A Capsule in Time: Marina Tabassum on Architecture with Lasting Impact

Architecture is often seen as something static — a monument, a statement, a symbol of permanence. But for Marina Tabassum, it’s something else entirely: a living response to place, people, and change. In this episode of the Culture Shifts Podcast, I’m joined by Marina Tabassum, architect and educator based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and designer of this year’s 25th Serpentine Pavilion in London.

We talk about her distinct approach to building in both the Global South and North. From the lightweight, movable Khudi Bari homes for climate-displaced families in Bangladesh to her London pavilion A Capsule in Time, envisioned as a structure with a second life as a library. Marina shares how local materials like bamboo, brick, and mud shape her work, and why true sustainability means designing not only with the land, but with the people.

Drawing from collaborations with geographers, anthropologists, and communities themselves, Marina challenges the idea of architecture as purely aesthetic, instead positioning it as a force for resilience, equality, and quiet transformation.

Subscribe to the Culture Shifts Podcast on your favorite platform, and follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Substack, or visit cultureshifts.net to stay connected.

Transcript

This is what I really enjoy doing. Uh working with people, talking to them, finding different solutions which are much more embedded in our land. We wanted it to become a library wherever it goes. I always like to create this connection between history, between present. Architecture is never bound by material palette. Anything can be your material. What if architecture weren't defined by permanence, but by its ability to move, adapt, and care? What if a building could offer not just shelter, but dignity, especially for those displaced by forces beyond their control? In places where climate change isn't an abstract threat, but a daily reality. These questions aren't theoretical. They shape the way we build, design, and live. And they ask us to rethink the role of architecture, not as a symbol of status, but as a quiet force for resilience and equity. Welcome to another episode of the culture shifts podcast. I'm Moritz Gaudlitz  and today I'm joined by Marina Tabassum. Marina is an architect and educator based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Through her practice, Marina Tabassum Architects, she works at the intersection of climate, culture, and community, designing buildings that respond to their environment with humility and intelligence. Her projects include the award-winning Boor Mosque as well as innovative housing solutions for climate displaced communities. Like the lightweight and movable Kudibari, recognized with the Aakhan Award for Architecture and the Sewn Medal, Marina's work continues to reshape how we think about architecture's role in a changing world. This year, she designed the 25th Serpentine Pavilion in London titled A Capsule in Time. It's a quiet yet powerful gesture that invites us to slow down and reflect on what architecture can offer in a time of transformation. Hello, Marina. Thanks so much for joining the Kutch podcast. Great to have you. Thank you very much for having me.

Where do I find you right now?

Well, I'm in Dhaka in my office at the moment.

Great. How's the situation in Dhaka? How is uh the vibe right now, the climate and everything?

Well, we are we are now in the summer months, so it's hot, but we do get some rain once in a while, which cools it down. So, that's nice in a way. Otherwise, it's business as usual in Dhaka. This month, I didn't have to travel, which was great. So, I was really very much in the office. Uh finishing up a lot of works that were pending. So,

okay, fantastic. Thank you so much. I give you a short overview on what we will be talking about. Um, also to the listeners. So, there will be great project, a huge project in London. We just moved from Dhaka to London for a second. You will be presenting the 25th Serpentine Pavilion and then we will talk about your work in Bangladesh and abroad or wherever you um realize projects. Let me dive into to this idea of the Serpentine Pavilion. It's the 25th edition and I would like always to start my guests at this podcast to start a bit with storytelling with something that the listeners can dive into. And if we think about this new pavilion that will be realized by you, if this serpentine pavilion has a story and could speak, what story would it tell if you would be the one that is the storyteller?

Wow. Well, what story would it tell? I think Well, obviously being 25th year celebration pavilion. It is unique in a way that you know we're quite excited to be able to build this. But I think the story perhaps would be more about the way we approached the project I think when we were invited to come up with the proposal for the serpentine uh the first thing that came to mind is you know what would be the afterlife of the building because you know it's here for a relatively short period of time which is maybe 5 months max. maximum from June to October. But then you know as you know that serpentine always has a within the building culture where they want to take this building to somewhere else. Maybe someone buys the building and it gets shipped to somewhere else where it finds its final destination. And so actually the design idea started from that point that what would be its final destination? What would be the final use of the building? And so for us it was uh always the idea of of a library. We wanted wanted it to become a library wherever it goes. Uh it's about you know knowledge. It's about you know bringing all the different information knowledge wisdom of the entire world and bringing it within this sort of a capsule that we are kind of trying to envision. The idea was that you know also at the same time being a pavilion in the serpentine this whole notion of people coming and enjoying the space celebrating the summer in London in Kensington Garden and all the cheerful mood and everything that comes together within this very short very packed time then becomes a sort of a memory. It kind of gets associated with this space and finds its sort of infinite presence in the virtual realm. So that remains in a certain way but then the building has a continuity as something else. So these two duality were quite interesting for us.

Thank you so much. Is this an idea that you follow in your practice? You've been working I think as if I'm not mistaken for 30 years now as an architect.

Yeah. Yeah.

Is the durability the life after the original purpose something that you follow and that you also want to pursue with your projects and your practice in general?

Yeah. I think you know from the very beginning of our practice one of the first projects that we designed you know was a pavilion an apartment actually it's a tiny apartment where we were uh looking into different kind of materials and it was an apartment that was to become a home or a residence for us. And we looked into materials uh from the older part of the city especially buildings uh you know built in the colonial era uh the British colonial time and many of the buildings were being torn down because we don't have a legislation where you are you need to sort of have them protected so there's no protection law as such and being owned privately these houses were taken down to make way for new buildings and so we sourced bricks which had this you know age-old mark on them 200 year old brick 300 year old bricks which has actually turned into stones in a way so I think this notion of history continuity of the culture or even continuity of a building from one form to another was already there from the very beginning and I like this connection I always like to create this connection between history between present and then also then if my building would have a second life or go into the future what it would be like. So I think this whole notion of continuity has always been there.

Great. And if you think about the Serpentine Pavilion now it's called a capsule in time. When we look at it it's or when we look at the renderings now it seems to be open but on the same time closed. So it's kind of a cocoon but then on the other side you're pretty much within the garden of the serpentines and nature is surrounded and it's part of the whole architectural idea of this pavilion. Can you give me some overview on the materials you use because in your work materials play an important role and materials that you maybe use in Bangladesh in Dhaka or around probably are different than the ones you will be using in London.

Exactly. Yeah, that's true. I mean several reasons. Uh one, this is my first ever building being built outside of Bangladesh. So obviously um I didn't have much knowledge about what materials are the possibilities especially in a situation where it needs to be a temporary structure that you cannot have a heavy foundation and so uh we decided on using wood and so we using glue lamp wood which is locally sourced actually from England which is a good thing that you don't have to have a long supply chain of bringing in material from elsewhere so that's the main structure and then what we're using at the moment and my initial idea I wanted to have Jude was like hen the Jude fabric that Bangladesh grows in abundance. You know, we are the supplier of the jute of the world in many ways. And so my intention was to have jute with a lamination so that it protects from the rain and that would also bring in a little bit of a translucency light coming through the building. Uh so that was our facade material. But what we found out is that you know there are codes and restrictions as you know and so basically because of the fire rating and Jude doesn't have have a good fire rating. So we were not allowed to use that. So we really wanted to have that very translucent quality of light uh coming into the space. So we looked into different materials and then we found this polycarb actually which is plastic. So in a way this would probably be my first plastic building but I mean it's fine as long as the light the quality of light is coming through is what we are intending. But at the same time I think um since this building will have a second life. So I I mean I think we can think of it more as a you know more or less u sort of environment friendly because we are not throwing it away it's being used. So a polycarb with a different kind of color and the idea was also you know it's sort of bringing this idea of fabric structures that we have in Bangladesh especially for weddings and uh religious events which we call shamyanas. If you see into the Indian subcontinent we have these structures which is generally bamboo made structural system and then you cover it with fabric and then the color of the fabrics are quite vibrant and you know it also brings in this beautiful light through. So that was also my connection to where I come from in a way. So that was something very intentional. So hopefully we will have that translucency inside that space which would give it a very nice and vibrant feel.

Okay. Thank you so much. So to sum it up, it's going not to be a singleuse plastic piece because it's going to be um recycled let's say afterwards. I don't want to ask you about what is going to happen afterwards because the pavilion first needs to be enjoyed in London and I think this is the main goal and obviously also the main intention right now if we now go from London what is now your first project that you do outside of Bangladesh back to Bangladesh back to Dhaka where you're right now there your practice is deeply rooted and you work in a specific local context influenced by architecture nature the people and the most interesting thing is what I read and what I heard and what I researched that you are not interested in working let's say commercially with developers you go in nature you go to societies that are low income zero income and you build solutions there how did this start and what did you achieve there and what keeps you motivating to continue working like that

well it actually began from the very I said the inception when I started my practice that was in 1996 and before that I worked with an architect Bangladeshi architect who was well sought after at that time and it was a one of our best architects I would say Utam Kumar Shaha I worked with him for a year his office was actually he was at that moment the most sought after architect by the developers so I have seen the development sector and the clients and what their needs are what are their intentions and in a way after working for a year when we started our own practice we were were also approached by several developers and you know at that time uh there was this need of many architects because there was an enormous amount of uh real estate boom in the city of Taka because it's an expanding city there was a large demand for housing and quite often the government doesn't really have any policy in that sense they don't provide any housing and so the development sector became a very sought after housing market and so there was a need for architects and they were looking for for fresh new ideas and young architects um coming out of the schools and so we were offered several projects. In fact, one developer offered us about 30 projects back to back and we had meetings with them. They showed us their projects and and then uh they told us that you know we already know the plans. We know exactly what our buildings would be like because these are all plot development. So basically plots and so they know what the plans would be. They just wanted us to do the railings and the facads you know more cosmetic. And at that point we thought you know being architects uh we don't want to be this cosmetic architect. At that very moment it was sort of a decision standing on the road that this is not the kind of work we would like to do. And so basically saying no politely and moving away but which means that you know you put yourself in a position where you have taken a restrained approach not going into the development sector or let's say architecture which is about you know commodification and more towards something which has meaning but then the market or let's say in a way where you put yourself in a niche uh your practice uh into a niche where there is not really a lot of work in that sense uh if you're basing yourself in Dhaka. So we had to look for work outside of Dhaka. Then later on I think uh it started with one of the resort projects that we did in the southern part of Bangladesh where we have these deltas and my first project where I actually worked with local communities that really sort of was a bright moment for me thinking you know this is what I really enjoy doing uh working with people talking to them finding different solutions which are much more embedded in our land sourcing material from the location architecture is never bound by you know material pallet anything can be your material and so looking into those aspects and finding a a solution and in many ways you see that These kind of projects come with their own challenges and I like projects which gives me a certain kind of challenge to deal with. That's why the projects that I've chosen throughout my career are kind of diverse, different and at the same time looking into different kind of solutions that hasn't been practiced in many ways.

That sounds fantastic. And it's also very interesting that you mentioned the solutions already because I think the challenges that come up also if you look for work if there's not a developer or someone who said, "Dear Marina, please build us a skyscraper or a museum in the capitals or outside of Bangladesh, but going somewhere, going into the field, working with the local communities that are completely detached, I guess, also from even probably Dhaka city center and live a completely different life. What are the challenges here? Like how did you approach these field trips? How did you find the solutions? And what are also tangible solutions and maybe examples? I mean, I know about the kudibari uh solution the houses for the local communities the shelters maybe you can give me a little overview on that but to sum my question up how do projects like that then start also from a let's say financial and let's say also stuff oriented matter

yeah I mean these are really enjoyable projects really you have to enjoy the process that's the first thing if you don't enjoy it then you know nothing comes out of it really even if I talk about panigram the resort that we designed that was it 10 years ago, 10 15 years ago actually when we started the project and from that point on actually that was when I decided first project where we work with mud as a material bamboo and I think those times also working with local villagers and the idea was well we'll do the master plan and then we will ask the local villagers to come and build it with us and that's how the entire project actually started. Well kudari was sort of a it started with a with a research that we did and the research was in the coastal areas of Bangladesh and this was u initially funded by my own office our own practice and then later on uh we got funding from the charge architecture trial to do this. It was a sort of a commissioned research so we could further the research more and we were looking into the climate change especially the sea level rise and also the movement of land where Bangladesh has a certain areas which is quite active in terms of movement of the rivers. So we have this activity which is quite fluid in a way. So people are constantly moving from one location to another location. So constantly almost every year they need to move and so what happens with the future generation and their land ownership and land rights and so looking into all those aspects was our main goal but at the same time while working there we found these families living in the sand beds that we call chores. So they were living in the sand beds and didn't really have proper houses and we've asked them questions like you know why is that and so the thing is you know they have to move every year. They get fatigued by moving and then making houses every single year. And that's why slowly it just turns into something like a very just a roof on the head and nothing else. But at the same time you see children growing up in these houses. So there seem to be you know lack of dignity in many ways lack of hope and so during the covid times that's when we decided on working on this kudari idea that can be kudari just didn't come in. It was the name all came much later.

Excuse me to The rapper what does the name mean translated

kudi bari kudi means small small and bari is a house so kudari is a small house so because it that's how we started we decided that can we make something which would have two levels because these are floodprone areas so people don't have to move away during the flooding time because when it floods people move away they go to a mainland or a on a higher ground which could be a road or somewhere and then leave there for you know as long as the water doesn't reach recede and quite often it could also be a month a month and a half until the water starts to recede. So which means quite a long time. So we thought can we create something where people don't have to move away from their homes they could still stay in the house. So two levels were important to us. So we tried to give them these two different levels and at the same time lightweight structure which could also be moved from one location to another. The reason why this whole building actually came into being and at the same time you know sturdy enough that it can withstand the wind load from thunderstorms and also flooding and everything and also cheaper not too expensive affordable to these communities using local materials. So all these aspects coming together uh finally came to Kudibari and that's the beginning

okay thank you so much and and I read that you're still producing them.

Yeah it's an ongoing project so we are still making them there is a huge demand and our last houses that we built in 2023 after that we We paused for a while just to see how people are using them, how the buildings are reacting to the different climatic conditions in different locations. And now we see that there is a a large demand because people were able to stay in their houses during the flooding season which seemed like a very important point for them because they didn't have to move. They were able to stay there. Yeah. They didn't have to lose their belongings and so which was really uh I think one of the biggest impacts of the house and A lot of people had to also move the house from one location to another and they were able to move them quite easily. So all that uh really shows that there is a demand and now that when we go there to find you know the houses are performing. You see that people have started to expand on the houses added more elements to them cow shed or a kitchen you know things like that which means they have adapted the house and they have accepted it as their own. And for that reason and there is also a huge demand because people come and tell us. And so now the idea is we need to create an ecology where we don't have to provide anything anymore. No assistance, nothing. People can start building on their own which means they have to be able to afford it. They should be able to have all the different components available to them and at a cheaper cost which they are able to afford. Great. And what I know this is also practice and the strategy of modular building that is used a lot also in refugee camps all around the world or in wartime. No, as far as I know that you have shelter that you have um places to go to that you can easily modularly build up totally independent from architects or builders. And this would bring me to my next question because if we look at the climate change the different climate affecting also different countries and if we look at Bangladesh as you just said people need to move because of floodings or heat or drought. Could you imagine also working on these projects that you do in Bangladesh in other parts of the world because of the climate crisis other parts of the world are affected by what maybe before used to be only in Bangladesh. They need to go through that as well now.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean the Bangladesh is you know because I practice here. This is my ground. I know this place well enough. It was easier for me to work here and to create a solution in the sense that you know it we still have a long way to go actually. If we want this to become an an acceptable solution for a lot of people then it needs a an ecology and a sustenance of its own and I'm hopeful that this will happen. It will take time but it will happen. That's the beauty of it but at the same time you know yeah I mean the entire world is facing climate crisis in different ways. Unpredictability of the weather patterns it's constantly changing. People are becoming displaced and you know there's so many things that are at play and so I think we will see a lot more displacement a lot of u you know difficult challenging situations in different parts of the world. I am happy to go and work anywhere in that context really. I mean I'm not seeing Kubibody as the only solution. It's a very contextual solution to Bangladesh but the idea of moving and mobility can be addressed in many different ways in other parts of the world.

Okay. I mean yeah yeah now you you work in London but it's a totally different project I guess. I mean we can see maybe this um serpentine pavilion also as a kind of kudibari but for a different purpose let's say. Absolutely.

But you go there, you take shelter, you But you're in a different environment obviously.

Yes.

Yeah.

As it's your first project outside of Bangladesh, as it's your first ever building you realize with your firm outside of Bangladesh, what was the motivation apart from getting invited I guess?

Well, I think you know Serpentine um especially in the architecture community is a very well- reggarded well-known commission. Obviously, I never dreamt that I would be building one, but it's always nice to to find out who's building the next. It's always interesting to see how every different architect approaches it differently because you know people come from diverse backgrounds so everybody has their own take on it and which is nice in a way to see and I have visited several of them while in London so it's always nice to go and visit this pavilions. So yeah I think that was there but then when we got invited obviously that was quite exciting for us to then think about the design and then to come up with an idea which would definitely be different from all the rest of what we've seen. But it's quite difficult actually because anything you think of is already been done. So

exactly

it's difficult to find a unique design which would then people would be cherishing in a way.

Yeah. I mean you talked about design and also like how things look and how architecture should maybe also look like not just feel like. Many of your projects serve communities in need. So you probably it's more the idea of form for was function but what have these experiences the work you did taught you about also the role of architecture beyond aesthetics and then counter question how important are also aesthetics for you

well I think aesthetics I don't see aesthetics as something separate from architecture it's already embedded in the way we design it's the process it's also the outcome of the building and the way I design it's quite often very honest in its expression So the building in its elemental quality in a way you rarely see renders on it. So it's if I'm making with brick I want the honesty of the brick. It's probably my education in a very hardcore modernist uh curriculum in Bangladesh that I I really uh like to celebrate the material in its own honesty in every possible way. So if I'm building with mud, I want mud to be beautifully celebrated. If I'm building with brick, brick needs to be celebrated in its own entirety. When we build with bamboo, bamboo has its own way of its expression. So in a way to me that's the aesthetic quality of it. Now you might love it, you may hate it. That's entirely your choice but as far as I'm concerned I would like to see the material in its own honesty. And so uh when we build kudibari let's say um we do the structural system and then um after that the community or whoever the homeowner is The homeowner generally comes and you know makes the facade and they make it with whatever material available to them. It could be corrugated sheet. It could be you know grass. It can be you know judsticks. It could be so many different options. To me that's beauty. That's aesthetic. That's what it is in its honesty in its functional form. And in a way um it's quite interesting you bring this up because uh when we were designing uh some of the projects in the refugee camp where we have actually done some scaled up version of the kudibar. So we have like number of unit modules connected together and then they were built into uh community spaces for refugees especially for women. Uh when we were building those and especially before building it you actually have to take permission from the government uh in this case the refugee unit of Bangladesh government and uh they specifically tell you not to build anything too beautiful. So the idea is that you should not leave things too beautiful to the refugees so that there is no push back uh from the local people because they're not getting anything. So they feel deprived. So there's a sense of deprivation from the local community but also they don't want the refugees also to feel too at home in a foreign land. So there are all these different aspects to it.

That's a difficult challenge I guess. No

it is. Yeah. So as an architect how do you build something which is ugly and in a way you have to work within a sort of a gray area where Bamboo is not actually seen as something beautiful by let's say the government uh officials. So when you build something with bamboo, it's not beautiful. So you know I'm not the judge of beauty, but that's how we designed it. To some it's beautiful, to some it's just a bamboo building.

Back to materials, you mentioned the bricks a lot and I obviously want to talk about the bricks and the buildings yet that you made out of brick in Bangladesh. Why is brick so such a a fundamental important material for you. Apart from that, it's available there.

Well, because that's the only material we have. If you want to build anything permanent, you know, we are a delta. Bangladesh doesn't have any stone or anything that is local as a material. So, you can build with mud. That's what people have done throughout centuries where they took earth and turned it into their houses and dwellings. But if you want to build something permanent which you want to last for centur ries then people generally opt for brick and brick is about taking the earth breaking it and then making it more permanent. So we have these Buddhist monasteries in our landscape where you see them till date they're very much archaeological sites but you see that brick was there from you know centuries in our landscape and so for me that's a material which is very local since I try to source local materials and local craftsmanship trying to use whatever is local because for me that's the language of architecture that go to root it to its place and for that reason um brick has become one of the materials that I really look into also because we have really great brickmasons and the brickmasonry is beautiful and it's all handcrafted the bricks are handmade the laying of the brick and the masons that we have uh they're also beautiful hand work so I think that also gives it a certain quality which makes it very local and at the same time that's our material

yeah Yeah, absolutely. If you would choose a material, you said that okay, in Bangladesh it's brick, it's bamboo, it's wood, it's mud. In London, it should have been the tree, but now it's plastic. What would be a material or a surface that you would like to work with in a certain area of the world?

I'm kind of open to all kind of materials actually. There is no such preconception or any disregard for any sort of material. I mean, I'm happy to embrace anything. And now I'm building with poly sharp as I said so which is absolutely fine for me as long as I get the atmosphere that we are looking into or trying to achieve but at the same time the building is being used again at the same time I think uh there's so much of waste in this world and that's one of the things uh which I haven't really worked on uh in terms of research but a lot of people are researching on these aspects is about using waste as building material yeah as you know that as a building and construction industry in this world we are like 37% probably of the global carbon emission. So it's a huge percentage probably one of the highest I think. So when you source material or when you are building with the material I think that responsibility also is upon our shoulder like what kind of material we using. So I'm trying to use less of anthropogenic materials which are mostly you know has a long let's say time to sink back into the earth. So I try to use less of those materials if possible and if not then at least it should have a you know much larger way of being in the building or used several times uh in a construction that's what we are looking into so anywhere I go if it has a long supply chain I would not try to use it or minimize the use of it so those are certain things that I would probably sort of try to limit myself in that respect that you know anything that are local I would love to work with any material that is locally there even even if it's a waste or if it's uh organic or non-organic. If it's waste, non-organic is fine. If it's organic, then any material is fine.

Thank you so much. From materials to collaborations, not only now with the serpentines, but all your projects that you realized, you couldn't have probably realized without the right collaboration and partners. And I guess in your case, the collaboration partners are mostly local communities. What kind of collaborations have been most meaningful in your work? work and what did they enable?

Yeah, I mean architecture cannot be done without collaboration, can we? It takes a village to make a building actually. It's it's impossible to do it yourself. I mean a few ideas comes from our head that probably is maybe 5 to 10% of an entire project. But there is so much that goes on. So collaboration is absolutely uh you know sort of fundamental to the profession in a way. So we are collaborating constantly with all different disciplines, engineers uh you know there's so many but I think what was interesting for me to collaborate with were geographers uh because I needed a good understanding of the land why is the land moving so much so the geographers really were very key in making us understand that is it something of a new phenomena has it been there what was it all about what's the story behind it so I think that and then when we started working with people and the schedules were not matching people had a different schedule ours had a different one people behave in certain way which we don't understand. So we then sought out our understanding of the anthropologists. So then social anthropologists became really important and key members who actually told us you know that you just have to be there to understand the behavior of people why they do something the way they do and then tune your work according to their own behaviors. Only then can you become a part of their entire process instead of trying to push it onto them. And that was our idea that we don't want to push anything onto people. We want people to respond to and we would do accordingly. So, social anthropologists were absolutely key members in that sense. So, I think you know there's so much to learn in this world. The moment you go out there and you encounter different things and then you seek out these different disciplines and there's so much knowledge which really helps.

Absolutely. And I think listening to the people that then are in need of these shelters, places, houses, parks, whatever it is also like if I look in my environment or in the west that there's a lack of asking the actual people what they need, what is their use, do they want the street there, do they need a park, do they need this skyscraper, do they need this museum,

right?

If they say yes, fantastic. If they say no, maybe you should find an alternative. And that's why, as you said, the social part of listening is I think also very important for finding solutions.

Yeah. When I first started working with people, especially in the resort project that I was mentioning, and I think that's when I realized the wisdom that exists in the land and people There's so much wisdom of living in harmony with nature. And that's why when I did my Venice BNL project in 2018, I call it wisdom of the land. That was sort of a reflection on the idea that there's so much that you can learn and that learning can actually help us as architects to be able to then respond in a much more contemporary way. Uh so those values are important. So you learn so much from people.

Fantastic. If we go back at the end of this conversation now to the serpentine pavilion that is called the capsulin time. This is also like a a name that has maybe several meanings, a title because I guess you can also learn from what happens or going to happen in that building for the next month.

Yeah, I'm hoping that this capsule will gain a lot of interesting memories. Uh there will be a lot of people coming in uh from different background, from different places, diversity, you know, so it's an sort of a celebration of diversity, celebration of coming together under one roof and and sort of having dialogues. Yeah. There's so much going on in this world at the moment that we haven't really talked about. It's that elephant in the room actually. So in a way I think uh I would like that to happen that you know we can find our common grounds and celebrate our uniqueness as people coming from different backgrounds and this space would give that opportunity to come together.

Thank you so much. Maybe my last question now this sounded like the last question but I have another one to add because we were talking already about looking ahead. What we want to what do you want to see? maybe in the future in the near future or in the far future but what would you hope to see more let's say more in the field of architecture are there some ideas some practices some visions that you would like to see more

you know I think the architecture world is already going through a shift or I say realizations a lot of you know things that you see being talked about a lot of issues that are being addressed especially by schools also and I think the demand actually comes from the young generation who are far more concerned about their future and not just climate crisis but also the disparity that exists in human condition and how as architects we are able to address these different issues at different aspects in the world and I think this demand is actually coming from students mostly than you know architects so I think um which is important which is very hopeful for me that's how I see it these kind of conversations and and then also reimagining the practice of architecture and there's so many different new models can emerge from all these differences. So instead of just being a service rendering profession who only serving a certain section of people, we do want to see this expanding its agency and then going beyond it. So this expansion of architecture is what my hopefully the future dream and aspiration from the profession.

Thank you so much Marina Tabassum for being part of this culture podcast.

Thank you. Thank you for having me. 

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