Kazi Khaleed Ashraf | |
|---|---|
| কাজী খালিদ আশরাফ | |
 | |
| Born | 1959 |
| Alma mater | Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology University of Pennsylvania |
| Occupation(s) | Architect,
Educator, Urbanist, Historian |
| Website | kaziashraf |
Kazi Khaleed Ashraf is a Bangladeshi architect, urbanist and architectural historian.[1][2] Writing from the intersection of architecture, landscape and the city, Ashraf has authored books and essays on architecture in India and Bangladesh, the work of Louis Kahn, and the city of Dhaka. His various writings on the architecture of Bangladesh have provided a theoretical ground for understanding both the historical and contemporary forms of architecture, while his written and design work on Dhaka advances that city as a "theorem" for understanding urbanism in a deltaic geography.[3] Ashraf and contributing team received the Pierre Vago Journalism Award from the International Committee of Architectural Critics for the Architectural Design publication Made in India.[4] He has also co-authored a number of publications with the architect Saif Ul Haque. Ashraf has recently established an international publication series called Locations: Anthology of Architecture and Urbanism that will present works and features from around the globe.
Ashraf received his bachelor of architecture from BUET in 1983. Later he received Masters from MIT and PhD from University of Pennsylvania. Currently, director-general of Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements.[5] Ashraf also taught at University of Hawaii,[6] the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University and Pratt Institute.[4]
He is also a co-founder of the cartoon magazine Unmad.[7] established in 1978, in which he contributed as a cartoonist. His editorial drawings have appeared in The Nation, Philadelphia Inquirer, and The New York Times.
In 2021, he was selected to be on the Master Jury of the 2020-2022 cycle of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.[8]
Ashraf writes on a wide variety of topics, and has published authoritative essays on architecture in South Asia, the works of Louis Kahn, and diverse theoretical topics. Besides books and journals, his contributions have appeared in architectural encyclopedias.[9] Ashraf has made important contributions[10] to the historical and theoretical narratives on architecture in Bangladesh. His essays remain a major source on the philosophy and works of the master Bangladeshi architect Muzharul Islam.[11][12][13] Ashraf's scholarship on Louis Kahn has yielded important writings and major exhibitions, both in Bangladesh and the US.[14][15][16]
In 1997, Ashraf curated a major exhibition on South Asian modernity (with James Belluardo) for the Architectural League of New York. The exhibition, "An Architecture of Independence: The Making of Modern South Asia,"[13][17] that highlighted the works of Balkrishna Doshi, Achyut Kanvinde, Charles Correa and Muzharul Islam, traveled to five cities in the US. Ashraf edited a special volume of Architectural Design titled "Made in India"[18] that received the Pierre Vago Journalism Award from the International Committee of Architectural Critics in 2008.[19]
A major part of Ashraf's writings is rethinking modernity and ancient linkages. His publication The Hermit’s Hut: Architecture and Asceticism in India (2013)[20] traces roots of modern minimalism in the practices of asceticism and renunciation.
Ashraf's current focus is water and the future of cities especially in such dynamic hydrological milieu as Bangladesh. His theoretical position for reconsidering water in a new design intelligence appear in various writings[21][22] and the founding of Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements[5] in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2015. Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements is a unique, transdisciplinary forum for the study and design of the environment, based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, that focuses on imagining a 'Future Bangladesh' through prospects of designed settlements and landscapes. The institute conducts research and design initiatives at regional and urban scales through multidisciplinary academic and research programs.[23]
As an urban designer in charge of projects at Bengal Institute, Ashraf led critical planning and design visions for numerous towns in Bangladesh, including Narayanganj, Sylhet, and Mongla. His work on various aspects of Dhaka, including transport and public spaces, provides new prospects for the transformation of one of the most complex metropolitan cities.[2][24][25] Working on the large-scale, and integrating city-form, landscape, agriculture, and housing, Ashraf and team proposed new regional arrangements, "metro hubs" and coastal development for Bangladesh.[26][27]
