Conservation Architecture
Students fear soon there will be no sites for study
Barabari, a magnificent house at Farashganj, is being demolished. Photo: Syed Zakir Hossain
Conservation architects and students of conservation architecture fear that they will have to remain content with the photographs, sketches and written accounts of the heritage buildings in future as many of the city's prominent heritage buildings have fallen victims to mindless demolition. "Studying the old architectural buildings is an integral part of our studies. If we cannot see and draw the features of the building ourselves then the study remains incomplete," said Fahinaz, a student of conservation architecture at the University of Asia Pacific. "Due to anomalous renovation or missing parts of the buildings sometimes we have to draw from imagination that leaves scopes for wrong interpretations of its original features," she said. "Besides, there is a lack of proper documentation. We try to collect old pictures, sketches, maps and stories to know about vanished structures, for an example Lohar Pool," said Fahinaz. Many of the historical edifices are being renovated and distorted. In Chhoto Katra, a staircase is being built without any permission from the authorities. Bhajahari Lodge, an enlisted historical building, is now totally vanished, said Taimur Islam. "The authorities do not even know whether the building exists or not. They have kept it enlisted. We have to remain content with the photographs of the building," he said. "The knowledge of lime masonry and chini tikri is vanishing because nowadays no expert mason is found who is working on this. We can read it from books but the practical knowledge is lost," said Taimur. Conservation Architect Dr Abu Sayeed M Ahmed said there are two ways to know about past architectural style -- on site evidence and literature. "If we do not know about the real buildings and depend on only books then we may have wrong interpretations." "From books we can know about the information but by doing carbon tests of the structures we come to know the facts. If the thing does not exist then we have only information, not evidence.”
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