The Department of Architecture, BRAC University, organized a lecture by the avant-garde Spanish collaborative called Basurama on Thursday, February 8, 2018. Mónica Gutiérrez Herreroand Rubén Lorenzo Montero presenteda lecture titled "In love we trash" on behalf of Basurama. The lecture was the final event of the Spanish Architecture Lecture Series (Fall 2017+ Spring 2018), organized by the department in partnership with the Embassy of Spain. This is the first time a local architecture department and a foreign embassy have collaborated to invite architects from abroad for a local audience in Dhaka.
Found at the Madrid School of Architecture (ETSAM) in 2001, Basurama is an artist collective, dedicated to the research of waste as a reflection on consumer societies and their value systems. Their practice is driven by a simple yet profound philosophy that “trash doesn’t exist,” an intellectual position that values the recyclability of trash as a form of social service and justice. Their aim is to study those inherent phenomena in the enormous production of real and virtual trash in the consumer society, offering different points of view on the subject that might create new thoughts and attitudes.
The event began at 11.00 AM at BRAC University Auditorium with a welcome speech by Professor Adnan Morshed, Chairperson, Department of Architecture. Professor Ansar Ahmed, Pro Vice-Chancellor, also participated at the event and thanked Basurama, particularly for their socially conscious work and their low-cost urban interventions in public places. A lively question and answer session followed in which teachers and students participated and made many observations.