Environment

Space of Water: A Floating Workshop for the Bengal Delta

How can a working vessel help reshape the relationship between life, land and water? - A two week long workshop with Arijit Chatterjee and Asha Sumra

Spring 2017: March Session: How to Read the City and Other Things

The March Session offered a brilliant, diverse lineup of global faculties.

Spring 2016: May Session: Landscape Forms and Formations

Theories, designs and techniques were presented for working with a hydro-geographic landscape as the Bengal delta. Seminars, design workshops and forums addressed various scales of operation.

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.

A Sustainable Tropical Campus

Research Directions in Sustainability in the Built Environment

The Screening of “The Seeds of Vandana Shiva” — A Feature-Length Documentary

A documentary “The Seeds of Vandana Shiva” was screened on March 17 by No Voice Passport in association with Bengal Institute.

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.

Workshop: New Urban Topologies – Dhaka

A three-day workshop with selected participants and members of Färgfabriken to understand and conceptualise urban transformations in Savar.

Improvising Architectural Responses to the Changing Climate: Making, Sharing and Communicating Design Process – A Presentation by Tumpa Husna Yasmin Fellows

The Buoyant Foundation Project: An Innovative Approach to Climate Change Adaptation and Flood Risk Reduction for Low-Income Communities

Ng Sek San: Off-Grid: Making in the Tropics

Ng Sek San is the principal of Seksan Design Landscape Architecture and Planning. He was invited to speak about his projects and give his unique perspective on design and planning.

Next Sylhet Exhibition

Next Sylhet: : Visions for a New Urban Future

The Talk by Balkrishna Doshi at Bengal Architecture Symposium 02

The scope of architecture now encompasses more than just creating buildings. In its extended sense, architecture now involves the design of towns and cities, the rearrangement of landscapes, and the provision of well-being of communities.

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.

Peter Buchanan: Reflection on Human Settlements and Water

According to Peter Buchanan, one must think about housing typology of small towns.

Madhura Prematilleke: Works

Bengal Architecture Symposium 01: Now/Next – Peter Buchanan

Peter Buchanan at Bengal Architecture Symposiums: Now/Next

Bengal Architecture Symposium 01: Now/Next – Panel Discussion: “What Next?”

Discussion: "What Next" at Bengal Architecture Symposium: NOW/NEXT

Bengal Architecture Symposium 01: Now/Next – Adèle Naudé Santos

Adele Santos at Bengal Architecture Symposium: NOW/NEXT

Bengal Architecture Symposium 01: Now/Next – Panel Discussion: Crafting Architecture

Discussion: "Crafting Architecture": Bengal Architecture Symposium: NOW/NEXT

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

Opening remarks by Abul Khair Bengal Architecture NOW/NEXT Symposium

Bengal Architecture Symposium 01: Now/Next – Peter Stutchbury

Day 01 Peter Stutchbury at Bengal Architecture Symposium: NOW/NEXT

Public Lecture 06: Lynn Sagalyn: “Public/Private Approaches to Large-Scale Urban Development: Cases Across the Globe”

In the Terrain of Rain – Anuradha Mathur and Dilip da Cunha

The way we draw and see deltas, rivers, rain, land and gardens, may be completely wrong!

BI/GRU Research Logs: Air Pollution in Dhaka and its Surrounding Areas

Analysis of air pollution levels in Dhaka and its surrounding areas

BI/GRU Research Logs: Mapping Historical Earthquakes in and around Bangladesh

Assessment of the history of earthquakes in and around Bangladesh

BI/GRU Research Logs: The Mapping of Tree Canopy of Dhaka City

Tree canopy coverage within the urban context of Dhaka

BI/ GRU Research Logs: Flood in Meghna Basin

Overflow in the Meghna Basin

BI/ GRU Research Logs: Sea Level Rise – Global and Bangladesh Scenario

Sea level rise scenarios around the world

BI/ GRU Research Logs: Mapping Mangroves in Tropical Deltas

Time series mapping of Mangrove coverage in Tropical Deltas using multitemporal satellite imagery and machine learning

BI/ GRU Research Logs: The Importance of Considering Hydrological Basin in Planning

Basin consideration in planning and resource management

BI/ GRU Research Logs: The Meghna Basin

Identification of the Meghna Basin rivers through the latest satellite imagery.

BI / BAU Works: Tribeni Canal and Linear Park, Narayanganj, 2019

To revive and improve the bank of Tribeni Canal, Bengal Institute/BAU Design was entrusted by the Narayanganj City Corporation to propose a design.

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.

Imagining Bangladesh: A Coastal Scheme

A comprehensive planning idea for future Bangladesh

Mongla Townscape

Proposal to develop a city in harmony with nature

Environmental Database

Inventory of information as a supporting tool for researchers

Khulna Regional Study

The dynamics of Ganges Delta is the key focus of this study.

Manikganj Townscape

Manikganj Development Project

Participants’ Works from “Space of Water: A Floating Workshop for the Bengal Delta”

Participants of the workshop created 1:20 models of their idea of what a floating vessel could accommodate in the context of the Bengal Delta.

Design studio by Wakilur Rahman, Salauddin Ahmed, Hasibul Kabir

A comprehensive ‘learning by doing’ landscape design studio started off working outside in the field.

Anuradha Mathur and Dilip da Cunha Studio

Participants were asked to bring camera and sketching materials for an excursion on the river. Professor Mathur and Cunha instructed them to observe the landscape and activities on both sides of the river Dhaleshwari.

“The Great Padma”—Book from ORO Editions and Bengal Institute

"The Great Padma" is the first comprehensive book on the epic river that flows as the spine of Bangladesh and forms the existential dynamic for the Bengal Delta.

Will New Orleans vanish like Atlantis?

This article is part of a collection of articles from 'The Ashraf Archives' and was originally published in The Daily Star in 2005.

The City is the Challenge

Kazi Ashraf wrote about the key criteria for a livable Dhaka that can be implemented without ecological damage.