YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → Aga Khan Program Lecture: Kashef Chowdhury, “Meditations in Entropy”

Aga Khan Program Lecture: Kashef Chowdhury, “Meditations in Entropy” — Transcript

by Harvard GSD · 10,312 words · 1,569 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:17We're going to try and get started as
0:20close to being on time as possible.
0:22We're already 34 seconds late, but we
0:25have a double header of um events
0:28tonight. So hello, I'm Sarah Whiting.
0:30I'm the dean of Harvard's Graduate
0:32School of Design. I'm delighted to
0:34welcome you here for this evening's
0:36Aakhan program lecture featuring
0:39Bangladeshi architect Kashf Chow,
0:41principal of the Dhaka based office,
0:44Urbana. This evening's also a moment to
0:47celebrate Kashf's stunning new book,
0:49Meditations in Entropy.
0:52Before we begin, a few housekeeping
0:54points. This lecture has been approved
0:56for continuing education credit through
0:58the AIA. Please see the QR code on the
1:00screen to register or you can register
1:03here in person in Piper. We also have
1:06live captioning available for our
1:09virtual and in-person audiences. Again,
1:11note the QR code on the slide. So,
1:14tonight's lecture is supported by the
1:16Aakhan program. This Harvard fund honors
1:19his late highness Prince Karim Aakhan
1:22IV. We're grateful for this support of
1:25the study and teaching of Islamic art,
1:27architecture, culture, and society.
1:31Two upcoming events to highlight. Chair
1:34of architecture Grace Law will join
1:36Kangokkuma this Thursday at noon for a
1:39conversation on his new monograph for
1:41which Grace wrote the introduction. And
1:44after the studio travel week, we'll
1:46return to programming on October 21st
1:49with a 6:30 p.m. talk by Kenzo Tang,
1:53visiting critics Maria Claudia Clemente
1:55and Franchesco Isidori, partners of the
1:58Romebased practice labs.
2:01So this evening's event, so Rachel
2:04Weber, chair of the department of urban
2:06planning and design here at the GSD,
2:09noted to me recently that I always seem
2:11to recommend books that have time as a
2:13theme. Indeed, in my last introduction
2:16to Gary Hildebrandt's lecture last week,
2:19I pointed you all to the 2024 Booker
2:22Prize winner Samantha Harvey's orbital.
2:24Previously, I've recommended the
2:26Austrian writer Marlon Househoffers The
2:28Wall from 1963
2:31and the contemporary Danish writer Sylve
2:33Balet's series on the calculation of
2:36volume four of the seven books have been
2:38translated into English.
2:41So, and yes, the the topic of time
2:43courses through all these novels in
2:46novel ways that I believe change our
2:49very perceptions of time, of space, and
2:51of places in our shared world.
2:54Time is admittedly,
2:57Can I get the slide forwarded, Matt?
3:01Yes. Time is admittedly a topic I obsess
3:04over. Maybe because like the cartoonist
3:06Myra Coleman, um I'm sure like many of
3:10you here, it just always feels like
3:11there's just never enough of it. All to
3:15say, just imagine my excitement upon
3:18reading an article in the architectural
3:20review from 2012 introducing the four
3:23winners of that year's AR&D awards for
3:26emerging architecture, which as an aside
3:29included the firm 5468796
3:34architecture, Johanna and Sasa, who are
3:36teaching an option studio here this
3:38semester. So in that article I read the
3:41desri this description of Kashev's
3:43practice in his studio time is held in
3:47high regard so much so that until
3:49recently he deliberately resisted using
3:52any form of artificial light choosing
3:54instead to operate the business during
3:56daylight hours. This was done to enforce
4:00a natural pattern to the working day and
4:02to encourage people not to work
4:04excessively long hours. And while
4:06changes to this routine were perhaps
4:08inevitable, we can ask him about that in
4:11the Q&A. Chowdery maintains his respect
4:14of time, stating his desire to separate
4:17his studio from the influences of quote
4:19the passing world to avoid quote rushing
4:22through the design process and to always
4:25remember that quote time is of the
4:27essence.
4:29While I have known and admired Kashiff's
4:31work for ages, I'd never met him before
4:33this evening's talk. But when I read
4:35this, I knew I was going to like him. In
4:37addition to this daytime cadence, his
4:39practice has long had a very critical
4:41tie to the topic of time and not always
4:44in such poetic or controlled terms.
4:47Urbana's cyclone shelter in Kuketa was a
4:50response to a cycl cyclonic storm that
4:53struck Bangladesh in 2007.
4:56Kashiff and the office designed a
4:58shelter which I'll hope he'll show us
4:59tonight. I believe you will. Um but the
5:02effort to get funding plus the
5:04construction of the project ultimately
5:05took 11 years. A surely frustratingly
5:09stretched out period of time to offer a
5:11response to a situation that when it
5:13happened in 2007 surely begged for
5:16immediiacy.
5:18On the other hand, the Rohhinga refugee
5:20camp schools were designed in three days
5:22and built in three weeks.
5:26Meditations in Entropy covers three
5:28decades of Keshv's career in I note a
5:32refreshingly original way. The book is
5:34over there along with other books that
5:36he's donating to Lope Library. So you'll
5:39have plenty of time to look at them. It
5:41took him six years to bring this book to
5:43completion. Kashf's lecture promises to
5:46transport us with his timeless
5:48architecture and his time-filled
5:50thoughts. Before he begins however we
5:53have the pleasure of a sroode pro
5:55performance by Rajupa Chowri accompanied
5:58on the ta on the table by Nitin Mitta
6:01Rajupa who has performed all over the
6:04world and is performing in New York City
6:06after this apparently um began playing
6:09the sod at the age of five. It's fitting
6:12to have this performance tied to Keshv's
6:14lecture for the Aakhan Trust for Culture
6:17leverages culture to advance sustainable
6:19development and focuses its work on
6:22architecture, historic cities and music.
6:25So, please join me in welcoming Rajupra
6:29and Nitin to the stage. [applause]
7:23>> [music]
7:35[music]
7:56[music]
8:39>> Good evening. The Rada I'm going to
8:41present today is called Anil Matyam
8:44which is a Sanskrit word. Anil means air
8:48or space and madam is a note. So, it's a
8:52play between the notes and air and
8:54space. Thank you.
9:10[music]
9:24>> [music]
9:49[music]
9:59[music]
10:04[music]
10:09[music]
10:33>> There you go.
10:36>> [music]
10:49[music]
10:54[music]
10:59>> Hallelujah.
11:08[music]
11:15[music]
11:23Uh-huh.
11:25[music]
11:31[music]
11:55>> [music]
12:06[music]
12:13>> Ah.
12:18[music] Ah. Oh,
12:27[music]
12:43[music]
12:46hey.
12:59>> [music]
13:10[music]
13:25[music]
13:36[music]
13:42[music]
13:47[music]
14:06[music]
14:12[music]
14:24>> Oh. [music]
14:32[music]
14:40>> [music]
14:49[music]
14:56[music]
15:05[music]
15:10[music]
15:15>> Heat. Heat. [music]
15:21[music]
15:30>> [music]
15:36[music]
15:45>> Oh yeah.
15:48[music]
15:53>> [music]
16:06[music]
16:17[music]
16:25[music]
16:31[music]
16:35>> Hey,
16:37[music]
16:38hey, hey.
16:42Heat. Heat. N.
16:48[music]
16:57[music]
17:09>> [music]
17:13>> Hey.
17:15[music]
17:20[music]
17:26Hey. Hey.
17:28[music]
17:29la.
17:40[music]
17:49[music]
17:54[music] Come
18:00on. [music]
18:06[music]
18:19Come on.
18:22Hallelujah.
18:28[music]
18:37[music]
18:51>> [music]
19:05>> Hey,
19:08[music]
19:12[music]
19:15hey,
19:27>> [music]
19:36[music]
19:36>> Heat. Hey, Heat.
19:45>> [music]
19:51[music]
19:52>> Where are you going?
20:00[music]
20:06>> [music]
20:18[music]
20:27[music]
20:36[music]
20:52>> Aha. [music]
21:04>> [music]
21:12[music]
21:17[music]
21:22[music]
21:30[music]
21:38[music]
21:50[music]
21:57[music]
22:00>> Hey. Hey. Hey.
22:03[music]
22:08[music]
22:13[music]
22:20[music]
22:26[music]
22:30Heat. Heat.
22:34[music]
22:41[music]
22:52[music]
22:58>> [music]
23:14[music]
23:20[music]
23:26[music]
23:31[music]
23:33>> Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey.
23:37[music]
23:38Come on.
23:44[music]
23:51>> [music]
23:55[music]
24:01[music]
24:07[music]
24:12[music]
24:18[music]
24:31[music]
24:40[applause]
24:45[applause]
24:48>> Thank you.
24:54>> [applause]
24:59[applause]
25:05[applause]
25:20>> Thank you um Rajupa and Nitin um for a
25:24little piece of the dream that is Bengal
25:27and India.
25:30Um, now comes the boring part.
25:34Um, I want to start by thanking Dean
25:37Whiting for inviting me to this
25:39wonderful forum and of course the team
25:42for making um, us possible to come from
25:45the other side, literally the other side
25:46of the globe um, and be in this
25:50wonderful weather.
25:52Um
25:55um before I take you to Bengal where
25:58most of my work is, I would like to talk
26:01a little bit about the context um which
26:05would tell you why we do the things um
26:09and how we do the things in that
26:12context.
26:14This is the Indian subcontinent um a
26:18land mass between the rock and the pond.
26:21Um on the north is the largest tallest
26:24mountain range in the world the
26:26Himalayas and on the south the one of
26:29the largest oceans in the world the
26:32Indian Ocean. Um
26:37this area that you see is the gangetic
26:40plane or the mighty river Ganges which
26:44sort of flows with its uh tributaries
26:48into this part which is largely the area
26:51of Bangladesh. But not only that, here
26:54is Tibet and the glaciers of Tibet which
26:58the glacial melts come this way through
27:01India and come again drain through this
27:07part into the Bay of Bengal making this
27:11uh making Bengal and Bangladesh
27:13especially um one of the largest if not
27:16the largest delta in the world.
27:21This is Bangladesh, a country of 56,000
27:25square miles um of 700 rivers
27:30um
27:32which as you can see are like arteries
27:34and veins
27:36and this is a picture that I've taken
27:39myself from a chopper. Um looking at it
27:43you might think is it the um water in
27:46the land or land in the water.
27:51We have been fortunate but also it was
27:54an intention from the very beginning to
27:56work around the country in the different
27:58economies um different weather systems
28:02and in different topologies
28:04and all of that um has been collected in
28:08a new publication our first monograph by
28:12the um Zurich based publisher Park
28:15Books. Um
28:18but this began um really um at the um
28:23Adis Gallery where we had an exhibition
28:26of our works in 2019 before COVID and um
28:30the idea of the curators um Andreas Ruby
28:34who's the former director of the um
28:37Swiss Architecture Museum and the Swiss
28:40architect Niklaus Graber was to recreate
28:42our studio in Dhaka in the front space
28:46um with models, sketches, um drawings,
28:49etc. And in the inner space uh where
28:52there's um wooden models, handmade
28:54models that we make in the studio and uh
28:58in a space which is made dark just like
29:01the tropical green that we have all
29:04around. And on the floor were these
29:06brick chips. And um as one walked around
29:10to um see the the photographs and the
29:13drawings um they they felt the the
29:17instability of the ground so to speak.
29:21And um but the book took us six years to
29:25make. Um one of the reasons is uh COVID
29:28hit um after one or one year of work and
29:33after all the pain and suffering from
29:36New York to New Delhi. Um in New Delhi
29:39people were literally dying on parking
29:41lots. um because of lack of um oxygen
29:45cylinders and um at that point of time
29:48for me I think architecture and
29:50detailing of architectural things were u
29:54meaningless and um I met with the
29:57publisher in 2021 and I said I didn't
30:00want to do the book anymore and um but
30:03he said you know you must because we
30:04have it on schedule etc and you need a
30:06book and so um and he said what what
30:09what do you need and I said you really
30:12don't want a glossy kind of a catalog of
30:14images. Uh and then he said um why why
30:18don't you make what you just told me a a
30:21journey a catalog of the journey of the
30:23pain and the and the struggle.
30:26So that's what we have done and we
30:28collected the various projects um by uh
30:33top not by topology but by concerns. For
30:36example, critical response deals with
30:38projects um which are which have to do
30:41with climate change and climate action.
30:43Um another chapter is the luxury of
30:46light and shadows in which the projects
30:48are so low budget that the only luxury
30:52we could provide was the luxury of light
30:55and shadows. A call of the village um is
30:58a project or three projects for a client
31:00and friend who wanted to go back to the
31:03village who were based in Dhaka the
31:05capital but wanted to go back to the
31:06village and um uh we had done a set of
31:11four mosques but um for for me
31:14personally more than rituals uh
31:17spirituality is important and so the uh
31:20chapter is called spirit spirituality
31:23and the last one um is zubets eternatis
31:27after spin uh which literally translated
31:30means in view of eternity projects which
31:33have um which we have tried to do um if
31:38it is possible outside of time. Um
31:42so each um project starts with a uh
31:46little description and uh a metadata uh
31:50which uh sort of details the uh the
31:55climate, the weather system, um the soil
31:58conditions, the average temperature,
32:00rainfall, etc. and then um uh set of
32:04images um to sort of uh give you an idea
32:08of the project and um then is the
32:12generator of the project or the urban
32:14context or the rural context as the case
32:16may be. Uh for example, this is an uh
32:19academic building for a university and
32:21you can see how we tried to minimize the
32:23footprint in a very dense city of 18
32:26million people and um we made special
32:30drawings for the for the book. Um this
32:33uh project for example um it was
32:36important um that we kept the height of
32:40the building uh below the level of the
32:43canopy of trees that existed at site and
32:47um the topmost floor which houses the
32:50chancellory is actually recessed. So the
32:53students don't see um uh anything other
32:56than their own spaces and uh the
32:59building is very porous. It's very uh
33:01kind of a um open building. There are no
33:04gates. There are no doorways. You enter
33:07it from various points. Um and um um we
33:11talk about materials and um uh
33:14structure. For example, there's brick
33:16everywhere including in the ceiling. U
33:19the bricks are not pasted but it's part
33:21of the structure. It's part of the
33:23slabs. Um
33:25and then we talk about that porocity
33:28which is everywhere. We bring in the
33:30sunlight and the natural ventilation and
33:33um and of course sustainability and
33:36ecological concerns. Um for example, we
33:39have these uh apertures in the ceiling
33:42um which are covered with glass but the
33:44glass is raised so that the green can
33:46enter and hot air can escape. So these
33:50act like chimneys and um uh sort of uh
33:53creates a cooler environment inside. But
33:57uh the light that enters is a green
33:59light in a kind of a warm um uh
34:02environment of of the brick clad
34:05building or the brick building. And uh I
34:08call this green lanterns. And then of
34:10course in each project we talk about
34:12construction. Construction as you can
34:14imagine in Bangladesh happens in a very
34:17different way. And um for example in
34:20this project um uh the university
34:23required an x number of uh facilities,
34:26rooms, classrooms etc. And of course for
34:29me the spaces outside of the classroom
34:31were more important than the classrooms
34:33themselves. And so the building was
34:35quite large and uh it was uh the budget
34:39was not um enough. And uh what I
34:43proposed horrified them at first. I
34:45propose that they do not engage a
34:47contractor but actually do the building
34:50themselves.
34:52So the chancellor he uh said we don't
34:55have engineers, we don't even have a
34:57engineering department. We don't have a
35:00it's it's a liberal arts um university
35:03so we have no clue. But I was able to
35:06convince them finally and um they did
35:09the construction. the librarian became
35:11in charge of the construction and uh and
35:14the first meeting with him was he said
35:16so this is the pillar and this is the
35:18beam right so that's where we started
35:21from and um but everything you see is
35:26done in a year including design and um
35:29as you can see it's quite sharp and um
35:32we worked very hard on this project but
35:36it really was a client architect
35:38partnership
35:39Um and the results as I say is is quite
35:43satisfactory.
35:45The the project that I want to show you
35:47in more detail is um a set of raised
35:50villages that we have done in the river.
35:53Um when I say in the river, it's in the
35:56waterway. Um uh it's um uh kind of a
36:01climate action project.
36:04So
36:06as I said the um the the ganges drains
36:10through Bangladesh as does the glacial
36:14melts of Tibet and as the water comes
36:17down the mountains it slows down and it
36:20starts to deposit aluvial silt and these
36:24sandbanks start to form which then
36:28becomes larger and larger and become
36:31islands in the middle of the river and
36:34people come to live here. But during
36:36floods, all these islands become
36:39submerged. Uh sometimes even for months.
36:42But these people wouldn't leave because
36:44they do not have title to the land. This
36:46they are not recognized. They there
36:48there are no um documentation.
36:52So our project was to do something um
36:55for these people in these outlying areas
36:57in these very very remote areas. Um the
37:00river itself. Now this is correct. The
37:03river itself is seven miles wide and um
37:07so sometimes people from one side of the
37:09river have never been to the other bank.
37:12Um and it's during the rainy season
37:15during floods it's quite crazy when it
37:17overflows it's an endless body of water.
37:20So our project was to raise not
37:23individual buildings but an entire
37:26village.
37:28Why? Um because an individual building
37:32on stilts are there in our country but
37:35they're in the hills in the northeast uh
37:37in the southeast um mostly in the tribal
37:40areas where the water kind of um can run
37:44off and um they can raise pigs and
37:48chicken below um the platforms but in
37:52the plains of Bengal in Bangladesh or in
37:55India there's not a single uh example
37:59of houses [snorts] on stilts. The reason
38:02being the soil, the aluvial soil is very
38:06soft and that layer is 1,200 ft deep. So
38:11the the strong the solid surface is
38:15layer is actually um so deep that you
38:19cannot almost put anything in it. It's
38:21like a thick jello. Anything you put in
38:24it, it sort of sinks. And the the the
38:27foundation that would be needed would be
38:29um forbiddingly expensive. And the other
38:31thing of course is the moment you put
38:33anything in that soil when the flood
38:37waters come with with force uh it draws
38:40world pools and eddiurrens and things
38:43topple just like if you build anything
38:46on a sea beach.
38:49The bigger problem was the cattle
38:51because a cow or a goat is all these
38:54poor people would have and this ladder
38:57solution of course would not um save
39:00them from uh the fast flowing um waters.
39:04But the idea of of a raised platform was
39:07not ours. It was tried before by the
39:10government. uh but the the design had
39:13falls of course and they broke away and
39:16they gave up um on the project. So we
39:20started in 2005 when climate change was
39:24not fully recognized and um projects in
39:28climate change had not come into so much
39:31fashion for example but um we to get
39:34there to these remote areas um we used a
39:38sea plane and we landed in the middle of
39:40the river where we wanted to build um
39:43but as the plane flew low I could see
39:47that uh the natural ally forming islands
39:50had a head and a tail. So as the water
39:53passed uh it left a trail and uh that's
39:56what we did. We we uh chose a teardrop
40:00shape for our island. It's a dig and
40:04mount um approach. So we dig in the
40:07middle uh creating a pond and we use
40:10that soil to create an island.
40:15And then of course there's this layout
40:17of the village. We laid it out like the
40:20traditional villages in Bangladesh or in
40:22Bengal where people move from courtyard
40:25to courtyard and um we left this open uh
40:29in each of the islands. We allowed them
40:31to change if they wanted to but the
40:33interesting thing is they didn't change
40:34it much but also it was a learning cur
40:37curve for us. Uh we learned a lot from
40:39the villages themselves. Um so this is
40:42what what it is. um uh we just raise it
40:47uh just above the um level of highest
40:50recorded floods.
40:54Back in 2005 2006 there was no GPS or
40:58cellular um sort of um uh signals. So
41:02very crude ways of u doing things. Um
41:06the villages worked on the project on
41:09their own island. They were paid to do
41:11so. So it was a work for um uh
41:16they were paid for their work and uh I
41:18think it was a very interesting program
41:21because um it was also earning for them
41:24and so we laid out the the inner line
41:28and the outer line
41:30here you can see one of our architects
41:33uh working
41:38the central pond the pyramid that you
41:40see in the corner is uh a marker for the
41:43amount of sand or earth cut in a day and
41:47slowly the pond in the center forms and
41:50green returns
41:52and then moving the house is a family
41:55sort of affair. It's an excitement for
41:57the children and then life returns.
42:01This is um fishing going on in the in
42:04the central pond. So it's really an
42:06island in the island and it really is um
42:12is really nothing. You almost don't
42:14recognize it. But the lived experience
42:16in the uh islands themselves um is quite
42:20interesting. Um here children are going
42:22to school and um so this is how it
42:25starts. people moving their uh homes
42:28onto the raised uh plenth and here it is
42:33more filled. Um there there is a school
42:37at one corner and another there's a
42:40community um room um where the women can
42:44gather and in times of flood um this is
42:47all full and they can also um stay in
42:51those um uh structures. These are not
42:54designed by us. We we we didn't want to
42:57be architects here. It's it's just um
43:00kind of um uh very modular uh ones. So
43:04what does happen during a flood? Um you
43:08can hardly see the other side. But look
43:11at also the resilience of the people. Um
43:14there's flood going on. Uh but um
43:18they're harvesting crop. It's a jute
43:20harvest that's going on. Um but they are
43:23safe in the knowledge that their homes
43:26are uh protected and um the chute
43:29harvest can actually for example they're
43:32dried on the uh the raised um platform
43:36and um family life can go on. But for me
43:40personally um the cattle can be saved
43:43because cows as you know just like us um
43:46they can catch cold and um from the
43:48water and from the rain. So they need
43:51protection and the central pond um
43:54harvests the only source of clean water
43:56which is rain because the flood water is
43:59not usable for drinking or cooking.
44:02[clears throat] Uh this is um uh an
44:04example of an area uh in 2001. Just
44:08watch the space
44:11the same space. If I go back
44:14the same space. So these mighty rivers
44:18uh they behave like they want to.
44:20There's there's no mapping them. There's
44:22no controlling them. They here we
44:24already have in one of those islands.
44:28And now you see that agriculture has
44:31sort of grown.
44:33But watch our island here.
44:38In 2019, it has started to break and
44:402024, it has broken even more. But I'm
44:44happy to report that it still exists and
44:46it has not broken away so far. Another
44:50place
44:522001 and 2014
44:55it starts to become almost all land
45:03and there's more agriculture.
45:08So the question in all of this is is
45:12this architecture?
45:14For me personally, anything that touches
45:16human and animal lives is architecture.
45:20Because when the waters come from that
45:24direction from the from the mountains,
45:27the rush of the water, there is nothing
45:30that can save them. This these people,
45:32this almost landless people. if it had
45:35not been for this little raised land
45:39form.
45:45Um, close to these projects, we had done
45:4923 of these islands. Two broke away, but
45:5221 still served their purpose. so close
45:55to them. Uh our client um friendship,
45:59the NGO friendship wanted to build a
46:02learning center, a kind of a nerve
46:04center for all these people who are sort
46:07of living in these remote islands. And
46:10our idea was to sort of understand how
46:13they lived in those islands.
46:16But to sort of create a space which is
46:21acceptable to them as it is acceptable
46:23to the westerners who would be coming
46:25donors, donor agencies, UN agencies,
46:29trainers, doctors. So our idea was to
46:32come to a middle point where it would
46:34not be alien to either party and of
46:37course it is easier said than done.
46:41This is how we found the land. It was a
46:44patty field. Um it was prone to
46:46flooding. That's the level of the the
46:48road, the fronting road. So it was 8 ft
46:52uh below that road. And um we did a
46:55design u over a period of 3 months. I
46:58really like the design. and then we had
47:00to throw it away because it was costing
47:02us double the the available budget. The
47:06reason for that is this. This is what we
47:09tried to do the the conventional way to
47:12raise u our structures using a system of
47:16uh columns and foundations above the
47:20level of highest recorded flood and uh
47:23frustrated one day I was you know it's
47:26impossible to do a project at half the
47:28budget and then I realized our project
47:31was not this but really this and that's
47:34what we did we built on the floodprone
47:37own uh low land but protected it with an
47:42earth berm. Now the idea of the earth
47:45embankment again was not ours. It's um
47:49there's an example of it in a settlement
47:52not far from us, a Buddhist settlement
47:562,300 years old from the 3rd century BC
48:00which is Roman time. So the settlement
48:03is all gone. It's all ruins but the
48:05embankment still remains. So that's what
48:09struck me and I we thought we could do
48:11this and with that came the attendant
48:14problem of water getting collected
48:16within the areas of the embankment but
48:18we introduced a series of pools and
48:20tanks to harvest the rain and we also
48:23introduced large tanks to hold the
48:26sewage so that we would not sort of pump
48:29sewage into the flood water and cause
48:32environmental uh sort of problems. And
48:35uh we had we have capacity to hold 3
48:39months of sewage um in the tanks that we
48:43have. So um this is what happens during
48:47a flood. We have had
48:50um floods coming in um a number of
48:53times. Uh the water outside was 7 ft
48:58above our floor level. So it's really
49:01scary because only thing that separates
49:04us from that water from that mass of
49:07water is really an earth borm. There's
49:10no reinforcement. There's no concrete or
49:12brick. So um our inspiration was from
49:16the very from the many Buddhist ruins or
49:19Buddhist monasteries and settlements all
49:22around us. um Bangladesh that area used
49:25to be all Buddhist a thousand years ago
49:29and we drew inspiration from the
49:31beautiful ruins brick uh structures that
49:35exist in that area. For example, this is
49:37a monk's cell and 8 ft by 8 ft cell
49:41where a monk would meditate for days on
49:44end without food or water. And we sought
49:50to transform this into this. Not
49:54transfer but transform. And um so the
49:58center essentially consists of two
50:00blocks u with um a reception pavilion in
50:05the center of the first block and
50:06classrooms all around it and a
50:08meditation room. The second one again
50:10has a pavilion in the center. is the
50:12dining pavilion and all around are uh
50:15rooms for staying. Uh so 40 people can
50:18stay at at one time and um
50:23the resulting elevation worked very well
50:26for us because you couldn't see the
50:27building because the building was low
50:30and the only structures sort of that
50:32stuck out were the water towers and um
50:35uh the electric uh plant rooms. And uh
50:39so this is the the green plan. So
50:42everything that you see is really green.
50:45Uh the beginning of construction which
50:49on the first day was a horror because as
50:52you can imagine this is not what we
50:55wanted and um and I realized that we
51:00immediately had to do something. This
51:01was very far away. It was a day's travel
51:04at that time and um
51:07we set in immediately uh sort of uh
51:10introduced a regime of control of
51:13quality control by sending uh our
51:17architects and engineers um to the site
51:20and sort of controlling and sort of
51:22teaching them how to construct and um
51:26and controlling each and every aspect of
51:28the construction. For example, the
51:30bricks came from a manufacturer a mile
51:32away, only a mile away. Uh because we
51:35also wanted to reduce um u the carrying
51:38costs and um pollution. Um but the
51:42quality of the bricks were not very
51:44good. So we sorted them four times. Uh
51:48first when they loaded it onto the
51:50trucks, again when they brought it to
51:53the site and unloaded it. It's the
51:55second sorting. And then uh there were a
51:58set of people who would stack them
52:00according to the good quality not so
52:02good quality and then finally when the
52:04masons set the the bricks the laid the
52:07bricks that was the fourth sorting and
52:10that's how sort of we tried to sort of
52:13make sure that the quality was um
52:16according to what we wanted. He's one of
52:19the engineers and you can see from his
52:21face the real the real tough work that
52:24he had to do. This man is from
52:27Friendship. He's there because again in
52:30this project we convinced Friendship to
52:32do their own construction and not have a
52:34contractor. And at first again it was a
52:37big discussion and but this was long
52:39time ago. This is 2008 2009 and they
52:42said no you must be crazy. It's
52:44impossible. We we are in eight agencies.
52:47We we don't do that sort of thing. And
52:50um so every morning this man was there
52:53at site. He has his accounts book and uh
52:58every morning from our office we would
53:00send out um requirements like 50 bags of
53:03cement uh two tons of rebars etc. And
53:06they would buy them and that's how
53:09construction happened. and uh local
53:12craftsmen being trained and that's the
53:14group of people
53:17very proud after the finishing and these
53:20are the ladies who keep it clean and I
53:23can tell you if you go today after 15
53:25years of operation it looks just like
53:28new and that's what we achieved and um
53:32it went very well with the agricultural
53:35rural landscape
53:37um and also uh our project was becoming
53:41introverted because of of of the system
53:44of uh uh embankment and and protection.
53:48So we opened up um on the inside it's
53:52broken forms and pavilions um really
53:55true pavilions in the sense
53:59in the sense it's there are no doors or
54:01windows. This is the reception area. Um
54:04but as you can see it's protected from
54:06the rain uh by this low walls. The
54:09images, by the way, are by Elen Bin, uh
54:12the French um Swiss um photographer who
54:16I think is one of the greatest living uh
54:19architectural photographers in the
54:21world. And I would go so far as to say
54:24one of the greatest ever. Uh we can have
54:27a discussion on this later on but um I
54:29know there's Ezra Stler, there's um uh
54:32Lucia Eve, but uh I think she is really
54:36one of the greatest um uh
54:41I could talk a lot about how she
54:43photographed this. She she went there
54:44for 4 days and then she called me and
54:47she said gosh if I need more time and
54:50she was there for 12 days finally and
54:52>> [snorts]
54:52>> um she went around and looked at all the
54:55spaces all the lights. So this is the
54:58reception pavilion and and and so it's a
55:01weave of um greens and pools and
55:04pavilions and uh the idea as I said was
55:08really to because we couldn't uh give
55:11them any form of luxury in terms of
55:13material or detailing. So it's really
55:16the luxury of light and shadows
55:20and lots of uh spaces to disperse
55:23because people would come here for uh 3
55:26days or 7 days for workshops and
55:28training etc. And so it was important
55:31that they could be in different spaces
55:33on their own. And um these broken forms
55:37helped with the natural flow of natural
55:39uh ventilation and uh light of course.
55:49This is the dining pavilion. The wood is
55:51also local. It's local mahogany. It
55:54needed to be thick because the the
55:56people from the villages sit not on the
55:57bench but on the table. So um the rooms,
56:01for example, are very basic. Um it's
56:05almost monastic in nature. The table can
56:07be folded to um to have more space, but
56:10there's really nothing else.
56:13And the detailing is also simple. Um but
56:18uh the texture of the beautiful texture
56:21and imperfections of the of the brick um
56:24we try to celebrate.
56:28And this is a picture taken by uh
56:31someone from friendship um from a
56:33chopper. And as you can see um it sits
56:36um quite u friendly with um the village
56:40neighborhood.
56:43I'm going to go quickly. Um uh this is
56:47um uh uh an installation we had done at
56:49the uh Venice Architecture Bianale. We
56:51were invited by um Alejandro Aravena to
56:55um and we chose to make um a labyrinth
57:00but a labyrinth of glass the material
57:03from Venice. Um the reason being um
57:07where we work in our context we know as
57:10architects we know what we want to do
57:12but the path to getting there is very
57:15difficult. So the the same case with the
57:18labyrinth, you you think you know how to
57:21go get there, but it's difficult and um
57:28and this was of course intentional. Um
57:31but once inside there's an abstract
57:33landscape um of four projects being
57:37displayed um all to do with um climate
57:40change and they are um displayed in
57:45plant like installations because we
57:48wanted to express that just like plants
57:50architecture need tending every day.
58:00Um the Samani Art Foundation is one of
58:03the strongest voices uh in that part of
58:06the world. They're responsible for the
58:08Dhaka Arts Summit and um they wanted an
58:12art center and sculpture park in the
58:15norththeast of the country very close to
58:18Cherapuni uh in India which is used to
58:21be the wetest place on earth is now the
58:24I think the second wetest place on
58:26earth. Um so this place gets a lot of
58:29rain. It rains much more than it's
58:31raining now here, but um if it's
58:35believable, but um so it's very green
58:38and we were given um 120 acres to work
58:41with, but of course we chose to limit
58:43our footprint to only three areas. Um
58:48the first is a um entry structure which
58:52is really uh for me a space trap. people
58:56come and get off from their cars because
58:58inevitably they would come uh to this
59:01remote area in cars, but uh space uh
59:04really does not leak in or out. It's
59:08like a turn style. Um and so they get
59:11down and walk inside. Um it rains all
59:14the time, but the idea was to walk in
59:17the rain and sort of be wet in the rain.
59:20And um so that's the structure
59:27and um it welcomes visitors. There have
59:30been uh performances as well in this
59:32space.
59:34The second group of buildings is artist
59:36residences and because that's the focus
59:39to bring internationally famous
59:41architects and young uh I'm sorry
59:43artists and young artists together. Um
59:46and we chose a hillock where there were
59:48no trees and we um located our buildings
59:52and uh so that we didn't have to cut the
59:54trees and where there were trees we sort
59:57of tucked in a dining uh pavilion. So
1:00:01again the houses are very simple almost
1:00:04monastic with an onsuite bathroom. Um
1:00:07but the design process progressed in a
1:00:10in a kind of an organic way. We cut out
1:00:13uh the houses and we moved them around
1:00:16until we had a kind of a satisfactory
1:00:19kind of a placement. But really uh we
1:00:21curated the views from the houses and
1:00:24from the pathways and from the
1:00:26courtyards out into the landscape and
1:00:30the u sculpture park. And so this is the
1:00:33uh final layout. Um that's the dining
1:00:36pavilion in between the trees and some
1:00:39of the houses are solitary.
1:00:43This is how it looks like. Uh this part
1:00:46is all in concrete.
1:00:50That's one of the group of houses. Some
1:00:52of the houses are joined so that there's
1:00:54a space to uh work in for the artists.
1:00:58And of course, just like villages, there
1:01:00are pathways into courtyards.
1:01:04This is a photograph I've taken myself.
1:01:07Um all the light there is is from the
1:01:11stars. It's a starlight.
1:01:15Um so again there was a budget issue as
1:01:19there always is. And so um we chose to
1:01:24concentrate our resources on some of the
1:01:26detailing. For example, um the floor um
1:01:30is detailed in a way that it echoes the
1:01:33the formwork of the concrete. The
1:01:35concrete, the color of the concrete
1:01:37takes on the color of the earth. When we
1:01:41dug the earth, we saw that it had a very
1:01:44beautiful yellow ochre. That's the
1:01:45color. And we made samples. We made 50
1:01:48samples and we couldn't achieve the
1:01:50color. And then finally um we had it
1:01:54because the wood of the shuttering was
1:01:57raw wood and the the sap from the wood
1:02:00leaked into the concrete and gave it
1:02:02finally the color that we wanted.
1:02:05And we negotiated the terrain by not
1:02:09cutting the earth but with steps and
1:02:11ramps even inside buildings. And we
1:02:14turned the the walls so that the
1:02:17buildings became true pavilions.
1:02:22The last structure is a um black box.
1:02:26It's a media um gallery. Um
1:02:32the curator for the Samanas is a young
1:02:36um uh lady um Diana Campbell. She was
1:02:40the uh curator for the Bkara last Bkara
1:02:43bianali. And um she's, as I said, she's
1:02:46very young, very energetic, and very
1:02:49American. And she said, uh, you know, we
1:02:52got this. Um, we just need a 80 by60
1:02:55box. And I wanted to place this uh art
1:02:58gallery in the m middle of a patty
1:03:01field. And she said, "Yeah, that's fine,
1:03:02but all we need is a box." So, as soon
1:03:05as she left, I drew this because the box
1:03:09needed to talk to the patty. And in 3
1:03:12days this became and then of course the
1:03:15walls became like fabric uh undulating
1:03:18as it is and that's what it is in the uh
1:03:22landscape.
1:03:27Again local um craftsman trained
1:03:31um rigorously
1:03:34but as you can see the the workmanship
1:03:36is quite all right. And you enter into
1:03:40um the the main box inside. But what is
1:03:44outside here
1:03:47inside it is this. So we had this
1:03:50surplus or this bonus spaces for
1:03:53installations, performances and so uh
1:03:57everyone was um finally happy. Um this
1:04:01project has been complete for the last
1:04:03two years but in our country we have had
1:04:07a so-called revolution and therefore it
1:04:10was unsafe for people to go. It's still
1:04:13um we're waiting um for some very famous
1:04:17artists in the world to come and work
1:04:19here and that is why um uh I say
1:04:24meditations in entropy.
1:04:28The last project is a cyclone shelter.
1:04:30Cyclones are like hurricanes that you
1:04:33have here in the in the in in North
1:04:35America. Uh they form in the Bay of
1:04:38Bengal move towards India. But
1:04:41unfortunately or fortunately for India,
1:04:44it falls mostly in Bangladesh.
1:04:48In 2007, the cyclone sitter um hit
1:04:51Bangladesh and caused death of 10,000
1:04:55people and billions of dollars worth of
1:04:57damages and innumerable animal lives
1:05:00were of course lost. Again, the cyclone
1:05:04formed in the Bay of Bengal. It was
1:05:06going towards Orisa in India and then it
1:05:09turned and made landfall in Bangladesh.
1:05:12This is an actual image. the the width
1:05:14of the cyclone is the width of the
1:05:16country.
1:05:19And um
1:05:23I was in Dhaka the next morning when I
1:05:26called my friends the photographers and
1:05:28journalists um they said you know we
1:05:32cannot describe the situation here you
1:05:33know you have to come for yourself and
1:05:35see for yourself um and so that's uh
1:05:38what we did um myself and three others
1:05:41from uh three other colleagues from my
1:05:43office we went to this place um which is
1:05:46about 75 milesi from Dhaka But it took
1:05:49us 13 hours to get there because the
1:05:51bridges were gone. Many of the roads
1:05:53were gone. And from there we hired a
1:05:56small country boat, a wooden country
1:05:59boat and we were on the boat for four
1:06:01days and nights. Uh we slept on the roof
1:06:04of the boat. The boatman cooked for us
1:06:06and we traced the uh the the path of the
1:06:09cyclone as it sort of um went in and um
1:06:15caused devastation. Uh I am a
1:06:18photographer so um took photographs and
1:06:21this if you can believe it is a river.
1:06:24Uh the tidal surge had not receded so
1:06:26you don't see the other side. Um here
1:06:29for example was a forest. Um
1:06:33of course the wooden houses the tin
1:06:35roofed houses uh are no match for the
1:06:38220 or 250 km per hour winds. So if you
1:06:42imagine it's midnight when the cyclone
1:06:44struck. Uh the power is out. It's it's
1:06:47pitch dark and tidal surge had moved in.
1:06:51Um, it's 21 ft above where you're
1:06:53standing and it's like an endless sea
1:06:56and there is thunderstorm and there's uh
1:07:00lightning and there's of course the the
1:07:03rain is very heavy and there's howling
1:07:06sound from the from the wind because the
1:07:08wind is um 250 km/ hour and then the
1:07:13people were talking about demons in the
1:07:15sky and at first I thought it's from
1:07:18trauma and then everywhere We went,
1:07:21they're talking about these demons. And
1:07:23then in one of the villages, someone
1:07:25said fire in the sky. And then we
1:07:29realized that the wind was moving so
1:07:31fast, even in the thunderstorm, it had
1:07:34caught fire. And that's why we saw burnt
1:07:38uh trees and burnt bodies.
1:07:41Um I did not want to do the third world
1:07:44photography, which means I didn't want
1:07:45to show the faces. Of course, they're
1:07:47they're in trauma. Didn't want to show
1:07:49them. So we are always standing behind
1:07:52the victims. We're standing with them.
1:07:54This girl, for example, was 5 years old
1:07:57in 2007. She's looking towards where her
1:08:00house used to be. There's not a trace of
1:08:02it. Uh but we we are standing with her.
1:08:06Um this boy is for example pointing
1:08:09towards this rope. At first I couldn't
1:08:11understand what he was talking about,
1:08:12but then we realized he tied himself to
1:08:15this branch and he was saved. and we
1:08:18measured it and it was 21 feet. So
1:08:22that's where the water was. This man was
1:08:25saved by the intelligence of his wife.
1:08:27As soon as she saw the water coming, at
1:08:30first the water comes in very slowly. As
1:08:32soon as she saw the water coming, she
1:08:34said, "Take off your clothes." Uh the
1:08:36women uh in that part of the world wear
1:08:38something like what Rajupa is wearing.
1:08:41It's a long cloth. Um she they took it
1:08:44off and climbed the highest branch and
1:08:46she tied herself, her husband and and
1:08:49their little baby to the branch and they
1:08:51were saved while all of the neighbors
1:08:55vanished.
1:08:57So coming back to our studio in Dhaka,
1:08:59we couldn't work for for weeks really. U
1:09:04but we we realized that we were not
1:09:06eight agencies. It was not our job to
1:09:09sort of help in other ways but really to
1:09:12design something from our own experience
1:09:15and uh the firsthand experience that we
1:09:17had. So um the shelter that we designed
1:09:20is a crucifiform shaped building with a
1:09:23ramp wrapping around it and then
1:09:26automatically the spaces that form in
1:09:29the corners are are serve as light and
1:09:32ventilation shafts and uh the ramp then
1:09:36sort of protects the inner structure
1:09:38from high wind and hydraulic pressure
1:09:41and of course in normal times from solar
1:09:43heat gain and it's an all concrete
1:09:46building because we had seen masonry or
1:09:49brick buildings just fallen like Legos.
1:09:52And um
1:09:55during normal times it's a two-story
1:09:57structure. During normal times it would
1:09:59it functions as a clinic day clinic. On
1:10:02the ground floor and on the upper floor
1:10:04there are three classrooms. It's a
1:10:06primary school and on the roof there is
1:10:09space for um gathering and uh playing.
1:10:13So this is what happens uh during a
1:10:15cyclone. For me again the saving of the
1:10:18cattle is important. Again these are
1:10:20very poor people. Um uh so uh this is
1:10:24something that was missing in the um
1:10:26shelters designed by the government. Uh
1:10:29so we had this ramp so that the cattle
1:10:31can be taken onto the roof and be saved
1:10:33from the title search. But of course the
1:10:35the ramp also helps with the uh the
1:10:38movement of the elderly and the
1:10:39disabled.
1:10:41Um
1:10:43the other problem was the breaking of
1:10:45the windows because everything is flying
1:10:47from trees and branches to cows and they
1:10:50hit the windows and it breaks and and
1:10:52it's it's even more trauma. So our
1:10:55windows are recessed into this air crate
1:10:57devices. The glasses are small so that
1:11:00you know it's stronger. It's tempered
1:11:01anyway. And um the building can um
1:11:05function off the grid because it has uh
1:11:08rainwater harvest and solar panels and
1:11:12so layers of protection for the inner
1:11:15building.
1:11:16So we had a design, we had a project,
1:11:19but we didn't have a client and we
1:11:21didn't have um uh land to build it on.
1:11:24We didn't have funds. Actually, we had
1:11:26nothing. So um so we we made a book a
1:11:31kind of a set of photographs um to sell
1:11:34and raise funds and we tried for 6 years
1:11:38and we failed and in 2013 we had an
1:11:42exhibition of other projects um in Dhaka
1:11:45and uh we we included this project and
1:11:48in the client uh it said client search.
1:11:52So, uh, there was a group visiting from
1:11:54Luxembourg. Uh, you can see some of
1:11:56them. And one of my friends, he said,
1:11:58uh, Kash, what do you mean by client
1:12:00search? I said, we're searching for a
1:12:02client. We're looking for a client. So,
1:12:04he found that very funny. And he said,
1:12:05you know, do you mind if we take this
1:12:07exhibition to Luxembourg and try to
1:12:08raise funds there? I said, why not? And
1:12:11so, off it went to um to the Institute
1:12:14of Engineers and Architects in
1:12:16Luxembourg. And this is the person um my
1:12:19good friend Mark Elvinger. He is a
1:12:22lawyer and he is a partner of one of the
1:12:24largest law firms in Europe and yet he
1:12:28devotes his time to social work. It's
1:12:31unbelievable the kind of things he does.
1:12:34And uh so we had this model in the
1:12:36center and we were able to raise funds
1:12:39for one prototype and work started with
1:12:42all excitement in that remote area with
1:12:45all the finesse uh that comes with it.
1:12:48And um again the contractor that we had
1:12:52was the lowest bidder. We had to take
1:12:54them because they were lowest and they
1:12:56had no clue because they have never
1:12:58built in concrete before. So uh again
1:13:02the process of training and explaining
1:13:06and our people just going and going and
1:13:11um but still slowly the building starts
1:13:13to rise. At first, the concrete was
1:13:16really awful,
1:13:18but not to blame them because the ramp
1:13:21as it rose turned because of head
1:13:24height. We didn't want a very high
1:13:26building because that increased the
1:13:28cost. So, the ramp rotates on its axis
1:13:31as it moves up. So, a lot of the
1:13:34shuttering had to be uh built. Um, so
1:13:37this was also the job of the contractor.
1:13:40But lo and behold, slowly the quality of
1:13:43the construction became better and um
1:13:46the floor is of course just polished
1:13:48concrete. There's there's no other
1:13:49material and the the building rose in
1:13:52the landscape and the first day of
1:13:55school. A lot of excitement and we
1:13:57didn't realize that the ramp would
1:13:59actually become a play element for the
1:14:00children. Um this is one of the
1:14:02classrooms um one of the higher classes
1:14:07um the the roof um which they use and of
1:14:11course sometimes people just bring their
1:14:12cows along. Um and this is the um clinic
1:14:18um the waiting space of the the clinic
1:14:20downstairs. So that's the um the ramp as
1:14:23it rotates.
1:14:31So the building has become known as the
1:14:33cyclone cyclone building. Um which I
1:14:36think is a good thing because people
1:14:38know where to get to in terms of
1:14:40emergency quickly because that's one of
1:14:42the important things. Uh sometimes
1:14:44normal looking buildings people don't
1:14:45realize that that's a shelter and they
1:14:47don't go or they cannot find their way
1:14:49in the darkness. Um this is an old data
1:14:52but um since 2000 till 2021
1:14:56um nearly 50,000 people had been treated
1:14:59um at the clinic. Um
1:15:05uh for me when we talk about care it's
1:15:07really two sides of the same coin. U
1:15:10care for humanity and care for the
1:15:12natural world. And after decades of
1:15:15signature architecture
1:15:18um of uh architecture I think we have
1:15:21come to to the point when we realize
1:15:24that architecture is about
1:15:26responsibility it's about critical
1:15:28response to the many issues that we are
1:15:31facing as humanity today and for us to
1:15:36work with information is not the main
1:15:38thing. Information comes easy. uh
1:15:41sometimes it comes cheap because we do
1:15:44not have or do not always have legacy
1:15:47sources anymore. Uh anybody can
1:15:50broadcast uh information these days.
1:15:53Therefore, knowledge is important and
1:15:55not just our knowledge but worldly
1:15:57knowledge and not just not knowledge but
1:16:00wisdom. the wisdom of thousands of years
1:16:03of building and the experience of people
1:16:05who have been before us so that we can
1:16:10build responsibly because in 120 years
1:16:14none of us are going to be here not even
1:16:16the child who is born today. We will be
1:16:18replaced by a new set of people a new
1:16:22generation. But let them say that day
1:16:25that we had been responsible in what we
1:16:27have done and that we had been sort of
1:16:30critical towards the fragile ecosystem
1:16:35in which we are destined to exist. Thank
1:16:38you very much.
1:16:40[applause]
1:16:49[applause]
1:16:52>> I think we have time for just a couple
1:16:54questions.
1:16:55>> Yes,
1:16:59>> we have 11 minutes. 10 minutes, let's
1:17:01say.
1:17:07Um hi Kashif thank you for the lecture.
1:17:10Um I'm Sting Hill. I'm an MR student
1:17:12here. I um wanted to ask you about the
1:17:17construction knowledge. U there's a
1:17:19certain finesse that can be found across
1:17:20your projects. There's a lot of u
1:17:23rigorous work with brick um that's uh
1:17:26hard to miss. And um a lot of these
1:17:29projects are situated in u remote
1:17:31regions um where you don't have you know
1:17:35top quality um construction knowledge
1:17:37that uh or or the contractor ship one
1:17:40finds and as you said um certain
1:17:42projects have uh you you're trying to
1:17:45convince the clients themselves to
1:17:47become the contractor. So what is um the
1:17:50kind of effort that your you and your
1:17:53team uh puts into what are the processes
1:17:56that you engage with the client to um
1:17:58ensure that that quality is achieved.
1:18:02Okay. Um so my father was an engineer.
1:18:06So that's where I got um um the first
1:18:11time I visited a construction site I was
1:18:134 years old. Not inside. I was outside
1:18:16safe outside. But I I was I was
1:18:21literally born in construction sites. So
1:18:23construction comes very naturally to me.
1:18:25I love construction sites. I there's no
1:18:28way people can prevent me from going to
1:18:30construction sites. These days, you
1:18:32know, you have these rules where you
1:18:33don't need the architect going to the
1:18:35construction site. There are project
1:18:36managers, etc. I don't like that. Um uh
1:18:40if there are PMTs, that's fine, but I'm
1:18:43I'm I'm there. even if they don't want
1:18:45me. Um uh because I think the architect
1:18:49is the true builder. They they they must
1:18:53know and and to under to know this I had
1:18:56to build myself. I built a building uh
1:18:59where where we live. I built that
1:19:01building myself. It's a six-story
1:19:02building. I built it myself literally
1:19:04with two engineers and myself. I laid uh
1:19:07bricks. I I poured concrete. I had to
1:19:10learn because otherwise um you know
1:19:13people are going to BSU. Um so um that
1:19:18that's one of the things the other thing
1:19:19is we have engineers in our office. We
1:19:21don't do engineering. Um we we are not
1:19:24structural engineers. Hanife is going to
1:19:26say what for. Um but uh we we don't we
1:19:30don't do engineering but we have
1:19:32engineers we have senior engineers as
1:19:34well just to control the quality of
1:19:37construction because engineers talk to
1:19:40engineers better. Um you will agree. So
1:19:44um so that's why we have them. So we
1:19:47have to subsidize their their cost from
1:19:50our architectural fees because we we
1:19:52don't get fees for engineering or or for
1:19:55that kind of supervision. Um but I've
1:19:58always had it. Uh that's because of that
1:20:02part of the world where
1:20:04controlling construction or having a
1:20:07kind of a precision in construction is
1:20:09very difficult. But for me a
1:20:11construction which is not good is is
1:20:13something I cannot handle. And I've I've
1:20:15actually taken down walls. I've gone
1:20:17there and said, you know, just take it
1:20:19down. That's it. You know, and um we we
1:20:22we had done with the government a big
1:20:24project myself with Marina Tabasum. Um
1:20:28it's it's a very big museum back in I
1:20:31think uh 99. Um the first day they
1:20:36started pouring concrete, I stopped the
1:20:38work. The contractor was the biggest
1:20:40contractor in the country and uh I was
1:20:43not even 30 years old and I stopped the
1:20:46work and this guy went to the prime
1:20:47minister. He said, "Who's this guy
1:20:50stopping my work?" You know, because
1:20:52stopped work means loss, right? And
1:20:55because I said I I wanted this
1:20:57construction uh this quality of concrete
1:21:00and blah blah blah. And so I I I guess
1:21:04you have to be hands-on if you ask me
1:21:07about construction quality because you
1:21:09cannot stop uh just being an architect
1:21:12and doing your design and that's it. You
1:21:14know, just don't draw the line. You
1:21:16build the line.
1:21:32Uh thank you so much uh my name is Yunam
1:21:35DA student and thank you for this
1:21:37fantastic um lecture and about the your
1:21:41work in the two decades and then I have
1:21:44some question about uh more of client
1:21:47climate and water how you think of the
1:21:50climate change in your practice. So one
1:21:52thing is for the raising village project
1:21:55I was wondering like who pays for this
1:21:58and who's your client and and how this
1:22:02uh like idea was formed in the beginning
1:22:06and another thing is in the in those two
1:22:09decades um how do you think the
1:22:12definition of like water risk or climate
1:22:15risk would change in Bangladesh and from
1:22:20not only probably like government or
1:22:22clients or like from the people and what
1:22:25do you think as an architect what might
1:22:28be the urgent thing you are envisioning
1:22:31you want to do or um you think is like
1:22:35urgent in this time? Thanks.
1:22:38>> Yes, a lot of questions
1:22:40um
1:22:43to to to go to your last point. Um you
1:22:47see I I showed the river the river which
1:22:51um follow the rivers follow no rules
1:22:55they they just move on their own and
1:22:56they they break they make it's it's it's
1:23:01unpredictable it's unchartable you you
1:23:05cannot uh devise anything so there is a
1:23:08thing called river training so you can
1:23:10do that but then you have to have uh
1:23:13concrete on the sides etc but otherwise
1:23:16If you have a 7m wide river, you can
1:23:19imagine it's it's really not
1:23:21controllable. But the same thing is
1:23:24happening with climate change. People
1:23:26think they understand climate change,
1:23:28but nobody really understands. I I can
1:23:31very safely say nobody in this world
1:23:33today understands climate change. We
1:23:36don't know where we're heading. That's
1:23:39the real danger. And there are still
1:23:42people in this world including the
1:23:45president of this country who think
1:23:47climate change is not real and you just
1:23:51have to get to you know a place like
1:23:53Bangladesh or Maldives. Um we have a
1:23:56project we had done a project um a
1:23:58hospital in a place the hospital is 65
1:24:03kilometers let's say about 45 miles
1:24:06inland from the bay and still all the
1:24:10water above ground and below ground is
1:24:13seawater.
1:24:15The the agricultural economy is totally
1:24:18decimated. People have turned from
1:24:20agriculture to shrimp farming.
1:24:24So people buy water. These are very poor
1:24:27people because of the the the state of
1:24:29the economy. These people have to buy
1:24:31water.
1:24:33So our project in that u hospital
1:24:36project which was recognized by the RIBA
1:24:40um that project the design was just not
1:24:43the hospital but to collect each and
1:24:45every drop of rainwater that we got uh
1:24:48within the areas of the of the complex.
1:24:52So um it's really crazy what is
1:24:55happening uh to this um world. U
1:25:00sometimes when we are in let's say
1:25:02insulated environments like this we
1:25:04forget that the natural world is out
1:25:07there. It's um it's suffering and uh we
1:25:12are to blame. uh our fastpaced economies
1:25:16and and in industrialization and stuff
1:25:19and uh we we never really cared and um
1:25:23to borrow a term from Rahul Meocha's um
1:25:29impatient capital. I think he refers it
1:25:32for something else. But I think this
1:25:34impatience is killing us really. Um
1:25:38because people are not sitting with the
1:25:40money. They want to invest in a new
1:25:42something and that usually is not in
1:25:45favor of the nature or the ecosystem
1:25:48that exists there. So um Bangladesh uh
1:25:53is projected to lose one/ird of its land
1:25:57um by 2100.
1:26:00Um it is a country of 56,000 square
1:26:04miles as I've said and it's 180 million
1:26:07people. It's the densest country in the
1:26:09world and imagine if it lost um one/ird.
1:26:14So uh quite unimaginable.
1:26:17Yeah. um in our work we try to um
1:26:23approach it with um sensible solutions
1:26:28common sense I think that's what it is
1:26:30you know everything should be based on
1:26:33common sense and um the wisdom that I
1:26:36talk about is really the wisdom of of
1:26:38you know olden times it's we have for
1:26:42example we had always been um living uh
1:26:46very um uh we had been doing agriculture
1:26:51in an organic way but then came chemical
1:26:54fertilizers and now we have to look for
1:26:56organic u food. So the same way I think
1:27:01our architecture can be we can look to
1:27:04examples that were and then sort of
1:27:06relate them to our needs the
1:27:09contemporary
1:27:10uh society's needs um and the needs of
1:27:14uh contemporary culture.
1:27:19>> Hi thank you. Um, going back to
1:27:22construction, as you've developed this
1:27:25process of inviting
1:27:27um [clears throat] or requiring
1:27:30collaboration with the end user, the
1:27:32client, the community, has that affected
1:27:34your design process? Does the design as
1:27:37it's being built by the you end user
1:27:41evolve during that process or does it
1:27:44shift your design process when you go on
1:27:45to the next?
1:27:46>> No. No. So what what I say to my clients
1:27:49is you you can ask us to change the
1:27:52design as many times as you want but
1:27:55once you like the design once you say
1:27:56everything is done it's fixed you cannot
1:27:58touch it yeah and then we build then we
1:28:02go into building so and then and we
1:28:05would not reduce specification so the
1:28:07the building that I showed the the
1:28:09academic building we never reduced
1:28:12specification it had cavity walls it had
1:28:14double glazing or triple glazing
1:28:16whatever we did not reduce
1:28:18specification. I mean it they did the
1:28:21hard work. Yes, true. We also did some
1:28:23of the hard work but we did not reduce
1:28:26uh we did not change the specification.
1:28:29So, so I was sitting here and I was
1:28:32thinking, well, the first half of our
1:28:34evening was one sort of jazz performance
1:28:39of, you know, really sort of something
1:28:41that's very improvis improvisational and
1:28:44and moving just our physical being was
1:28:48being moved through the fantastic music
1:28:51and I want to thank Rajupa and Nittton
1:28:53for that and I thought wow what a
1:28:55contrast we have these incredibly
1:28:58carefully built walls with the precision
1:29:01of the um obsessed uh master builder.
1:29:06But actually, as you answer these
1:29:08questions, I realize that you're also
1:29:10working with this improvisation and and
1:29:13keeping it precise just as Rajupa's
1:29:16playing was incredibly precise with this
1:29:19movement that that was hard to predict.
1:29:23And so I I understand the two of you
1:29:26much better after this evening's
1:29:28performance. Um I want to thank you both
1:29:31for a wonderful evening um and
1:29:34extraordinary work. Thank you.
1:29:36>> Thank you. [applause]
1:29:41[applause]

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of Aga Khan Program Lecture: Kashef Chowdhury, “Meditations in Entropy” by Harvard GSD, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 10,312 words across 1,569 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to choose a caption track available on the video.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, caption language selection, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.