A core team led by Professor Zainab Faruqui Ali, Chairperson Department of Architecture, SoAD, BRAC University is providing overall supervision, guidance, and coordination of the construction of zero-carbon prefabricated bamboo buildings built by women students, alumni, academics, practitioners in different parts of the country. This collaborative project is progressing at a considerable pace. Organized by the Department and conducted by Rizvi Hasan (IOM), a 2-day workshop on bamboo construction was held in the Rohingya Camps in Cox’s Bazar attended by Saiqa Iqbal Meghna, Tarannum Mahmud, Nazia Noor and Sindis Hassan of the department and volunteers from other institutions. Artisans and architects skilled in bamboo construction are continuing to train female volunteers. Community participation has been an important part of this project. The use of the building is decided upon by the community women, for example, BRAC University’s structure is for Karail women’s sewing center, Leading University’s is for adult education of Laleng Community, Jhenaidah’s is for village women’s training center, Premier University’s are toilets and kitchen for Bihari camp, Texas Tech University’s structure to be used as a children’s play-learning space, and so on.
The initiative is based on a zero-carbon bamboo building project of the Department of Architecture, SoAD, BRAC University Bangladesh, Heritage Foundation, Pakistan, and University of Glasgow, UK under a gender grant by The British Council, UK. A total of 25 institutions now in Bangladesh, Pakistan, UK, Italy, USA and India are taking part. A 3-day workshop is scheduled for 21-23 February 2022, to be screened live on various online platforms. The selected volunteer students from Bangladesh (3) and Pakistan (3) will be joining their British counterparts (6) to build the bamboo structure in London in Mid-March 2022. This event will showcase and encourage women in the design and construction of prefabricated bamboo buildings which can be used as regular houses or a disaster rehabilitation structure.
The following organizations are collaborating with the Bangladesh segment of the project:
Inside Bangladesh
Outside Bangladesh
Following are some images from different organizations’ ongoing work for this project.
Co.Creation.Architects with Village community, Jhenaidah (Bamboo, straw, rammed earth)
Leading University, Sylhet (bamboo, mud and golla pata)
Rangamati (bamboo and straw)
Premier University, Chattogram (bamboo)
Texas Tech University, USA (Local pine logs and mud)
IIT Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India (bamboo and handmade sundried brick)
BRAC University (Bamboo and straw building. Overall supervision of all projects; drawings, models; workshop on videography, workshop on bamboo construction; 90 volunteers’ meetings, community meetings, site selection, coordination with British Council, UK and Heritage Foundation, Pakistan).
Workshop
Model (by student volunteers)
Construction and training
Volunteer Meetings (conducted by Department of Architecture, BRAC University)