Yale x ZHF Talk: Marina Tabassum
ZHF and Yale School of Architecture will host a talk by architect and educator Marina Tabassum on 10 June 2025.
Tabassum founded Dhaka-based Marina Tabassum Architects in 2005. In her work, Tabassum seeks to establish a language of architecture that is contemporary yet reflectively rooted to place, always against an ecological rubric containing climate, context, culture and history.
Biography
Marina Tabassum is a Bangladeshi architect and educator. She graduated from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in 1995 and founded Dhaka-based Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA) in 2005. In her work, Tabassum seeks to establish a language of architecture that is contemporary yet reflectively rooted to place, always against an ecological rubric containing climate, context, culture, history. Her project Bait Ur Rouf Mosque was listed among the top 25 post war buildings of the world by New York Times. She received the coveted Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2016. Among her important works is the Independence Museum and monument of Bangladesh designed in 1997.
Tabassum is a Professor at the Technical University Delft, in the Netherlands. She received honorary doctorate from Technical University Munich. As a visiting professor she has taught at Yale University, University of Toronto, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, University of Texas and BRAC University. She held the position of Academic Director of the Bengal Institute from 2015 to 2021. Tabassum served as a member of the Steering Committee of the Aga Khan Awards for Architecture from 2017 to 2022.
Tabassum Chairs the Executive Board of Prokritee, a fare trade organization that promotes crafts and provides livelihood to more than 5000 women artisans of Bangladesh. She is the founder and chairperson of Foundation for Architecture and Community Equity (FACE). Her social engagements focus on marginalisation, climate justice and architecture. Tabassum was named one of the 100 most influential people of 2024 by TIMES magazine.
Marina Tabassum’s pursuit for the ‘Architecture of Relevance’ has won her various international accolades such as the Soane Medal from United Kingdom, the Gold Medal of the French Academy of Architecture, Arnold Brunner Prize from American Academy of Arts and Letters.