Bangladeshi architect in Time’s 100 most influential people list

Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum has featured in Time magazine’s list of ‘100 most influential people of 2024’ for her contributions to the field of innovation.

“Tabassum’s altruism even extends to buildings themselves. She cares for her creations as creatures partaking in the resources of our earth: describing her Bait Ur Rouf Mosque in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which won the prestigious Aga Khan Award, she said a building 'has to be able to breathe without artificial aids,” reads the Time website.

“Elsewhere in the country, which faces increased flood risks due to climate change, she has developed houses that are cost-effective and easy to move—clearly, buildings shouldn't just breathe; they should avoid getting their feet wet. While she practices very locally, she teaches, lectures, and is recognized internationally, modeling architecture not as an individual signature but as a collective Esperanto,” it adds.

Tabassum’s work was previously honoured with the 2016 Aga Khan Award for Architecture and by the American Academy of Arts and Letters Awards in 2021.

She won the Millennium Lifetime Achievement Award at the upcoming Lisbon Architecture Triennale 2022.