Tropical Pavilion: A sustainable, poetic retreat
The total area of the house is 1000 sq. ft, although the overall land area was four katha or about 2,880 square feet. The rest of the area has been used to create waterways and plant trees to invite birds, butterflies, and other animals
At first glance, Zannat Jui-designed Tropical Pavilion in Gazipur seems to be taken from the pages of a poetry book, with its north-south facing transparent doors, waterways along both sides of the sitting area, its classic brick-layer exterior, and a courtyard that can be best described as a playground for the flora and fauna.
As Zannat Jui, the principal architect of the project said, "It is a shelter to celebrate nature, where people can enjoy the sunset and sunrise and embrace nature. I like to think of the residence as a 'Tropical Pavilion' instead of a house." The project also reflected what the client wanted: "ekdom kobitar moto ekta bari", or a poetic home.
As Zannat said, "My client Sabina Sabi is a prominent journalist in the country. One day, she called me and asked me to design a vacation house for her. Her children lived abroad. She wanted me to create a vacation home for them so that they can go there to relax when they come to Bangladesh. In terms of design, she wanted me to build a house as though it were taken out of the pages of a poem."
Embracing the nature
Tropical Pavilion epitomises Zannat Jui's philosophy as an architect: embracing nature and building as little as possible. The total area of the house is 1000 sq. ft, although the overall land area was four katha or about 2,880 square feet. The rest of the area has been used to create waterways and plant trees to invite birds, butterflies, and other animals.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
The pavilion, in essence, is a vacation house aligned in the north-south direction to ensure passive cooling. This house, on a rectilinear plot, is divided into two parts, forming a "T". It has been designed in such a way that allows summer wind to flow, by keeping the north-south open.
"Let the wind flow, let the firefly glow, and let the water create sounds along with the winds – this was the design concept for this particular project," said Zannat.
Another component of the project is accommodating the service areas as well as two bedrooms, with little exposure at the western façade to avoid the heat. The core component of the residence houses the living and dining areas, where the family can get together and spend quality time together while enjoying the beautiful courtyard and the surrounding ecosystem.
This part is open from almost all sides to allow the interplay of light, shade, and breeze. Two water bodies are positioned in both the north and south directions to facilitate the cooling effect during the warm summer.
"Although most modern architecture no longer practices this, the integration of waterways into infrastructure has been practiced from the Mughal era. The south-north wind flow keeps the temperature in control without requiring additional air conditioning," said Zannat.
The landscape of this project was carefully designed and implemented with varieties of plants and vegetation ranging from bamboo, orange jasmine, the flame of the forest, Burmese shonalu, frangipani, guava, star fruit, Spanish cherry, and the golden shower tree which attracts local birds and butterflies and creates new biodiversity for the area.
The philosophy behind the design
Zannat believes that given their ability to build behemoths out of nothing, there is a sense of arrogance among architects. "We envision things and they happen. As a result, many architects consider them to be something equivalent to a god. But this tendency has also led them astray and decoupled them from mother nature," said Zannat.
"When I designed the place, not only did I want to minimise the adverse effects on the surrounding ecosystem, but also wanted to ensure that the house became a part of it and invited the flora and fauna and play around in its vicinity," she added.
Zannat Jui wants to focus on the regeneration of biodiversity and balancing the ecosystem which is now under threat not only in Bangladesh but in the world; her motto is "Small Steps Big Impacts".
"I believe that built environments do not always have to impact the biodiversity and natural ecosystem negatively, but rather celebrate, conserve, and rejuvenate it," said Jui.
Sustainable architecture
Out of her concern for the 'extreme' loss of biodiversity in Dhaka, Zannat believes in inviting biodiversity through her design. She believes that we are destroying nature by creating settlements, even though human beings are also part of nature.
However, this loss of biodiversity affected us more than it affected the plants and animals around us. We failed to create a sustainable ecosystem for the next generation.
"This is why I wanted to build a residence that also fosters biodiversity. With the careful and precise selection of trees, the design is intended to attract birds and butterflies to this tropical pavilion," said Zannat.
Zannat Jui also believes in sustainable building practices. Since the location for the building was in Gazipur, transporting materials from Dhaka to the location would increase the expenses and also incur a significant carbon footprint for the construction, she prioritised locally sourced materials for construction.
"We wanted to use materials that had the least carbon footprint. Firstly, we avoided using any foreign materials. Since the project was relatively small and a bit far away in Gazipur, I tried to use locally-produced brick, glass, etc. instead of transporting them from Dhaka. We ensured that we used the cheapest possible materials and spared any avoidable expenses," said Zannat Jui.
"It would be even better if we could use natural materials like wood, clay, etc. But it's difficult to find masons who are skilled in working with clay," she added.
However, she used fired bricks in the construction which are produced in kilns and are one of the largest contributors to air pollution in Bangladesh. When asked about why she didn't use more sustainable alternatives to fired bricks, Zannat said, "Most alternatives to bricks such as hollow blocks are still being tested for safety and architects are yet to reach a consensus about their safety. And when it comes to safety versus sustainability, I prefer to side with safety first."
Zannat stressed the fact that she tried her best to minimise the cost of the project. When asked about the overall expenses to build the vacation house, she said it cost approximately Tk40 lakhs.
