LECTURE: MARINA TABASSUM

MTA (Marina Tabassum Architects) is a leading architecture practice based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The firm was founded by Marina Tabassum in 2005 after her ten year partnership in URBANA, a practice jointly founded with Kashef Chowdhury. MTA began its journey in the quest of establishing a language of architecture that is contemporary to the world yet rooted to the place. MTA stands against the global pressure of consumer architecture -easy and quick- fast breed of buildings, confused and impersonal, out of place and context; thus is the pledge of the practice to root Architecture to the place; thus the material palette - the climate, the location, the culture of the people, history of the land. The practice is consciously kept and retained in an optimum size and projects undertaken are carefully chosen and are limited by number per year. The projects done and at hand are varied, ranging from Master Planning of Eco Resort to twelve storey residential blocks.

MTA worked on the Abu Dhabi Mosque Development Regulation Guideline (ADMDR) with Urban Planning Council of Abu Dhabi. The guideline is a published document in effect since 2013. MTA is chosen as one of the top 50 practices of South Asia by Architecture Digest in 2015. MTA’s project Bait Ur Rouf Mosque is the recipient of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in the current cycle.

Marina Tabassum graduated in 1995 from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology with distinction. Her initial training in profession was from Uttam Kumar Shaha at Nandan Architects in Bangladesh. In 1997, second year into Tabassum’s architecture career, her firm URBANA won a prestigious national competition to design the Independence Monument of Bangladesh and Liberation War Museum. During the formative years of her career she was greatly influenced by Muzharul Islam, the pioneer of modern tropical architecture in Bangladesh. His philosophy of responsible architecture practice that not only impacts the physical environment but also become a source of positive change in the world is also something she tries to promote through her work and teaching.

Marina Tabassum is the Academic Director of Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements. The Institute is providing an inspiring and intellectual platform for those involved in imagining and shaping the futures of the environment, the Institute works in a dynamic, nonhierarchical setting to re-think assumptions, and explore and test the limits of environmental design practices. Tabassum teaches design studios in BRAC University since 2005. She taught advanced design studio as Visiting Professor at UT Arlington in fall 2015.

Marina Tabassum directed an international conference in Dhaka Bangladesh named Bengal Architecture Symposium in April 2016. The symposium was attended by 750 architects and students of the country. She designed and curetted two major exhibitions while in URBANA and an Exhibition on Religion and Architecture at Goethe Institute, Dhaka, 2007. She has lectured and presented her works and ideas of

Architecture in various prestigious International Architectural Events that include Ajman Planning Conference 2007, DATUM KL 2009, IGBC International Conference in Delhi 2012, Roros Seminar in Norway 2013, IPAX Karachi2014, National Conference of Royal Institute of Australian Architects in 2014, Thinking Local at Harvard GSD 2016 to name a few. Her works and interviews have been published in various national and international magazines and books.