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Phuentsholing’s architectural identity crisis

12 March 2010

From a bird’s eye view, one can barely differenti­ate Phuentsholing from the bordering Indian town of Jaigaon. This, town planners and architects say, is because Phuentsholing town suffers from an architectural identity crisis.

Phuentsholing Thrompoen Kinzang Norbu said Phuent­sholing town has little that is Bhutanese because it had been planned before the proper building rules were in place. “The building rules, then, were not explicit, and there were implementation lapses,” he said.

Phuentsholing’s architec­tural identity crisis did not escape Works and Human Settlement Minister Yeshey Zimba’s notice when he vis­ited the town earlier this year. He said that the town lacked a Bhutanese feel to it. Phuent­sholing being a gateway to Bhutan needed to be rich in Bhutanese architecture, he had said.

“Whatever has been done so far cannot be revoked but now we need to protect what is left and what is yet to come,” he added.

Officials from the Ministry of Works and Human Settle­ment said that, from now on any new infrastructures in the town, including government structures, need to have a tra­ditional Bhutanese look.

Karma Drupchu, an urban planner at Phuentsholing City Corporation (PCC), said that henceforth all construction will strictly follow Bhutanese architecture.

According to the Bhutan Building Rules 2002, “The ar­chitectural features and outer façade of a building shall con­form to the “Guidelines on Traditional Architecture.”

The guideline specifies various Bhutanese designs that should be infused into infrastructures. However, the guideline is not intended to address every problem as the traditional Bhutanese archi­tecture is subject to varied in­terpretations.

The Thrompoen said that, as a border town and a com­mercial hub, Phuentsholing had not realized the impor­tance of architecture. Accord­ing to him, since Bhutanese architecture has higher cost implications, the residents had not preferred it.

In order to address this problem, PCC plans to incor­porate Bhutanese features on residential buildings and construct traditional infra­structure in the town, wher­ever feasible.

The municipal authorities have already started con­structing some Bhutanese in­frastructures such as prayer wheels and chortens in vari­ous locations in and around the town.

According to the Throm­poen, there are also plans to construct a dratshang in the town, which will become a significant heritage. A three-acre land has been allotted for the construction.

Once the plan is imple­ mented, it would also serve as a site for festivals such as tshechus and public gather­ings.

“We will soon discuss with building owners along the main street, the most visible part of the town, and ask them to incorporate Bhuta­nese architecture on balco­nies and windows,” said the Thrompoen.

By Pushkar Chhetri

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Comments

4 Responses to “Phuentsholing’s architectural identity crisis”

  1. Laygman on March 12th, 2010 12:40 pm

    When will we do and plan things right. Are Bhutanese a myopic race? Everything we do seem to suffer from shortfalls including the latest JDWNRH complex.
    When will we grow up?

  2. dodo on March 12th, 2010 4:24 pm

    Make the system right, respect it and follow strictly.
    In Bhutan Lyonpos/secretaries are planners and Draughtsmen/building inspectors the architects. Who respect professionalism and how will we ever learn to do things professionally? Even a house wife will claim she knows how to construct a house. So why care about the architectural identity crisis when nobody cares to know who plans-designs and constructs???

  3. Bato on March 15th, 2010 11:25 am

    There is less or no cooperation between the government departmental and infact sory to say that in bhutan there is no proper planning prior to any work they do. For instance, every one knows what is going on herein Phuentsholing, firstly DOR comes and repair the road, secondly BPC comes and dig the road for their under ground electricity line in the same place and then fill the road which is repaired before thirdly Telecom comes and dig it again for telephone line connection in the same place, finally the city corporation comes for maintenance. How many times the concerned departments will work on it? had all these work done together with good planning among the departments, it wil save money and time as well. Recently the another work is being carried on by PCC which was constructed 2 years back, because there was no planning before and it has to repair it again. Now my question here is for how long will it go on? making the gateway of bhutan so dirty, i think its high time that old man with poor idea should be replaced by the young generation. I know even it is been publicised in the news paper the government will not listen or implement on it. Comon guys its 21st century everything should be in place now. Its the concerned of all bhutanese that head of the state should now really think of it and such things shouldnot be happened again.

  4. Karma D on March 16th, 2010 10:26 pm

    I agree with Dodo’s comments. It’s high time professionalism is respected. There are so many good local Bhutanese architects who have experience and have undergone 5 years to get their degrees. Everyone thinks they are architects- it’s high time our government and people started to respect and realise that one does need professionals. It was okay before but with this fast paced development, professional architects should be given the task not every tom-penjore or dorji who have not gone through 5 years of training as professionals.

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