Renowned Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum has been honored for the second time with the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
The 2025 Aga Khan Award has selected her innovative project, Khudi Bari, as one of its winners.
The announcement of seven winning projects, including Marina Tabassum’s, was made on Tuesday in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan.
Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus and Cultural Affairs Adviser Mostofa Sarwar Farooki congratulated Marina Tabassum on this rare and historic achievement.
In his message, the Chief Adviser said it is a source of pride for Bangladesh.
“Your innovative work on Khudi Bari—a climate-resilient, affordable, and portable home for communities displaced by river erosion—brilliantly demonstrates how architecture can serve humanity with compassion and vision,” Professor Yunus said.
“You have shown the world that design is not only about form and aesthetics, but also about dignity, resilience, and the power of human ingenuity to address the greatest challenges of our time, ” he said.
Marina Tabassum, who currently serves as the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Bangladesh National Museum, is the first Bangladeshi architect to win the Aga Khan Award twice.
She is also the chief consultant for the July Uprising Memorial Museum.
Her Khudi Bari design focuses on providing low-cost, easily assembled, and rapidly deployable two-story homes for climate-vulnerable communities, especially those affected by floods and riverbank erosion in Bangladesh.
Built with bamboo and steel, the houses are designed to serve as emergency shelters, with the second floor offering safe refuge during floods.
The Aga Khan Award jury praised the project’s strong environmental vision, highlighting its pioneering use of bamboo as a material with global potential.
The Aga Khan Award for Architecture was established in 1977 by His late Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV to identify and encourage building concepts that successfully address the needs and aspirations of communities where Muslims have a significant presence.
The selection process prioritizes projects that address socioeconomic needs and enhance cultural life.
This year’s winners also included projects from China, Egypt, Pakistan, Palestine, and two from Iran, in addition to Marina Tabassum’s Khudi Bari.
The award ceremony will be held on September 15 in Bishkek, where winners will share a prize fund of $1 million.
Marina Tabassum previously won the Aga Khan Award in 2016 for designing the Baitur Rouf Mosque in Dhaka’s Dakshin Khan area, a structure inspired by Sultanate-era architecture completed in 2012.
Her international recognition also includes receiving the prestigious Soane Medal in 2021 for humanitarian housing design, being ranked among the world’s top 10 thinkers by Prospect magazine in 2020, and being listed in TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2024.
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