Bhatshala House Kalindi Apartments Chayanaut Bhaban ASA Head Office Building
Bashirul Haq (24 June 1942 – 4 April 2020) was a Bangladeshi architect, town planner and visiting professor of
MIT. He was regarded as one of the most influential architects in South Asia in terms of environmentally and socially responsive design.
Early life
Haq was born in
Brahmanbaria (now a district of
Bangladesh). His father was a deputy collector from the
Sylhet district and for that reason, Haq spent the majority of his childhood there. He completed his Bachelor of Architecture from the
National College of Arts, in
Lahore,
Pakistan in 1964. He received John Heinrich Tuition, Scholarship and Teaching Assistantship at
University of New Mexico, United States in 1971 and completed his master's in architecture from the university in 1975.[1]
Career
After completing his master's degree, Haq started working for the firm
Kallmann McKinnell. He was interested in returning to his homeland. However, another Bangladeshi-American engineer,
Fazlur Rahman Khan, discouraged him from returning to Bangladesh citing a newly independent war devastated nation. Khan, who was then the partner of
SOM instead interviewed and advised Haq to join there. Khan suggested he visit Europe and return to the USA. But Haq flew to Bangladesh from Europe and started practicing architecture. He established Bashirul Haq & Associates in 1977.[2] After several years of not visiting the United States, in 1989, he visited
Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an invited visiting professor of design.
In his 46 years of professional career, Haq has designed more than 300 buildings. According to Haq, the works of
Alvar Aalto and
Aldo Rossi inspired him most.
Architectural works
Chhayanaut, Dhaka
MIDAS Tower, Dhanmondi, Dhaka
Asra Apartments, Dhanmondi, Dhaka
East West University, Dhaka
Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation Building, Dhaka
Selected works
Residential
Architect's Family Home and Studio, Indira Road, Dhaka
Bhatshala House (Architect's village home), Brahmanbaria
Became part of an International Exhibit Entitled 5000 years of Pakistan
Chairman of the jury board,
Holcim Green Built Bangladesh Award[4][5]
Works exhibition at Swiss Architecture Museum in Basel, Switzerland; 2017.
Works exhibition at “Bengal Stream: The Vibrant Architecture Scene of Bangladesh” in Basel, Switzerland in 2017, and later on in Bordeaux, France in 2018 and in Frankfurt, Germany in 2019.
Publications
1994 “Battling the Storm – Study on Cyclone Resistance Housing“. Published by the German Red Cross, 1999.
Bashirul Haq: Architect. Monograph edited by Iftekhar Ahmed and Sheikh Rubaiya Sultana, was published in 2019 by Copal Publishing with the Department of Architecture of BRAC University.