Engineering Architecture Planning

Author I Architect Rafee Uddin Mahmud Munna I Principal Architect I Dform architects

To get rid of the tired life of Dhaka city, many people are becoming interested in spending time in their village nowadays because with the increase of people in Dhaka day by day, the civic facilities are decreasing proportionately. Spending some quiet moments in a little comfort is like an illusion. With that dream, when my client said that he wants to build a duplex in his own village Gobindapur village of Gopalganj, I gladly agreed. The south-facing two-storey house is mainly for vacation. The client wanted to come and spend some time here with his wife and family on weekends. The plot was received by the client in his ancestral line with a wide-open wilderness on one side. The client has many special memories from childhood in the adjacent playground. He wanted to relive the memories by witnessing the daily activities and sports on the field from his residence. The residency is therefore designed in a way that embraces the exterior scenery, emphasizing the emotional connection of the client with the surroundings. Instead of a frightening contrast, the establishment is buzzing as a humble presence on site. The use of concrete, glass, steel, wood as primary materials results in the creation of a muted color tone. When natural light comes into the interior, over time, a constantly changing drama of that light and shadow is created. I myself was directly involved in the construction of the project from beginning to end. It was a turn-key project. Working outside Dhaka with a small-scale architectural consultant office was quite challenging. I completed the whole project myself with a single site engineer. This establishment was completed after a year of relentless work. This was my first turn-key building experience as an architect. Gobindapur village of Gopalganj can be reached in two hours from Dhaka. Every time I visited the site, the green life of the village was seen closely. Instead of taking a private car, I used to go to the site by bus so that I could get off the bus and reach the site by van because I did not want to miss the opportunity to enjoy the traditional beauty of the village. In that joy, the fatigue of the journey would go away. I have kept in mind to do something as simple as possible so that there is a touch of modernity while reflecting our tradition and culture. According to the client’s preference, there will be two buildings – one two-storey and another one-storey building, the one-storey building will be mainly used as a kitchen, dining and maintainer’s living area. My main consideration in preparing this design was the construction of a small building at a low cost. Two structures have been designed around a courtyard, which has been kept for the flower garden and some trees that have already grown. The open space between the two buildings creates an atmosphere like the traditional courtyard of our village Bengal. The duplex main building is on the east side of the courtyard and the location of a small one-storey building on the north side. The accommodation connects to the surrounding environment by large panel windows and open terraces, helping to minimize the barrier between the inside and outside. Although it is a small space, the two-storey high void at the entrance gives a feeling of vastness. Outdoor spaces have been given special importance.

The 900 square feet space on the ground floor of this building has two bedrooms, a drawing–dining, a bathroom and the neighboring 250 square feet one-storey building has a bathroom, a servant’s room, a kitchen and a dining room. Traditionally, the village kitchens are separate from the main building, so this is no exception. The main habitat is divided into two levels. Ground floor and second floor. The ground floor has formal living, dining and the second floor has a private study room and two bedrooms and a large open terrace where the owner and his friends/colleagues can sit and enjoy the open wilderness next door. The sloping roof of the building has been used to reflect the traditional dochala house of Bengal. Ceramic tiles on metal frames are as helpful in regulating the temperature of the building as they are on the site. The use of wood on the roof of the interior decoration of the first floor creates a bungalow atmosphere. The staircase is presented as if a sculpture made of steel and wood displayed vertically in the void. Special attention has been given to the construction of this staircase, I spend hours in Babu Bazar of Old Dhaka, making preity steps, support beams – everything, even spending a lot of time in selecting wood for the wooden handle of the stairs and making samples, just like the metal sculpture projects were done when I was a second-year student. While doing this, I felt like I was back in student life. The use of fair face concrete, wood-colored windowpanes and wood-colored cladding tiles on the exterior walls is an attempt to give natural tones. It is important to consider the client’s preferences and financial constraints when designing a project. My design process and ideology are that every project is unique in its own way. I take inspiration from my surroundings, draw references from the context, and then move on to the necessary design. “

To the advice to young architects, “Like any other subject related to art, such as painting, music or photography, architecture is a difficult subject that can be taken up with perseverance. Anyone who wants to advance in this field must invest a significant amount of time in architecture and be in tune with our society and culture. ” I see architecture as part of culture and nature. While man-made, constructed environments remain a part of nature, meaningful and experiential works should be pursued for the greater good in architecture and design. I believe that over the years, the architectural landscape in Bangladesh has consistently overcome challenges and moved towards development. We respect and admire the work of the architects of our country who approach design from a moral point of view.