Time magazine: Marina on 100 most influential list

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

Known for her contributions to environmentally sustainable design, Marina’s approach to architecture is rooted in local communities, breaks from commercialism, and serves the needs of common people.

According to Time’s entry for Marina on the list published on Wednesday night, “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’.”

“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. While she practices very locally, she teaches, lectures, and is recognised internationally, modelling architecture not as an individual signature but as a collective Esperanto,” the magazine also said.

Marina’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 was also named the winner of the Millennium Lifetime Achievement Award at the Lisbon Architecture Triennale 2022.

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