An architecture and structural engineering studio in Dhaka, with its own workshop for doors, screens and stairs.

About the studio

Workshop with a press brake, perforated steel panels against a brick wall and a teak door leaf on trestles

The workshop, where doors, screens and stairs are made and tested at full size.

Our story

Architects and engineers have worked at the same table, on the same drawings, since the practice began. It is the habit the whole studio is built around: a plan and its structure are one idea, drawn together, not two drawings to be reconciled later.

We design houses, workplaces, schools, libraries and industrial buildings across Bangladesh. Most projects start with the climate. Sun, rain, heat and flood levels decide the shape of a building before anything else is drawn.

The workshop grew out of the same habit. When a door, a screen or a stair could not be bought the way we wanted it, we made a prototype, tested it at full size and then made it for the site. Some of those pieces are now products we make for other architects and contractors too.

We stay involved after the drawings are issued. The people who design a building visit it while it is built, and the people who build it are in the room while it is designed.

How we work

Climate first
Orientation, shade, cross-ventilation and rain are settled before any mechanical system is chosen.
Structure from the first sketch
An engineer is in the room from the beginning, so the structure shapes the plan and the plan shapes the structure.
Built from what is nearby
We favour brick, concrete and timber from within reach of the site, and draw details that local crews can build well.
Prototype before we build
Anything unusual is made at full size in the workshop first, to check the joints, the finish and the tolerances.
Stay on site
We visit through construction, answer questions the same day and revise the drawings when the site shows us something better.