Description

It is not enough that the Head Office building of a Bank serves just the functional requirements. The building must rise beyond functions to embrace the excellence in architecture. Only then can a building project an image that reflects the repute, strength and the prestige DHAKA BANK LIMITED have acquired over the short period of its existence. An image is a strength all be it benign but strength, none the less. Such an image contributes to growth, popularity and the prestige that go with them. Projecting an image of the millennium; modern yet respecting tradition, dynamic but firmly rooted and above all reliable and creative, is the over-riding focus of the proposed design. This does not imply a compromise in function; the proposed design provides more functions than the TOR enumerates.

With the exception of mandatory set-backs required by RAJUK rules, the proposed building utilises the whole site. The main access for both pedestrians and vehicles is from the 150’ wide VIP Road with a secondary entry for executive parking from the lesser road on the east. As the functional spaces in the building will be air-conditioned, thermal gains in building is an important design consideration. To reduce thermal gain service functions such as toilets, lifts, ducts, the air-conditioning machine rooms are on the west, which will be exposed to the scorching afternoon sun in summer. Except for the first three floors, the remaining floors are almost typical with some variation in space articulation.

As per the RAJUK rules a building above 9 floors would require greater setback from property lines reducing the area per floor significantly. Considering space requirement of the client, cost and RAJUK regulations a 9-storey high building is optimum for the site. The frontage of the building is over 100 feet. A flat façade building on this site would be mundane and banal.

To relieve the main street facades of banality it has been necessary to cut and nip the façade and introduce different planes. A diagonal wall at the western corner complemented by the curve of the stair to the plinth and the cylindrical stair to the first and second floors afford a strong sense of direction and definition to the main entrance. The diagonal wall is topped with a communication antenna and its structural support giving the building an illusion of height. The main façade is a composition in tinted curtain glass rectangle, “Alcoa bond” clad wall surfaces and a curved surface. The porch over the pedestrian entry is an abstract sculpture of tempered glass and steel cables. The juxtaposition of the sculptural porch and the antenna amidst the pristine purity of rectangles, cylinder, planes, generates interest and establishes a rapport with the beholder.

The eastern elevation is restrained and simple but reflects the abstract simplicity of the main façade. Its tinted glass curtain walls and “Alcoa bond” maintain the continuity. On the other two sides there is not much in terms of views. On the south is the apartment blocks about 15’ beyond the site and on the west is a vacant lot. One does not know the type of development that will take place on the west. The architects therefore, adopt a minimalist approach in treatment of these two elevations.  Except where necessary for light and ventilation the walls are blank. In terms of surface treatment the same “Alcoa bond” cladding and tinted glass are the indications that the facades belong to the same building.