A building of the Ministry of Health and Population, designed by the world-famous American architect Louis I Kahn, has been damaged after protesters set it on fire on Tuesday.

The building, completed in 1965, was originally constructed for the use of the Family Planning and Maternal Child Welfare Programme. The structure, which features two isometric brick blocks, a deep vertical window recess, and a rooftop parapet with sky-framing apertures, is among the few architectural masterpieces of the country.

“The building is our unique architectural treasure,” said Dr Baburam Marasini, former director at the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division. “Architecture students from the world’s prestigious universities used to visit this site to study Kahn’s designs until a few years ago.”

The building endured the 1988 and 2015 mega earthquakes. Protesters during the 1979, 1990 and 2006 uprisings had spared the building.

“I am deeply shocked by the damage protesters have inflicted on state properties,” said Marasini. “I witnessed the burning of the Singha Durbar in 1973, which was an accident. Several other protests—the 1979 student movement, the 1990 peoples movement, the Maoist insurgency and the 2015 mega earthquake—had not damaged the structure, but it gave in to the Gen-Z protest.”