Centre for Inclusive Architecture and Urbanism (Ci+AU) at Brac University is multidisciplinary research institute and offers research-based consultancy on urban issues – the exploration of conditions, processes, and policies that affect the livability, resilience, and sustainability of the built environment. The Centre's mission is to create a dynamic culture of architecture and urbanism that is inclusive, empathetic, environmentally conscious, and humanistic. The centre is headed by Prof. Adnan Zillur Morshed, PhD, Executive Director. 

Ci+AU Vision and Mission:

By integrating rigorous research with applied knowledge, Ci+AU seeks to engender a system of bottom-up thinking about how to build inclusive environments and livable cities. The Centre’s collaborative and action-based research activities contribute to the development of new ideas and offer innovative design solutions and policy guidance for both the public and private sectors. It serves policy- and decision-makers, professional agencies and organizations, development agencies, stakeholders in urban development, and academia, with a view to creating a platform for critical thinking around community-driven architecture and urbanism in the Global South and beyond. Founded by Professor Adnan Zillur Morshed (Brac University, Dhaka, and Catholic University of America, Washington, DC) in 2017, the Centre’s inaugural advisory board included late Sir Fazle Hasan Abed KCMG (Founder of BRAC), Professor Mark Jarzombek (MIT), Professor Haider A. Khan (University of Denver), Professor Howard Davis (University of Oregon), Professor Rahul Mehrotra (Harvard University), and Professor Syed Saad Andaleeb (Penn State University). A new advisory board will soon be announced.

Ci+AU Agenda:

The Centre is a multi-tiered collaborative for the study of architecture and urbanism by bringing together a multi-disciplinary group of educators, researchers, policymakers, urban administrators, students, and practitioners. It will:

• Provide a platform to inquire into the critical issues that affect, influence, and condition the production of the built environment
• Encourage and promote scholarly research on urban and environmental issues
• Disseminate innovative ideas on people-centered urbanism to other researchers, agencies, and organizations interested in the built environment
• Improve communication between researchers, practitioners, and urban stakeholders
• Offer consultancy service to both public and private sector clients intending to serve the urban population of all economic strata
• Collaborate with all urban stakeholders to create livable cities and sustainable living conditions
• Organize capacity-building programs to empower urban administrators and stakeholders
• Host local and international researchers interested in urban and environmental issues

Ci+AU’s Current Work:

Ongoing consultancy work includes the design of BRAC regional offices across Bangladesh; interior design for the Brac University Residential Campus at Savar, and School for Rohingya children in Cox’s Bazar. Recently completed works include: Participation in the “Historic Preservation and Landscape Design of the Old Dhaka Central Jail and Redevelopment of Its Surrounding Area,” National Design Competition, May – Oct. 2017 (received honorable mention) and Master plan and pavilion design for the exhibition of Aarong’s 40th Anniversary. Current research work includes a study of the effect of personal automobiles on the traffic conditions of Dhaka city and an urban/environmental assessment of plot-based housing in Dhaka.