Bengal Institute

Sustainable Architecture Practice

PARTICIPANTS' WORKS FROM THE WORKSHOP
“CRAFTED IMAGINATION”

We are delighted to share this visual journey from the “Crafted Imagination” workshop, led by renowned artist and designer Chandra Shekhar Shaha. Participants of diverse disciplines, from English literature to public health, explored the process of making through poems, drawings and objects.

Over six sessions, participants moved from poem to sketch, from sketch to material, and from material to object. From an opening act of sharing, the sessions unfolded slowly and deliberately — exploring how poetry is not only the language of words, but a way of living, imagining, and creating. Participants worked with their hands, discovering that every gesture of making carries its own poetic language. Alongside handmade objects derived from their chosen poems, they each undertook a second work: the transformation of a familiar, personal, or old object — finding in it new meaning and new form.

The final presentation and discussion were attended by Prof. Kazi Khaleed Ashraf, Architect Saif Ul Haque, Architect Jalal Ahmed, and Architect Nusrat Sumaiya, along with a few other invited guests.

Credit goes to all participants of the workshop:
Jahanara Ahmad, Nazrana Khaled, Habiba Akther Lubna, Nafisa Afrin Iqbal, Hafsa Binta Azad, and Nazneen Sultana Nisu.

Here is a glimpse of the final presentation and participants' works.

ADRIFT: A RIVER WITHOUT BANKS
CONTINUING THE PHOTOGRAPHIC SERIES FROM THE BOOK “THE GREAT PADMA”

As grand as the river itself, the book “The Great Padma” is a grand collection of photographs from various vantage points, from the aerial to being afloat. Excerpted from the albums of the book, the series here captures those views under “Adrift: A River Without Banks”:

“Songs after songs about the Padma decry the terror of a river that is often without banks. What was once a bank finds itself gifted to the water in other seasons. The elusive ekool and okool – this bank and the other – are constant refrains in the songs and meditations of the boatman. Adrift in a terrain of wind and water, such strains about inconstancy and unreliability are natural fodder for deeper existential musings. The baul mystic Lalon adds an ominous dimension to crossing the mystic river: O naiya (boatman) of the many-hued boat, how will you row / In the bends of the river are many crocodiles.

“In a country of rivers, land is an island, and water is perpetual. Life and economy are about boats of all kinds, from the solitary to the twenty member bajra – boats are everything. Everyone needs a boat. Boats are more than a vessel of transport; they are lived and motile spaces in an oceanic expanse.

“Adrift in the infinitude of the Padma, a boatman on his boat is an existential unit. As a natural geographer, the boatman has accumulated generations of knowledge in navigating that oceanic river: he understands the subtle as well as spectacular rhythms of the water. In the plenitude of the Padma, the boatmen speak to each other across the vastness in a language that no one other than the boatmen understands. There are no words there, only a vibration of sound. The boatman becomes an embodiment of the river’s vibration.”

Description derived from multiple texts including Rabindranath Tagore’s “Chinnapatrabali,” Manik Bandopadhyay’s “Padma Nadir Majhi,” and Muhammad Rafiq’s “Kirtinasha,” and unpublished text by Jesmin Buli. “The Great Padma: The Epic River that made the Bengal Delta,” was published by ORO Editions and Bengal Institute in 2023.

FUTURING SMALL TOWNS
PARTICIPANTS' WORKS

Continuing the exploration of the potential of small towns, Bengal Institute organized the workshop "Futuring Small Towns” in November, 2025, led by the noted architect Ehsan Khan. The workshop brought together enthusiastic participants who shared an interest in exploring the potential of Bangladesh's smaller towns as catalysts for sustainable urbanization.

Over the course of the sessions, participants engaged deeply with the distinctive qualities that define small towns. They conducted a site visit to Mymensingh city, analyzed spatial relationships, and developed design strategies that balance heritage preservation with contemporary needs. They also explored how small towns' openness, green spaces, walkable environments, and intimate social connectivity can serve as models for reimagining Bangladesh's urban future.

We sincerely thank two visiting critics, Khurshid Zabin Hossain Taufiq and Dr. Mohammad Habib Reza, for their active participation and engagement in this workshop, including their comments throughout the sessions and in the final review session.

Credit goes to all participants of the workshop: Nikhita Sarker, Alavi Nur - E Jannat, Arif Abrar Nayeem, Maisha Kareem Audree, Maisha Mahpara, Riffat Ara Haque, Shizuka Ahmed, Fazlay Rabbi, Shafia Tabassum Khan, Nuriya Moin, Sarah Shehnaz Bipasha, Rezaul Alam, Munia Hussain Borsha, Sayeda Fairuj Nower, and Adrita Khan.

Here is a glimpse of their works.

THE MAKING OF PUBLICNESS WORKSHOP, 2026
THE FINAL DISCUSSION

Bengal Institute’s two-week academic program “The Making of Publicness” concluded with an exceptional final presentation on April 26, 2026. Workshop participants presented their rich analysis and selective recommendations to enhance the quality of publicness of designated urban spaces in Dhaka.

Throughout the program, participants actively engaged with selected urban spaces through a series of hands-on activities. These included detailed site surveys, systematic data collection, behavioral mapping, and urban sketching sessions that captured both the physical character and lived realities of the spaces. Ultimately, it offered a rich platform for critical inquiry, creative expression, and collaborative learning, highlighting the importance of attentive observation and informed thinking in shaping more inclusive and vibrant urban public spaces.

The workshop was successfully conducted by geographer/planner Arfar Razi. The final presentation and discussion were attended by Prof. Kazi Khaleed Ashraf, Architect Saif Ul Haque, and Architect Nusrat Sumaiya.

Here are glimpses from this enriching exploration of urban publicness from the workshop.

ALOFT: THE WIDE VIEW
A PHOTOGRAPHIC SERIES FROM THE BOOK “THE GREAT PADMA”

As grand as the river itself, the book “The Great Padma” is a grand collection of photographs from various vantage points, from the aerial to being afloat. Excerpted from the albums of the book, the series here captures those views:

“From the geographic perspective to the chorographic experience, the river emerges in one’s horizon from multiple vantage points. Each point provides a distinctive world-view. A geographic view is generated from an actual aerial point up above or a disembodied one via satellite or Google earth images in which the lay of the land, in this case, water, is beheld in an entirety. Any such view, aloft and elevated, provides a panorama of the Padma with its oceanic expanse.

“Wide and vast, the Padma also possesses a depth that is unseen and unfathomable. In a country of water, there is something special about the Padma compared to other watery realms: no one has seen the bottom of the river, it is “othoi.” In the furious flow of the river, the bottom of the river is a perpetual secret, writes Manik Bandopadhyay. The spectacular part of the river includes the surface which is experienced in a chorographic way, in moving about and participating in the river realm. The oceanic character reaches its peak during the monsoon when rain water from both upstream and local precipitation cavalcades into the river. In the monsoon, the water is described as “tolmol,” brimming up to the brink. Winds and waves create innumerable patterns. Colors shift with the hue of the sky, partnering rivers forming mohonas, and turbulence generated by the movement of fish.

“When the water recedes, the sand and silt deposits known as chars appear as a cosmogonic phenomenon. Waters and chars play hide and seek. Rabindranath was more vivid: the river is like a giant snake – a nagini – that once lived on the char. It thrives in monsoon when it raises its many hooded faces roaring over the danga, the land, thrashing its enormous tail. In winter, it recedes into a hibernation, its abandoned skin glistening like sand on the barren char.”

Description derived from multiple texts including Rabindranath Tagore’s “Chinnapatrabali,” Manik Bandopadhyay’s “Padma Nadir Majhi,” and Muhammad Rafiq’s “Kirtinasha,” and unpublished text by Jesmin Buli. “The Great Padma: The Epic River that made the Bengal Delta,” was published by ORO Editions and Bengal Institute in 2023.

EMPATHIC IMAGINATION — A TALK BY JUHANI PALLASMAA
BENGAL ARCHITECTURE SYMPOSIUM, 2016

"Isn't it depressing to realize that all the ugliness in our surroundings is a consequence of human intentionality and thought?"

This provocation, offered by the renowned Finnish architect and thinker Juhani Pallasmaa at the Bengal Architecture Symposium in 2016, cuts to the heart of his lecture on empathic imagination. If every building first exists as a mental image — if every human structure is projected in imagination before it is executed in matter — then the quality of our built world is ultimately a question of the quality of our thinking.

Pallasmaa distinguished between two orders of imagination: one that projects formal and geometric images, and another that simulates the full sensory, emotive, and embodied encounter with the world. The latter — empathic imagination — is where true architecture begins. Drawing on Merleau-Ponty's notion of “the flesh of the world”, he reminded us that the architect does not work solely on paper or images. He works in an imaginative, lived reality.

Originally recorded on November 15, 2016, at Krishibid Institution Auditorium, Dhaka.

Watch the full talk: https://youtu.be/_ls8EjvXiDU