Marina Tabassum
Academic year 2018-2019
Spring
In the Spring semester of 2019, BK welcomes the Dhaka-based architect Marina Tabassum as visiting professor. Tabassum is celebrated for her focus on local culture, climate, materials and history. In 2016, she received the Aga Khan Award for her design of the Bait ur Rouf Mosque in Dhaka.
Profile
Tabassum graduated from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in 1995. She co-founded URBANA, a Dhaka-based architectural practice that designed the Independence Monument of Bangladesh and the Museum of Independence. In 2005, she founded Marina Tabassum Architects, on a quest to “establish a language of architecture that is contemporary to the world yet rooted to the place”. Over the past years, she held teaching posts at several architecture schools, among which Harvard University. Currently, she is academic director at the Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements.
In her work, Tabassum is inspired by local cultures, climate, local history and community engagement, aiming to counteract what she finds impersonal in the architecture of today. Her design for the Bait ur Rouf Mosque in Dhaka was awarded the Aga Khan Award. The Mosque is remarkable for its emphasis on space and light and its diverse, community-oriented program.
Marina Tabassum is no stranger to our Faculty. In June 2018, she gave a lecture on ‘Dwelling in the Delta’ for The Berlage. Watch it back here.
