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A
Twist
of
Fate Richa
Bhattarai
|
Commercial Complex for M/S
Sharma &
Company Pvt. Ltd. and the
architect’s
residence at Sitapaila |
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“MY own
home is one of my favourite architectural
creations,” says architect Uttam Shrestha as he
ushers us in through the gates. Indeed, one can see
why it is his joy and pride. Stepping inside the
compound one feels like entering into a theme park -
the theme being greenery and peace. In the crowded
confines of Kathmandu, it is indeed a refreshing
change to explore a residence plus Shrestha’s
architectural concern, Architects’ Module Private
Limited, that covers a total area of about five
ropanis (1 ropani = 5476 sft), complete with lush
trees, a swing, an artificial pond, a birdhouse,
winding stairways and even a cowshed.
His
personal residence is just a small example of
Shrestha’s professional career, which has spanned
more than twenty-five years till date. He has been
involved in designing and executing numerous
projects in Nepal as well as a range of other
nations like India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand,
Singapore, Malaysia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates,
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, England, The Netherlands,
Switzerland, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium,
Greece, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Zaire, Chad,
Ghana, Senegal, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Quite a
long list. Strangely enough, such an illustrious
architect had no clear goal about his career
beforehand.
Having
completed SLC from Sri Mahendra High School of
Bhimphedi, he joined the Intermediate of Science
stream at ASCOL in 1965. On completion of this
level, he joined the B.Arch. course in the
University of Roorkee of India in 1967. “I had no
special knowledge about architecture,” he admits,
“In those days, any student who secured good marks
in science opted for architecture. I took the same
path believing it would help me in constructing
beautiful buildings.” When he returned back as the
seventh architect of Nepal in 1972, he found that
there were very few people who knew about the
architect’s role in society. Private practices were
few and clients were even fewer. “The leading
professionals practicing architecture then were
Robert Weise, Shanker Nath Rimal and Jyan Bahadur
Pradhan, although Shanker Nath and Jyan Bahadur were
both civil engineers by training. Ganga Dhar Bhatta
Halabe was the first Nepalese architect but he opted
not to stick to this profession for long,” Shrestha
recalls. Nevertheless architecture was a virgin
sector with lots of area for expansion. He joined
the Department of Housing of Building and Physical
Planning in 1972. During this tenure at the
Departmant, as an architect that lasted for six
years, he undertook prestigious projects like the
V.V.I.P. Lounge for Royal Guests at Tribhuwan
International Airport and the Coronation Mandap at
Tundikhel.
Talking
about the architectural trends of those times, he
recalls, “Architects were asked to incorporate
pagoda style roofs in every building - especially
the government ones. The officials would not even
approve a design until it had such a roof. I
resisted this as I believed that such a roof was
suitable only for special buildings and not for each
and every one.” He reveals how all the construction
materials had to be imported from India.
Shrestha
also talks of how his clients have changed over the
ages, “When we began work, there were few educated
clients. They handed over the whole project
trustingly to us. But now the clients are themselves
very knowledgeable and provide valuable inputs. I
enjoy working with them, but I do think some clients
are overbearing as they bring back photographs of
buildings from other countries and want to have all
the styles meshed into one.”
Speaking
of countries, he has himself toured many of them and
explored their architecture. “Having travelled to
various nations extensively, I had the opportunity
to observe buildings and cities around the world,”
he divulges candidly, “But it is very difficult to
pin point a particular country of architectural
merit. Countries like Italy and France are extremely
rich in terms of historical architecture. As far as
modern architecture is concerned, every developed
nation is in a similar footing. The historical
cities of African nations, however, have completely
different type of building structures and is
comparable with that of any other western nations.”
His fate seems to have a close connection with
African nations. While he was still at school, one
of his Nepali teachers read out stories about Kenya
and Tanzania. These stories of the African countries
fascinated him so much that immediately after his
wedding in 1978, the couple left for a tour to the
dark continent. Having reached Lagos during their
adventurous trip, they discovered that it was the
most expensive city of that time and that their
funds were dwindling alarmingly low.
In this
confusing period, the couple boarded a bus and that
was when their life took a dramatic turn, not unlike
a modern-day fairy tale. In the bus, they were
acquainted with a gentleman whose car had had a
breakdown. It was a coincidence that he happened to
be the General Secretary of Nigerian Civil Engineers
Association. Upon learning that Shrestha was an
architect from Nepal, he suggested that Shrestha
practice architecture in Lagos. The next day he took
Shrestha on a tour of various firms until Shrestha
zeroed in on Modular Group Architects where he was
immediately offered the post of senior architect.
When Shrestha realized the surprising fact that his
monthly salary there would equal three-and-
half-years salary of Nepal, he bowed down to this
amazing design of his fate and immediately began
work. Rapidly progressing to the post of Deputy
Chief Architect within four years, , in 1982 he was
promoted to Chief Architect and Housing Expert.
During these twelve years in the organization, he
travelled to numerous countries and enjoyed their
unique lifestyle. His responsibilities included
architectural design, contract administration and
supervision of various design works. But then,
homesickness and insecurity began to remind him of
his motherland. He confesses, “I felt that I needed
to return back and establish myself here, as I did
not plan to live there permanently.” Although he has
no regrets of leaving the opulent life there, he did
initially want to go back a few times, particularly
for his eldest daughter, who had difficulty
adjusting to the traditional lifestyle of Kathmandu.
His daughter is herself a budding architect at
present.
Immediately after his return in 1984, Shrestha
joined Building Design Authority of Hitti Durbar and
specially remembers Tom Crees for his artistic
prowess. In 1989, he established his own firm,
Architects’ Module Private Limited, through which he
has been handling projects till date. Of the many
government projects handled by the firm, Shrestha
remembers a study conducted early in 1990 – one
which best describes the architects initial energy
towards his profession and country, as well as the
apathy of the government which probably remains till
date. Jointly undertaken by Halcrow Fox and
Associates of London, PAK-POY & KNEEBONE LTD. of
Australia, CEMAT Consultants of Nepal and his firm
Architects Module, the study costing twenty million
rupees then, was an extensive survey on the Socio-
Economic Status in the Valley, Building Condition
and Architectural Merit within the traditional core
area of Kathmandu Valley, Population Density and
Growth Pattern in the Valley from 1953 to
1990, and most interesting of all, Preparation of
Strategic Plan of the Valley for 25 years till 2015.
Shrestha ruefully comments, “Unfortunately, all our
submitted plans and records remains stored in the
archives. I was very upset about the waste of time,
money and effort.” Shrestha was the team leader of
the local professional
staffs for the project.
It is no
wonder that when such plans are stacked out of
sight, the constructions in the Valley continue to
grow in their haphazard and disorganized manner.
“Individual buildings of Kathmandu by themselves are
beautiful,” Shrestha defends the modern
constructions, “But the overall view is very
unpleasant. While conducting the survey, I
discovered that the majority of residents are
neither aware nor concerned about
the hazardous effects of such unplanned growth.” He
even provides an example of a palace like house
constructed in Thahity, Kathmandu, which has such a
narrow entry into its compound that a person cannot
walk in upright. “As there is no way of controlling
a natural calamity, lack of systematic planning for
the future spells disaster,” Shrestha explains, “I
even saw another house near Jaisideval, which has
been divided by five brothers, turning it into an
ugly structure.”
Shrestha
believes that the government is to be blamed most
for this irregularity, “This trend should be
supervised and controlled by the municipality and
bureaucracy itself. The designs of such structures
should not even be approved.” But he also discusses
the role to be played by clients, “They should plan
far into the future and should not leave their
buildings to overseers just for the sake of saving
the initial cost.” Shrestha feels that the best way
of dealing with this problem is to focus on
space-efficiency. He explains, “The most minimum
space can be efficiently managed to create comfort.”
In fact, Shrestha himself emphasises on this while
planning a project. He is quite in favour of multi-storeyed
buildings, as
they are great space-savers. “But,” he cautions,
“even structurally stable multi-stories may be
hampered by economic constraints and lack of
supervision.”
He urges
clients not to interfere unnecessarily with the
architects during construction, and not to insist on
whatever unqualified people advise. He is also
discouraged by the lack of maintenance of finished
projects. He points out, “Millions are spent on
construction but there is no attention given to
basic maintenance like painting, sanitary management
or replacements. Unless a separate budget is
allocated to these, there can be no planned
construction.”
Shrestha
is equally concerned about heritage conservation. He
recounts a project especially close to his heart,
when he worked to conserve the historical houses of
Pokhara. He chose ten houses from Bhairab,
Ramkrishna and Ganesh Tole which had historically
significant value and even drew plans for them so
that the outlook could be preserved. But the
residents were unwilling to preserve the houses,
even though they were offered materials at highly
subsidized rates. “Only three houses carried out the
projects,” he informs, “But I believe that such
historically significant architectures ought to be
preserved and glorified.” Another need he
appreciates is the need to construct eco-friendly
buildings. “Most clients do not accept it because of
the initial investment, “he says, “But a building
has to try to be energyefficient.”
He has
interacted with various students of architecture
while acting as juror for their thesis and
presentations. He opines, “Today’s students are
definitely different from the students of our times.
They are much more confident and spontaneous. They
don’t hesitate like we used to. But I am concerned
that the rapid rise in quantity may compromise
on the quality.” Shrestha is full of praise for the
younger generation, “They are creative and come up
with novel ideas. They should be provided a platform
through free competitions.” Shrestha has himself
been a judge for various such competitions. “I
encourage designs to be submitted in black-and-white
so that uniformity is maintained,” he clarifies,
“The first impression a judge gets is the design’s
external look. However the overall space planning
and its functional relationships are the major
factors to be judged in any design work.” He was
most impressed by Ar. Tom Crees, the winner of the
design competition for the ICIMOD headquarters
building complex in 2001, of which he was chief of
the Jury panel.
Talking
about his own design, Shrestha is most satisfied of
his work on Lumbini Eye Institute Building Complex.
He smiles, “This building was constructed exactly as
per my plan and design. Even the cost was as
estimated. Though I now hear that the building is
being poorly maintained and repartitioned at places
in recent days. This is very unfortunate.” When
asked about his dream project, he shares his desire
of establishing a small model town of international
standard.
Asked
about his views on the new Nepal Planning Commission
building to be constructed within the Singha Durbar
premises, he advocates that no further developments
should take place within Singha Durbar. “A complex
of such national prestige should have maximum of
open spaces landscaped befitting our nation,”
Shrestha opines.
Shrestha’s extensive career also includes the post
of president of Society of Nepalese Architects (SONA)
from 1999- 2001. He frankly admits that although
this society has tried to uphold the professional
standards of architects and raise awareness
concerning them, it has not been able to take any
concrete steps in this matter. He cites some
negative influences as the cause and hopes that they
can be eliminated along with the rise of young and
dedicated architects.
He seems
to be quite supportive of young architects as he
opines, “They should be given priority in handling
projects. But I feel they would gain in experience
and respect if they first joined more experienced
firms instead of setting up personal ones
immediately after their graduation. They should take
care to be intelligent, diligent and honest.” While
he is impressed by the works of young architects
like Sarosh Pradhan, to the more mature architects,
he has this advice, “It is time to let the younger
generation have their share. We should just be
available to guide and counsel them.” In this
respect, he admires the works of architects Bibhuti
Man Singh Shrestha, his own classmate in I.Sc; as
well as Jyoti Sherchan. And to the readers in
general, he just has this friendly and useful
suggestion, “If you consult architects while
constructing your buildings, you will never have to
repent.”
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