The art society of Bangladesh and general public needs a common platform of interaction in any community. The Center for Arts is a place where not only the general people but the young children can learn, take part, interact and share ideas using each of their own form of ideas. The society has become more interested with the creative aspect of the world. The Center for Arts is dreamed as a center that would respond to the social, environmental, economic and artistic hunger of the human mind. The idea is to represent people’s emotion and life, our culture, our roots, tradition, and the fusion with today’s world. This is to give a better platform to the local artists, to be able to share, educate and state their views through their art to everyone; to design a central place where the people of the local communities could meet and showcase their work of interest to the people of the community. This 5th year thesis project is proposed by Ishika Chowdhury from Department of Architecture, North South University. Her studio guides for the project were Ar. Sujaul Islam Khan, Ar. Mozaffar Chowdhury, and Ar. Sadiana Sadmin. The project location is in Uttara Sector 17, under 2 acres of land.
The idea and goal were:
- To create a central space that is permeable from all sides & that invites everyone inside to reconnect, promote & conserve traditional, modern & contemporary arts.
- To do, to show & to learn together and through each other in one big space.
The major functions of the center are: Galleries, Workshops, Studios, Classrooms, Multipurpose Auditorium, Sculpture Garden, Performance Court, Stationery Shop, Café. The foreground functions are the public accessible ones and the background are the service sector of the museum complex, sometimes occasionally accessible. Most of the gallery spaces are kept upstairs. Ground contains the functions which should easily be accessible to the public- amphitheater, sculpture garden, café, auditorium, book shop and stationery shops, administration zone with offices and a service dock. To make more public come to the building, an attractive entry was essential in the project. The core idea was to merge the plaza with existing fabric and make this area more vibrant and colorful. The museum itself would be an exhibit object, an art. The site also has many important structures both architecturally and socially important, which contributes a lot to the site and surrounding.
This art hub will preserve and exhibit art. It will help communicate and share the ideas and sentiments of the artists and viewers with the rest of the contemporary world through various programs. The addition of children learning space and archive will give more chance to involve general people. Accommodation and studio facility for artists will inspire towards more creative works.
