Rajshahi House

The modest one-storeyed house, located in Moghbazar, exemplifies the vocabulary of modern architecture of postcolonial Dhaka, that was  adapted to fit the city’s tropical climate and local context.  As seen in typical houses for the upper middle class who were serving a new government in the 1950s and had started to live in newer parts of Dhaka, Rajshahi house represents the beginning of a new residential type and lifestyle.

Many such houses were designed by engineers of that time working on the ‘clean’ language of modern architecture that was being adopted in the 1950s. This particular house was designed by an architect thus making it distinctive for the period it was built. A cantilever form suspended over the entrance of the house is definitely the most striking feature of the house, built in a way that was unique at that  time. The pure geometric forms with no ornamental elements is a great reminder of the design style adopted by architects influenced by the modern movement of the 1920s in the West.

Exhibiting the asymmetrical space organization of modernist architecture, the architect was also attentive to the tropical milieu which is expressed in a big porch facing the south. The big porch is the most distinctive element of the house. The movement from the porch to the rooms establishes an intimate relationship between the indoors and the outdoors. A generous lawn existed on the south side which was lost after the subdivision of the original property.

A heritage building need not be a monument or landmark building; it can be representative of an epoch or period in the history of the city in many ways. Through this project, we have captured various perspectives in the form of virtual tours, timelines, stories, photographs, architectural features and locations.

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The virtual tour is a simulation of an existing location, composed of a sequence of still images. It gives a 360 view of the location and one can easily enjoy an immersive experience of the spaces sitting from anywhere in the world. In this case, this tour is enriched with all the relevant information, it also consists of old photo gallery, audio and video clips and various stories of the house.

Residential buildings in cities have been an essential component of the city providing it with an architectural fabric, lifestyle practices and domestic order. However, with social and economic changes, many of the buildings are being replaced by new types, or often altered for insensitive transformations. This timeline shows the glimpse of many changes, many events this house or this neighborhood has witnessed with time.

 The house follows the pattern of having a bungalow type house with front lawn like many other upper middle class families in Dhaka. Infact, initially the northern side of the house was an orchard with large trees and some staff quarters. Around early 1980s, after property division, the orchard area turned into a multistoried apartment by its owner.

Architectural photography and 360° photography has been a major method of documentation for this project. The gallery is categorized into few groups for the convenience of the user to see and understand the various aspects of the houses.

The idea is to select exemplary representatives of distintinctive epochs or cultures in the history of Dhaka. Five distinctive houses from five different areas have been selected from the greater Dhaka Metropolitan area for this phase of the project.

A heritage building need not be a monument or landmark building; it can be representative of an epoch or period in the history of the city in many ways. Through this project, we have captured various perspectives in the form of virtual tours, timelines, stories, photographs, architectural features and locations.

Use the buttons belows to navigate to the details pages.