Marina Tabassum


Marina Tabassum is a Bangladeshi architect. She is the principal architect of Marina Tabassum Architects.
Tabassum won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture twice - in 2016, for the design of Bait-ur-Rouf Mosque in Dhaka and in 2025, for the design of Khudi Bari, in various locations in Bangladesh. In 2020, Tabassum was listed by Prospect as the third-greatest thinker for the COVID-19 era, with the magazine writing: "At the forefront of creating buildings in tune with their natural environments, this Bangladeshi architect is also embracing the design challenges posed by what we are collectively doing to the planet." Tabassum was the first South Asian to receive the "Lisbon Triennale Lifetime Achievement Award". She was named on Time magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential People of 2024.

Early life and education

Tabassum was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, the daughter of an oncologist. Her family migrated to Dhaka, Bangladesh from India during the partition of Bengal in 1947. She attended Holy Cross Girls School and College. She then graduated in architecture from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in 1994.

Career

In 1995, Tabassum founded URBANA, an architecture practice based in Dhaka, Bangladesh with Kashef Chowdhury. The firm designed a number of projects for about ten years.
In 2005, Tabassum established Marina Tabassum Architects, and she serves as its principal architect.
Tabassum designed the Bait Ur Rouf Mosque in Dhaka, completed in 2012. She won her first Aga Khan Award for Architecture for this project in 2016.
As of 2025, Tabassum is a professor of Architectural Design for Climate Adaptation at the Department of Architecture at Delft University of Technology, Netherlands. She held the Gehry Chair at the University of Toronto during 2022–2023. She taught in Harvard Graduate School of Design, University of Texas, Bengal Institute and BRAC University.
Tabassum chairs Foundation for Architecture and Community Equity and Prokritee, a fare trade organization. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Notable works

Awards and honors

Exhibitions

  • Marina Tabassum Architects: In Bangladesh