The majestic landscape of the Jatiya Shangsad Bhaban faces yet another setback as the authorities decide to do some more damage to the original design despite a High Court order to declare it a national heritage.
Authorities have decided to build a studio for Shangsad TV in an empty space inside the parliament premises. The space was left vacant in the original design for ventilation.
American architect Luis I Kahn kept the space open on the northern side of the ground floor for allowing air to flow in and out of the nine-storied building.
Successive authorities of the Parliament Secretariat since the mid-1980s have erected small chambers with wooden partitions in most of the empty spaces between the wings of every block, choking the natural flow of air in the building.
In 2002, the BNP-led four-party alliance government initiated the construction of the residences of the Speaker and the Deputy
Speaker inside the premises, in a violation of Kahn’s original plan, prompting various association of architects and environmentalists to file petitions against the move.
The High Court on June 21, 2004, declared all structures beyond Kahn’s plan illegal, asking the government to declare the building a national heritage.
The government’s public works authorities appealed against the verdict and the buildings were constructed within the stay order that expired in 2007.
“There are some decorative stairs in the building. But they are not entirely useless. Erecting structures there cannot be fair. We must protect our heritage,” said Architect Mobasher Ali, author of the book Somototay Sangsad.
Secretary of the Parliament Secretariat M Mahfuzur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune that the authorities have consulted the architects before planning the construction of the studio on the northern side. He reaffirmed that the authorities did not intend to destroy the overall architecture.
At the 24th meeting of the Parliament Commission on June 2, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina raised the issue of conserving the original master plan of the parliament building terming it a national treasure.
“We will examine the design to assess whether any unapproved structures are there. If found, we will, of course, remove all of them to preserve the original master plan,” Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury told the Dhaka Tribune.
The 155-feet building, built at a cost of more than Tk1.28bn, has 400 rooms and 340 toilets in eight blocks.
Architect Mobasher Ali wrote in his book that the building had been built in a way so that natural light and air would enter every corner.
In 1959, the erstwhile Pakistan Government decided to set up the second capital of the state in Dhaka. The then military government of Ayub Khan selected Luis Isodore Kahn as the lead architect. Construction began in 1961 at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in Dhaka.
After the demise of Kahn in March 1974, his associate Henry N Palmbamm finished the construction of the building in 1981. On February 28, 1981, Abdus Sattar, then president of Bangladesh, inaugurated the building.