Brac University commissioned Ci+AU to design the interior of a number of key buildings, located at the Residential Semester (RS) Campus of Brac University at Savar, an industrial outpost on the outskirts of Dhaka. Our first question was: What does the RS Campus want to be? To find an answer to this question, we first sought to understand what goes on at the RS Campus. The essential objective of this campus—a rare privilege offered by a university in Bangladesh—is to create an immersion program, focused on three subject areas: Bangladesh Studies; Ethics and Culture; and English. It is a life-style campus that seeks to prepare students with a comprehensive yet critical understanding of their motherland, an ethical worldview, and English language competency.
Building Resources Across Communities or BRAC (founded in 1972) is the world’s largest non-governmental organization in terms of the number of employees. BRAC seeks to create a “world free from all forms of exploitation and discrimination where everyone has the opportunity to realise their potential.” This globally-known organization works in 11 countries, including Bangladesh, to eliminate extreme poverty and empower people with financial mobility and capacity building.