Most interior design conversations in Bangladesh centre on homes, offices, and retail spaces. But some of the most demanding work in the field happens at an entirely different scale: institutional projects spanning tens of thousands of square metres, where design, engineering, and project management have to move together from day one.
The Bangladesh Navy Maritime Convention Centre is one of House De Arch’s clearest examples of that kind of work.
The Project
In 2018, House De Arch took on the Maritime Convention Centre for the Bangladesh Navy — a commission covering more than 100,000 square metres of combined interior and exterior design. It remains one of the studio’s largest and most ambitious undertakings, and sits in HDA’s project archive under the “Institutional & Large-Scale” category for good reason: work at this size brings a different set of constraints than a typical residential or commercial fit-out.
What Changes at Institutional Scale
A handful of things separate a 100,000 sqm institutional commission from smaller interior design work:
- Interior and exterior have to be designed as one system. When a single commission covers both, materials, sightlines, and circulation need to read consistently as visitors move between the two — not as two separate projects stitched together.
- Project management becomes the backbone of the work. Coordinating design intent across a site this large, on a government and defence-sector timeline, depends on the kind of structured project management HDA lists as a core service — not an afterthought bolted onto design.
- Durability has to be designed in from the start. Institutional buildings are used harder and for longer than most commercial interiors, so material choices and detailing need to hold up under years of high-traffic, multi-purpose use.
- Every decision has to scale. A finish or layout idea that works beautifully in a 200 sqm office rarely translates directly to a space 500 times that size without rethinking proportion, wayfinding, and logistics.
These aren’t abstractions — they’re the practical reason institutional commissions tend to go to studios that can show a track record of handling scale, not just style.
Why This Project Matters for HDA’s Broader Work
The Maritime Convention Centre sits alongside other large commissions in HDA’s history, but it’s a useful reference point specifically because of its size and its combined interior-exterior scope. It’s a reminder that “interior design firm” can mean very different things depending on the brief — from a single renovated apartment in Dhanmondi to a 100,000 sqm institutional facility.
You can see the project listing, along with HDA’s other completed work, on the Our Projects page. For a sense of what a project might cost at your own scale, HDA’s Cost Estimate tool gives an instant estimate based on square footage and plan tier, and the team is reachable directly through the Contact Us page for anything larger or more specific.
