BUET graduate bags Asia’s top architecture award
In a defining moment for Bangladesh’s architectural community, Ridwan Noor Nafis—a recent graduate of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET)—has been awarded the Gold Prize at “Thesis of the Year” (TOY ARCASIA 2025), one of Asia’s most prestigious platforms for emerging architects.
Held in Incheon, South Korea, the competition drew submissions from leading architecture schools across the continent.
Nafis’s winning thesis, “Urban Tune-Up: Architectural Packages for Block-Based Rooftop Spaces as Containers of Public Life”, offers a bold reimagining of Dhaka’s skyline.
His vision transforms the city’s fragmented rooftop spaces into vibrant, interconnected zones of public engagement—integrating green infrastructure, social interaction, and urban resilience into the heart of one of Asia’s densest capitals.
Guided by supervisors Dr Khandaker Shabbir Ahmed and Maherul Kader Prince, Nafis’s work stood out among submissions from top architecture schools across Asia.
His proposal offers a visionary response to Dhaka’s spatial constraints and social fragmentation, positioning rooftops as platforms for civic life—breathing space in a city that often feels choked by its own growth.
TOY ARCASIA, one of Asia’s most respected platforms for architectural students, celebrates innovation, social relevance, and global orientation.
The objective of TOY 2025 is to provide an arena for architecture schools in ARCASIA member countries and their undergraduate students to showcase fresh ideas and academic potential on an international stage.
It aims to elevate architectural education across Asia by fostering creativity and cross-cultural exchange.
This year’s entries were held to a rigorous standard. Submissions were required to demonstrate high social relevance, originality, and a strong global outlook.
A key criterion was alignment with the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals—or their future roadmap—ensuring that each thesis contributed meaningfully to global challenges.
Nafis’s project met these demands with clarity and conviction, offering a model for sustainable urban transformation rooted in community and ecological awareness.
Now a lecturer at BUET, Nafis’s achievement is more than personal—it is emblematic of BUET’s growing influence in architectural thought and research across the region.
His win reinforces the university’s reputation for producing graduates who combine academic rigour with visionary thinking.
TOY ARCASIA’s mission is to elevate architectural education in Asia by showcasing final-year student work that pushes boundaries and opens pathways for knowledge exchange.
In a world where cities are rapidly evolving, Nafis’s rooftop revolution reminds us that innovation does not always require new land—it can begin above our heads.
His work is a call to rethink the spaces we overlook, and to design with both imagination and empathy.
Written by Nibir Ayaan
