ইকী

A factory owner in Ashulia, Bangladesh, wanted to build a mosque for his workers. He gave the commission to a Bangladeshi architect. Not an imported name. Not a foreign firm. A local architect who understood the land, the climate, and the culture she was building for. In 2025, Time Magazine named it one of the greatest places in the world, the first Bangladeshi building to ever appear on that list. The entire structure is one material. One colour. Pink-pigmented concrete, perforated with small rectangular voids that filter light into the prayer hall the way hanging lanterns did in old mosques. A dome floats unsupported over the circular prayer space. The high plinth references the Bhiti, the earthen mound that Bangladeshi homes have been built upon for centuries in the deltaic floodplain. The building knows where it comes from because the architect did. Across Africa, clients with the same resources make a different call. Foreign firms. Imported aesthetics. Buildings that could exist anywhere. The brief gets fulfilled. The opportunity gets wasted. Trusting a local architect with his mother’s name just made global history. That should mean something to us. Zebun Nessa Mosque, Ashulia, Bangladesh 🇧🇩 | Studio Morphogenesis | Lead Architect: Saiqa Iqbal Meghna | 6,060 sq.ft | 2023 | 📷 Asif Salman, City Syntax