BENGAL INSTITUTE WORKS The Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements is a unique, multi-disciplinary forum for the study and design of the environment. As a place for advancing the understanding of the lived environment, the Bengal Institute presents a platform for developing ideas to improve the qualities of architecture, landscapes, cities and settlements in Bangladesh. In generating a critical, creative and humanistic dialogue, the Institute applies an integrated approach to the study and rearrangement of the environment. Innovative transdisciplinary programs of the Institute integrate architectural and design research, investigation of cities and settlements, and the study of larger regions and landscapes. ACADEMIC PROGRAM With the intention of creating an inter-disciplinary, postgraduate educational development in architecture, urban design, landscape design, and settlement studies in Bangladesh, Bengal Institute's Academic Program was launched in August, 2015. Structured around seminars, lecture series, and workshop styled design studios, the Academic Program offers monthly sessions in Spring and Fall Sequences that are open to anyone with an interest in the study and rearrangement of the environment. Faculty with national and international repute conducts the activities of the program. RESEARCH AND DESIGN PROGRAM The Research and Design Program is dedicated to the study, design and planning of cities, settlements and landscapes. With the aim of facilitating the planned physical future of Bangladesh along with socio-economic development, the Program operates at various scales, from the regional to the small neighborhood. The research and design focus of the program includes regional contexts, small towns, public space, public transport, high density livability, hydrological dynamics, landscape forms and settlement patterns. In collaboration with various government, non-government, local and international institutions, the program has been carrying out diverse operations. PUBLICATION AND MEDIA With an objective to elevate visual insights and environmental awareness, and to reach out to a wider audience, Bengal Institute carries out robust publications and media based activities. The Institute publishes magazines, newsletters, leaflets, anthologies, books, periodicals in prints, with a growing repository of digital publications in e-books, videos, audios and alternative media. Major exhibitions have been mounted to bring the story of cities and environment to the public. “Locations: Anthology of Architecture and Urbanism,” which is distributed world-wide, is the first international publication collaboration between Bangladesh and the USA. AN ENLIGHTENED FUTURE FOR THE COUNTRY In the last year and half, Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements has earned its recognition for its innovative programs in research and design activities, academia, publication, and public events. At the core of all its activities and programs is Bengal Institute's commitment to envisioning a future for our environment and habitats. The critical challenge of our time is, and will be, how we organize our larger environment, how we plan our cities and settlements, and how we prepare for the next fifty to hundredyears. At the heart of all this is how we recognize our rivers. I am constantly reminded of the words and observations of Prof. Abdur Razzaq, my uncle and mentor, “to visualize an exultant future for Bangladesh, one must not only consider the land and its people, but also its rivers.” Bengal Institute has already produced significant large-scale design thinking, including ideas for civic and public spaces for Dhaka, initial research for a regional plan for Dhaka, prospects for a rail corridor between Khilkhet and Dhanmondi, and a townscape design for Sylhet, amongst others. Some of these ideas have been presented for public viewing. Our exhibition entitled “Next Dhaka,” installed at the Bengal Classical Music Festival 2016, highlighted ideas for Dhaka and was viewed by over 100,000 people. Through these works, our intention is to share, with both policy-makers and the people, the potentials of good and thoughtful design. Our work emerges from a social responsibility, a deep commitment to contributing to an enlightened future for the country. To bring about real and effective changes to the future, I believe we should work towards creating an outline for a hundred year physical plan. At the Institute, we have taken the first steps towards reaching that goal. We are also collaborating with reputed design and planning institutes such as MIT, Harvard, Vastushilpa Foundation, BRAC University and others, in order to produce the finest collaborative output. The academic program of the Institute is flourishing with participation by many professionals from architecture and other disciplines. Through these seminars; workshops; and international symposiums, conducted by nationally and internationally renowned architects and academicians; the academic program has established new norms in the discussion of architecture, landscape thinking and urban design. Abul Khair (2016) Chairman, Executive Board, Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements LAND, WATER AND SETTLEMENTS “Dhaka is the toughest city in the world.” “Bangladesh is symptomatic of the gravest environmental challenges.” It is in the neighborhood of such pronouncements that we find necessary to rethink the scope of environmental design, and its pedagogy and practices. With its aquatic-geological formation – in flux – and projected consequences of environmental changes, the organization of land, water and settlements takes on an urgency that is unique to Bangladesh. Settlements patterns, architectural types, and socio-economic life-world, that are dynamically inter-connected, confront new conditions raised by accelerated economic, environmental and social transformations. In such anxious times, the architectural agenda needs to go beyond problem solving and form creation. At the Bengal Institute, we think that the architectural task should extend its sights to the intellectual, ethical and creative issues facing the futures of human habitats. In this regard, a new “architectural intelligence” is needed that is more about “place-form” rather than spectacular objects. The question of systemic and integrated “landscapes,” whether as habitats or place-forms, agricultural fabrics, or natural wetlands, should be at the core of this new approach. Developing this design intelligence requires a new kind of knowledge base, training and orientation that will uncover the original intimacy between architecture, habitation and landscape. Bengal Institute promises unique learning programs by bringing outstanding thinkers and practitioners to a common stage in Dhaka. Programs will offer opportunities to both fresh and established professionals, and young faculty, in developing their interests and imaginations, as well as their obligations to the new environmental tasks. Kazi Khaleed Ashraf [2015] Director General, Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements The first brochure announcing the upcoming programs of Bengal Institute, 2015. A panorama of activities at Bengal Institute, 2015-18. Pages from the Bengal Institute newsletter/magazine, VAS. Pages from the Bengal Institute newsletter/magazine, VAS. Pages from the Bengal Institute newsletter/magazine, VAS. Pages from the Bengal Institute newsletter/magazine, VAS. Working at various scales, from the larger regional to the smaller public space, and from territorial arrangement to transport network, the Research and Design Team at Bengal imagines the prospects of a better Bangladesh. “Imagining a Future Bangladesh,” a special feature in The Daily Star 27th Anniversary Supplement, 2018. “Imagining a FutureFuture Bangladesh,” a special featurefeature in The Daily Star 27th Anniversary Supplement, 2018. “Imagining a Future Bangladesh,” a special feature in The Daily Star 27th Anniversary Supplement, 2018. What [the human] thrives on is what we need, how landscape and water structure urbanism, and our job is to re-edit this existing environment. The variation between nature in the city landscape and urbanism have always been intertwined from a complementary couple to an antagonistic duo. It essential to understand the transformation of territories as it is continually evolving because in our anthropocentric age, the speed and scale of change is only accelerating. For me what's very interesting is always to look back at the kind of cartography of hydrology back in history to trace ancient waters in order to learn lessons for today. - Kelly Shannon (2016) A building must have dialogue with others, as well as yourself. It is like a living being...like an extension to your own life. Architecture is one of the ingredients of life and I think that ingredient must become as living as life itself. I realized that the culture is a holistic thing and if we are not brave enough to think about all types of communities or kinds of clients… that may not be the right thing. There are many ways to really think about architecture - as social activism, as creating institutions and buildings, and as an exploration of space or light. But it is also possible to merge all these ideas together. - Balkrishna Doshi (2016) We live in resonance with our world, and architecture mediates and maintains that very resonance. You are the co-author of every book you read because your mind imagines those literary images. Contemporary