Syed Moinul Hossain, famed architect who designed the National Martyrs’ Memorial in Savar, died yesterday at the age of 62.
He died at 2:35pm at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, where he was admitted the day before.
President Abdul Hamid, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia expressed deep shock over his death.
Born on March 17, 1952 at Dampara village in Munshiganj, Moinul was eldest among three children. His father was a history professor at Rajendra College in Faridpur. He graduated from Buet in architecture in 1976.
In 1978, his design won a competition for the National Martyrs’ Memorial’s design, beating 56 other design proposals.
Moinul designed around 38 large establishments between 1976 and 1998.
In 1987, he was awarded Ekushey Padak, one of the highest civilian awards in Bangladesh, for his outstanding contribution to the country.
According to architect and poet Rabiul Hussain, after passing out from the university, Mainul Hussain started working with Shahidullah and Associates Limited, an architecture firm.
“When he submitted the work for the competition, we were colleagues. I was his senior at work and he shared with me many things about how he was planning to implement the work. Mainul had a deep commitment to the collective, which was completely reflected in the design and work of the national memorial,” Rabiul said.
“He had a calm and quiet kind of a personality, but the emotion surrounding the historic event had stirred him deeply which could be sensed,” Rabiul said.
“After leaving the architecture firm, he did some other works. He went abroad, faced some family issues and then passed many years in solitude. He was not a social person. As an architect, he was devoted to his work, which were unique and invaluable,” said Rabiul, whose design came out third in the competition that Mainul won.
Badrul Haider, a lifelong friend of the genius architect, said he and Mainul became friends as their fathers were also friends. They were roommates in one of the residential halls of Buet.
He said: “Seeing his design, I decided to drop the idea of submitting my work.”
In Badrul's words, Mainul was introvert, but he always thought of big things. “Whenever he talked, he talked about collective and global issues that had their inferences rooted in national and international proceedings. He was like that until he died.”
Badrul said: “For instance, he would ask about the effects of foreign aid on the post-Liberation War economy.”
Even when Mainul went into his self-enforced mysterious phase of solitude, Badrul was his friend. “Mainul was sad after his divorce. So he secluded himself.”
Art critique Moinuddin Khaled said the design of the national memorial was a significant work, which the mass people must know.
He said: “Architects of Moinul's quality do not come very often. The media should have highlighted him more along with all his his contributions.”
Teacher and architect Ashik Vaskor said: “If you look at the national memorial, you would discover seven structures emerging out of tremendous pressure but maintaining an incredible harmony.
“He wanted to keep these seven structures that symbolise seven important steps and movements in the history of Bangladesh's struggle for liberation, at the centre of everything,” Vaskor added.
He also said: “He was deeply saddened and frustrated after some incidents. He was threatened for his work. He was not even invited to the opening of the memorial in 1982. These may have led him towards adopting seclusion.”