Shikor: Interpreting tradition in modern architectural language

Saber Ahmed Khan decided to build a new house in his native village after he retired from his job as a school teacher in Chattogram in 2007. His parents' house in the Shikder Para village in Banshkhali Upazila, the South-most part of Chattogram, had become too old and almost uninhabitable. 

Like anyone that grew up in their 'gramer bari' (village home), Khan's connection to this house never eroded, prompting him and his wife Tahmina Begum, also a retired school teacher, deciding to build a new house there. 

But unlike most people who reconstruct houses on their native lands, the Khan couple wanted to build a house that would not be just a regurgitation of unimaginative designs with modern facilities thrown in. 

They wanted to create an inviting abode where their children and grandchildren can come back to and which they can be proud of, but also something that is built meaningfully, marrying tradition to modernity. 

Spatial Architects, an architect firm in Dhaka, took up the project of building this house to materialise the couples' vision. One of the lead architects of the project, Mohammad Naimul Ahsan Khan says that the design they created and built honours the characteristics of traditional homes and highlights how nature changes through time.

Architect Khan, along with the other lead architect Farzana Rahman and associate designer Nusrat Azim Mithila designed and finished building of the house in 2019. The house was named 'Shikor' (root). 

Shikor is everything one would not expect to see at a remote Chattogram village. 

The two storey, 440 square metres house, built utilising "the most of all the natural resources granted by the landscape" features perforated outlying walls and skylights, "convert[ing] every corner of the house into a living museum of light and shadow." 

But the house "Blends with its setting, creating no cultural shock," said Mohammad Naimul Ahsan Khan. 

The architect said they studied the region's architectural features and interpreted those in contemporary architectural language. 

"The house is an example of the sophisticated transformation that establishes a link between the urban and rural lifestyle and architecture," 

The house is built with local handmade bricks, as well as locally produced concrete, woods, mild steels, etc. The total construction cost for the build was around Tk65 lakh. 

"The house is arranged with wooden furniture, made of recycled wood from old houses. Also, in addition to conventional bamboo-made shades, native metal water pots are reshaped as light covers," 

"Our working process is very simple; being vernacular, we try to exchange dialogue with the site and its surroundings as well as allow the site to introduce itself to us. This part is quite essential for a project," he added.  

The result, said the architect, is something "that is at once perceivably timeless but also one that is bound to 'age' and not 'decay.'"

Inside the house 

The ambient inside the house varies from sunrise to sunset. The ground floor is divided between the Kachari, formal living room – located in an isolated front, and the dining hall that is exposed to the outside through the projected balcony. 

The layout of the upper floor is inspired by a resort. In order to maintain a balance between privacy and conviviality, the bedrooms are allocated on the first floor. 

An indoor pond is situated in the central double-height space (the cavaedium) of the house, where a staircase also goes over the left side of the pond to the top floor. A set of steps also lead to the inside of the pond as the goal here was to mimic the vibe of a typical village jolghat (a covered pond stairway for female baths).

"Skylights through the screen walls reflect on the pond's water and create a beautiful ambience which is very close to my childhood memories of the jolghat," said Naimul Ahsan. 

The back part of this picturesque farmhouse features open porches facing farmlands and a pond that was cleverly merged into a part of the house. An island was also created over the pond to avoid cutting down the existing trees of this site.

Recognition 

Shikor has bagged a series of prestigious awards for its outstanding architectural achievements. 

It won the IAB Commendation 2020 ('Dwelling' category), the Gold Diploma ('Private House' category) in the Eurasian Prize 2021, Russia, and the Best of Best ('Single Family Residential Architecture' category) award at the Architecture Master Prize 2021, California, USA.