Atik Ishrak Chowdhury & Mohaimin Ali Khan | CONTEXT
On the 3rd of July, the architecture student community of Bangladesh celebrated their achievements in the ACGSA design competition 2021 themed “Designing for Resilience to the Changing Environment.” The competition was jointly organized by Architects Regional Council Asia (ARCASIA) and the Society of Nepalese Architects (SONA) involving 21 Asian countries. Students and professional architects from the member institutes were invited to participate in the competition. In the Student Category, groups of students from Shahjalal University of Science & Technology (SUST) and Ahsanullah University of Science & Technology (AUST) have won First and Third place respectively.
The project “উঠানবাড়ি” by Md. Ferdous Rahman, Ashefa Washema Basure & Fatema Tuz Zohora from SUST won the First position. Another entry titled “কল্পতরু” by Farhana Chowdhury, Md. Tanveer Bashar Uday, Naila Alam, Shahriar Kabir from AUST secured the Third position.
The goal of the “উঠানবাড়ি” (The Courtyard House) project was to transform the living space of the “Urban Poor” into a home resilient to climatic and health crisis. “Void as a heart of an ideal interactive community”- was the motto of the design project. Daily activities of the households were designed around the courtyard. Two types of dwelling modules were proposed to facilitate quarantine in compact living conditions. In Module 1, the bedroom with an attached toilet can turn into an isolation room for a patient and the other room can be used for non-affected family members. Module 2 is a small room with an “attic”. A patient can stay in the lower level with a toilet facility, while the attic space can be used for the non-affected members. The provision of a common toilet near the main entrance performs as a “filter zone”, and the roof garden as a relaxation zone.
The proposal “কল্পতরু ” advocated a therapeutic ‘green’ approach to design a multi-storied apartment building in urban areas where the risk of COVID exposure is relatively higher. “কল্পতরু ” means an imaginary tree which represents the concept ‘Recall the forest to heal the planet.’ Vertical ‘green’ walls, roof gardens, water features, etc. were introduced as healing elements.
The competition was announced on the 12th of May 2021. The winners were chosen in three rounds from among the 73 entries. On 12-13th June, the shortlisted 7 teams presented their project in front of the International Jury Board on the Zoom platform.
Team উঠানবাড়ি (First Place)
Team কল্পতরু (Third Place)
