This lecture was given by Marina Tabassum on April 5th 2021 via Zoom as part of the Architecture and Cultural Sustainability lecture series.

This lecture was given by Marina Tabassum on April 25th 2021 at North Carolina State University as part of the Architecture and Cultural Sustainability lecture series.

Patricia Morgado: Good evening everyone. Thank you for being here! It’s so nice to see so many of you, and so many familiar faces, some from really far away.

On behalf of the School of Architecture, AIA Triangle, and the students from my publication class, particularly Jad Chami, Lalith Mallikeshwaran, and Dave Wright in the photograph here with Marina (this was during the interview to her in mid-February), we are very excited to introduce our speaker this afternoon, Marina Tabassum.

With the generous support of Paul and Holly Tesar, the Lectures on Architecture and Culture were established in 2015 in response to—and I quote Paul here–a need to “complement our focus on sustainability in the realms of matter and energy with an equivalent focus on sustainability of the cultural dimension of architecture, and on the potential overlaps between the two.” With this in mind, we invite scholars, researchers, and practicing architects who make efforts to sustain and to interpret cultural traditions by re-stating them in a “form that is appropriate to and relevant for our time.”

What better words to describe Marina Tabassum’s work than those of the pioneer of modern tropical architecture in Bangladesh, Muzharul Islam. He said: “[One has to love his own land, its people and its culture.] The love of one’s own land—and its people– is the eternal source of creative power, which in turn makes a proper architect.” This “love” for Bangladesh is reflected in Marina’s decision to stay and work in Bangladesh, her pledge to produce architecture that is contemporary while deeply rooted in place that employs local materials, craftsmanship and masterfully manages light, and her aspiration to contribute to positive change, specifically regarding the housing crisis severely impacted by global warming. The result is a body of work that is both artistic as well as socially and environmentally responsible.

Since establishing MT Architects in 2005, Marina has been the recipient of the Aga Khan Award in 2016 and the Jameel Prize in 2018 for her design of the Bait Ur Rouf Mosque. In 2020, she was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate from the Technical University of Munich in recognition of her independent and sustainable architectural works of significant societal value. In addition to her academic and administrative role at the Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements, where she is now currently the director, she has been a visiting professor at numerous institutions, including the GSD in 2017.

Please welcome Marina Tabassum.

Marina Tabassum: Thank you Patricia and David for this invitation!

Hello North Carolina. This is early morning in Dhaka, I had to wake up at four in the morning to be present at 6am talk. This is probably the earliest talk I’ve done till now, but it’s the 6th of April, so yeah, I had a few. It’s a great honor to be actually, to be able to present this talk in front of this wonderful audience.
Starting with an image kind of familiar, I guess, with all of you, something I did last year when we got into lockdown, well our first lockdown, in April [2020]. And this year [2021], at this time in fact, in April now we started again another lockdown, and this seems to be a much more severe and a much more difficult one. And well, in the last year when we entered into this lockdown and all of a sudden experienced this sudden pause in our lives a lot of questions surfaced obviously about, you know, the depletion of resources, and the culture of consumerism, and this whole idea of capitalism, let’s say, and this imbalance in nature. And in fact climate change as a pressing issue, which was already there but was not really so much in focus, but now, with our enormous amount of time that we can spend at home, we now are focusing on this issue that has been pressing for a while. And among all the other things are also this disparity in human condition. So as architects, practicing and academics, I think it’s also important for us to understand these issues, and to focus on them, and also talk about it, try to find ways of changing our ways of thinking in many ways. In a way, I call this a shift in paradigm, where we need to change our focus from man to nature. That’s why I kind of redo on the Victorian man, how it can be changed into a form of nature.

Why is it important? let’s say. You know, I am from Bangladesh, as you all heard, and I practice here. I am born and brought up here in this country. And this country always comes into discussion for many different reasons, mostly climatic issues, I think. Except for volcanoes, we have all kinds of climatic phenomena that can affect land. And in that sense, a new thing has been added, which is the climate change. And the Indian Ocean, you know, the current around the world in the oceans do not rise in the same way with the surface warming, and so the Indian Ocean has a certain pattern and because of that reason the Bay of Bengal is one of the major points of crisis, and that’s why it’s predicted that by 2050, Bangladesh will have about one meter sea level rise, and we are already experiencing a lot of that phenomena.

To give you a little bit of a background, Bangladesh is located in the foothills of the Himalayas, so this is a land which is actually on the water, really. Almost two thirds of Bangladesh is formed by an accumulation of silt that is brought in by three major rivers, that is Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna. And it’s a prodagation of the Ganges estuary that has created the land. And so you see, if you see this map here, the blue crisscrossing labyrinth of waterways. So Bangladesh is really a waterscape rather than a landscape. So water is predominant not only in the landscape, but also in our culture and our way of thinking, it’s all about water based system, so it’s a very water [???] kind of a culture, if I can say it. It’s an image here, you see 20 years of accumulated data by NASA and it shows the movement of these rivers, especially this one is the Ganges meeting the Meghna river, and you can see how dynamic this entire water system is. And while it is eroding land on one side, it is creating new land on the other side. So that’s the way the system actually works. And in a very close view, this is what you see: that when there is enormous current in these large mighty rivers, and the Earth is, in that sense, very fragile, so it breaks and erodes, and many villages and, you know, small towns have been eroded over periods of time. So this is something, a phenomena that we also are dealing with.

And what it does, is it has created, obviously, a lot of distressing situation in human condition and human lives. A lot of people have lost their home, land, many has moved. And with the climate change, as the water is rising, this phenomena is getting far more prominent now. So you find a lot of population who are climate refugees and people who are moving to the cities, and you know looking for spaces to stay inland. And on the other hand, you see new sandbeds are emerging, and it’s also again, the same system that it creates this new land. And generally in our own terms we call the char. So these are not really land in that sense, these are accumulation of silt or sand in the river beds. And I find Anuradha Mathur’s and Dilip da Cunha’s take on this quite appropriate because they call them “wetness,” it’s not really land, but it is a “wetness” of a certain kind. And if these kind of lands can survive, let’s say, eight or ten years, then you can think that this will be there for a while and then people start moving in and starting to build their own places to live.

Now, just to give you a background about the geoformation on why this happens. You see here in this map, in Rennel’s map of 1776, the River Brahmaputra had a different course, but in 1950 there was this devastating earthquake, known as the Assam earthquake, where this river actually changed its course from this direction, taking the path of Jamuna, and then meeting the Ganges right here, and then creating this enormous flow. And during the monsoon season and summer months when there is glacial water coming down from the Himalayas, and with the rain, heavy rain also, this becomes a mighty current, and that’s why it, and then flushing on to the Bay of Bengal, so during this time that this area becomes really active and dynamic and that’s why this whole erosion happens.

So if you see in this map here, this is the lower part, southern part of Bangladesh, this blue area is where the activity happens, so this is the active Delta, whereas this pink and the yellow and these areas are much more mature delta. So these are all prodagation of the Ganges estuary, but these are much more mature so they don’t move anymore, but this is a very dynamic system. And during the dry months of winter, when there is much less rain and there is no current in the rivers, because of the tidal flow, tide dominance, the entire system becomes far more, it actually allows the water to go back into the system and that’s why these new lands emerges, these sandbeds, what we call char.

So that’s a very dynamic system, as you see. And what it does in human condition is that people have to move. While, when these rivers move, the people, people move who lives in these areas. So we’ve found stories while we were doing our researches, we found people who have moved seven to eight times in their lifetime. And when they move it’s not just a family moving, but the entire village or the entire town actually moves from one location to another location. And, that’s quite an interesting system that has become a culture of this place and that’s how people move.

And in the vernacular architecture also you find that these buildings are designed in a way that they are flat pack systems where they can take down a building within a few hours and then take it to a safer location when they find the land they can reassemble it. So this is a very unique flat pack system with wooden frame structure and then façades are again, you can take down the façades, the roofing, and everything, put it on a boat or a cart, and then you can move it from one location to another. And so that’s kind of a nice unique system that has been there actually for more than hundreds of years. Now we see Ikea making flat pack systems but it has been there in the vernacular for a long time. And you can actually buy these houses in local markets, so there are shops where you can go and order a house, and they have certain modular system. You can go and order one house, maybe a single story or two story, and they will make it for you.

And so, while we were invited to [2019 Inaugural] Sharjah Architecture Triennial, we bought three houses and we took it to Sharjah. And you know these houses are very unique because we have found stories of families who, where they have inherited the houses let’s say for 60 years from a grandfather, and a house of, a 60 year old house have moved seven to eight different locations. So this is the ground who were given in Sharjah Architecture Triennial which had a theme about the Rights of Future Generations. And we looked into the inheritance of future generations in these dynamic landscape. And we were given this courtyard as you see here. This is a school from the 80s in Sharjah which was abandoned and then later on transformed into a venue for the triennial. And so these, in this courtyard we actually, reassembled the houses that we bought from Bangladesh and shipped it to Sharjah. So this here, you see, on the left the houses in their own location, it’s an old house and then extension of new houses. Here, you see a new house in the courtyard that we were given. So we bought three houses and all our research projects and works were then showcased in these houses inside. So these are the images, you see here in the context of the city of Sharjah here’s the houses. And Sharjah Architecture Triennial has acquired these houses now so they are in their permanent collection.

$200.00 Houses (2019)
So while we were in lockdown last year, and there was much less work in the office, all the projects had stopped in a way, we could only work in offices or in our own homes. So we started working on developing a modular system which we could, which could be even smaller, and cheaper, and which could be then given to people who are completely landless. So the houses that I showed you, obviously, is about [US]$1,000 to [US]$2,000 in price. But, there are many people in the villages who do not have land or who are actually no income population, so they’re not even low income, they are no income populations, they live off the land. So basically they do not have any possibility of having a house, to be, to buy a house or to build a house. So we decided if we could come up with a solution for them with a very, very simple cost, very small insignificant costs. This is a system that we developed: a space frame structure with bamboo and steel joints. Very simple thing, as you can see, and with minimum material and this costs about US$200.00. And, and so this is a system we developed last year. And this was our idea that in the char areas, people can come and, you know, build the houses and when they need to move, they could just take it down, disassemble, and take it somewhere else, and then re-erect it somewhere. So the entire village of these people can move from one location to another, so that’s a.

So this was our prototype that we built last year in the lockdown, our office architects, actually, I mean; these are all hands-on and all my office architects are very hands-on with building things, so they built it on their own. This was our first structure, we tried it out, to see if it really works. This is 200 square square feet of space, 10 by 10. So the upper level is a kind of a deck where people can sleep at night, there’s a ladder that takes them up. And the façades, we decided that it would be with anything. So you see here, this is, this is the team of people who built the structure, actually. This little one is not in office, but he just came, inquisitive young boy coming to help the team. And you see here one of our friends visiting, and she’s become our testing person actually.

So after that, beginning of this year we actually took this house to the chars. So this here, you see the same area I showed you, so, that’s the main river, the horizon that you see, that’s the actual river, so this is really mighty. And these are just offshoots of between the char areas. And so you see here, that’s our first house that we built on the char. So basically these do not, these lands do not belong to anybody, these are government property in a way, because they have come surfaced in the river, and nobody claimed these lands, as such, so this is actually government property, so anybody can come and build it. And until and unless this is a mature delta or mature char nobody comes to claim it, not even the government. So it’s a it’s it’s, these are the kind of places where people genuinely without any land or landless people actually seek so that they can come and build a house and, you know, start cultivating, and, you know, start generating some money.

So this is our first house that we built, as you see here, that modular house with a little toilet that you see here, all built by my office architects, they went to the char and they built it. And so this is our first house on the char, actually, built in the same manner. The idea is about co-creating, so the people in the char who are living, they’re, they are also coming and helping these architects to build it. There is no electricity, no running water, nothing whatsoever. So, everything had to be sourced on site, and to build we brought in the bamboos and steel joints, we built, and took it with us. So nothing is available, so that’s one thing. Here you go, our friend, our first tester in a way, so she goes and tests everything for us. So she stayed with the first night in the house just to see how it feels and everything, so you know it was really nice. So you see, these are the details, these are grass tall grass, that are the first ecosystem that appears on the chars, so these tall grasses are then the elements that they use for fillers like walls, and the basic joints are steel and bamboo.

This is the second house, and this is a bigger family, so they needed two modules at the same time, so we had two modules with the stairs connecting. So this is the second house. So until now, we have built about four houses in the char and we’re monitoring how this whole system works over the time as there is, we are expecting thunderstorms, cyclones I wouldn’t think this would resist, but land erosion and thunderstorms, and rain flooding, so they can, we will be monitoring it.

And while we are working on site we’re also trying to engage with the locals, especially with children, they don’t have any school in the char, so we try to give them books and other things you know it’s a kind of a social responsibility, we feel, which is beyond our architects’ responsibility, so we try to do that as much as possible.

Panigram Resort (2011)
Now moving more to the western side, which is the mature delta and you see down here it’s a beautiful painting-like image which is actually the Sundarbans. Sunderbans is the largest mangrove forest, and this is where the Royal Bengal tigers live. And this whole ecosystem is also under threat because of the sea level rise. And you see that many of these places where the salt water system is penetrating into the sweet water system, and so there is a lot of diversity that is happening in the ecosystem, which is quite alarming. But very close to the Sunderbans, right here in this yellow point, is a resort that we designed. And you know where this was the first project, where I actually have the connection with a land which is so beautiful and unique outside of Dhaka. And so, this project, when it came to me in 2011, I think, when the client wanted a socially environmentally responsible project, a resort that can actually celebrate the uniqueness of the delta. So that’s when we went to the site and to understand it, how this whole ecosystem works. And so you see, this is actually the site right here, there’s a river that goes by, Kopotakkho, there’s another very fine channel right here, that’s also another river. And so, between the two rivers is actually our site here. Very agrarian land, very fertile because of the silt accumulation, so people generally are farmers around this area, farmers and fishermen. And that’s the site, this is the river, you see, and that is our location of the of the site. And around the site, as I was mentioning, it’s a very beautiful farmland. And so, when I was there on site for the very first time in 2011, the first thing that struck me is the, is the symbiotic nature by which people live their lives. Everything is sourced from nature and basically it’s a very balanced way of living. There is no sense of permanence in that sense; and the impermanence is the permanence of that landscape. So there is this beautiful chemistry and the dynamics is so so natural that, that was the first thing that struck me that, how do I build something here? How do I impose on a land, which is, you know, so uniquely beautiful? so I just wrote this:
“[Rural Bangladesh is uniquely beautiful, the soul of the delta land.]
It feels like a crime to invade this silence with the roaring noise of Architecture.
[This project gives me an opportunity to bring back the lost pride and belief of wisdom of the land crafted over hundreds of years of dwelling in the delta.]”

So the idea was to learn from the land, the wisdom that exists already, to be educating myself and the team before we actually try to design and impose something on the side. So this is what I tried to understand. So the first act of building in this landscape being so flat is that they dig pond, and they dig out the earth, and they create a mound with that earth, and on the mound they actually place their houses. So the houses are on, a on a lot, on a higher ground so when it rains, as it is a tropical landscape it rains, so the water can then accumulate in the pond. So it’s a kind of a rainwater harvesting system, but at the same time it creates a nice and landscaping act. In a household in a, in a village, this is the program that you will find where there are rooms, there are rooms for humans. there are rooms for domesticated animals, birds, everything. And they have all different elements are just a single objects, and these objects are then clustered around courtyards. And these courtyards are very loosely built courtyards, so one courtyard flows into the other courtyard. So it’s a very communal living so one households, and the other household, and then there’s another household, but every household is connected with the other by the courtyards. And so, this accumulation of courtyards is actually what creates the villages. And so you see here, this is a potter’s village, very close to the site. And we tried to document all these villages that are surrounding us. We try to document the way they live, and the way they built to be able to then finalize how we would like to address our project. This is the weavers’ village, and these are some of the images, you see how people live in this land, this is a potter’s family Nimai Pal [& Shonkori Pal].

And so, basically that’s one. And then the other thing was that we had this beautiful part roof that was built with a… it’s a pitched roof, but then it’s a curved pitch too, which is very unique of Bengal Delta. And you don’t see that anymore, because of the corrugated sheet roofing. And this entire beautiful form is completely lost, which was actually copied copied by the Mughal Emperors, and also even in our temples you see some of these forms being replicated in a more permanent way. But this is lost, so we thought you know, this could be a project, where we can revive this whole idea.

So this is the site we decide, and that’s our only route with the car, so we decided to put our back of house down here, so the cars could come in, otherwise the entire site would be much more walkable. And we wanted to bring everybody, the guests by boat to the site, and that’s how we actually did the master planning. So this is our master plan where we try to then accommodate this idea of working in a in, a in a way that it, it gives that sense of being in the landscape, much more open. These are huts, small huts like villagers’ huts and then made with mud and bamboo. Completely new material for us, we’ve never ventured into this kind of materials before, but we thought this would be a project, where, you know, if it is an environmental project, social project, socially responsible project, then we need to source material from the location, and also engage people who are living in that location. So this is the some of the huts that you see that we designed. And then they are placed in a way that they can move from one to the other so it’s a bit of a sense of communal living. And then, as I was mentioning, that the people who live around the site then were brought in to build because they know the material, they have all the technologies and the knowledge of building with earth and the local materials, so we invited them. One, The other reason was that quite often these younger generation who are growing up in the villages has the aspiration of going to the city and then getting a job, so entering to the lowest tier of the economic chain in a way. But we thought you know it would be so much better if they could stay in their own houses and in their own location and in a way working on the pride that is not there anymore. So the pride of the place for our pride of being in a village is lost because of the, you know, these glitches of the cities. So we thought, you know, if we could keep them engaged or, you know, bring back that pride. So that’s why we started working on different kind of workshops and and and diversity, so that we could engage them. So we generated a kind of a local economy while we were building this project, you see, this is the mudbrick, sun dried mudbricks that we use, mud mortar, and local villagers coming and building things for us. This is the roofing system where you see wooden frames and then this is thatch, kind of thatch that nipa palm, and these palms are actually from the Sunderbans. And so, and there are very few people who actually knows the technique of building with this palm anymore, so they’re not there also, so that’s also another thing.

We also have women who do really great plastering, so all plasters in the villages are done by women, so they were employed. So this is one of the huts, where, of the resort. And this would be the riverside elevation, as we see huts and anybody can go and stay there. Organic gardens. So we try to bring in the very village-like atmosphere that is already there just to celebrate that. All the details that you see are very much by the villagers. So we did the master planning, we did the houses planning, but all the little ideas about earth and how it should mold and fold, and what could be created are all from the villages. So that’s another issues.

And then once, we decided that once this project is finished, obviously the villagers won’t have much work, other than if we can employ them in the resort project, we decided to create this initiative, which we called Panigram Community Initiatives, and through this community initiative, we have done pride product diversification workshops, where they can diversify their own skill into different kinds of products which then can be sold to the resort guests, or could be, also exported if necessary, if possible, possible. And so we try to engage them with community mapping, so that they know their landscape, their own own land better. And the maps that I showed you earlier of the villages are actually mapped by the locals, the villagers, especially women, in a way, young children, and girls who are going to school. And also, we have created savings group, where women in groups save money. And so they have created the saving group now, they have enough money accumulated where they can loan themselves to build their own houses or for any other activity that’s necessary for their daily living.

GSD Student Projects
So one project that I’d like to share with you is a project which is about one hour drive from the, from the resort. And here the architect has to be within a group of community architects, who call themselves POCAA (Platform of Community Action and Architecture), they created this unique house housing project which is $1500 houses: two rooms, two story house, two rooms, and a bathroom. And the process, the way it goes is that they do the mapping, so it’s a co-creation process where the villagers do the mapping, they really make these aspirational models, and then the architects are actually helping them with the knowledge of construction in a way, while accommodating, and also giving them design ideas, while being very respectful to their own aspiration. And the villagers very much take part in the construction process, buying of material, employing of contractors, and everything.

So this is one project, and this is the same project, we also tried in Panigram. And, while I was teaching a GSD in 2017 fall, this was my studio’s work, to design a $2,000 home. So $2,000 for a villager is is 3000 a goat and so this was the budget. The students visited the site, and they also went and visited the $1500 projects to understand what are possible within $1500, so that they can design even better. The idea was that, you know, budget is never a limitation to do design; innovation and design is not limited by the amount of money. so that’s the idea and we tried to push our limits to source new materials and whatever is available in the location. So they tried out whatever is available there, and a hands on workshop, they build structures on site. They also talked to the students and engaging with the clients. We had five different clients, with them. They basically sat down and discussed what their aspirations are, what they want for their houses, and that’s how the design came up, or the program came about.

And so after the studio was done, we had a nice exhibition and the village where the villagers had a chance to see what the students came up with as ideas. And we plan to build five houses from this experience, but to date we haven’t been able to do it because the villagers are still accumulating enough funds to be able to build those houses, so, hopefully someday we’ll do that. So this is again another student group working and then their own ideas. So I’ll show, share with you a few ideas that the students came up with. So they try to use materials like pottery when it’s a potter’s house, to be able to bring in light and ventilation and also to reduce costs because they can make their own material. This is again another potter’s house where the student tried to use the façades as shelving units, where they can actually store their pottery and and also dry them, if necessary, because they had limited land. This is a bamboo weaver’s house, household of three women. So the women could have a small space where they could run a tea stall, so they designed us for tea stall with the house to be able to generate income for the families. So, the students had to actually make the calculations, to show that it can be built within $2,000. And the studio’s work was then published in a book report here, you can see, this is also available online, I think you can have a look to see what the students did.

Venice Biennale (2018)
And at the Venice Biennale in 2018 when we were invited by the curators, we also took this idea of of village courtyard to Venice. So we had the space in Arsenale, as you can see, so that’s the site we were given. And we call our project “Wisdom of the Land.” The idea that the curators came up with that that you need to go beyond the visual to choreograph daily life, that’s what was one of the things about “FREESPACE.” So we thought, you know, a courtyard of a Bengali heart is an absolute great example of of showing daily life in a theatrical way living out in the open in a courtyard. So we thought of recreating a village courtyard in the Venice site. And that’s our plan, as you see here. What we did is we went all around the villages sourcing different household items which are still being used by people and which are actually sourced from natural material like mud. Here you see a granary where they store rice. So these granaries are still in use and these women actually make these beautiful pieces, where you see it’s almost higher than the height of a human, so there are much larger sizes, we just took a smaller one to be able to carry it to Venice. And so, all the different source elements that you see are sourced from the villages and absolutely natural, people are still using them. And so you see, this is our installation of a courtyard where the houses are almost in lines they’re not visible, but all the other daily life activities, or conditions, are present and so beautifully there. So you know where this is what we call the “Wisdom of the Land” of living symbiotically with nature and that is still possible, and we need to, we need to look into these ways of living to be able to reconnect with what is lost in many ways.

Mosque- Health Hub
Next, moving on to the next project, which is again still very close to the Bay of Bengal on the eastern side in a way. So this project has a certain background story which is about a cyclone that happened in 1991. And this was a devastating cyclone which actually, it was about a category five hurricane size with a six meter storm surge, and it killed about 138,000 people. And in that very location where our site is there was about 14,000 people there and 1 million homesteads and settlements were washed away. The reason being that there was no embankment, and so the government actually created an embankment afterwards, because it’s only 2.5 kilometer from the from the Bay of Bengal. So this red line that you see is the new embankment and a road that was created. So the client wanted, the client’s family was also affected so many of their relatives died, and these areas do not have proper health care facilities, so they wanted to create a health hub, a kind of a primary health hub, where people can come and seek primary healthcare. While at the same time, they wanted to create a mosque, so that the mosque and the health hub can work together, and there was a sort of a modular idea that pilot project that can be replicated elsewhere also, maybe not the same design, but the same idea, so that even with existing mosques, they can come up with similar kind of health hubs because health facilities are quite not in the very best of ways in Bangladesh.

So this was our site and, and definitely the embankment did not run around the site, so we had to recreate an embankment so that is above the area. And as it’s a cyclone prone area, we had to also design it as a cyclone shelter, as you know that the villagers live in very fragile houses houses, so when there is a cyclone coming up they generally move to a cyclone shelter, that’s how we try to mitigate the disasters nowadays. So cyclone shelters are built all around the cyclone prone areas so people can move to the cyclone shelter when there is a cyclone approaching.

So, as I was mentioning in the program we have a mosque, this is a [khan mohammad] Mridha mosque in Dhaka, where there is a base and under the base, there are people where you can stay or you could be used for other purposes, and the mosque is on top. And this is Khan’s hospital in Dhaka, I’m sure you’ve seen images of this. So this is a very beautiful architectural piece which I thought, you know, if we could bring all of these together and create something interesting out of that. So what we did is, we created the base as the health hub, and the mosque goes on top mosque, mosque being an absolutely open space, has no furniture in that sense. So, it’s an open space that is absolutely the right kind of place where you where you can house people during the cyclone. So we thought we should put the mosque on the upper level so that people can be safe on the upper level, and the health hub is down there, but even then this is above the six meter storm surge level.

And so, this is the project which we designed and now it was supposed to go into construction last year, but because of Covid it has been delayed, so we are still waiting for the construction for the project . As it’s a cyclone prone area we’re not allowed to build any kind of glass façades, so it needs to be a very solid building block where it can take the wind, but at the same time can keep people safe. So these are basically 12 individual blocks, which can operate themselves in a way and then the wind passes through through these channels. So that’s how we designed it, so the ground level has the health hub, with a central waiting area and all the different rooms, while on the upper level, there’s a stair that takes people up, and then this is the main mosque with the courtyard and all the other facilities are on the sides. That’s the section, as you can see. Yeah, the building. And, as you go up the stairs, this is the main mosque area, and we just created a kind of a labyrinth with brick, so that you know it brings in the light and the ventilation, but at the same time it’s not open to the outside.

Pavilions
Now, Bangladesh, as I was mentioning, is a subtropical climatic region because the Tropic of Cancer goes through Bangladesh, absolutely in the middle. So we have a dry season of half a year and then a wet season, which is the very predominant monsoon season. So in a way, the temperatures are quite moderate; we don’t need to have heavy insulation in that sense or anything else. So if you really bring it down, what should architecture be? It’s only actually four columns and a roof, that’s all you need. And because we have heavy rain you need a plinth. So this image really exemplifies the absolute quintessence of architecture in a Bengal Delta, where you have a plinth, and you can just, to keep yourself away from the elements you can have a shade. And in Muzharul Islam’s building, this is the first modern building in Bangladesh and built in 1954 by Muzharul Islam, a Fine Art Institute, and he employed, the same idea of making pavilions. So pavilion form is actually all if it’s required. All you need to ensure is ventilation; there needs to be enough airflow in the buildings, and that is what architecture requires. So in many of our projects from the very beginning, that’s what we’ve been trying to focus on, and how you can blur the edge between indoor and outdoor and you can bring in outside, outdoors indoors without really compromising on the element issues. So yeah, you can open up the façades, if you like, create these courtyards and volumes where it then creates a nice microclimate to address these different ways of ventilating a building. This is a courtyard in a in a six story building on the top floor. And also in our residential projects, like this one here, it’s a 12 story residential building, where we try to open up the façades to allow the ventilation into the building, so that the the façades opens up to the air and the light that’s there. And this is the building on a on a really busy road, and it’s it’s one of the major spines of Dhakka city, and that’s, you see the west façades so it’s also blocking the west sun, but allowing the wind, at the same time. Also, you know, there was a system in the older architecture where you saw these long verandas which acted as the buffer between the outside and the inside, so it created a nice microclimate where the wind was then brought into the building much more cooler. And so that’s something you don’t see anymore, because of the developer projects when verandas are not something that sells, in a way, so these kind of micro climatic issues and passive systems are lost. And so, in some of our projects we try to recreate that by creating this long verandas and spaces, which people can again, you know, create that connection. And so wrapping of these long verandas around the building with shafts of, ventilation shafts which could really create that airflow again to make the building naturally ventilated instead of being dependent on passive means, active means. So yes, so shafts really work, creates that stack effect where the hot air goes up and then cooler air then creates this draft, or which then really makes the spaces more useful so in many of our projects we’ve tried to employ these ideas, where we create a atrium space in the center than which then creates that stack effect where air is then moving upwards.

And so, this was one of our projects we designed for the French-German Embassy we design. We won this prize also but then, this was not given to us and it was designed by a French architect, later on. But this was a building where we employed, the same idea. Another small projects close to Dhakka, we have the same stack as you seen the middle, which then takes out the air and creates that microclimate and pavilion, as I was mentioning. So there’s a lot of spaces outdoor or semi outdoor spaces, where people can actually, you know, spend their time.

Brick
And, as I was showing a lot of projects, you see that brick is a material that I use a lot that’s because brick is the only permanent material that we have in the land. It is a delta, so all we have is earth; we don’t have any stone, as such. So now people in the villages build with mud, and if you want something more permanent you would bake it and make it into brick. So this is one of the monasteries from now 300 BC where you see, it was built with brick. But we have architecture built with brick from the 2nd, 3rd century BC, Buddhist monasteries which are really uniquely beautiful. And also some of the temples where the terracotta is used, this is all earth, but so beautifully carved out to create these unique creatures and temples also,. And so we have brick masons who are, you know, generation after generation they have created this unique building architecture, where they know the material well, so quite often we employ brick as a material. Hand crafting is also something very, very much there because we don’t have so much machineries in use on sites so hand crafting is important. And also we have people who are skilled workers, but have very little knowledge of reading drawing, so quite often you have to work with them on site to be able to to create that connection, and to be able to get that result that you really want. So samples and on site visits are very important.

Museum of Independence
Now this is the city of Dhakka which has grown from the Buriganga river here, and then growing and growing, and it is one of the fastest growing cities in the world, now. And, as you can see, one of the densest also. so i’ll show two or three projects from Dhaka to do to kind of finally finish my talk. So this is a very common feature in most of the Asian cities, as you see a formal and informal. I’m not really keen on calling these informal, because this is also a way of life, so you know, maybe some has the the possibility of affording a better life than the others, but this is also in a very much living side by side, so, and it’s a very important part of the city also so. So yeah, so that’s part of, that’s how the city is actually.

As you see, this is Dhakka, a lot of rickshaws, density, lot of people so it’s a, 20 million people living in the city, and in Bangladesh, all together, we have about 150 million people. So a 20 million city it’s large, it’s a mega city.
And so, and when we were given this project of building a museum, we won this in a competition very early in our career, which was in 1997, I graduated in 1995 and 1997 we won this competition to build this museum project. And it is within a park, and in a dense city like Dhakka we are losing parks every single day. And so, this is a uniquely important park in the middle of the city, and and this and the park has a history because it used to be a horse racing ground during the British time. And on 7th of March 1971, right before we went into war with Pakistan, this is where our father of the nation declared that we need to be free from the Pakistani connections, or the state of being Pakistan. And then after a nine-month long war Bangladesh became free the same year, in December [December, 16, 1971]. So all these events took place in that same ground, so basically made sense to have the museum there, but at the same time, this was a park, so how do you deal with that.

So this is that Park Area, as I was mentioning, and within a city of 20 million, this is an absolutely, it’s like a lung of the of the entire city. So when we were given the project, we decided that, our idea was actually that, it needs to have the minimum footprint and it should be a non-building building. So we created a Plaza, as you see here. So this is the minimum area that we took, that was needed. We created an elliptical walkway and all the different elements that were to be on the museum, this is a Museum of Independence and a Monument to Independence, so this, all of these is within this little area that you see, with the reflecting pool around it and then approach from where you enter. So this is the Tower of independence and then this Plaza is all we created, a kind of a celebratory space, because, you know, freedom, dream, aspiration has a certain direction which takes you upwards and celebration, whereas memory and sadness because of the war, was a very brutal war with a lot of, there was a loss of life, genocide killing, killing of intellectuals, so it was a really a very devastating part of Purbô Bongo history and this year we became 50 years. So it was a celebratory, this is also celebrate year for us, 50 years of Bangladesh and, and so this is a unique idea for that reason.

So as you see, this is the Plaza on top, and the museum was taken below great, 25 feet below grade, and there’s a wall that takes you down into the museum. So what you see as the circular water water element here is actually representing that nine month long war. And there is this hole in the middle that actually takes the the water, draws the water down into that central chamber that you see here. And, and this is actually commemorating this sadness of the war and then the and then this tower is actually symbolizing the beacon of hope, of being free, and a sovereign nation. So these are very symbolic elements as you see. This mural was not part of our design, but then the government added it, not something I’m proud of. So this is the main museum area, you see that audio-visual room, you’re taken down by a ramp, that’s the audio visual room you go down, and then these are all the different exhibition spaces, and then the central chamber, and then you go up. So, so, this is the ramp that takes you down. All the exhibits are basically printed on glass, these are just memories and different archival elements that are there. So, and then from there you come to this dark area where we have images of the genocide and killing. And from there you enter into this chamber, which is the kind of a commemorative space where there is the water coming down from the above and through that small aperture, and that’s also the only source of light into that space; it creates this very uniquely beautiful spiritual feeling and the sound of water coming down. And there is no exhibit in this space, so this is a very contemplated commemorative space where one can stand and and remember the people who were lost in the war. And then from there you move to the upper level. And then you come to the tower. And the tower was designed as a tower of light. We employed glass as a material because glass holds light, refracts it, reflects it, so there are all these properties. So this is a space frame structure in the middle and the glasses are stacked, and these stacked glasses are then cladded onto the space frame. So you see the glasses are stacked so it creates that prismatic effect to holding light instead of reflecting it. And so, in the evening it’s lit from outside, so you get to see the glow. So the idea was it’s a tower of light it’s a beacon of hope for a young nation. And you know, my country is younger than me so, you know so, here it is in the evening you see the light.

Bait ur Rouf Mosque
To finish with my lecture with one last project, which is the mosque, for which we got the Aga Khan Award. So that’s blue dot is actually the site. And you see, this is the entire city of Dhakka. Dhakka is marked on all sides by water. So down here in the South is the river of Buriganga. On the east and west, there are mostly low-lying lands, water retention areas, and there is another river here, Turag. And then Turag goes around. And the northern side also it is marked by Turag river. And on the on the edge of the [Turag] river, almost at the extreme end of the city of Dhakka, is where the site is located. And this used to be an absolutely farmland, agrarian land. This was not part of the city of Dhakka when we started designing the project in 2006, but now, this has been incorporated in the city area, as I was saying that Dhakka is the fastest growing city in the world. So from 2004, when I was commissioned the project, till now, it has gone through a lot of changes, and new buildings coming up in these areas, so it’s a it’s a space or arrest or or…

So, this is my grandmother who actually commissioned me for this project. So she owns some land in these areas and she wanted to donate part of the land to build this mosque, because there was no mosque in this area. And so, this was one of her last wishes before she passed away in 2006 in in December. And this is in 2006, September, when we had the first groundbreaking ceremony, and the declaration that this will become a mosque. There was no structure where we could hold the ceremony, so we decided to do it under a tree on the site. So, you can see that it’s still a very village-like atmosphere with hay stacks and everything.

So when I started the design process, the first thing was about researching and trying to understand what is mosque, and where it come from. So if you look into the history of Islamic architecture, I mean Islam, you can see that the first mosque was built by the Prophet in Medina. And the first mosque was actually a form generated from the house form in that in Arabian peninsula. So basically a house form was elongated and then created this larger congregational space where people can come and, say their prayer, but at the same time also have other activities, such as, communal engagement, social engagements, understanding, talking about the values of Islam, because it was a new religion, and at the same time having administrative, judicial, all kinds of activities that had gone on in in mosques, other than just prayer. So this was a very communally active space, always. And so, as Islam moved from the Arabian Peninsula to the east and to the west in a flourishing its horizon, you see all different kinds of mosques that are there. Because the mosque form didn’t have any prescribed form; it adapted to local culture, local climate, construction techniques, local material, and also the culture of the place. So you see, uniquely different mosques in all different parts of the world, which is quite, I think, uniquely beautiful. So, so we thought that, you know, it gives us that opportunity to actually look at it much more, in a broader way.

And in our own location, in in Bengal, these are the first mosque forms that you see during the Sultanate period in the 14th century. And and and these forms are actually again adapted from the local material, local construction techniques, and also follows a certain ideas of the temples that were previously there from the Hindu Era. So these are the uniquely beautiful architectural pieces. And, and this is what has happened to mosques these days: stacks of floors, there is no sense of quality of space, it’s just people going in praying and coming out. There is no quality in this whole act of praying. So that was a critique for me that this is not what I want. And this is the symbol that has happened to the symbols which is really sad, and made me question, do you really need symbols such as is to identify a mosque, or even to identify Islam with, with such poorly created things. So I thought that it would be far more greater to actually focus on the idea of spirituality because once people go into a mosque, it is about creating that connection with the divine and seeking an internal peace. So a space, a spiritual space is what is much more important to me then a symbolic identity.

And so, this is the site here right next to the river, as you see here and the site created 13 degree shift with the qibla direction. Quibla is the direction, actually, the direction of Mecca where the Muslims actually pray. So the prayer halls are always turned towards the direction of Mecca, and so I had to turn the prayer hall into a 13 degree shift so which you see here, this was one of my first sketches. And so, this is the actual site area, and then the shift was of this size, so what I tried to do is, we introduced a drum in the middle, to facilitate that shift. And what it did in, in turn, was that it gave these open spaces, which I could then utilize for ventilation shaft and as air and light, as I always do with all my other projects, so this actually helped me create that extra space. And, and to create that connection with the older architecture, I tried to emulate the similar ideas of building with brick. So, it was a low budget project, and so the main prayer hall was designed as a concrete structure, but the rest of the entire wrapping on the sides with all the facilities are then only in brick. So, it’s a load bearing structure with a central space, which is span, with a large span.

So these are the drawings, as you see. So you walk in from the south, so there’s a small Plaza that was created, a small area that was left on the site where people can actually come and gather before the prayer or after the prayer. And then you enter from here, from the south, but then you’re not allowed to enter into the mosque immediately, you have to take a few bends. So the bends are necessary for me to be able to condition your mind towards the act of praying, so that was intended in a way. And the façades has this perforated brick work because it allows airflow into the building. So this is the building that you see here, and you can see, the entire scenario of the city, which used to be a very village-like atmosphere has turned into this madly growing city and at one point every plot will be built up, and so you won’t be able to see the mosque anymore. So, the façades were not important to me, it was the importance was more about the inside of the of the space and and how I can bring in light and ventilation, without, you know, keeping in mind that there will be buildings coming up all around it. So here, you see the building, there are these four corner turrets, in a way that allows the air to come out but, and also these corner courts to allow light. Built with brick, as I said that this was a very low budget project. My grandmother did give me some money to start the project initially, but after her passing, when I had to do the entire project, becoming a builder, and a fundraiser, and a designer at the same time, and a client too, I had to source funds from all different sources, so the, from community, from other people, whoever was generous enough to donate some funds, that’s how this entire project was built. You see this open space and the light coming into the space. So it’s a, you know, there is no adornment in that way; light is its adornment, light is what creates the spiritual atmosphere in that space, and also, it is for free, all you need is some nice ideas and sections to design with. And throughout the day it changes the atmosphere, and since there are five times prayer a day, every prayer is very different from the other. And also in different season, the lights are also quite different, because the sun moves in different ways, so, you know, every season is quite different from one to the other. Is a regular prayer.

And I will finish my talk here. Thank you so much for your patience. Thank you.

David Hill: Thank you so much, Marina, would you be willing to take a a few questions?

Q&A
Question: Regarding the $200 space frame houses, do you have plans to sell those in the markets alongside the other vernacular flat pack houses?

MT: Ah, I have not thought about that.
Up till now, the idea is to actually. You know, there are a lot of people who wants to donate. I mean the $200 is not a lot of money to donate, so a lot of people, especially friends, families, architects, acquaintances are very much willing to give $200 for a house. When they know that they are actually housing a family, it’s far more rewarding. So up till now we’ve been very lucky to be able to get funds from all different sources and then just channeling it, and giving it to the right kind of people who actually need it. So our responsibility is actually to find the right people who actually need the houses and to be able to give it to them. So, up till now it’s been an activity where we are just focusing on these people in the char, but that’s a very good idea, we should think of that, yeah.

Question: You set up a crowdfunding scheme for the $1500 to $2,000 houses near the Panigram resort. Is that something that could happen, maybe something on the web, where you could raise funds globally for these very inexpensive houses, these very practical solutions?

MT: We do have a plan for that. We’ve created something called FACE Bangladesh. So FACE Bangladesh is Foundation for Architecture and Community Equity. And so we are in the process of making a website where we would like to, you know, upload all these different stories of people and their houses that we are already building so you’ll be able to see the people and their houses that are already there. So FACE Bangladesh is independent of Marina Tabassum architects, but we are very much involved in the process. We wanted to create a separate entity, so that any funding that comes doesn’t come to our office but goes to a completely separate entity. So it’s a foundation, a kind of a society form. And so, architects are involved, other than also engineers, geographers, and many other people who are also in this group. And so we are trying to, we will hopefully soon have a website where people will be able to donate. And I have a feeling that, you know, it’s it’s such a rewarding work that we will be able to get funds. Until now we’ve been very, we’ve had a lot of. Right after this talk, in fact, I have a meeting with some of my friends who are living in the US and would like to, you know, have some donations for these houses. So yeah.

Question: In relationship to the Museum of independence, since it’s a government project at the very early of your career, did it become a brand for you? Did it become a gateway for other government projects to land on your table?

MT: Interesting. Well, that’s what we expected. You know, when we won the competition obviously two years into practice, and we were in our, I was probably 27-28 years of age. And you know, it was a, it was a very important and a prestigious commission for us. And we expected that this would be the project that would, you know, win us awards and get more projects, but that really didn’t work out that way, actually. As you said, that is a government projects, a very politically motivated project and the government at that time was very much interested in doing this project. And once we started, it was stalled in 2001 after halfway through. The Tower wasn’t built, we only finished the museum, but not finishing, but just construction was finished. And then, after that new government came in and they were not interested in pursuing this project any further, so it was under lock and key for for many years. And so we finally finished it in 2013, and by that time I was already known for other projects. And so, so yeah so, when we finished finally, yeah, it really didn’t tell in that sense, but but with other projects we were already known by that time, yeah.

Question: You won the Museum of Independence project just two years after graduating from college. What kind of challenges did you face going from a fresh graduate to a lead architect on the museum that would represent the entire nation? Did you feel like you had to adapt the new language that spoke on behalf of the whole population or was it still the original Marina Tabassum like you had followed it throughout?

MT: Very good, very good question. Yeah well, you know, first was euphoria: well, we won a project, a competition. But then the next minute you start thinking that it’s a huge responsibility; you’re building a museum and and a monument which is representing the entire country’s history, the birth of the country. So it was an enormous responsibility. And, you know, I think, that project actually matured us more than anything else. So you know, even though we were fresh graduates, we were very aware of the fact that this cannot be a very playful, willful project. This needed to address these issues of, you know, what what would be a timeless way of approaching architecture. So that’s when, you know, [Louis] Khan’s projects, especially the one in Bangladesh, the Parliament Complex was in a way, a teacher in this project for us, that you try to understand what is timelessness, how do you approach it, and in many ways a lot of lesson was learned from that building, because, you know, it’s about light, it’s about the atmosphere, it’s about keeping it quiet in many ways, the primordial idea of geometry, which is never old. So these aspects of what we try to focus on rather than something which is fashionable in a way. So timelessness was something we really focused on in that sense as designers.

So, as I said that, it really matured us in many ways, and at a very early age. And at the same time, being so young, with the government, it was quite difficult because they definitely didn’t want to take us very seriously, they were always trying to teach us, but we were quite sure of what we want. But one good, I think it is important to share, is that Muzharul Islam was an absolute guiding light and a guardian in this project, because he was, they created this committee, which was called the Experts Committee because they didn’t actually have any faith in us as young architects, so they created this Experts Committee, where we have to present our ideas to the Experts Committee, and then they would really go through all our ideas and then say “Yes, Okay, this can go.” But Muzharul Islam always made sure that our ideas as architects was the only idea that was pushed through. So there are Experts Committee then became our in a way our voice in many ways that whatever we wanted to do in this project was then pushed through the expert committee so Muzharul Islam is absolutely very, very important, in that sense, in this project for us. So so yeah . There was a bit of a struggle, obviously with the bureaucrats. They didn’t buy the idea of a tower of light, because there was none as such in the whole world, so you know if there is nothing in the world, how can you build something which is not there already. So that was a struggle. We had to, you know, do a lot of fighting. So finally, we were able to build it in 2013 by that time, the idea was already 16 years old.

Question: Having done a variety of project types, which project type excites you the most?

MT: I think, in a very interesting with both. I would say that our office has taken two different ways, now. One is this hands-on projects which are very low cost, low budget projects which are, I think, a need of our time, because we have this disparity among human conditions where you definitely as architects need to address these facts, which are very much predominantly there in our landscape, and as architects we just cannot be serving 1% of people who are able to pay our fees to run our offices. So, as we run our offices on the fees, we are also trying to be socially responsible. So both the projects have their own way of. I, as an architect, I feel excited when I’m designing space and form, and you know that, which I have actually learned, and taught, and been taught, and have practice over these 25 years. But, at the same time, I get very excited when I go to a site and I see somebody who had no house has a house. So those are two very different kind of excitements. So I think I enjoy both, and it’s a nice balance to have both.

Question: Does it rain in the mosque?

MT: Yes, of course it rains in Dhaka, so it rains, but it doesn’t go into the mosque prayer hall area. Those little dots that you see are covered with glass on top, so yeah it doesn’t wet the main prayer hall.

Question: About teaching, Paul Tesar who’s made this series possible for us, I think, opened new worlds for our students and to new cultures. You taught at the GSD where many of the students were not from Dhaka, not from Bangladesh. Can you talk about the importance of teaching students who are not from where you are working?

MT: Yeah, I mean, none of my students were from the subcontinent because I know students are always looking for new places and new, and new experiences so, you know, this is already something they knew so probably the subcontinental students were not interested. But the now my studio had about 14 students, all from us and all different parts of the world, and yeah, from Greece, from Korea, China, US. And, obviously, for the US students, this is completely a new kind of an experience. And in a way that was also my interest of bringing them to the site to to be able to experience how people can actually live and in a way of quality life, you know. They may not have a lot of facilities, and you know, all different things that we think are very necessary in our lives. They live with very minimal means, but at the same time they’re very happy, they’re they’re very content with the way they live their lives. So, so, in a way that was also something very important for the students to experience and to see. And I think that really had a lasting impression, because they when they came back from the site they were constantly talking about that. And in a way that journey, of maybe weeks being on site, really created a very unique way of looking at architecture and to be able to design with that. And students still have connection with me, some of them; quite often they write and talk about that that experience.

Question: In your lecture, you stated that light is what creates the spiritual aspect of space. How do you decide on the various light qualities in these different spaces and what they should have?

MT: You know, my understanding of light actually. In a way, the way I learned about light is, is kind of, observing it. What kind of light brings what kind of atmosphere into a space. And, for me, the first time I visited Hagia Sophia was quite a revelation, quiet a revelation, you know. I visited that twice, once in a very gloomy day and the light condition, and then I visited again one day, which, when there was very bright sun. And the two atmospheres are so different, and it was all created by the way light was brought into the space. So when you don’t show the the source of light, the light gets reflected from the surface of the space and it creates this, it illuminates this volume and then brings the light back into the space, it creates that spiritual connection. So for me, when I want to create something spiritual I don’t, I don’t show the source of light. When the source becomes visible you, you you don’t get the mystery. That that mysteriousness of where the light is coming from, how it is how the surface is being illuminated is somehow lost. So so, when you want to create that spirituality the first tip I would like to give to the students is hide the source, it should not be visible.

And, and for the, you know, other places, where it’s a joyful place where you want something to be, you know, an open space, you want to create that connection, you want people to see outside light can become very normal and very direct so. yeah.
I think that answers, yeah.

DH: Marina, thank you so much for a wonderful lecture and for waking up so early. I forgot to mention this, I think this is the first time a lecture is done on two different days as well, not just the latest and early has been on two different days for us.

So I just want to thank you so much. Again once, once again my gratitude to Paul and Holly for this wonderful series, and to Patricia Morgado for organizing it and getting the students, so much so deeply involved into it and making something incredible and special out of it, so thank you Patricia. Thank you to everyone who came tonight and, of course, finally, to Marina once again, thank you for a great lecture.

Thank you, thank you.

MT: Thank you, thank you so much, thanks for the invitation Thank you bye bye everyone.

Website:
https://marinatabassumarchitects.com/