Sustainable Architecture in Bengal
Monday, December 3, 2012
The Embassy of France in Bangladesh, the Alliance française of Chittagong and Dhaka, the Institut Français, the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), the Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET), CRAterre and Caritas
Bangladesh, organize a seminar on
“Sustainable Architecture in Bengal”
On December 6th, 2012, from 10am to 4pm, at the Alliance Française de Dhaka, Dhanmondi.
The Honourable Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Public Works, Dr Khondaker Showkat
Hossain will grace the occasion by its presence as chief guest of the inaugural session.
Dr. Roxana Hafiz, Dean, Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Humanities, BUET, will be the special guest.
A SEMINAR TO PROMOTE LOCAL BUILDING CULTURES:
Bangladesh has been listed one of the most vulnerable country in term of natural risk. Its population faces a terrible panel of disasters: cyclone, flood, earthquake, river bank erosion, landslide, draught, etc. In consequence to these disasters, most of the inhabitants, particularly in rural areas, lose their houses and find themselves in tenuous situations where they are at other risk, epidemic for instance.
Moreover, and it is more visible after natural disasters in the weeks following the arrival of the international assistance, we see that some NGOs sometimes faces trouble to answer the needs of the population in terms of housing, which does not consist only on a roof. The best answer would be to respect traditions and standards of housing of the region affected by the disasters.
Beyond this, nowadays, the new buildings have to respect the environment. In this regard,new buildings or houses should use local materials, be less energy-intensive and so on. Again, the architecture is essential to implement an ecologic policy of housing both in rural areas and in urban areas.
During three sessions, the seminar aims to promote the local building cultures as a solution for sustainable architecture and housing in areas of Bangladesh prone to natural disasters, as well as to explore the possibilities given by architecture to implement an ecologic policy of housing in rural and urban areas.
TWO ARCHITECTS FROM FRANCE: OLIVIER MOLES AND LAURENT FOURNIER
Since 1979, CRAterre, the International center for Earthen architecture, has worked towards the recognition of earth materials as a valid response to the challenges linked to the protection of the environment, the preservation of cultural diversity and the fight against poverty.
In this perspective, CRAterre's three main objectives are centered on:
Optimizing the use of local resources, human and natural;
Improving housing and living conditions;
Valorizing and promoting cultural diversity.
CRAterre has assembled a multidisciplinary team of researchers, professionals, lecturers and trainers, working in collaboration with many partners, as a means to establish creative links between research, on-the-field activities as well as training, knowledge dissemination and sensitization activities.
Working with CRAterre since 1995, Dr Olivier Moles has initiated, monitored and evaluated programs for the promotion and improvement of local building cultures in over 30 countries, under the aegis of various organizations (UNESCO, UNIDO, FAO, UNDP, UN Habitat,MISEREOR, CARITAS, IFRC…).
Dr Laurent Fournier is a French architect based in Kolkata (India). He has studied
architecture at the Ecole d’architecture de Paris-Belleville from where he got his architect’s degree in 2004, under the direction of Jean-Pierre Feugas (for the project) and Pierre Clement (for the thesis). In Kolkata, Laurent Fournier worked under Sobhanlal Bonnerjee and Dulal Mukherjee, and started a short evening course on natural architecture at Modern Academy of Continuing Education. He works mainly in refurbishment and adaptive re-use of existing buildings, in mud and bamboo buildings, as a structural consultant, and as a trainer in natural and bio-climatic architecture.
OTHER SPEAKERS
Dr Mohammad Shariful Islam and Dr Tahsin Reza Hossain from the Department of Civil
Engineering of BUET and Mr Ratan Kumar Podder will join Mr Olivier Moles to explain the
low cost housing project initiated by Caritas Bangladesh in 2009 in cyclone affected prone area of Kuakata and flood prone area of Sirajdikhan, in collaboration with CRAterre, the National Superior School of Architecture of Grenoble, France (ENSAG), and BUET. The Project has been completed successfully and there were many learning which has given lead to work more to the other regions of Bangladesh.
Coming up after the presentation of Mr Laurent Fournier on the use of local material in building construction and restoration, Mr. Mong Ting Marma, from the NGO Sancheton, will speak specifically on housing in the ecosystem of the Chittagong Hill Tracts while Prof. Dr Abdul Momin Chowdhury (Dhaka University) and Prof. Abu Sayeed (Asia Pacific University) will bear witnesses of the model of sustainability that represents the traditional bengali house, the “bungalow”, which is today an international and popular type of house.
Related: Program of the seminar
Mr Sajal Chowdhury (Department of Architecture, CUET), Dr Shayer Gahfur and Dr
Khandaker Shabbir Ahmed (Department of Architecture, BUET) will explore in a third
session the problems and prospects of green architecture in urban Bangladesh, with a
notable focus on Dhaka.
Related: Program of the seminar
Labels: Architecture, Bangladesh
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 10:16 AM,
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