Bengal Stream: A celebration of Bangladeshi architectural ingenuity
Bengal Stream is being held at Bengal Shilpalay, and is open to all from 4pm to 8pm, until 9 January
When Niklaus Graber came to visit Bangladesh for the first time 10 years ago, except for Louis Khan's National Assembly Building, he could not find much information on Bangladeshi architecture. He met a lot of contemporary architects and realised there is a vibrant scene in the country, something which is not in focus in the western world.
"I was really amazed by the work, and I came back many times and started collecting plans and photographs; I went to see the buildings and I spoke to the architects. I had the intention to disseminate these to my friends and colleagues in Switzerland and elsewhere," he said. "I realised there is big interest. Whoever I met was interested to hear more. One day, the director of the Swiss Museum came to our office. He was aware that I had this collection and invited me to be the curator of an exhibition they wanted to make on this topic."
Graber is an architect and curator from Switzerland and the lead curator for 'Bengal Stream: The Vibrant Architecture Scene of Bangladesh'.
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In Bangladesh, the boundaries between land and water are blurred, past and present merge anew, and new conditions are constantly formed and presented. The show includes a total of 60 projects by Bangladeshi architects.
"Presently, there are a lot of burning questions in society. How do we deal with inclusiveness and how do we balance the world somehow," said Graber. "Architects here are not only working for a certain class, but they also address and strongly work and collaborate with people even from the fringes of society, in remote places and with people who do not have access to a lot of economic resources."
How Bangladeshi architects deal with climatic aspects was also a focus of the show. The low-tech and natural approaches by local architects are particularly interesting. Most of the included projects utilised natural ventilation to reduce excessive energy consumption.
"I was not aware of a country elsewhere practising so much equity, inclusiveness and climate-sensitive architecture. And these are the things we are all dealing with right now," he added.
Bengal Stream has been curated by Niklaus Graber, Andreas Ruby and Viviane Ehrensberger, and produced by the Swiss Architecture Museum in collaboration with the Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements, Dhaka.
Initially launched in Basel, Switzerland, in December 2017, the exhibition travelled to Arc en Rêve, Centre d'architecture, Bordeaux, France, and then to its third destination at the Deutsches ArchitekturMuseum, Frankfurt, Germany. Finally, after five years, it has returned to Dhaka.
"We had plans to take the show to the US and then to the UK but unfortunately the pandemic had a different plan. We had to store it for more than two years in an art storage in Germany. After that time we felt that it would be good if the exhibition came back to visit Bangladesh. It is not just for the western audience; I think it is also interesting for the local audience here," said Graber.
The response from the international audience was overwhelming. This was one of the most visited shows in architecture museums in Europe, especially the one in Basel.
"We could also see the press reacting to it," said Graber. There were full-page stories in cultural pages from reputed newspapers. "I think it was surprising for many people to see the amount of quality architecture from Bangladesh that is here and how nobody knew about it. It doesn't mean we were not expecting it. Bangladesh always had good architecture, and in every corner of the world, you find good architects. But it came as a surprise because we in the West were not paying attention. It was more a comment on our ignorance."
The exhibition includes original drawings and models, photographs, and other documents, which were all shipped to Europe. It was important for Graber to include originals for the show because of how the drawings and models had a specific Bangladeshi quality, which would have been lost if they had tried to recreate them.
A bamboo installation has been created around the gallery from which banners displaying information about the exhibits are hung. All the exhibits were also displayed in very close proximity from one another, creating a very packed maze-like experience.
"The purpose of the bamboo is for international shows. The question was always, to me, how can I bring the feeling and the notion of tropicality to a museum in Europe. If we just hung some drawings there and showed some images, you would say 'okay, it is nice,' but you would not feel the context," said Graber. "We wanted to show something real. Of course, you cannot take the whole building. This is always a problem with architecture exhibitions. But you can bring the feeling of it.
"There is a notion of density as well. We created a very dense setting and that was by intention. We wanted to overwhelm people. The bamboo scaffolding is also quite narrow and you have to meander through the whole setting. It's like when you go to Old Dhaka, or New Market, you are met with a lot of clothes and you never know what is around the corner. The idea was you would enter the museum and immediately be in a different world," he added.
Bengal Stream was inaugurated on 9 December at Bengal Shilpalay, and is open to all from 4pm to 8pm until 9 January.
TBS Picks: Exhibits from the show with a description from the curator
Arcadia School, Alipur, Keraniganj.
The question is how would you bring education to a remote area? The flood plains for example. You could do it by a boat, but what happens during the dry season? These architects here were thinking about both. So they built a building for both seasons. When the flood comes the building floats. And during the dry season, it sits on the land. This was awarded with the Aga Khan Award for architecture.
Architect:Saif Ul Haque Sthapati
Design: 2014-2015
Construction: 2015
Shomaj Biggyan Chattar Landscaping, Dhaka University Campus, Dhaka.
This is in the middle of the city, at Dhaka University. This site here was a dusty empty space a few years back. The architects came up with a small intervention, not with a bombastic masterplan. Maybe they were aware that it sometimes helps more when you do little particular interventions. I knew the place when it was empty and I saw it now. It is a radical change.
Architect: SthaNik Consultants/ Saiqa
Design: 2016
Construction: 2016
Emergency School Shelter at S. R. Government Girls High School, Singra Rajshahi.
This was built very quickly and designed very quickly after the storm hit the school. The architects became aware that there is a need for a temporary school, they went on the site with a concept and built it up. This shows how the architects here are not waiting for a commission.
Architect: Ghorami.Jon
Design: June 2014
Construction: June 2014
