A Bangladesh Reader: Beyond Nation and State

Editors: Mirza Taslima Sultana, Parsa Sanjana Sajid, Sayeed Ferdous
Routledge India. ISBN: 978-10-3261-438-0
Publisher’s page: https://www.routledge.com

Creating the Incomprehensible “Us”

Architecture, Islam, Modernity, and Nation

May 2026
Priyanka Hutschenreiter and Sadia Rahman

Image: Rasel Chowdhury

Image: Asif Salman

Image: Nabil Shahidi

Abstract

This chapter explores how prolific cultures of private and public new mosque construction embody and spatialize local discourses through imaginative, iterative and varied practices in architecture and, by extension, shape and orient constructions of architecture, the modern, the Islamic and the nation in contemporary Bangladesh. We focus on local formations of new mosque architecture and congregational practice through four internationally well-known twenty-first century congregations (jamaats) and congregational spaces (jame masjids) in Dhaka district that have been widely discussed in both scholarly and general literature: Bait Ur Rouf Masjid (Marina Tabassum, 2012), Doleshwar Hanafia Jame Masjid (Kashef Chowdhury/URBANA, 2017), Gulshan Society Jame Masjid (Kashef Chowdhury/URBANA, 2017), and Biswa Ijtema (Tablighi Jama’at, annually since 1954). We use thick description and creative ethnography to explore how architecture is subject to and formative of the discursive traditions of Islam, nation, modernity, and architecture itself.

Images: Courtesy of Asif Salman, Nabil Shahidi, Rasel Chowdhury and The Dhaka Tribune.

Related pages:

Journal article

OASE Journal for Architecture - 119 Rationalism Revisited

Editors: Justin Agyin, Bart Decroos and Christoph Grafe
Design: Karel Martens and Aagje Martens
January 2025. ISBN: 978-94-6208-897-9
Publisher’s page: https://oasejournal.nl/en/issue/oase-119/

Embracing Impermanence

A Conversation with Marina Tabassum, Sadia Rahman and Priyanka Hutschenreiter

Abstract

Marina Tabassum, principal architect at Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA) in Dhaka, Bangladesh, is creating an architectural practice oriented towards the sustainable future of people and climate. While architectural rationalism is often construed in terms of the use of industrial materials and large scale in order to be adaptable, MTA understand sustainability and adaptability in terms of using local materials and practices. In this double-conversation, with Marina Tabassum and with the editors of this issue of OASE, we explore the tensions incurred through these differing approaches to rationalism between the needs of governments, the construction industry, local residents, and architects themselves.

Exhibition

« সংলাপ » for LUMIN x Peak Cymru

LUMIN x Peak Cymru: Darllediad Radio LUMIN Radio Broadcast

3 December 2022

Digital audio recording. 40m 39s. Sadia Rahman and Priyanka Hutschenreiter (AT/BD). 2022.
Thinking in concert: autonomy, friendship and collaboration through the ether. On co-writing ‘Creating the Incomprehensible “Us”: Architecture, Islam, Modernity and Nation’.

Broadcast from #Platfform2, Abergavenny Train Station.
Listen from Platfform 2 + Online Gwrandewch o Blatfform 2 + Ar-lein

Across 2022 LUMIN have been imagining and designing a decentralised, itinerant radio station to continue their occasional digital broadcast Local 37. On Saturday 3 December, LUMIN will be making their first broadcast from #Platfform2, Abergavenny Train Station.

Featuring live, site-specific, dialogic, and recorded sound work from artists including Gyda gwaith sain byw, safle-benodol, deialogol, wedi’i recordio gan artistiaid yn cynnwys:
Lauren Craig, Mort Drew, কে বা কাহারা / Ke ba kahara, Sadia Rahman, Marva Jackson Lord, Daniel Trivedy, Radha Patel, Umulkhayr Mohamed, Cecelia Graham, Owen Griffiths and Diego Gutierrez Valladares; plus Priyanka Hutschenreiter, Dafydd Jenkins, Grace Jackson, Bog Cottage, Manuela Moser, Kate Murphy, Rebecca Chesney and Lubaina Himid (The Storm by Rebecca Chesney and Lubaina Himid. Commissioned by TONSPUR Kunstverein Wien, 2021).

Drwy 2022 mae LUMIN wedi bod yn dychmygu ac yn dylunio gorsaf radio ddatganoledig a theithiol i barhau â’u darllediad digidol achlysurol Local 37. Ddydd Sadwrn, 3 Rhagfyr, bydd LUMIN yn gwneud eu darllediad cyntaf o Blatfform 2, Gorsaf Drenau’r Fenni.

Listen (1) on-site at Platfform 2, Abergavenny Train Station & (2) online at https://lumin-press.com/

Curated by LUMIN
Supported by Peak Cymru / Casgleb and Arts Council Wales