Architect Rajesh Thapa, Heart of Gold

Architect Rajesh Thapa has a heart of gold. At least that is the impression one gets listening to him talk about the various social causes he is involved with. Presently, he holds the high post of Assistant District Governor for Zone 5 of the Rotary Club of Mount Everest. He became a member in the year 2000. Since then, his rise within the ranks has been swift and sure. Thus, he soon became the Chartered Secretary, then the President, later, the District Secretary, followed by the District Grants Coordinator and now, the Assistant Governor of Zone 5 which includes many of the districts within the Bagmati Zone. He is also currently the coordinator of a Euro 70,000 project which includes the training of thirty deserving girls to be auxiliary nurses and midwives besides funding micro credit for grassroots services. Another project dear to Thapa’s heart is the arranging of German sponsorships for each one of seventy five children in the remote district of Manang, whereby they get good, free education and necessary health services. “Recently I, personally, took on the responsibility of rehabilitating eleven young girls who were forced to work in dance restaurants,” he says proudly. “I arranged for them to undergo beautician training and all of them now have started their own parlours.”

Along with Architect Bibhuti Man Singh, Rajesh Thapa is also a founder member and currently, president, of an organization known as Zero Waste Nepal. He is also on the board of the Nepal Young Entrepreneurs’ Forum under the auspices of the Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The board is in charge of selecting worthy candidates for receiving low interest loans. All this is of course not to say that Thapa neglects his primary duty – that of a leading architect of the country. In fact, the thought had entered his mind a long time back about the need to do something for developing the profession. After the formation of the Society of Consulting Architects and Engineers Federation (SCAEF) in 1990, he took on the duties of General Secretary for almost eight years. He is specially satisfied that the organization has been actively working with the government and playing an important role in policy making, as for instance, in reducing contract tax from 15% to 1.5%. To an unasked question, Rajesh Thapa says, “I always believed that it was more important to play my role as a mover and shaker instead of being just a figurehead.”

An inkling to his nature can be derived from an example. Once, the Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation had a large job on offer. Thapa took the initiative of sorting out five of the major consultancy bidders and then inviting them all to participate in a panel discussion regarding the work. He was also instrumental in the formation of the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) which also runs the Construction Industry Training Centre (CITC). “Funds for programs like the above are arranged from the revenue collected at the rate of 0.1% from contractors’ bills,” he informs. He also adds, “It is affiliated to the internationally recognized FIDIC (Federation of International Consulting Engineers).” And, in association with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Thapa conducts periodic programs for the development of consultancy services, a program that he says the World Bank is also thinking of organizing. No doubt, these are important programs that will enable consultants to get a better idea about systems followed by these important institutions which have such a significant involvement in developmental activities of the country.

Rajesh Thapa was born in Kathmandu on the 23^rd of June 1955 but lived the better part of his life in Calcutta where his father held a responsible position in a British company that was involved with the jute business. He studied in St. Patrick’s and, later, joined Visveswaraya Regional College of Engineering in Nagpur, from where he received his B. Arch degree in 1978. After passing out from college, Thapa immediately went to Pondicherry and became an inmate at the famous Auroville Ashram where he was responsible for the design and detailing of housing and public buildings on the Salem Steel City Project. “There were many architects and engineers there,” he recalls. “The first batch of these professionals formed an association called ‘Promise’. We, in the second group, formed ‘Aspiration’ with a French architect as our leader.” Thapa stayed in the ashram for a year. “Since there were many from my profession, including some from abroad, I think I learnt a lot from my stay there. You could say it was a sort of continuing education.” Thapa’s educational development has also always included a deep involvement in sports. “Since my early years, I have always been a sports enthusiast,” he reveals. “Here, in Nepal, I was one of the pioneers of the game of cricket.” Football and hockey too were games he participated actively in. And, he confesses , “I love children.” Thapa himself has four children.

After a short stint with the renowned Kothari & Associates in Calcutta, he came to Kathmandu and worked with Weize Consulting Architectural and Engineering for a year during which time he was involved in the Russian Embassy and Hotel Annapurna extension projects. Simultaneously, he also started teaching at the Institute of Engineering as a lecturer. “I’m still a lecturer there,” he says. “I never became a professor since I didn’t have the requisite degree. But I believe I have something equally, if not more so, important to give students. Experience.” Since 2001, Thapa is also a visiting lecturer at the Kathmandu Engineering College as well as at the Khwopa Engineering College. He teaches Professional Practice, Construction Management and Building Technology/Construction to final year students. Thapa has himself undertaken a four-months training in Construction Management & Computer Aided Designs at the Paisley College of Technology in Glasgow, England.

In 1980, he was one of the partners who established Architects Collaborate (Nepal). Thapa considers himself fortunate to have had good architects like Srinivas Bir Singh Kansakar, Dan Heera Kansakar and Suman Nanda Vaidya as his associates. The firm’s first work was won through a design competition in which, interestingly, the late Robert Weize’s firm came in second. This was the Central Administrative Complex of Tribhuvan University. “We had submitted three design proposals,” recalls Thapa. Here, he hastens to add, “I admired Robert Weize tremendously. He was one architect who had mastered pagodas. His sense of proportions was excellent.” The firm went on to become a private limited company in 1982 (of which Thapa is Managing Director today) and embarked on a long journey marked by one milestone after another in the landscape of the country. Early works included a developmental project of KHARDEP/British Embassy in Dhankuta and Ilam; the redevelopment of the housing colony and factory area of Birgunj Sugar Factory; the ADB financed Butwal - Nepalgunj transmission line project to set up 132 KV substations at four locations; the factory and housing colony project of Lumbini Sugar Mills and the Surya Tobbaco Factory in Simra (in which Thapa says he received a good lesson in professionalism).

Thapa and his firm were (as is evident from the above examples) and still are, involved in numerous projects throughout the length and breadth of the country. Too many to be described in detail, suffice it to say that they have completed as well as done feasibility works in Bharatpur (feeds factory), Surkhet (a 60 metres clock tower), Bhairawa (Mahendra Sabagriha, Nirdhan Utthan Bank), Biratnagar (multifuel diesel power plant), Tatopani (hydropower), Bardiya (resort), Gorkha (conservation area development), Lukla (hotel), Pokhara (lakeside development works, commercial complex), Rupandehi (teachers’ training centre), Sindupalchowk (Impact Assessment of Cracked Houses), Lumbini (Hotel New Crystal), Nuwakot (International Mountaineering Memorial Park) and Solukhumbu (Basic Shelter Study Project). An interesting aside about the last mentioned is that Dr. Babu Ram Bhattarai was the team leader of the project in Salleri, later to be a Maoist stronghold, and Thapa admits, “I remember that he gave a really very good report on the project.”

The firm also built eye hospitals in Birgunj, Bharatpur, Pokhara, Bhadrapur and Gaur as also the Mithila Cultural Centre in Janakpur. Thapa says he learnt a lot from working with Reliable Builders in many of the projects. “They were really very seasoned contractors - systematic and well organized,” he says admiringly. Architects Collaborate’s works in the Valley include those in Kathmandu (two SOS Tibetan Schools, Hotel Florida Complex, Mercedes Benz Workshop, a gem cutting polishing plant, two resort complexes, ADB’s Resident Mission office, Hotel Sita, Hotel Sherpa swimming pool extension, TIA departure area and duty free shop, Coca Cola factory, World Bank country office, Nepal Investment Bank, an apartment complex), Lalitpur (Karmacharya Sanchaya Kosh, Gyanodaya HS School, Khajuri Food Industry), Kirtipur (Tribhuvan University master plan) and Bhaktapur (Siddhi Memorial and Dr. Iwamura hospitals). Thapa lets us know, “Professor Sudarshan Tiwari was the principal architect for the TU and Pokhara lakeside projects.”

Thapa was the project director in 1989 for the Sixth Power Project. In 2000 – 2002 he was project manager for different construction works of Nepal Agriculture Research Council all over Nepal. Similarly, he was responsible for the electrical audit study under the Hotel Efficiency Lighting Project in five different regions. Thapa has also been the advisor in the team of experts from March International (UK). From 1998 to 2000, Thapa was project director of a low cost housing project in Pokhara. Collaborating with Architect Bhubaneshwar Lal Shrestha, they constructed 127 houses built at a paltry cost of just Rs. 38 million.. Thapa was also the planning expert for the Tourism Development Support Project Team consisting of experts from the UK and the USA in which Gorkha, Pokhara and Kathmandu were the cities under purview. He also overlooked the Birgunj and Janakpur Stormwater Drainage Projects and was team leader in the making of Rapti Technical School in which many consultancy firms were involved.

From 2004 to 2007, Thapa was the principal architect in the Primary Schools Improvement Project which envisaged the construction of 40 primary schools each in Parsa, Kapilvastu and Saptari Districts. Thapa remembers, “This was a most challenging project. Because it was supposed to be a so-called ‘Joyful Learning’ mission, it was upto us to motivate and involve the locals right from the conceptual stage to the running and future maintenance of these schools.” He adds, “In fact, during the initial meetings -  ‘vision workshops’ - our question to them was, “What type of school do you want?’” Another difficulty was that there were no contractors involved, so the consultants had to do everything themselves. Thapa is also a technical committee member of the Employees Provident Fund and advises on, as well as supervises,  all technical matters related to site, design and construction of its many ventures. He is firm in the conviction that, “Technology helps in cutting costs,”  and he adds, “Clients should pay architects more for saving undue expenses rather than a percentage of the project cost as is the norm now.”

Rajesh Thapa, as expected, is active in professional bodies and, besides SCAEF and Zero Waste, is also a member of Nepal Engineers Association and  Society of Nepalese Architects. He is a life member and the general secretary of Shelter & Local Technology Development Centre (SLTDC) under whose auspices he, along with Bhubaneshwari L Shrestha, are building one hundred low cost houses in Saptari district. Thapa also informs that he has proposed, under SCAEF and SONA’s patronage, to give away annual architectural awards beginning this year to those who have contributed significantly to the profession. Thapa has also been an important participant in many seminars. In 1990, he was a member of the government task force committee on domestic consulting services. He was chairman and convener of SCAEF Technical Forum which, beside others, also conducted the technical seminar on Hydropower Projects and Development in 1999. In the same year, Thapa was the team leader of SCAEF to the FIDIC and ONRI (Association of Netherlands Consulting Engineers) FIDIC Annual General Meeting and International Conference at the Hague. In 2002, Thapa was appointed coordinator of the SAARC Conference Management Committee for conducting a conference for South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation of Architects.

The list of works he has done and the list of organizations he is involved in could go on and on. It is by any yardstick, an admirable professional achievement, and therefore, Rajesh Thapa’s experience should be a major plus point to students fortunate enough to avail of his tutelage. Simultaneously, Thapa’s initiative and active participation in the social sector also makes for a commendable list – an enviable personal achievement. One has to marvel at his resolve to make himself more accountable to society than by what he has already done in the field of architecture. Perhaps the truth is that Rajesh Thapa is a man who wishes to live a more holistic life. – one that will satisfy as many of his spiritual and physical needs as is humanely possible. This, as everyone knows, can only come about by the act of giving, and we have to agree, Rajesh Thapa seems to be doing just that.