- What is your opinion about the architecture scene of Bangladesh right now?
Bangladesh’s history is very rich. Starting from the very beginning, we have history of Hindu culture and Buddhist culture with a huge number of monastery as centers of excellence and then from pre Mughal period to British period and then finally the ongoing Bengali period. All contains huge amount of history and innovation making an era of enlightened. We have history from mid of 1950 to late 60’s where a unique movement of critical modern architecture took place, which was led by architect Mazharul Islam, and many other international architects like Paul Rudolph, Louis I Kahn, Constantinos Doxiadis and many more. It’s the high time in architecture at present, and the system is going through a very vibrant phase of architecture, where new generation of architects are trying to understand the great history of Bangladesh and intertwine with the contemporary world architecture justifying architecture which is global and local in both contexts.
- What according to you is the future of the architecture scene in Bangladesh?
Until now architects are mostly in one sense almost servant of the rich people. But in future from my point of view , architects should be servant of the people, that doesn’t mean I disagree with making house, offices, clubs, etc, but the focus should be for the public realms. The architect should be designing open space, water body, green, roads, etc. Architects are important to be a part of the policy makers alongside the politicians and other professionals.
- A piece of advice for the young architects who want to build a career in this field
It is not easy to define architects because it is difficult to define what architects do. Architect can be a good painter, auto cad operator, designer, film maker, good builder, fashion designer, photographers; but none of these define an architect as an architect. Actually the most powerful tool that can define an architect is the knowledge that hey suppose to posses which help them to think what needs to be done. So my point of view architects need to be warrior philosophers.
- A quote that you swear by
There is nothing more artistic than to love people – Vincent Van Gogh
About Architect
Rafiq Azam is the Principal Architect of Shattoto, an architecture firm based in Dhaka with a focus on “architecture for green living”. Formed in 1995, Shatotto intends to unearth the lost history and heritage of Bengal and recreate the missing link of its urban and rural culture. He graduated in 1989 from Bangladesh Engineering University (BUET), Dhaka. His many awards in both art and architectural work include three-time recipient of World Architecture Community Award 2008-09, Emerging Architect of the world by Urban Land USA 08 etc.
