Kazi Khaleed Ashraf

Kazi Khaleed Ashraf is an architect and urbanist, and director-general of Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements.

Ecological thinking in Prof Razzaq’s ‘State of the Nation’

Since the 1960s, Prof Abdur Razzaq wielded considerable influence on the academic and literati circle of his time,.

1m ago

Dhaka is an island

Claiming that Dhaka is an island is an earnest call for an ecological and nature-oriented restoration of the city, and to experience.

3m ago

The biggest wetland in Dhaka nobody knows about

Before the construction of the beribadh in the early 1990s, the nameless water body was part of the overflow zone of the Turag River.

6m ago

Dhaka, an inequal city

It is no wonder that a vast population of Dhaka are generally disgruntled with where they are.

7m ago

Death of an architecture

Mir Mosharraf Hossain Hall should be retained and restored.

1y ago

The future of the city, the city of the future

The city is perhaps the greatest innovation carried out by humans. Although nature has been used as an analogy in conceiving the fabric of the city, there is no such thing as the “city” in nature.

1y ago

Muzharul Islam: A ‘vastukalabid’ for modern Bengal

Described as the doyen of Bangladesh’s architecture, Muzharul Islam introduced modernism in the country as well as the highest ideals of the craft.

1y ago

A Dhaka we’ll want to arrive at

The city, the one that we want to arrive at, remains illusory

1y ago
November 24, 2022
November 24, 2022

The Detailed Area Plan for Dhaka is almost alright

One striking aspect of the DAP document is the geographical scope of Rajuk, in how it signals an expanded Dhaka.

October 6, 2022
October 6, 2022

Who is afraid of DAP?

The Detailed Area Plan (DAP) for 2022-2035, produced by Rajuk, is a radical and innovative document in the planning history of Dhaka.

July 9, 2022
July 9, 2022

Metrophilia: How to Love Dhaka

If you want to fall in love with the city—walk. This simple aphorism opens up a full discourse on how we can make our cities liveable and civic, and how we might live together as a collective.

October 31, 2021
October 31, 2021

Dhaka needs new urban-forms

If the city is the new challenge of the time, the “edge” of the city is at the heart of it.

March 1, 2021
March 1, 2021

120th birth anniversary of Architect Louis I. Kahn

February 20 was the 120th birth anniversary of the famed American architect Louis I. Kahn whose monumental architectural creation is the National Assembly (Sangsad Bhaban) of Bangladesh.

March 1, 2021
March 1, 2021

Louis Kahn's Capital Complexity

The National Capital Complex in Dhaka, designed by Louis Kahn, is an epic work in the annals of modern architecture. Even after sixty years of its conception, Kahn’s complex remains a wondrous phenomenon that is continuously renewing the purposes of architecture.

February 19, 2021
February 19, 2021

Future cities: A short guide to a Bengali urbanism

When al-Mansur laid the foundation of Baghdad in 762 on the banks of the Tigris, he imagined an ideal city in the shape of a round plan.

December 14, 2020
December 14, 2020

Imagining a Dhaka for 2035

No one doubts the magnitude of complexity that shrouds Dhaka, this city of 16 million poised between being the worst liveable and an economic colossus.

October 28, 2020
October 28, 2020

Naked cities

During a run for essentials, I ran into a graffiti on a wall at a Philadelphia exit ramp: “Civilisation is pandemic.” On any other day, I would not even think twice about such a street-smart philosophical pronouncement.

February 16, 2020
February 16, 2020

We Are the City

I dream of a city where turning the corner of an alley, in front of a shop of curios and old books, I decide what I want to do for the rest of my life.