This guidebook focuses on 25 buildings in Dhaka, representing different architecturalphases since the Mughal era, beginning in the early 17th century. (The earliest survivingstructure in Dhaka is a small pre-Mughal mosque in Old Dhaka.) The list is neitherexhaustive, nor necessarily representative of the "best" in town. Rather, the goal is tonarrate the stories of the city through the buildings that played transformative roles in itsarchitectural formation. The featured buildings (a) communicate larger ideas about Dhaka'sbuilding tradition, (b) represent an architectural trend, (c) influence the architecturalscene, and (d) offer a spatial story in the evolution of this city.
Adnan Morshed received his Doctorate and Master's in Architecture from MIT. Morshed earned his Bachelor's in Architecture from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), in Dhaka, where
he also taught. Currently, he is an Associate Professor at the School of Architecture and Planning, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC. In addition, he serves on the Board of the $1M Andrew Mellon
Foundation Grant to MIT's Global Architectural History Teaching Collaborative. Morshed is the author of Impossible Heights: Skyscrapers, Flight, and the Master Builder (University Minnesota Press,
2015) and Oculus: A Decade of Insights into Bangladeshi Affairs (UPL, 2012). He
has served on the Board of Directors of the Society of Architectural Historians, was on
the jury for the National Endowment for the Humanities, and, recently, chaired the Society
of Architectural Historians' committee for the Alice Davis Hitchcock Book Award. He has been awarded highly competitive fellowships, including the Wyeth Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, Washington, DC, and Wolfsonian-Florida International University. And, his research has garnered
prestigious grants from, among others, the Graham Foundation and National Endowment for the Humanities.
Morshed has lectured around the world on the history and theory of modern architecture
and urbanism and sustainable urban planning in developing countries. In 2012, he led the Society of Architectural Historians' study tour to three South Asian cities: Dhaka, Delhi, and Chandigarh.
His articles have appeared in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians,
Journal of Architectural Education, Journal of South Asian Studies, Thresholds
(MIT), Constructs (Yale), New Geographies (Harvard), Architectural Design, and Traditional
Dwellings and Settlements Review. He has served as a reviewer for various
national and international refereed journals and has been cited in various professional
and news networks, including The New York Times and Asia News Network.
A practicing architect and urbanist, Adnan Morshed has designed buildings
in the United States, Lebanon, Malaysia, and Bangladesh. He is an avid traveler,
photographer, and collector and frequently contributes op-eds to various newspapers
and online forums.Nesfun Nahar is an architect and urbanist. She began her Doctorate degree research on Architectural Modernism at the Bangladeh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), in Dhaka, where she is
an Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture. Nahar earned a Master's
degree in Housing and Urbanism from the Architectural Association, in London, and a Bachelor's degree in Architecture from BUET. She has been a lecturer at BRAC University's Department of Architecture,
also in Dhaka, for 11 years. Nahar took part in various seminars, conferences, and
workshops and was a jury member for various student charettes.
