Tropicality of Colonial Heritage Buildings in a Deltaic Landscape: British Colonial Architecture in Khulna
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25120/etropic.19.2.2020.3762Keywords:
Tropicality, Colonial Architecture, Deltaic Landscape, Architectural Heritage, Urbanisation, Bengal, KhulnaAbstract
During the 17th-18th century colonial period on the Indian subcontinent, British colonial architecture flourished – including in the Bengal Delta. Although colonial architecture was inherently different from the traditional architecture of this tropical region, the monsoon climate and deltaic landscape forced colonial style buildings to incorporate a number of tropical architectural features to ensure climatic comfort. In the contemporary period, due to pressure from population density, many colonial buildings have been demolished and replaced with multi-story buildings. However, the tropical forces of this deltaic region need to be evaluated in order to re-create climate responsive architecture. This study aims to identify tropical architectural features inherent within colonial buildings of Khulna, Bangladesh, a city which formed a junction in the deltaic region during the colonial period. Four colonial buildings have been selected as case studies: two residential buildings, one mixed-use building, and a school. Tropical features were analysed from photographic data, and reproductions of plans and sections of the selected buildings, in order to reveal the significant tropical architectural features of these colonial period buildings. The case studies reveal structural and design elements that aided ventilation and air flow, and controlled solar radiation, humidity and driving rain. The findings aim to encourage practicing architects to rethink climate responsiveness in contemporary buildings in Bangladesh, by revealing how, a century ago, colonial buildings were influenced by the tropical deltaic climate, which impacted foreign architectural ideology and practice.
References
Adnan, E.R. & Islam, T. (2018). Late colonial period merchant houses at Birulia: A study on architectural features. In Samarawickrama, S. et al. (Eds.) Proceedings of the 11th International Conference of Faculty of Architecture Research Unit (pp. 316-324). Galle, Sri Lanka: University of Moratuwa.
Afzal, F. (2018). British Colonial Architecture in Bengal. Retrieved from https://www.thedailystar.net/in-focus/british-colonial-architecture-bengal-1536610
Antaryama, I.G.N., Ekasiwi, S.N.N., Mappajaya, A., & Ulum, M.S. (2018, March). Thermally adapted design strategy of colonial houses in Surabaya. In IOP ConfSer: Earth Environ Sci 126, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/126/1/012048
Atkinson, F. (1969). The genesis of modern tropical architecture. Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 117(5156), 546-561. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41370384
Atkinson, G. A. (1953). An introduction to tropical building design. Architectural Design, 23(Oct), 268.
Bodach, S., Lang, W., & Hamhaber, J. (2014). Climate responsive building design strategies of vernacular architecture in Nepal. Energy and Buildings, 81, 227-242. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2014.06.022
Basak, J. K., Titumir, R. A. M., & Dey, N. C. (2013). Climate change in Bangladesh: a historical analysis of temperature and rainfall data. Journal of Environment, 2(2), 41-46.
Chang, J. H. (2016). A genealogy of tropical architecture: Colonial networks, nature and technoscience. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315712680
Chang, J. H., & King, A. D. (2011). Towards a genealogy of tropical architecture: Historical fragments of power‐knowledge, built environment and climate in the British colonial territories. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 32(3), 283-300. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9493.2011.00434.x
Chee, L., Chang, J. H., & Wong, B. C. (2011). Introduction–‘Tropicality‐in‐motion’: Situating tropical architecture. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 32(3), 277-282. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9493.2011.00433.x
Ching, F. D., Jarzombek, M. M., & Prakash, V. (2017). A global history of architecture. John Wiley & Sons.
Dili, A. S., Naseer, M. A., & Varghese, T. Z. (2010). Passive environment control system of Kerala vernacular residential architecture for a comfortable indoor environment: A qualitative and quantitative analyses. Energy and Buildings, 42(6), 917-927. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2010.01.002
Doza, S. B. & Ema, E. A. K. (2019). ‘Architecture is Endless’- in the Changing Landscape of the Delta. In Conference Proceedings of Archasia, Dhaka.
Fatemi, N. M., & Islam, N. (2011). Sustainability and Eco-Adaptibility in Vernacular Housing in Bangladesh. International Conference on Society, Technology & Sustainable Development. Kochi, India.
Hildegardis, C., Saraswati, A. A. A. O., & Dewi, N. K. A. (2019). Review of Thermal Comfort in Warm Humid Climate for Traditional Architecture in Indonesia. KnE Social Sciences, 151-167. https://doi.org/10.18502/kss.v3i21.4965
Jackson, I. (2013). Tropical architecture and the West Indies: from military advances and tropical medicine, to Robert Gardner-Medwin and the networks of tropical modernism. The Journal of Architecture, 18 (2), 167-195. https://doi.org/10.1080/13602365.2013.781202
Koenigsberger, O. H., Ingersoll, O.H. & Mayhew, T.G. (1975). Manual of tropical housing & building. Orient Blackswan.
Kramer, K. (2006). Applying the Lessons of Indian Vernacular Architecture: The Bungalow as Example of Adaptive Climatic Response. The 23rd Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, (6-8 September). Geneva, Switzerland
Kubota, T., & Toe, D. H. C. (2015). Application of passive cooling techniques in vernacular houses to modern urban houses: A case study of Malaysia. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 179, 29-39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.02.408
Lundberg, A. (2008). Material Poetics of a Malay House. TAJA The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 19 (1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1835-9310.2008.tb00102.x
Metcalf, T.R. (1989). An imperial vision: Indian architecture and Britain's Raj. University of California Press.
Mridha, A.M.M.H. & Khan, M.A. (2004). The Legacy of colonial architecture in Khulna city. Khulna University Studies, 4 (2), 713-24.
Nargis, P., Ismail, S., Utaberta, N., Yunos, M. Y. M., Ismail, N. A., & Arifin, N. F. M. (2015). A review on the architectural styles of colonial buildings Bangladesh: case study on three prominent colonial establishment in Dhaka. Advances in Environmental Biology, 9(24), 6-11.
Naylor, S. (2010). The ethos of ‘the Queenslander’: a Journey into the art of building in North Queensland. (Refereed proceedings of the Tropics of the Imagination Conference, James Cook University, Cairns). eTropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics, 9. https://doi.org/10.25120/etropic.9.0.2010.3424
Patra, A., & Bhaskaran, P. K. (2016). Trends in wind‐wave climate over the head Bay of Bengal region. International Journal of Climatology, 36(13), 4222-4240. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.4627
Rahaman, H. (2008). The Legacy of Colonial Buildings in Khulna City - An Approach to Digital Documentation. In M. Ioannides, A. Addison, A. Georgopoulos, & L. Kalisperis (Eds). Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Virtual Systems and Multimedia. Limassol, Cyprus.
Sanusi A.N.Z., Azmin A.K., Abdullah F., & Kassim M.H. (2019) Climatic Adaptations of Colonial School Buildings in Malaysia. In Sayigh A. (Ed.) Sustainable Vernacular Architecture. Innovative Renewable Energy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-06185-2_14
Shamsuddin, A. K. (1986), Khulna Shahorer Aadi Parbo. Eastern Press.
Shannon, K. (2014). Beyond Tropical Regionalism: The Architecture of Southeast Asia. In E.G. Haddad & D. Rifkin (Eds.), A Critical History of Contemporary Architecture: 1960-2010 (pp. 359-377). Ashgate Publishing Ltd.
Singh, M. K., Mahapatra, S., & Atreya, S. K. (2011). Solar passive features in vernacular architecture of North-East India. Solar Energy, 85(9), 2011-2022 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2011.05.009
Sobhan, R., Saha, K., & Nahyan, M. (2013). The architecture of ‘Bangla Batton’ houses in Sylhet city: An ethnographical study on vernacular house form. In Proceedings of CAA Dhaka General Assembly & Conference. Dhaka, Bangladesh. http://www.comarchitect.org/wp-content/dhaka-2013/pdf_file/cd-%20tp%2006.pdf
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 CC-BY
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who submit articles to this journal agree to the following terms:
1. Authors are responsible for ensuring that any material that has influenced the research or writing has been properly cited and credited both in the text and in the Reference List (Bibliography). Contributors are responsible for gaining copyright clearance on figures, photographs or lengthy quotes used in their manuscript that have been published elsewhere.
2. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) License that allows others to share and adapt the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
3. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository, or publish it in a book), with proper acknowledgement of the work's initial publication in this journal.
4. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (see The Effect of Open Access or The Open Access Citation Advantage). Where authors include such a work in an institutional repository or on their website (i.e., a copy of a work which has been published in eTropic, or a pre-print or post-print version of that work), we request that they include a statement that acknowledges the eTropic publication including the name of the journal, the volume number and a web-link to the journal item.
5. Authors should be aware that the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) License permits readers to share (copy and redistribute the work in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the work) for any purpose, even commercially, provided they also give appropriate credit to the work, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. They may do these things in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests you or your publisher endorses their use.