Embassy of the Republic of Turkey in Dhaka building design, Teknaf architecture photos
Embassy of the Republic of Turkey in Dhaka, Bangladesh
24 December 2022
Architects: Uygur Architects
Location: Bangladesh, South Asia
Embassy of the Republic of Turkey in Dhaka
Photos by Asif Salman
Embassy of the Republic of Turkey Building in Dhaka, Bangladesh
“The original tropical climate was very different from what we were used to. We realized on the first visit that the dominant material in the streets and the region, and the cultural difference in spatial use would build the backbone of this architectural story. We contemplated and tried a lot to focus on the fact that the final structure should both belong to the region it is located, Bangladesh, and express the country it represents, the Republic of Turkey.”
The structure of the Embassy of the Republic of Turkey in Dhaka is located on the main road of a district reserved as the Diplomatic Site. It resides on a plot that neighbors the Embassy of the Republic of Korea on one side, and the Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the other, as well as the Embassies of Canada and the United States of America across the road. The smaller land size in comparison to the neighboring embassies and the intensive content of the requirements program can be considered as one of the challenging aspects of the project process.
The program mainly includes the consulate, chancery, ambassador’s residence, reception rooms, lodgement, and guest accommodation units. The change in exact dimensions of the land for various reasons in the process and the ambassador changes have extended the project time course. Although the main decisions and the concept remained the same, there have been changes in the program content and the final project.
After evaluating the subjects of security and economic circumstances, and quality housing conditions in the context of Dhaka, it was preferred to solve the accommodation needs of the administrative staff within the embassy complex, so the number of lodgements was increased. As the size of the land is not suitable for solving the intensive requirements program with a fragmented scheme, the user groups with different circulation relationships, privacy, and security needs are separated from each other and resolved in one focal structure.
The start of this project’s narrative can be considered as the architects’ visit to Dhaka due to its inspiring references and the authenticity of the local features. The climate, along with the dominant material in the region, played a directing role in setting up the principal imagery for the design. Recognizing the open-air living routines of the tropical climate as important cultural data, the outdoor features such as courtyard, covering, street, balcony, terrace, brise-soleil, and canopy have shaped the principal imagery through re-interpretation.
At the same time, ‘covered outdoor‘ features are utilized to integrate the interpretations of semi-open space into the design to accommodate the need for shelter from this climate’s seasonal rainfalls. When all these aspects translate into the design, the neighborhood experience is re-interpreted within the complex, and the elements mentioned play a defining part in the overall volume of the structure. Open and covered street set-ups, defined passages, and meticulously designed circulation spaces offer a multifaceted sense to the user in an otherwise unsegmented plot considering its size.
The design rises with the arrangement of the private spaces and the areas of external use around a courtyard, separate from each other but in a transitive set-up. The residence and guest accommodation units are placed within the periphery of the courtyard, and the reception room that opens out to the garden is planned under the residence area. Even though the structure is perceived as a single and large volume, following this plan solution where each unit’s privacy and its defined relationships with other units are pursued, it actually turns into a compact complex of smaller buildings with their own circulations, terraces, and eaves.
The prismatic forms of the masses are enriched with architectural elements that create light and shadow plays under the sharp sunlight. The courtyard element utterly becomes the center of gravity of a permeable set-up where the interrelations of the units get intricate. Items from the history of the Republic of Turkey that the building represents, such as iwan and crown gates, have been isolated and re-interpreted to give the building a contemporary and unique identity.
In architecture, the composition of materials has an important role in constructing a spatial identity and memory. In the Embassy of the Republic of Turkey in Dhaka, the coexistence of the Marmara Marble unique to Anatolia, and the brick which is a local material unique to Dhaka, merges the country it represents with the country it is located in a defined volume. The conciseness of the material repertoire consisting of exposed concrete, white marble, and red brick forms a tectonic that fuses this structure combining different programs under the same roof through language unity.
The separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan, which is one of the important milestones in its political history, and the architectural story of the iconic parliamentary building built during this period were studied during the project design phase, and its architect Louis Kahn’s works during the design process were examined. In the structure of the Embassy of the Republic of Turkey in Dhaka, the architects could not help but make references to the inspiring architecture of Kahn’s parliament building and embroidered these references in the original set-up of the structure. The style that the brick is used and the belt element in the complex can be regarded as examples of these.
Embassy of the Republic of Turkey in Dhaka, Bangladesh – Building Information
Project name: Embassy of the Republic of Turkey in Dhaka
Company name: Uygur Architects
Website: https://www.uygurarchitects.com ; Contact e-mail: press@uygurarchitects.com
Location: Dhaka, Bangladesh, South Asia
Project Year: 2015
Construction Area: 6.146 m2
Completion Year: 2020
Other participants:
Principal Architects: Semra Uygur, Özcan Uygur
Structural Engineer: Prota Engineering
Mechanical Engineer: Bahri Türkmen Engineering
Electrical Engineer: Hasan Sinan Oktay
Infrastructure: Barbaros Bıçakçı
Consultant: Prof. Dr. Aydan Balamir
Client: Republic of Turkey Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Photo credits: Asif Salman
Embassy of the Republic of Turkey in Dhaka, Bangladesh images / information received 231222 from Uygur Architects
Location: Bangladesh, Asia
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