Study on the evolution of physical and spatial attributes in the architectural works of Robert G. Boughey in Bangladesh

Abstract

From 1930 to 1950, the years are significant for political turbulence and change, not only in Asia but worldwide as many countries achieved their political liberty from European subjugation. The partition of India in 1947 resulted in the emergence of a new context with the new socio-political and geographical territory. For the sake of new identity for the new context, several initiatives were taken to revive the cultural growth and as a consequence, some new architectural developments were observed in both East and West Pakistan that were unseen since colonial subjugation. Due to the very limited number of local architects, several foreign architects were hired in East Pakistan during the mid-fifties to late-sixties under different international agencies to design and conduct local development projects. Foreign architects Louis I. Kahn, Paul Rudolph, C. A. Doxiadis, Richard Neutra, Daniel Dunham, Robert G. Boughey, Stanley Tigerman have significantly contributed in shaping up the architectural outlook of a newly decolonized country. Among these architects, a young aspirant architect Robert George Boughey (RGB), the chief architect of Louis Berger Ltd in East Pakistan was well embedded in the context and gradually developed a consistent architectural language, consist of vocabularies developed through intimate scrutiny of the local context. With a mainstream modernist training, how he introduced such architectural vocabulary in his early stage of career, strikes in mind while visiting his works in Bangladesh. How architect Boughey’s sensitive architectural thoughts responded to warm humid subtropical climatic context, its unique regional identity and complex cultural reality in terms of developing the physical attributes and spatial articulation, is the primary topic of research. The objective of this study is to analyze and synthesize the works of architect Boughey with the help of some evaluative criteria used in the domain of architectural research in the field of History, Theory, and Criticism to trace the evolution of physical and spatial attributes in his works and to locate his position in the broader history of Tropical Modernism in this region. This research has gone through a sequential process of literature review, case study survey, collection of drawings, taking interviews for archival and evidential resource exploration; and finally the analysis of the collected works through identified elements with the help of evaluative criteria to identify his design considerations and to locate him among the pioneer architects whose work have played significant roles in establishing theory and practices of region-specific late modernism and beyond, particularly in the non-Eurocentric context. The findings from his architectural principles manifested in real projects, are reviewed against the core value of the theories of modernism and beyond to trace the significance of his architectural works to establish him as a true pioneer of Tropical Modernism and Critical Regionalism in the history of South Asian modern architecture in the post-colonial era.