A Bangladeshi architect and educator, Marina 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, history. Her project the Bait Ur Rouf Mosque in Bangladesh is distinguished by its lack of popular mosque iconography, its emphasis on space and light, and its capacity to function not only as a place of worship but also as a refuge for a dense neighborhood on Dhaka’s periphery. The portfolio of work notwithstanding, Tabassum’s practice remains consciously contained in size, undertaking a limited number of projects per year.
Tabassum is a Professor at Technical University Delft, in the Netherlands. She held the Gehry Chair at the University of Toronto 2022 – 2023. She has taught in Harvard University Graduate School of Design, University of Texas, Bengal Institute and BRAC University.
She received Honorary Doctorate from Technical University of Munich. In addition to Aga Khan Awards for Architecture, she has received many accolades including Arnold Brunner Memorial Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Gold Medal of the French Academy of Architecture and Soane medal in Architecture from the United Kingdom.
Tabassum chairs Foundation for Architecture and Community Equity (F.A.C.E) and Prokritee, a Fare trade organization. She has served as the member of the Steering Committee of the Aga Khan Awards for Architecture from 2017 to 2022. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA).