Marina Tabassum

The Department of Architecture welcomes Marina Tabassum for her lecture, "Displacement and Architecture of Transition." Mass displacement of people is posing as a major challenge in the 21st century. Forced migration due to war and conflict have displaced large number of people internally within the countries and cross border as refugees and asylum seekers. The trend of displacement is also happening due to extreme climatic and geographic conditions induced by climate crisis.

According to UNHCR, 117.3 million people are facing various forms of displacement. Among them 31.6 million people are refugees and 6.9 million people are asylum seekers. According to IDMC, 68 million people are internally displaced within their own countries. Bangladesh hosts one million Rohingya refugees, who were forced out of Myanmar in 2017. There are a large number of displaced people inside the country due to flooding and climate related crisis.

Displacement of people is a transitional state undefined by a period of time. Displacement is associated with physical, mental, emotional exhaustion and trauma. It is also associated with lack of hope, basic rights and dignity. Can architecture be a process of healing? How can architecture contribute to the dignity of people in transition?

‘Architect, an agent of change’ is a contemporary response and endeavor visible in many parts of the world. This shift in Architecture thinking allows architects to reach out to vulnerable population of the world with knowledge and expertise to address the basic human conditions and rights using architecture as a tool.

How do we address the aspects of permanent versus temporary in architecture? Does material play a role? How can architecture contribute to the world transitioning to a new ecological order? Answers to these questions are many folds and needs deeper understanding of process versus outcomebased approach through collaborative research.

A Bangladeshi architect and educator, Marina Tabassum founded Dhaka-based Marina Tabassum Architects in 2005. In her work, Tabassum seeks to establish a language of architecture that is contemporary yet reflectively rooted to place, always against an ecological rubric containing climate, context, culture, history. Her project the Bait Ur Rouf Mosque in Bangladesh is distinguished by its lack of popular mosque iconography, its emphasis on space and light, and its capacity to function not only as a place of worship but also as a refuge for a dense neighborhood on Dhaka's periphery. The portfolio of work notwithstanding, Tabassum's practice remains consciously contained in size, undertaking a limited number of projects per year.

Tabassum is a Professor at Technical University Delft, in the Netherlands. She held the Gehry Chair at the University of Toronto 2022 - 2023. She has taught in Harvard University Graduate School of Design, University of Texas, Bengal Institute and BRAC University.

She received Honorary Doctorate from Technical University of Munich. In addition to Aga Khan Awards for Architecture, she has received many accolades including Arnold Brunner Memorial Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Gold Medal of the French Academy of Architecture and Soane medal in Architecture from the United Kingdom.

Tabassum chairs Foundation for Architecture and Community Equity (F.A.C.E) and Prokritee, a Fare trade organization. She has served as the member of the Steering Committee of the Aga Khan Awards for Architecture from 2017 to 2022. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA).

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