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.
2m ago
Dhaka, an inequal city
It is no wonder that a vast population of Dhaka are generally disgruntled with where they are.
2m 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.
9m 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.
11m ago
A Dhaka we’ll want to arrive at
The city, the one that we want to arrive at, remains illusory
1y ago
The city is a beautiful thing when it’s for everyone
A city is a web of facilities and opportunities in which different agencies and communities lay stakes, push boundaries, and make bullish claims of making things better.
1y ago
Crossing the Padma
Here was a river that was larger than life, larger than anything I had encountered before. Flowing gloriously and indifferently, the river presented a mythic scale against which I felt terribly puny.
1y ago
January 12, 2019
Yes, thinking about mud
Mud is the bane of the Bengali middle-class. Yet, mud is all over the place. Mud—that gooey, gluey, brown muck—lies waiting in the dry dust and with a little sprinkling of water rises up in rebellion, and grabs the pumps, heels and sandals of the middle-class and makes them skid off balance.
January 1, 2019
The city is a letter that arrives late
I have known for a long time that one does not go anywhere. It is the cities of the countries that come or do not come to you. Cities are fateful letters. They only arrive lost. They only arrive posthumously.”
November 10, 2018
Reimagining the west bank of Dhaka
Despite the usual gloomy narratives, there are opportunities to transform Dhaka into a modern but ecologically attuned metropolis. The transformation can be carried out with our own resources, and our own imagination.
October 29, 2018
Public space makes a city
Public spaces constitute the life-stream of a city, and these are in short supply in Dhaka.
September 3, 2018
Revisioning Roads as a Civic Landscape
If after thousands of years of human civilisation, we crawl on our roads in our vehicles at 7km per hour and die untimely deaths just by walking, there is something wrong with the picture.
August 29, 2018
Building the city building by building
All cities change, and better cities—those that are not at the lowest rung of “most liveable cities”—change through careful planning and crafting of its assets. Dhaka is changing through radical norms, in a fury of demolition and building.
February 22, 2018
Imagining a future Bangladesh
Tomorrow's Bangladesh is already here. Achievements and progress in all fields—from manufacturing to cricket, and from architectural excellence to social indicators—open up new prospects and promises for Bangladesh. PricewaterhouseCoopers, in its global economic projection for 2050, estimates that Bangladesh can potentially become the world's 28th largest economy by 2030, surpassing countries like Australia, Spain, South Africa, and Malaysia in economic growth.
August 5, 2017
Dhaka needs a hydraulic vision
Dhaka is a paradox. The more we build assuming we are “developing,” the more we dig ourselves into an urban mess: Transportation is a chaos. Travelling is a nightmare. Khals vanish, and roads turn to khals. Public space is non-existent. Housing is in disarray.
May 26, 2017
Potemkin Road: The tale of the strange bonsai beautification
All of a sudden Dhaka's Airport Road is looking like a Potemkin Road. With an exhibition of “bonsai” trees, odd garden-like set-ups,
February 23, 2017
New visions for the city
The future landscape of the country depends on what we make of Dhaka city. Any national plan will have to consider the urban scenario of the whole country, from the primary cities to the small towns, but particularly Dhaka city as it will continue to play a vital role in impacting places throughout the country.
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