Day: September 15, 2025
Bangladesh’s Double Honour at ARCASIA 2025
Enamul Karim and Sharif Uddin Ahammed Redefine Regional Architecture In a week that celebrated architectural ingenuity across Asia, two Bangladeshi architects—Enamul Karim and Sharif Uddin Ahammed—stood out among more than 300 submissions at the ARCASIA Awards for Architecture 2025, held in Incheon from September 7 to 14. Their winning projects, though vastly different in scale and typology, share a common ethos: architecture as a medium of emotional depth and social responsibility. Karim was awarded the Gold in Category A1 for CHAABI, a single-family residence that transforms domestic space into a poetic landscape of memory and light. Ahammed, meanwhile, received the Special Award for Socially Responsible Architecture for From Industrial Wasteland to Ecological Oasis Bangladesh, a low-budget landscape intervention that reclaims degraded land for biodiversity and community equity. Their recognition marks a significant moment for Bangladeshi architecture, where personal narrative and civic consciousness are increasingly shaping the built environment. A House That Remembers: Enamul Karim’s CHAABI Located in Berabo, Rupganj, near the river Shitalakha, CHAABI is more than a residence—it is a spatial memoir. Completed in 2023, the 1,035-square-metre home was designed for a family seeking peace, introspection, and connection to nature. Karim’s design orchestrates a series of transitions: from enclosed rooms to open courtyards, from filtered daylight to open skies, from private memory to shared experience. The house features a water body that runs alongside the living room, open to the south wind and sky. A narrow walkway along its edge leads to a large open field, evoking a sense of spatial release. Inside, the programme includes bedrooms, a home theatre, gymnasium, swimming pool, and a unique “address-desk”—a raised wooden platform with microphones for family speeches. Material choices are deliberate: exposed concrete for structure, mahogany for doors and windows, matte tiles for floors, and grill-less glass for uninterrupted light. Memory traps embedded in the ground hold family memorabilia, turning the home into a quiet archive of generational love. Karim’s CHAABI was praised by the jury—led by ARCASIA President Ar. Saifuddin Ahmad—for its emotional clarity and architectural restraint, a rare balance in residential design. A Landscape of Equity: Sharif Uddin Ahammed’s Ecological Oasis In contrast to the intimacy of CHAABI, Sharif Uddin Ahammed’s award-winning project operates at the scale of landscape and labour. From Industrial Wasteland to Ecological Oasis Bangladesh reclaims a neglected site through passive hydrological solutions, wildlife habitat creation, and democratic spatial planning. Developed between 2022 and 2023, the project challenges conventional landscape design by addressing class divisions between corporate officials and labourers. Using existing materials and a minimal budget, Ahammed and his team at Sthapotik crafted a space that serves both ecological and human needs. The jury, which also included Prof. Ken Nah, Ar. Shahid Abdulla, Ar. Anna Kwong, and Ar. Beverly Frank, recognised the project’s layered complexity and its commitment to environmental justice. Convened by Ar. Chun Gyu Shin, the panel awarded Ahammed the Special Award for Socially Responsible Architecture on 10 September. For Ahammed, the recognition affirms a long-held belief: that architecture must respond to its environment—not just physically, but socially and emotionally. His practice, rooted in the philosophy of “responsive environments,” continues to challenge the boundaries of what architecture can do. A Shared Stage, Divergent Legacies Though Karim and Ahammed work in different registers—one in the quiet intimacy of home, the other in the public urgency of landscape—their projects converge in their refusal to treat architecture as mere form. Instead, they offer it as a language of care, memory, and justice. Their dual recognition at ARCASIA 2025 is not just a win for Bangladesh—it is a signal that architecture in the region is evolving, embracing both the personal and the political, the poetic and the pragmatic. Written by Afroza Mamataz
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