Enriched and inspired by the age-old, diversified architecture and cultural heritage of subtropical Asian region, Ar. Md. Jubair Hasan is a practicing architect currently working in Bangladesh. While pursuing education and practicing architecture in a rapidly developing country like Bangladesh, he feels that the architectural scenario is largely and adversely dominated by western modernity and aesthetics. Under these circumstances, he is continuously in search of a language through his works, which would complement the traditional architecture as well as Bengali modernity. After completing bachelor in Architecture from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, he started his own practice as Jubair Hasan Architects (JHA) as a common architectural practice ground in 2010 and has successfully worked in numerous buildings and interior projects in the last few years and participated in several competition designs. His works are emphasized by context, climate, function and material to justify socio-cultural aspects of Bangladesh. The ideology of Ar. Muzharul Islam, the father of Modern Architecture in Bangladesh, is an inspiration for him.

Practice, Process, and Product Of the Climate, Context, and Culture

Design is an exercise. It is a continuous process of learning, exploring, listening and responding. Every project is a challenge, an excuse to find new knowledge and experimenting with it. A site or a context often speaks. It wants to communicate with us in its own language. It creates terrains, lets it flooded, and grows ferns, hedges, shrubs or woods. A site speaks through its flowers, fragrances of the wild herbs, dried fruits, berries or birds. We always seek for such indications that trigger new explorations through the agency of an architect in the tropical delta. Our land is full of mud and clay, and the moisture is an undervalued blessing that ties us all. It ties land to the water, irrigation to culture, forest to the farmers, sweetness to the salinity and traditions to the industries. Every part of the context narrates a different and unique story. We try to listen and we try to respond to it.

The process of giving life to a constructed narrative is a project in itself. Colonialism, late industrialization, delayed introduction to informatics shaped the local production market not exactly the same way it is as in west. But at the same time, it created an amazing spectrum of semi-automated hybrid methods of producing objects. One can find extremely cheap labor, but maybe they are not highly skilled, one can find super cheap bricks, but maybe they might also be efflorescence, and there might be woods available at a very convenient price, but maybe they are not well seasoned. There is no standard sampling, no market standard BIM models and no central survey map at a usable level for the country available to be used by the architects. But at the same time, you are always welcome to change, modify and improvise regardless of what phase of the project is. From the drawing board to the construction site, it is always a both way process, where you can give and take inputs if it is necessary. We try to explore the potentials of those imperfections, capitalize on it and try to illustrate the aesthetics of it both explicitly and implicitly through our works.

We try to question what architecture in this tropical delta is. There are people who need architecture, there are infrastructure which needs to be developed, there are funds coming from the products we sell to the rest of the world; but what types of conclusions do these dynamics guide us to when thinking of a space? It must be modern; we cannot deny the overall global way of approaching an attempt to create a sheltered environment. But at the same time can it embrace the culture, the regional tropic within its DNA? The practice is based on believing in the context, climate, and culture, but at the same time we also try not to believe in any preconceived assumptions. Our forms generate through our quest for finding a true language for the ever-changing context and we believe that there are no simple and single answer to what architecture is. Therefore, we always are enthusiastic about taking this journey of exploration and this we consider as our product.