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Appalling urban landscape

TANWEER KARIM
I RECENTLY visited Dhaka after an absence of over 12 years. I was appalled to see what havoc we have wrought on the urban landscape in so short a time. As a practicising architect and urban designer in the USA and being a product of the architecture faculty of BUET and the States, I have more than a passing interest in the development of the city I loved and grew up in. I fondly remember as a student, hearing from venerable architects and teachers that if we ever achieve Bangladesh we will be able to "plan each blade of grass". If this is our planning, I dread to think what unplanned growth is.
I was extremely disappointed on the complete lack of discourse or dialogue among the architect community regarding on what was being caused in the name of so called development. When I talked to my peers who have been in practice for nearly 30 years, they simply shrugged and said "what can we do, this is Bangladesh". To me the response is criminal. Just like we want accountability from fellow professionals like physicians, architects are accountable to society on what they put on the built landscape by their commissions. Someone told me that Dhaka is like Singapore. He is totally mistaken. Just because you have managed to build some midrise buildings, put neon's advertisement and billboards along the streetscape, you have not reached the status of Singapore. In fact there are lot of cities in the USA which envy Singapore.
The total lack of zoning, planning, height restrictions, greenery, landscape, traffic pattern, to name a few, causes immense damage to the urban landscape and society. The way we brutalized the open areas of Outer Stadium,
Suhrawarddy Udyan, Dhanmondi Lake, Gulshan, Uttara and the rest is for everyone to see. The traffic monstrosity, congestion, smog wreak havoc on the health of the citizens. In the meantime we go on our merry way, putting one obnoxious building after another, cheek to jowl all over the city. Without any consideration to the width of the street, lack of sidewalks, sewerage capacity, we continually tear down the old and build vertically, so close to each other that we not only cut off air circulation but natural light too. We have in the process changed the micro climate and increased the heart index of the city.
What can we do different? I for one do not believe we cannot do better. At a minimum, we need to start around the Jatiya Sangsad designed by Louis Kahn. Stop burying leaders and politicians haphazardly. The capital is not a graveyard. Stop putting pontoon bridges on the Crescent Lake. Let's master plan the area and include the old airport land and make it part of the Capitol. Let's create a traffic mall radiating in different directions from the Sangsad. Lets plant trees, hardscape and softscape with a landscape design in mind, instead of trying to create a mini "black forest". And above all, let's establish a non-smog generating, urban and forward looking traffic system. Washington was master planned, street and traffic pattern established centuries ago and the buildings built over the years. We do not have to build in a few decades but let's at least establish the arteries of traffic and design standards so we can build correctly. Let's set height limits within the Capitol area so no structure is taller than the Sangsad building. If we can start there, we can develop Dhaka as an architectural tourist destination similar to what Bilbao in Spain managed to do with Frank Gehry's museum. In fact
that building alone generated tourism to the tune of 250 million dollars for the city.
Who would have gone to Agra if it did not have the Tajmahal? We can at least get a fraction of the international tourist traffic from the architectural masterpiece started by Louis Kahn. One would be surprised how many people in the West know about Louis Kahn's Capitol in Dhaka, but do not know where Bangladesh is. That is the challenge and the opportunity.
Can we talk? Can the archi-tects/planners of Bangladesh, the Institute of Architects, students, teachers and other professionals, civic leaders, politicians rise to the occasion? Do they have the ethical values and moral courage to say "Stop, enough is enough" or are they going to act like robber barons? Can they come together and give direction that future generations can be proud off? Will the architects overseas participate and give their input and raise their concern? Or are we going to come up short? If we can start the process of design and establish the standards for the Capitol, I am confident the citizens will demand and get the same for the rest of the city. We can and must clean up our act. The question begs to be asked -- will we collectively change the course of history or be co-opted in the massive fraud enacted in the name of so called development?
I strongly believe there is goodness in all of us. Bangladesh architects have the talent, some may have the vision; the question is do we all have the will?
Tanweer Karim AIA is with Odell Associates Inc, 8080 North Central Expressway, Dallas, Texas-75023, USA