Project Location: Bijoy Sarani, Dhaka

Client: Bangladesh Armed Forces

Site Area: 9.3 Acres

Year of Commencement: 2016

Year of Completion: 2022

Architectural consultant: Ar. Ali Imam and Ar. Bayejid Mahbub Khondker

Associate Architects: Ar. Samiul Alam. Landscaping - Ar. Shahidullah Faruq, Ar. Rabiul Islam Rabi

Structural Consultant: Advance Engineering (Engr. Monayem Hossain, Ruma Rani Boshak)

MEP Consultant: SM Engineering (Engr. Mustafizur Rahman)

Interior Consultant: Nazneen Haque Mimi, Ar. Tanzim Hasan Selim, Ar. MD. Safayet, Ar. Rammya Rahim Chowdhury

Lighting: Platform Solution

‘Bangladesh Military Museum’ is a museum that showcases the history, heritage and activities of the Bangladesh military. It is also known as ‘Bangabandhu Military Museum’.

In addition to being a repository of military history, the museum also serves as an urban-cultural landmark. Its various civic and educational programs captivate visitors. Its exhibition spaces, such as an amphitheater, conference rooms, dining, cinema halls, etc., create cultural, recreational and social engagement among its visitors.

Site and Context

Bangabandhu Military Museum is built on 10 acres of land to the east of the National Parliament Building and the west of the Bangabandhu Novotheater. Just opposite the site are the Air Force Park and the Ganabhaban and Slaughterhouse of the old airport. The site is accessed via Bijoy Sarani Road in Dhaka.

Zoning:

Various military equipment from before and after independence is kept here. It is zoned by three separate courts, each with a different purpose:

Formal Court (Silver) - Located at the front, this court is used as the main entrance and gathering place for the public. It has beautiful seating arrangements and rows of green trees. It creates a welcoming environment for visitors.

Informal Court (Blue) - This circular green space has a central water body. This court serves as an outdoor exhibition space.

Cultural Court (Green) - An amphitheatre has been introduced here to host cultural events.

The Formal Court is a designated area from where visitors are taken to visit the museum in an orderly manner. Visitors move freely in the Informal Court and the Cultural Court. The rows of tall green trees enhance the overall aesthetics of the site. The project includes essential public amenities such as food stalls and toilets, making the place popular with visitors.

Design Considerations:

Upon entering the building premises, the attractive central plaza catches the eye of the visitor. The main building is connected to a circular green court. The spacious court at the front, the variation in height of each floor and the beautiful view of the museum from any direction make it perhaps one of the best museums in Bangladesh.

Light: A Choreography of Illumination and Shadow

• Exhibit-Centric Lighting Strategy: The primary gallery spaces eschew conventional ambient lighting in favor of focused illumination that dramatizes artifacts and enhances the narrative potency of the exhibits.

• Natural Light as a Spatial Moderator: Circulation areas are animated by calibrated apertures, skylights, and voids, fostering a luminous gradient that orients visitors while ensuring thermal comfort.

• Contrast as a Design Tool: The interplay between controlled darkness and daylight animated thresholds produces a rhythmic spatial experience, modulating visitor perception through calibrated chiaroscuro effects.

Water: An Elemental Strategy for Microclimatic Modulation

• Integrative Hydrological Systems: A strategically positioned water body operates as both an aesthetic and performative element, mitigating urban heat accumulation and enhancing evaporative cooling.

• Rainwater Harvesting and Groundwater Recharge: The site’s stormwater management strategy leverages monsoonal precipitation, preventing water stagnation while reinforcing sustainable hydrological cycles.

• Acoustic and Sensory Calibration: The controlled soundscape of moving water introduces a contemplative counterpoint to the urban environment, reinforcing the museum’s role as a sanctuary within the city fabric.

Air: Material and Climatic Synergy

• Thermal Mass Optimization: The fair-faced concrete envelope, in concert with a strategic massing approach, minimizes thermal gain while ensuring passive cooling.

• Selective Environmental Controls: The museum employs a hybrid ventilation strategy, integrating localized air conditioning with passive dehumidification to maintain artifact preservation parameters and visitor comfort.

• Materiality as a Climate Modulator: The absence of extensive glazing eliminates excessive solar heat gain and glare, while advanced dehumidification systems ensure consistent indoor air quality.

Vegetation: A Layered Ecological Framework

• Native Planting Strategy: The landscape composition prioritizes indigenous flora, ensuring ecological resilience, low-maintenance sustainability, and biodiversity conservation.

• The Central Green Court as an Urban Oasis: This verdant nucleus functions as both a microclimatic moderator and a social condenser, offering shaded respite and fostering communal interactions.

• Vertical Green Infrastructure: Integrated green walls and perimetric planting strips enhance environmental performance, reducing heat island effects while reinforcing a visual and tactile connection to nature.

• Rooftop Green Systems: The incorporation of green roofs bolsters insulation performance, mitigating heat ingress while augmenting ecological continuity.

Design Principles: Setting an Example of a Future-Oriented Facility

• The ‘geodesic’ dome maximizes daylighting within the museum. At the same time, the impact of temperature is also reduced.

• The museum’s landscape is designed to provide a sense of place within the densely populated surrounding environment.

• The museum follows the architectural principles of spatial and materiality, highlighting the heritage of Bangladesh, while also being a climate-friendly project for Bangladesh.

Masterplan

The museum acts as an educational and recreational center for the people. The circular part of the museum with its green surrounding has been composed with reference to the national flag.

Spaces inside the circular Annex are associated with ramps to design a single journey within a post-lintel structure. The free wave forms respecting our freedom are designed with fair face concrete blocks for a super gravity experience. Around the Annex is a water body. Surrounding it is a circular green field over the Annex.

Upon entering the building's premises, the attractive central plaza catches the eye of visitors. The main building is connected to a circular green court. The spacious court at the front, the variety of heights of each floor, and the picturesque views of the museum from any direction make it perhaps one of the best museums in Bangladesh.

The victory arena is on a 60 feet high glass dome for the exhibition of historical monuments respecting the contribution of the military during the liberation war. The Bijoy Keton Museum is moved inside over 175,000 square feet of the main block with 30 galleries for the exhibition of military history, strategies and armaments of different countries all over the world. Towards the South is the administrative section of the museum. Another exhibition space is Toshakhana, the state gift gallery adjoining an oval-shaped installation with achievements of Bangabandhu and PM Sheikh Hasina.

Bangabandhu Military Museum's most imposing feature is the geodesic dome - which stretches 120 feet in diameter - in the center. The dome reflects on the artificial water body placed in the forepart and looks like a complete sphere.

The dome, made of low-emissivity glass, allows an abundance of natural light inside the museum during the daytime, giving the museum a balanced luminescence. Besides, the material also saves the dome from overheating. The best part of the museum is displaying in spiral pattern that one can see all the elements together from a single point. While being escalated up through the pathway, one’s background is ever-changing. Besides, to keep the museum's frontal view intact the architects avoided constructing traditional boundaries.

Materials used in construction

In this project, concrete has been chosen as the primary material. Brick has been used as another material. Steel frame and Aluminum Composite Panel (ACP) has been used as the screen for the external facade of the existing service building.

Wayfinding and Spatial Legibility

• Spiral Circulation as an Experiential Device: A continuous, ramped circulation system choreographs the visitor’s movement, enabling multifocal engagement with the exhibits and reinforcing an intuitive spatial narrative.

• Permeability Over Exclusion: In lieu of conventional fencing, the site employs topographical depressions as spatial thresholds, maintaining an open and inviting urban interface while ensuring security.

• Curated Spatial Sequencing: The placement of key exhibits—including the Victory Arena and the Toshakhana Gallery—fosters a dramaturgical unfolding of the visitor experience, aligning architectural promenade with thematic storytelling.

Immersive Public Realms

• A Hybridized Cultural Program: Beyond its curatorial mandate, the museum integrates auxiliary spaces such as an art gallery, an amphitheater, and a public café, amplifying its civic utility and ensuring year-round engagement.

• Interactive and Immersive Technologies: Augmented reality and digital exhibition methodologies invigorate historical narratives, broadening the museum’s appeal across generational and demographic spectra.

• Dynamic Spatial Perception: The helicoidal display configuration engenders an evolving visitor perspective, ensuring a kinetic interplay between artifact, architecture, and viewer movement.

• Fluid Background Dynamics: Within the museum, the background shifts continuously as visitors move, crafting a dynamic and immersive experience that evolves with every step, ensuring a unique interaction with the space.

A Convergence of Culture, Environment, and Memory

In the context of Bangladesh, the Bangabandhu Military Museum has set a shining example for other museums in the country. Through the proper use of these basic elements of design - light, water, air and landscape - the museum creates a new experience among visitors. It is a unique example of indigenous architecture, an ideal project for developing historical consciousness and sociality.