Tampering with Louis Kahn's masterpiece

While marble slabs of the Sangsad Bhaban are falling apart, the government has ventured into tampering with the original plan of Architect Louis I Kahn by taking up at least two construction projects at the cost of crores of taka.

A Tk 26 crore project started its work on building a mausoleum around the grave of the late president Ziaur Rahman.

The same project includes a bridge over the Crescent Lake, a mosque and a seminar hall for around 400 people in the Chandrima Udyan, two seating arrangements with fast food shops, each on the eastern and western ends of the park. It is expected to reach completion by 2004.

Under the other project, about an acre on the western side of the Sangsad Bhaban has been dug up to build two housing units for the speaker and the deputy speaker of the House at a cost of about Tk 5 crore. The project was suspended for about two weeks due to protests from the civil society.

Architects, town planners, engineers and members of the civil society told The Daily Star that the monumental Sangsad Bhaban, famed worldwide as an architectural marvel, is sure to lose its identity due to the constructions.

They said the past government did irreparable damages to the landscape of the Sangsad Bhaban area by constructing hundreds of unplanned NAM apartment blocks just opposite the Bhaban without considering its architectural values. The buildings are already a visual nuisance. And they will pose a threat to the traffic on the Manik Mia Avenue as well once the flats are occupied.

The present government has embarked on tampering with the original design of the world famous architect in a bid to offer city dwellers a concrete jungle in a place adorned with open spaces, lakes, parks and gardens amid some of the finest structures in the world.

Sources in the Ministry of Housing and Public Works said the government took up the projects at a time when they are unable to replace hundreds of marble slabs, falling off the walls of the Sangsad Bhaban, due to lack of funds.

"The marble slabs are falling apart and we urgently need to replace them and conduct tests as to how those should be fixed," said an official.

With the projects coming under severe criticism, top government officials have changed their tone in defence of the decision.

Trying to justify the speakers' housing project, some claimed that the original plan of Kahn had a provision for houses for them.

But according to an expert, Kahn's final design, submitted in 1973, did not have any provision like that.

A source in the Department of Architecture under the housing and public works ministry said the government should have consulted the original consultancy in the USA.

"To preserve the Sangsad Bhaban area from the so-called developers, we have to work constantly. We have absurd proposals from the government high-ups to paint the Bhaban. During the period of the past government, a bizarre proposal suggested that bulletproof shields be put up around the chairs of the leaders in the House," said an official source. It has always been difficult to make 'people' understand the value of heritage and architecture, he added.

On Wednesday, the Sangsad Secretariat got back four acres of land on Mirpur Road, which had illegally been occupied by squatters, said another official source.

Originally, the Ministry of Social Welfare had set up a centre for the physically challenged (deaf and dumb) children. In exchange for the piece of land, the housing and public works ministry has given the social welfare ministry a piece of land in Kalyanpur to set up the centre, an official said.

"We are not sure what the government will do with the recovered land, but we feel it should be incorporated with the Sangsad Bhaban in line with the master plan by Kahn," the official added.