Walking through the centre of Dhaka's old city, Taimur Islam stops to lament the loss of another historical building. From a plastic binder, the architect produces pictures of a stately colonial mansion, built around the turn of the 1900s, that has recently been reduced to a pile of rubble. In the shaded lot where the building once stood, a few walls remain, their cream-coloured stucco work standing out proudly from piles of shattered brickwork.
'A lot of old buildings have been destroyed over the last year,' Islam says, shaking his head.
Such scenes are common in the old parts of Bangladesh's capital, a rapidly growing megacity of 15 million people. As the city swells with poor rural migrants, developers eager for land have targeted Old Dhaka - a sprawling suburb of Mughal-era relics, noble colonial buildings and the improvised add-ons of more recent times.
Old Dhaka's rich architectural legacy dates from the 1600s, when the city was founded as the Mughal capital of Bengal. After 1793, when the British East India Company took control of the region, the city prospered and many fortunes were made. Armenian and Hindu merchants built ornate palaces and mansions across the city, many commanding views over the Buriganga River, which runs through its heart.
As the city fell into decline following the Partition of 1947, most wealthy Bengalis abandoned Old Dhaka's bazaars for less-crowded areas with better amenities, leaving behind an eclectic feast of architectural styles.
At the dizzying centre of the old city is the iconic Shankaria Bazaar, an area named after the shankari - or Hindu artisans - whose ancestors still operate from the cramped workshops in the surrounding alleys, filling the narrow byways with kites, brasswork, engravings and technicolour posters of Hindu deities. Hindu Street, as it is known locally, remains the epicentre of Bangladesh's Hindu community, coming vibrantly alive during the annual festivals of Diwali and Durga Puja.