Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday urged the country's architects to design structures bearing in mind the constraint of land resources and protection of the environment.
She was inaugurating the newly constructed building of the Institute of Architects Bangladesh (IAB) in the capital's Agargaon. Hasina stressed formulation of a master plan before going for any major development activity. Terming architecture the symbol of civilisation, she reiterated her stance not to preserve all British colonial structures, rather preserve some of them as symbols.
Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements is organising an international architecture symposium named “Architecture Now! Next” in association with Bengal Foundation, from March 18-20 at the auditorium of Krishibid Institution Bangladesh, Dhaka. On the first day, the event will start at 3pm on Friday, March 18. For the following two days, the session will start in the morning at 9am. Speakers will be sharing their work and ideas for an hour, followed by panel discussions.
The intention of the symposium is to understand new directions in architecture and city building, along with the kind of work that should be recognised as exemplary and instructive. The symposium event gathers prominent international and national architects, academics, critics, and thinkers. Discussions hope to inspire and energise the community of architects and environmental professionals. It also hopes to inform concerned citizens to learn about how cities and environments may be rearranged for a better future.
With the 2016 symposium “Architecture Now/Next,” Bengal Institute, in association with Bengal Foundation, plan to establish a periodic event called "Bengal Architecture Symposiums." As architecture presents a new interconnection between cultural, ecological and economic forces, “Architecture Now/Next” hopes to raise critical questions on the political and economic landscapes of our times. Each symposium will explore the current state of world culture in which environmental challenges are at the frontier of development practices.
Dhaka will be a focus of the discussions. With uncontrollable growth in development and population density, Dhaka presents a challenge to the conventions of architectural and urban development. Considering Dhaka as the toughest city in the world, Bengal Institute positions the city as a new hub of architectural, landscape and urban thinking. Through these symposiums and events, Bengal Institute intends to initiate a new kind of design thinking that will inform education, practice, and settlement planning, and help develop new approaches for planning future cities.