Culture

Bauhaus and Early Modernism – March 2020 Session

A two week long academic program, part of the Spring 2020 Sequence "An Archaeology of Modernism," focusing on the most important phase of the birth, influence and evolution of the Bauhaus movement.

Space is Society – October 2018 Session

A two week long academic session on how we think about space, its relationships with society.

“Building Is Crafting” May 2018 Session

An academic session focusing on crafts and making; involving masters of crafts and craftsmen. With a mix of hands-on workshops, and a few lecture on the first two weeks of May, 2018.

Fall 2017: September – November Session: Scale Is Everything: LARGE/MEDIUM/HUMAN

A seven week long special session brought renowned architects, landscape architects and academics for a fantastic series of design workshops, seminars and other special events.

Spring 2017: February Session: The Fabric of Culture

February Session was a month-long session that explored how culture is interwoven with our society in every aspect of our lives. As always, we had a fantastic line-up of faculties, both from home and abroad.

Spring 2016: April Session: House, Cluster, Matrix

The theme of “House, Cluster, Matrix” addressed the range of rural and urban housing forms

Spring 2016: February Session: Tropical Topics

The tropical climate is unique in its own diverse way and it has a direct impact on the design of our built environment; thus ‘tropics’ as a topic is in the discussion of design, architecture and situated place making ever since the modernism and beyond.

Fall 2015: September Session: Cities and Settlements

This session explored the fundamentals of human settlements, large scale designs and cities. The discussion also brought in topics of how funding organizations and local community get involved in a project like designing new villages from scratch.

Midnight’s Third Child

Launch Event of “The Great Padma” — A Book from ORO Editions and Bengal Institute

"The Great Padma" book is edited by Kazi Khaleed Ashraf, with a preface by Amitav Ghosh, and was officially launched on 4th February, 2023.

Public Lecture by Tapati Guha-Thakurta at KIB on Art and Religion

Contesting Careers: The “Artistic” and the “Religious” in Contemporary India - A Lecture by Tapati Guha-Thakurta

Public Lecture 26: Prem Chandavarkar: “On Craft and Design Practice”

Neelkanth Chhaya – Responsiveness in Architecture – Public Lecture 23

Neelkanth Chhaya talks about the responsive approach to architecture and design and the importance of evolving and adapting the practice according to both the time and location.

Tarshito: Seeds of Foundation – Dhaka

Renowed Architect and Artist, Tarshito presented about his ongoing project "Seeds of Foundation" and other artistic works.

The Conversation with Balkrishna Doshi, Juhani Pallasmaa and Kazi Khaleed Ashraf

Followed by the talks by Doshi and Pallasmaa, the conversation continued with the interpretational and methodological processes involved with the act of drawing.

Lyndon Neri and Rosanna Hu: The Obsessions in the Works

Lyndon Neri and Rosanna Hu are Founding Partners of Neri&Hu Design and Research Office, an inter-disciplinary international architectural design practice based in Shanghai, China with an additional office in London.

Peter Buchanan: Rethinking Architectural Education for the Emergent Era

Bengal Architecture Symposium 01: Now/Next – Abul Khair Litu

Opening remarks by Abul Khair Bengal Architecture NOW/NEXT Symposium

Public Lecture 12: Soumitro Ghosh: Thoughts and Works

সব পাখি ঘরে ফিরে ঘর ছেড়ে ঘরে ফেরার বাস্তু দর্শন All Birds Fly Back Home – Home and the Door in Philosophy of Architecture – Arindam Chakrabarti

BI / BAU Works: Phultola Community Center, Khulna, 2018

Intended to improve the social and economic status of the Dalit community of the Phultola area in Khulna, BI / BAU developed a conceptual plan in 2018. Currently, the project has been revived with the same program but a different location.

Narayanganj Townscape

A comprehensive development plan for Narayanganj

Participant Works from “Building Is Crafting” May 2018 Session

Participants of the workshop various works with numerous materials guided by experienced Artisans and instructors of craft and product design.

Kazi Khaleed Ashraf’s Talk at a “Teacher-to-Teacher Workshop”

Kazi Khaleed Ashraf spoke at a "Teacher-to-Teacher Workshop"

The Mughal Miniaturist of Jorasanko

Farhat Afzal writes about Abanindranath Tagore based on the lectures by Sonia Amin, February 2017.

Balkrishna Doshi in a conversation with Kazi Khaleed Ashraf

Kazi Ashraf and Balkrishna Doshi converse about the connections that bind us culturally and architecturally and where we go from here.

Professor Anisuzzaman Obituary

Professor Anisuzzaman (1937-2020)

Reading Relics

Muntakim Haque writes on the significance of ancient ruins based on the lectures at Bengal Institute by Nisar Hossain, Shahnaj Husne Jahan and Michael Meister

Re-use of The Castle of Ripafratta – International Design Competition

An international architecture design competition is being organised for the re-use of the Ripafratta Castle, in San Giuliano Terme, Pisa, Italy.

Choreography of Space

Pooja Sengupta spoke in the Bengal Institute October Session - "Space is Society" about the choreography of space in her performances and productions.

Wisdom of the Land – Marina Tabassum’s Installations at the Venice Biennale 2018

Marina Tabassum and her team, curated various elements of the vernacular life of the delta to recreate and expose their traditional wisdom through the installations.