A Bangladeshi architect and educator, Marina Tabassum founded Dhaka-based Marina Tabassum Architects in 2005. In her work, Marina seeks to establish a language of architecture that is contemporary yet reflectively rooted to place, always against an ecological rubric containing climate, context, culture and history. Tabassum's practice remains consciously contained in size, undertaking a limited number of projects per year.
Marina is a visiting professor at Harvard University, the Technical University of Delft, the Technical University of Munich, the University of Texas and Bengal Institute.
She received an Honorary Doctorate from the Technical University of Munich in 2020, Aga Khan Awards for Architecture in 2016, an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2020, Gold Medal of the French Academy of Architecture in 2021, Soane Medal in Architecture from the United Kingdom in 2021, and Jameel Prize in 2018.
Marina is a distinguished member of the Royal Society of Arts, and the Steering Committee of the Aga Khan Awards for Architecture. She heads the Foundation for Architecture and Community Equity (FACE) focusing on environment and climate preparedness, and chairs the Board of Prokritee, a fair-trade organization that ensures the livelihoods of thousands of woman artisans of Bangladesh. Marina was named among the top 10 thinkers of the COVID era by Prospect Magazine UK in 2020.
