The Architects’ Journal Architecture News & Buildings
In this episode, we hear from Marina Tabassum who is working on the front line of climate change in the Ganges delta, developing flat pack bamboo homes to bolster marginal communities devastated by seasonal flooding. ‘How relevant are we as a profession if we just cater our services to one per cent of the people?’ Tabassum asks.
Tabassum was recently short-listed in the London School of Economics’ competition for an academic building at 35 Lincoln’s Inn Fields as part of a team led John McAslan + Partners with Tod Williams/Billie Tsien Architects.
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About Marina Tabassum
Winner of the Aga Khan medal in 2016 for her Bait ur Rouf Mosque, Marina Tabassum runs her practice, Marina Tabussum Architects, in Dhaka. After teaching at Harvard and in Texas, Marina now teaches at TU Delft and directs the Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements. In 2021, in addition to the Soane Medal, she was awarded the Gold Medal by the French Academy of Architecture, the Arnold W. Bruner Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and named a Royal Designer for Industry by the RSA.
Her current work includes 100 modular bamboo houses in the Ganges delta supported by a Swiss government grant. She also has eight projects underway in and around the Rohingya refugee camps near Cox’s Bazar in southeast Bangladesh near the Myanmar border, as well as two high-end residential projects in Dhaka.
Baharchara Aggregation Center, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Photographer: Asif Salman
Show notes: Projects and resources mentioned in this episode
Soane Medal lecture
Bait ur Rouf Mosque (2012)
NEK-10 house (2001)
A5 Residence (2001)
TU Delft Visiting Professor Marina Tabassum
Inheriting Wetness Sharjah Triennial 2019
From L-R: Khudi Bari. Modular mobile house for the climate victims of Bangladesh, 2020 Photo: Asif Salman / Resilient Landscape, Rohingya Refugee Camps, Ukhiya. Photo: F. M. Faruque Abdullah Shawon / Baharchara Aggregation Center. Photographer: MTA Team / Bait ur Rouf Mosque Faidabad, Uttara, Dhaka. Photos by: Sandro Di Carlo Darsa (x2) and Hasan Saifuddin Chandan
Credits
Climate Champions is produced in association with ACAN, the Architects’ Climate Action Network
Podcast produced and edited by Concept Culture
Music: Edmilson do Pífano, Forró de dois Amigos. Interpretation: Felipe Tanaka e banda Balaio de Baião