Thimpu Construction

In the interests of preserving their cultural integrity for posterity it has been decreed that all buildings must be constructed to look like traditional Bhutanese buildings. Sounds good as far as it goes but sadly misses out on two major points. Firstly the maintenance of their architectural heritage means more than sticking a few pastiche contrivances on an otherwise anodyne and characterless building. At the very least they need to recognise the scale and proportion of the building; the Daihatsu dealership and adjacent shopping mall in Thimpu fail miserably to do so. In fact this building fails on every count with mirror glass, multi storey facade and built using modem cheap and nasty, unsustainable materials and practices. And that is one of the other points on which this policy fails, for if the intention is to preserve the culture then it must also retain the traditional construction technology, traditional materials, traditional craft method and so on.

Just about the only traditional bit in these buildings is the retention of stinking open sewers...

Fortunately there are many good examples of traditional Bhutanese architecture in other parts of the country including timber frame wattle and daub buildings in Bumthang as well as rammed earth homes in Chimi Lhakgang.