Spaces Vol 1 Is 6

overwhelmed with such a colossal task.
The project however fell through due to
misunderstandings with the Royal Aidede-Camp.
The project design was later
commissioned to “Chatterjee and Polk”,
one of the largest architecture firms in
Asia. Benjamin Polk, an American
architect, described the design in his book
“Building for South Asia, An Architectural
Autobiography” as “the building has total
balance and total lack of symmetry” with a
“Hindu temple tower”.
In December of the same year, Weise
was contacted by the Anchaladish (Zonal
Governor); a new city, Bharatpur, was
to be planned in Chitwan and he should
come down to study the site. By late
afternoon of December 14 th 1960,
Robert was sitting with the Anchaladish
on the verandah of a traditional wooden
house on stilts. Robert Weise began to
ask questions, questions that an architect
would ask when confronted with the task
of planning a new city for the first time.
The Anchaladish waved off the
questions, explaining that the bulldozers
were coming the next day, and he was to
direct them on the alignment of the roads.
The next morning it was announced on
radio that King Mahendra had dissolved
parliament. There was going to be curfew
in the evening and so Robert had to
return to Kathmandu immediately.
Before leaving however, the only
suggestion that he managed to give was
that the city centre should not be on the
highway. The suggestion was followed.
During the 1960s, Weise was confronted
with the challenge of adapting the
modern style of architecture he had been
taught in Switzerland and his experiences
with the European architecture in the late
colonial period of western Africa to the
context of the Kathmandu Valley. This
struggle is already clearly visible when
comparing the modern style used for the
residence in Tahachal, the various forms
of brise soleil derived from tropical
architecture used on the library building
and the adapted traditional windows
proposed for the Nepal Bank project.
The institutional buildings designed by
Weise in the early 1960s were purely
functional, with little regard to style.
Examples of such buildings are the 1962
designs of the Lincoln School auditorium
and the classroom block for St. Mary’s
School. However, Robert Weise
experimented with forms and finishes in
the residential buildings he designed. The
cubical, flat roofed, white plastered
buildings slowly transformed into exposed
brick buildings with sloping roofs. The
drawing of a residential building dating
from 1961 shows how a “Newari”
sloping roof was added to a design,
which initially had a flat roof. This might
seem an issue of little relevance today;
however in 1961 there were hardly any
“contemporary” designs to refer to. It
was up to the architect to work towards
an appropriate design which, seen in the
larger context, would lead to the creation
of a style. As Robert Weise explains:
“There were two choices: either to forget about
the traditional architecture
and follow what at that time
locally was referred to as
‘Bombay box style’ or ‘house
without hats’, or else to
blend the new with the
traditional. It must be noted
that in 1957 no
qualitatively suitable
materials were available to
follow the ‘modern
international style’ of that
time nor would it have been
economic. For me it was
obvious that the new era in
Nepal must be created
though with a progressive
spirit, but with a
Top: T.N.A. Hostel, Sikkim.
Above: Fishtail Lodge, Pokhara.
Below: Residential building, 1961,
Nepal, showing ‘Newari’ sloping roof
added to flat roof.
traditional mind”.
A ‘Nepalese style’ of architecture for the
given context was being sought after and
the culmination of these initial
experiments can be seen in the design
of Hotel de l’Annapurna. Robert Weise
refers to this struggle when he writes:
“Understandably the trend at that time was
rather in favour of the progressive spirit,
but it soon balanced and the resulting blend
of architecture was called Nepalese. An
early example was the Annapurna Hotel,
the first “modern” tourist hotel which opened
in July 1965.”
The family grew with the birth of a
second daughter Zita, and four years later
a second son Kai. The same year, the
family moved to the Club House at
Bahadur Bhawan, then known as Lal
Durbar. The Bahadur Bhawan had been
converted into the Royal Hotel by Boris
Lissanevitch in the mid-1950s, where
celebrities from around the world stayed
when visiting Nepal. With the
advancement of commercial aviation
tourism became a potential industry for
Nepal. Plans were made to enlarge the
hotel. The proposal prepared by Weise
retained the front wing of the Rana
74 SEP-OCT 2005 SPACES