‘Unlike most other forms of art that we have come to experience, from literature to film, from painting to music, the built architecture cannot be displayed on a wall, become part of an archive or be simply carried away. With few exceptions, architecture is forever married to the place where it is located. And to its climate, its wind, its light, its flora and fauna, and its people.’
– Kashef Chowdhury Kashef Chowdhury talks about his impressions of the largest delta in the world, the area covering the entire nation of Bangladesh and also shares what influences his architecture. He also discusses some works - varying in typology, nature of project and in the manner the architect responds to the immediate and larger context. |
Biography
Kashef Mahboob Chowdhury
Architect, Principal Kashef Chowdhury/URBANA
Kashef Mahboob Chowdhury was born in Dhaka, the son of a civil engineer, growing up in Bangladesh and the Middle East before graduating in architecture from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) in 1995. In 2006, he attended the Glenn Murcutt Masterclass in Sydney.
After working with architect Uttam Kumar Saha, he established the practice URABANA in partnership in 1995 and from 2004 has continued as the sole Principal of the firm. Chowdhury is married to Rajrupa Chowdhury, an Indian classical musician of the instrument Sarod. They have a son.
Kashef Chowdhury has a studio based practice whose works find root in history with strong emphasis on climate, materials and context - both natural and human. Projects in the studio are given extended time for research so as to reach a level of innovation and original expression. Works range from conversion of ship and low cost raised settlements in 'chars' to training centre, mosque, art gallery, museum, residences and multi-family housing to corporate head offices.
Chowdhury has been a visiting faculty at the North South University and BRAC University, both in Bangladesh and has been a juror in final year crits in universities in Dhaka. He was twice finalist in the Aga Khan Award for Architecture and has won first prize in Architectural Review's AR+D Emerging Architecture Award 2012.
Kashef Mahboob Chowdhury takes an active interest in art and in 2004 presented a lecture series 'Aspects of Contemporary Art in Germany' at the Goethe Institut, Dhaka. He has worked as a professional photographer and has held seven solo exhibitions. He has designed and published three books: Around Dhaka, 2004; Plot Number Fifty Six, 2009 and The Night of Fifteen November, 2011 - a photographic and recorded account of some survivors of the cyclone SIDR in the coastal areas of Bangladesh.
http://kashefchowdhury-urbana.com/home.html
Architectural Review
supplement decembre 2013 dedicated to Urbana
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Recognitions: |
Friendship Centre - 2013
by Kashef Chowdhury
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The Friendship Center near the district town of Gaibandha, Bangladesh,
is for an NGO which works with some of the poorest in the country and who live
mainly in riverine islands (chars) with very limited access and opportunities.
Friendship uses the facility for its own training programs and will also rent
out for meetings, training, conferences etc. as income generation. The low
lying land, which is located in rural Gaibandha where agriculture is
predominant, is under threat of flooding if the embankment encircling the town
and peripheries break. An extensive program with a very limited fund meant that
raising the structures above flood level (a height of eight feet) was not an
option: nearly the entire available fund would be lost below grade.
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Being in an earthquake zone and the low bearing capacity of the silty soil added further complications. The third and final design relies on a surrounding embankment for flood protection while building directly on existing soil, in load bearing masonry. Rainwater and surface run-off are collected in internal pools and the excess is pumped to an excavated pond, also to be used for fishery. The design relies on natural ventilation and cooling, being facilitated by courtyards and pools and the earth covering on roofs. An extensive network of septic tanks and soak wells ensure the sewage does not mix with flood water. The ‘Ka' Block contains the reception pavilion, offices, library, training/conference rooms and pavilions, a prayer space and a small 'cha-shop’. The 'Kha' Block, connected by three archways, is for more private functions and houses the dormitories, the dining pavilion and staff and family quarters. The laundry and drying shed is located on the other side of the pond. There is no air-conditioning and the entire lighting is through LED and energy efficient lamps. As in construction, so in conception - the complex of the centre rise and exist as echo of ruins, alive with the memory of the remains of Mahasthan (3rd century BC), some sixty kilometers away. Constructed and finished primarily of one material - local hand- made bricks - the spaces arc woven out of pavilions, courtyards, pools and greens; corridors and shadows. Simplicity is the intent, monastic is the feel. The centre serves and brings together some of the poorest of poor in the country and -by extension - in the world, yet in the extreme limitation of means was a search for the luxury of light and shadows of the economy and generosity of small spaces; of the joy of movement and discovery in the bare and the essential.