Faraway So Close – Kashef Chowdhury I EPFL, Lausanne

Agarpur Mosque, Barisal, Bangladesh © Kashef Chowdhury

”Essential as the basis of life, water nevertheless represents a constant threat to the fragile deltaic landscape.”
Niklaus Graber

In Bangladesh, the architect Kashef Chowdhury is looking for solutions to the collapse of urban regions and cultural heritage due to abrupt tropical climate changes. Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated regions on earth and its river delta landscape is an area prone to flooding, cyclones, and rising sea levels.

In this context, Chowdhury’s pragmatic and poetic buildings serve society with radical simplicity, sparing a masterful treatment of light, space and materiality. Using earth and bricks as material, he manages to balance maximum functionnality and robustness with sensuality and grace.

”The issues facing Bangladeshi architects are gaining new relevance as the rest of the world confronts similar concerns.”
Niklaus Graber

Through local action, Chowdhury’s architecture adresses urgent and global issues such as population density, climate change, migration, and the development of rural potential.

Models, photographs, film footage and plans will be exhibited and will enable the public to immerse themselves in his construction process.

Exhibition curated by Niklaus Graber and Andreas Ruby
Photographs by Hélène Binet and Kashef Chowdhury

Kashef Chowdhury/URBANA received the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2016 for the Friendship Centre on the flood plains of Gaibandha in nothern Bangladesh. With projects such as the Gulshan Society Mosque in Dhaka and the Cyclone Shelter in Kuakata, he gained widespread international acclaim.