Late 1960
Dhanmondi
Asaf Khan House
In a sparsely populated Dhaka of the 1960s, this one storied residence in Dhanmondi was built to provide an enhanced quality of life to its residents. Built as a bungalow-type house facing a green lawn and a spacious porch on the south, it was evidently designed to let the occupants connect the indoors with the outdoors, through the lawn, surrounding greenery and ambient environment. The house remains as a rare example of a bungalow type house from the past while the surrounding landscape has transformed immensely due to construction of multistoried apartments.
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About Asaf Khan House
The 14 katha plot consists of a lawn, a residence, a garage building with servant’s quarters and a backyard with a machine room and water reservoir. The residential living zone and other outdoor spaces had been weaved altogether to provide a comfortable living experience to the residents. The neat and clean plan with a simple outlook and convenient domestic spaces is a great representation of some of the exemplary works undertaken by architects of the postcolonial period of the 1950s and 60s.
The building was built at the back of the property keeping a large green lawn on the south, which was a symbol of social status and also provided environmental benefits. The lawn was sometimes used by the children to play cricket, as a get-together spot for relatives or sometimes it was the home for the pet animals of the owner. This landscape element - the lawn - has always been an integral part of houses of this type.
Exploring the house
A heritage building need not be a monument or landmark building; it can be representative of an epoch or period in the history of the city in many ways. Through this project, we have captured various perspectives in the form of virtual tours, timelines, stories, photographs, architectural features and locations.
Use the buttons belows to navigate through this page.
Virtual Tour
Timeline
Stories
Photos
Architecture
Location
Virtual tour
The virtual tour is a simulation of an existing location, composed of a sequence of still images. It gives a 360 view of the location and one can easily enjoy an immersive experience of the spaces sitting from anywhere in the world. In this case, this tour is enriched with all the relevant information, it also consists of old photo gallery, audio and video clips and various stories of the house.
The following icons has been used in the virtual tour to easily navigate and view details information, large images, photo gallery and videos. Click and hold and move the mouse or tap on the tour and drag in any direction to rotate the default view. You can also zoom in and zoom out the tour.
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Virtual tour control panel |
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Move to Previous node |
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Move to Previous node |
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Play/ pause Auto rotate |
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Show/ hide information |
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Show/ hide tour thumbs |
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Play/ pause Audio |
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Show large image |
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Show image gallery |
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Play video |
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Next-Previous button on the tour |
Timeline
Residential buildings in cities have been an essential component of the city providing it with an architectural fabric, lifestyle practices and domestic order. However, with social and economic changes, many of the buildings are being replaced by new types, or often altered for insensitive transformations. This timeline shows the glimpse of many changes, many events this house or this neighborhood has witnessed with time.
Stories about Asaf Khan House
All the houses represent a historic social significance of their time, as well as the personal stories of the resident family. As the stories unfold with important events surrounding the house or small details of how a certain space was used, or a furniture and object held dear, it becomes evident how some of these intangible aspects of the history of the house make them a distinctive heritage.
Architectural features
The house follows the pattern of having a bungalow type house with front lawn like many other upper middle class families in Dhaka. Infact, initially the northern side of the house was an orchard with large trees and some staff quarters. Around early 1980s, after property division, the orchard area turned into a multistoried apartment by its owner.
Use of the ground floor in 1970
Legend: 1.Entry Porch, 2.Living Area, 3.Dining area, 4.Toilet, 5.Store Room, 6.Store Room, 7.Kitchen, 8.Toilet, 9.Bedroom, 10.Children play area, 11.Bedroom, 12.Toilet, 13.Toilet, 14.Bedroom
Legend: 1.Entry Porch, 2.Office space, 3.Empty room, 4.Toilet, 5.Store Room, 6.Kitchen, 7.Dining area, 8.Toilet, 8.Bedroom, 9.Storage, 10.Empty room with old furniture, 12.Toilet, 13.Toilet, 14.Empty room
From the grandparents to the children, all residents of the house had been drawn towards the lush green lawn facing the house, as it had played an important part for social gatherings. The front yard also accommodated a large cage where the owner kept pets like monkeys, deers, dogs or even birds. Originally, the lawn was extended to the north east part of the house and there was visual as well as physical access from the east side of the house. Due to the position of the lawn, it appeared like the house was encompassed by seamless greenery.
Photo gallery
Architectural photography and 360° photography has been a major method of documentation for this project. The gallery is categorized into few groups for the convenience of the user to see and understand the various aspects of the houses.
Location
The idea is to select exemplary representatives of distintinctive epochs or cultures in the history of Dhaka. Five distinctive houses from five different areas have been selected from the greater Dhaka Metropolitan area for this phase of the project.
Exploring the house
A heritage building need not be a monument or landmark building; it can be representative of an epoch or period in the history of the city in many ways. Through this project, we have captured various perspectives in the form of virtual tours, timelines, stories, photographs, architectural features and locations.
Use the buttons belows to navigate to the details pages.
