several projects including the Kandalama Hotel and the new residence for the President of Sri Lanka. His works are perfectly examples of design in tropics.
IMAGES (clockwise) from left: 1. Kazi Khaleed Ashraf at BI Seminar Room 2. Forum with Marina Tabassum and Nahas Ahmed Khalil 3,4. Participants with Bashirul Haq at his village home ‘Bhatshala House’ in Comilla 5. Sonia Amin at BI Seminar Room
Forum with
Channa Daswatte Daswatte discussed how Sri Lankan local architecture evolved with Geoffrey Bawa, Anjalendran and his own contemporary practices. Present guests and participants asked questions and discussed about the unique features that define tropical architecture particularly of Sri Lanka. Some of the discussions evolved around the similarities and comparisons of how we incorporate rain, humidity, air-flow and other natural elements in Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan climate. The discussion also included the contribution of Minnette De Silva in pioneering Sri Lankan modernism.
Forum with Enamul Karim Nirjhar Kashef Mahbub Chowdhury IMAGES 1. A slide from Channa Daswatte’s lecture: his own house in Colombo 2. Channa Daswatte at his public lecture at Chhayanaut Auditorium 3. A public forum with Channa Daswatte at Bengal CafÊ 4. Forum with Channa Daswatte, Enamul Karim Nirjhar and Kashef Chowdhury at BI Seminar Room
Enamul Karim Nirjhar and Kashef Mahbub Chowdhury presented their works along with Channa Daswatte showing examples of designing in the current urban situation in Dhaka and Colombo. It followed the discussion about the changing dynamics of multifamily apartments and single-family residences in different cities.
Understanding the ability of a migrant to build a home in urban Dhaka by Nabila Binte Nasir at Bashirul Haq Studio. Participants were asked to find real clients, someone who has migrated to Dhaka from a village to find work. Nabila picked one of the masons she worked with for a long time. This man lives in a house owned by his in-laws. Nabila talked to him, visited his home and explored the possibilities of how to improve their existing living conditions through renovating their house. It was an approach of designing a solution at minium cost, wastage and intervention.
HOME AND DWELLING October Session 2015
A painting from the late 19th century depicting the return of the goddess Devi Agamani (Uma or Durga), no artist name found, currently at British Museum. This image was used as a background for Arindam Chakrabarti’s public event poster.
Kazi Khaleed Ashraf Zarina Hosain Ehsan Khan Andra Matin Masudul Islam Shammo Michael Sorkin Marina Tabassum
James Timberlake
Esteemed Indonesian architect Andra Matin began the session with showing from the vast array of his own works along. Andra Matin, along with Marina Tabassum also started the exercises of initial ideas on designing small towns and other experiments. That exercise continued to an elaborate studio works on designing Mymensingh as an example of a small town under the guidance of Kazi Khaleed Ashraf, Ehsan Khan, Michael Sorkin and other invited guest faculties. On the public events side, we had two major lectures by Michael Sorkin and James Timberlake in this session.
From the presentation of Submergered by Ahammad-al-Muhaymin, Kanij Fateema, Srijon Barua and Samain Sabrin
IMAGES Top: Exploring ‘porosity’ in built form works by: Bikash Saud Ansary, Hafsa Noor Muhammad, Zarrin Tasnim at the Andra Matin - Marina Tabassum Studio. Bottom: 1. Andra Matin presenting at his public lecture at Chhayanaut 2. Andra Matin - Marina Tabassum Studio at BI 3,4. Slides from Matin’s public lecture: Works by Andra Matin Architect
Design Studio
Andra Matin - Marina Tabassum Andra Matin presented a wide variety of projects designed by his firm to give a picture of his own practice and understanding of tropical modernity. In the studio, Matin and Tabassum asked the participants to come up with ideas about features of tropical architecture and design along the theme of ‘perforation’. Participants worked in groups and presented their ideas in various medium. They designed small abstract models representing ‘perforation’ and presented about the key features of tropical architecture through examples.
Public Lecture 9: Works by
Andra Matin Andra Matin talked about how, despite being a single country, Indonesia is extensively diverse within its own boundary. Dozens of islands in Indonesia have their own distinctive features in architecture. Matin tried to take those vernacular features further in his own works in an abstract way. His works are stunningly contemporary yet deeply rooted with the locality. From overall geometry to tiny details they express being part of the region, climate and culture.
Public Lecture 10: “City States” by
Michael Sorkin Sorkin started with highlighting the phenomenon of how fast megacities are growing and what are the new problems it brings along. He showed some comparisons and latest data about Dhaka, how Dhaka is uniquely growing rapidly with tremendous density. He also talked about the problem of contrasting unequal distribution of wealth in major cities around the world, and showed example of designing cities with more green vertically or horizontally, a society more equal and sensitive to the environment.
Ehsan Khan Kazi Khaleed Ashraf Michael Sorkin Studio Focusing on designing small towns, Kazi Khaleed Ashraf and Ehsan Khan explored new possibilities for Mymensingh town with the participants. Participants worked in groups to study and design different parts of the town or brainstorm on different aspects of thinking about small towns in Bangladesh. A key thought was: given the newly constructed multi-lane highway from Dhaka, how Myneshingh would evolve around the new improved connection with the capital and if the town is ready to take the brunt of it. Michael Sorkin and other visiting faculty joined in the discussions and reviews time to time.
A Conversation Between
James Timberlake & Michael Sorkin Moderated by
Kazi Khaleed Ashraf Two globally known thinkers of architecture and urbanism came face to face at BI with Kazi Khaleed Ashraf. It was an engaging, insightful discussion encompassing various zones of contemporary urban issues, theories and their design and practice. Michael Sorkin emphasised on visionary cities with social equality and environmental justice, while James Timberlake shed light on the situations on the ground in the practice of meticulous building.
IMAGES 1. Michael Sorkin’s public lecture at BRAC Centre Auditorium 2,3,6. Ehsan Khan, Kazi Ashraf, Michael Sorkin studio at BI 3,4. Conversation with Michael Sorkin and James Timberlake 7. James Timberlake’s public lecture at BRAC Centre Auditorium
Design Studio Review: Small-town Development -
Mymensingh
Bottom - A page from the submission by Farasha Zaman: “Mymensingh of my Mind” Plotting the experiences of a journey through the town by a young woman
Participants of the November Session worked in groups and took Mymensingh as an example small-town to come up with ideas about the development of different neighbourhoods and analysing various aspects of the town. Their presentations ranged from redesigning neighbourhoods to radical ideas like mapping the emotions of the people from local news and their place of origin, describing the town as a journey of a girl or the mathematical and poetic analysis of how people walk around the town. Eminent architects along with the representatives from government’s Urban Development Directorate were present at the review.
Public Lecture 11: “Alluvium: Dhaka, Bangladesh, in the Crossroads of Water” by
James Timberlake James Timberlake is a principal partner at KieranTimberlake and an Associate Faculty at PennDesign, University of Pennsylvania. For the past seven years, they have been investigating and synthesising Dhaka’s ebbs and flows, mapping its urban system and charting its development via annual visits as part of a design-research laboratory they teach within the Masters of Architecture program at Upenn. Timberlake and his partner Stephen Kieran recently published this book named “Alluvium: Dhaka, Bangladesh, in the Crossroads of Water“, which is an extract from the
seven years of work at the Dhaka Design-Research Lab. Alluvium brings several examples of problem solving and envisioning a better city for its people and environment. He talked about important chapters of the book and showed some of their recent architectural works.
Left - “Mymensingh of my Mind” By: Farasha Zaman Plotting the experiences of a journey through the town by a young woman as she goes through town and experiences different elements of the neighborhoods. These anecdotal experiences in fact builds the memory of a city, which may be used as a reference of designing the future.
Opposite Page - “City of Emotions” By: Mahmudul Islam Chowdhury Mapping the emotional state of citizens of Mymensingh through the lense of a journalist as a protagonist using ‘Plutick’s Wheel of Emotion.’ This is an experiment of ‘what if we plot all the incidents of a town from its local newspapers’ on a map, from a journalist’s point of view! Then he analysed the emotional nature of the incidents, if it is a sad, happy, troubling or inspiring one, using the emotional color spectrum designed by psychologist Robert Plutchik. This map might have the power of giving us insights about designing the future neighbourhoods of the town.
Top: “Mapping the Intangible” By: Hafsa Noor Mohammad “There is not a single village without a river or a rivulet, and no river without a folk poet or a minstrel.” How they influence our thoughts of the future of our small towns. What if we imagine a network of a deterministic walkway that would define Mymensingh — make it a one-walk town… It possible to theorise the patterns of walking in mathematics. What if the way people walk in a town everyday is not random! Can we find a pattern, and design the paths accordingly to make sure that we are designing a town for the people, the pedestrians?
Bottom: “Rethinking the neighbourhoods” By: Enam Rabbi Adnan, Mumtaheena Rifat, Tazrin Islam, Salima Afroz An idea of connecting the neighbourhood internally through public spaces and activities.
Highlights of the
Spring Sequence 2016 FEBRUARY SESSION:
MARCH SESSION:
APRIL SESSION:
MAY SESSION:
TROPICAL TOPICS
PLACE/FORM
HOUSE, CLUSTER, MATRIX
LANDSCAPE FORMS AND FORMATIONS
Niklaus Graber, Architect, Luzern Saif Ul Haque, Architect, Dhaka Alayne Adams, Social Scientist, ICDDR,B Marina Tabassum, Architect, Dhaka, and Director, BI Nahas Khalil, Architect, Dhaka Kazi Khaleed Ashraf, Architect and Urbanist, BI
Kenneth Frampton, Professor, Columbia University, New York Kelly Shannon, Landscape architect / Professor, University of Southern California Ng Sek San, Landscape Architect, Kuala Lumpur Khandaker Hasibul Kabir, Professor, BRAC University Alayne Adams, Social Scientist, ICDDR,B
Soumitro Ghosh, Architect, Bangalore Philip Goad, Professor, University of Melbourne Dwijen Sharma, Botanist, Dhaka Alayne Adams, Social Scientist, ICDDRB Tarshito (Nicola Strippoli), Artist/Architect, Italy/India (Special Lecture) Iliona Outram Khalili, Architect, London
Peter Stutchbury, Architect, Sydney Alberto Kalach, Architect, Mexico City Neelkanth Chhaya, Architect, Professor, Ahmedabad Peter Buchanan, Architect, London Timmy Zamir Aziz, Professor, MICA Niklaus Graber, Architect, Switzerland Suha Ozkan, Architect, Istanbul Syed Manzoorul Islam, Professor, Dhaka University
Complementing the Academic Program, the Research Program started from October 2015. With a multi disciplinary team the program has initiated research and investigation of designated topics in order to build up a base for a “comprehensive settlement plan for Bangladesh.” The objectives of the program are -
Bengal Institute’s Research and Design Program
-Formulating a theoretical and strategic basis for planning the physical environment. -Articulating theoretical and operative linkage among architecture, landscape architecture, city- and place-form, infrastructure and land-water forms. -Advocating improvement of quality of environment in rural, urban and quasiurban settlements. -Advocating alignment of social and economic development with physical planning.