Photo: Kazi Tahsin Agaz Apurbo

Dr Nizamuddin Ahmed is a man of many interests. Excelling in everything he came across, he finally made up his mind and studied architecture. Even there, he excelled and went on to becoming one of the well-known architects of the country.

Owner of the Architecture firm called Basha Bari Ltd, Nizamuddin also founded GeramFera- a global education research awareness motivation for empowering rural architecture. He is the first and only Baden-Powell Fellow from World Scout Foundation, and is also a Paul Harris Fellow. He has written numerous books -- Kishore Bishsho Sthapotto published by Bangla Academy, Architectural Acoustics published by BUET, and a booklet titled Ogni Kande Nirapotta- for fire safety, which was published in 2014.

Some of the well known structures in Dhaka have been designed by Dr Nizamuddin, namely the auditoriums of Chhayanaut Institute and Shenakunjo, the Art Gallery and Natyashala of Shilpakala Academy and many more.

Nizamuddin has been an avid writer and still continues to write. He worked as a full-time writer in Bangladesh Times and was the sports editor of The Daily Star. He is also the famous 'Chintito' in The Star.

As a young high school student at Jhenaidah Cadet College, the Liberation War had begun and he decided to join and fight. However, due to parental pressure he was able to train but not fight in the war. “Not being able to fight left me with a lot of regret. So I started writing about the war in papers and columns. I guess it was a way for me to compensate for not fighting,” says Nizamuddin.

The former head of the architecture department at the Bangladesh University of Engineering Technology (BUET), Dr Nizamuddin's reasons for pursuing studies in this subject were "weird," he says. “I thought I wouldn't have to do mathematics! Of course, I was wrong. But because I was interested in design, I stuck to it.”

While teaching at BUET, he had won the Commonwealth Scholarship to the University of Sheffield, where eventually he completed his PhD. “My PhD thesis was also published as a book from New Vikas Publishing House in 1991.” He returned to BUET and became a professor, after which he received his second Commonwealth Scholarship for his Post Doctorate research, in the same university in 1997. He finished his post-doc in a year and in 2001 became the Dean, and then went on to become the Head of the Department in 2006.

“I still wanted to do something for my country, for my people, after not getting the opportunity to fight in the war," he says. "I got a small opportunity during the 15th anniversary of The Daily Star,” he shares. “The Daily Star published a book, of which I was one of the editors. I had three hundred copies, which I sold and raised a lot of money. I later donated the money to the Mosabber Cancer Care Center.”