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OBITUARY
Nepal’s s First Architect Passes Away
Ar. Gangadhar Bhatta Halbe
Architect Gangadhar Bhatta a Halbe passed away
on 27 th Poush 2062.(January 11 th 2006) at the age
of 72 years. He was Nepal’s first architect and
received his B.Arch degree from Calcutta
University in 1961. During his nine and a half year
tenure at the Bhavan Bibhag, Halbe initiated the
idea of open design competitions for government
buildings, and fittingly, in 1968, won one himself
for the Rastriya Panchayat Bhavan.
Halbe was also responsible for the master plan of
Dashrath Ranga Shala and the designs of the Royal
Palace Secretariat, the City Hall, the Police Club, Hotel Soaltee and the glasshouses in Godavari
Gardens. Gangadhar Bhatt Halbe was proficient in interiors as well and did the interiors of
City Hall, Casino Nepal and Jivan Kunj. His advice to engineers was, “First see the structure
in its totality and then only start estimating the parts.”
In the earlier years, Halbe’s firm was known as Himalayan Architects and Engineers which
was responsible for designing many residential buildings in Kathmandu. The creative architect
liked to call himself ‘modern’ and used to remark, “The day I stop being modern, I will have
stopped being an architect”. Halbe is survived by his wife, Shailaja, sons Udaya, Vijaya and
Vinaya and their wives, as well as four grand-daughters.
“The day I stop being modern, I will
have stopped being an architect”.
The Society of Nepalese Architects
(SONA) organized a condolence
meeting on 27 th January 2006 to mourn
the untimely demise of Nepal’s first professionally qualified architect,
Gangadhar Bhatta Halbe, who passed away on 11 th January 2006 at
the age of 72 years.
14 MAR-APR 2006 SPACES