RIT Rangoon Institute of Technology

Key notionStaging the protest

The RIT was the first institution in the entire country to offer architecture studies. It was built in 1958 by Soviet architect Pavel Steniushin with the intention of Myanmar’s government’s interest to build a new image for independent Myanmar and move away from colonial buildings. Later, the Military Regime changed the name to Yangon Technical University. However, more profoundly, this building tells the story of the initial steps to stage the protest of the U-Thant Funeral Crisis, in which the students from the RIT have taken the lead. Initially, the government planned to have the College of Engineering (Pyay Road) built. However, the Department for Architecture was moved here due to political decisions. This university building is considered a building of change on the political and architectural levels. It would represent a complex built in the post-modern era and show the adaptation of European modernism within the cultural context of Myanmar. On the urbanistic site, the objective was to develop the suburban area north of the Yangon University campus, capable of accommodating up to one thousand students. Soon enough, that area involved a vital district and would grow into the “most important centre for the preparation of specialists for many diverse branches of the national economy”, including architecture. The teachers were 90per cent Soviet lecturers. Until today, the tie between Russia and the Military Junta is alive with the downside for the people.