2026.09.18 Registration Open
Architalk: Seeing the World through Architecture
Meditations in Entropy: The Work of Kashef Chowdhury / URBANA
Arts & Design
Intellectual Dialogue
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Since 1995, Dhaka-based architecture firm Kashef Chowdhury / URBANA has produced an astonishing collection of works of divergent scales, typologies, and contexts located in one of the most meteorologically challenging regions in the world such as a hospital introduced into an economy decimated by rising oceans, a shelter against cyclones in Bangladesh’s southern coastal region, a school for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, and architectural interventions in one of the world’s densest metropolitan areas.
For this lecture Kashef Chowdhury will discuss some projects featured in the first full monograph of the practice: Meditations in Entropy. He will focus on works related to culture, history and climate change in Bangladesh, which are incisive, critical responses to varied issues and urgencies rooted in the belief that architecture must be a reflection of, and sympathetic to, increasingly fragile ecological conditions.
Event Overview
| Date | Friday, September 18, 6:30～8:00 pm (JST) *doors open at 6:00 pm |
| Speaker | Kashef Chowdhury (Architect, Founder of URBANA) |
| Commentator | Akihisa Hirata (Architect / Professor, Kyoto University) |
| Moderator | Yuko Hasegawa (Director of Arts & Design, I-House) |
| Admission | 3,000yen (IHJ members 2,000yen, Students 1,000yen) *reservations are required |
| Language | Japanese / English (with simultaneous interpretation) |
| Venue | International House of Japan |
| Organized | by The International House of Japan |
| Sponsored | by MRA Foundation, Jyukankyo Foundation |
Speaker Profile
Architect; Founder of URBANA
Kashef Chowdhury
Kashef Chowdhury has a studio-based practice based in Dhaka, with strong emphasis on climate, materials and context – both natural and human. Projects in the studio are given extended time for research so as to reach a level of innovation and original expression.
Works span various typologies, from institutions and public buildings, to culture, education, sports, health, industry, religious, residential and climate action projects.
Kashef Chowdhury won first prize in AR+D Architecture Award 2012 from the Architectural Review, London. He received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2016, Geneva and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) International Prize 2021, London.
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