Two Bangladesh projects are amongst six winners of the 2022 Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA).

A monograph that includes essays on issues raised by the Master Jury’s selections of the shortlist and the winners for the 2022 Award will be published by Architangle in October 2022, according to a message received from Geneva.

The Urban River Spaces project in Jhenaidah created by Khondakar Hasibul Kabir and Suhailey Farzana, and the community spaces of the Rohingya Refugee Response program by architects Rizvi Hassan, Khwaja Fatmi and Saad Ben Mostafa will share the US$1 million award with four other winning projects.

Read: Bangladeshi projects shortlisted for Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2022

Urban River Spaces in Jhenaidah

Through consistent community participation and appropriation, extensive involvement of women and marginalised groups, and a local workforce, the seemingly simple undertaking of cleaning up the access to the Nabaganga river in Jhenaidah led to a thoughtful and minimal landscaping project with local materials and construction techniques, thus transforming a derelict informal dump site into an attractive and accessible multifunctional space that is valued by Jhenaidah’s diverse communities.

The project managed to reverse the ecological degradation and health hazards of the river and its banks, and induce effective ecological improvement of the river.

Community Spaces of Rohingya Refugee Response program in Cox’s Bazar

The six temporary community spaces of the Rohingya Refugee Response program provide a dignified, sensitive, and ingenious response to emergency needs related to the major influx of Rohingya refugees into Bangladeshi host communities, with particular attention to the safety of women and girls.

The concept and design of the six spaces are the result of appropriate planning, solid partnerships and inclusive processes involving the diverse refugee and host communities, such as defining spatial and functional needs.

Read:Bangladeshi Marina Tabassum in Aga Khan Award for Architecture’s Steering Committee

Projects from Indonesia, Iran, Lebanon and Senegal have also won the award.

Bangladesh projects have received the coveted Aga Khan Award for Architecture in the past.

In 2019, the Arcadia Education Project in South Kanarchor (designed by architect Saif Ul Haque) won the award and Amber Loom Denim Shed in Gazipur (designed by architect Jubair Hasan) was shortlisted.

Other winning projects in the country include the Bait Ur Rouf Mosque in Dhaka (designed by architect Marina Tabassum) and the Friendship Centre in Gaibandha (designed by architect Kashef Chowdhury) in 2016, the Grameen Bank Housing Programme, the National Assembly Building (1989), and a school in Rudrapur (2007).

In addition to the above five winners, Bangladesh has had two other projects shortlisted in the 2010 edition of the Awards.

The AKAA was established in 1977 by His Highness the Aga Khan, to identify and encourage building concepts that successfully address the needs and aspirations of communities in which Muslims have a significant presence.

The Award’s selection process emphasises architecture that not only provides for people’s physical, social, and economic needs, but that also stimulates and responds to their cultural aspirations.