River life museum at Rishipara, Mymensingh

Abstract

Bangladesh, a riverine deltaic country consists of about 800 rivers. Most of the land area of the country had formed through the silt brought by the mighty rivers. The rivers overflow, causing floods on its banks during the monsoon seasons, often causing havoc. Simultaneously the floods bring in fertile land making Bangladesh a country of alluvial soil, which shapes our country into an agrarian society. Along with the floods, river erosion is another calamity. However together with the floods, erosion and all the others gifts of silt, fertile land, scope of cultivation, the rivers are highly intertwined with the lives of the people of Bangladesh. Civilizations, human settlement, trade, religion and culture all spread through out the country along these innumerable waterways. Together with the lush green shades of paddy fields , the flowing water channels form the picturesque landscape of the country. A river life museum had been proposed not only to serve as a space of public realm, but also make the visitors realize the contributions of the rivers to human life and also often how our mis-use has hindered the river systems which eventually effects us through environmental hazards. This could act as an awareness scheme towards saving the rivers of Bangladesh. The paper was written as an explanation of my thesis project, the river life museum. The paper includes the various process undergone for the completion of the project. The reason behind the selection of the project , its particular site, the site analysis were discussed in this paper. Literature studied for the project, case studies of similar museum projects, and the derivation of the final program were covered. This also includes the different development phase of the design process.