Kashef Chowdhury Publishes Monograph of Three Decades of Civic Work

Bangladeshi architect Kashef Chowdhury has published a monograph collating works from his three-decade-long career. Park Books released Meditations in Entropy, in which the architect recounts his years creating sustainable infrastructure with his studio Urbana for those he believes need it most.

"I don't want to give service to people who have enough," Chowdhury told Dezeen.

"I don't want to build highly secured personal private properties," he reflected. "Those who cannot afford an architect, I think they are in need of an architect the most."

"My simple condition is I don't want to design a building where people cannot just walk in."

The book features 18 realised projects, each presented as an independent case study. Essays by architecture critic Kenneth Frampton and architectural historian William J R Curtis, among others, accompany the work.

"I wanted to make this a cultural document," Chowdhury said. "I wanted to talk about not just the finished projects, but why we did it. The book should say why, how, when, where, for whom."

"All those answers should be very clear instead of one trying to find them."

Chowdhury's portfolio consists largely of public buildings, from community centres to cyclone shelters. His practice combines a personal commitment to serve the public with a stated reluctance to design for the wealthy. Sustainability, in his definition, extends beyond low-carbon construction to affordability.

"For me, cost is a very important part of sustainability," Chowdhury said.

"Many of our clients are NGOs and let's say somebody who really needs a good building at a nominal budget, so we have to be very careful that we address all their needs within that given budget."

Working mostly in the geographical region of Bengal, Urbana has specialised in local materials such as load-bearing masonry walls. Chowdhury believes this approach produces buildings that respond appropriately to local climatic and social conditions.

"We have to be careful about history and culture because we are in the region of Bengal, which has a very distinct culture," he explained. "We don't want a building to be alien."

"We try to optimise cost wherever we can, and bricks are locally available – they're handmade, they have these beautiful imperfections, and I love to use them," Chowdhury added.

Six civic projects from the studio stand out in the monograph.

Srihatta – Samdani Art Centre and Sculpture Park, 2018

Meandering brick walls envelop this arts complex in rural Sylhet, Bangladesh. Urbana completed it as a home for the cultural institution Samdani Art Foundation. The complex contains artist residences, with programmes divided across a series of volumes and courtyards nestled into the surrounding rural landscape.

Friendship Hospital, 2018

The Friendship Hospital is a low-cost, remote medical institution composed of low-lying brick pavilions in Bengal, southwest Bangladesh. Created for the NGO Friendship, it won the RIBA International Prize in 2021 and provides healthcare services for people living in the region.

Friendship Centre, 2012

Also created for Friendship, this open-air community centre features a man-made embankment that protects its low-lying structure from flooding. Completed in 2012, the complex accommodates training programmes for the charity within a labyrinth of brick walls, arches and courtyards.

Museum of Independence and Independence Monument of Bangladesh, 2013

An underground museum topped with a public square and an adjacent glass-covered tower form this national memorial complex in Dhaka. Urbana won the national design competition in 1997. Construction spanned over a decade before completion in 2013.

Gulshan Mosque, 2017

White concrete forms the stacked, six-storey volume of this mosque, built to accommodate a large congregation on an urban plot in Dhaka. Informed by jali screens, its patterned, open-air facade draws light and ventilation into the interior while shielding it from rain.

Cyclone shelter, Kuakata, 2018

After Cyclone Sidr hit Bangladesh in 2007, Urbana designed a concrete shelter to mitigate the impact of future disasters. The studio spent 11 years trying to source funding before the project was realised in 2018. The two-storey cruciform structure is wrapped with a circulation ramp that protects four light and ventilation wells from high winds and flying debris.

Together, the six projects chart a practice that has spent three decades testing whether modest budgets and local brick can produce architecture of international standing. With Meditations in Entropy, Chowdhury now makes that record available, in his words, as a "cultural document" for research.