PHOTOS: ABRAR FAIYAZ NILOY

MAISHA ISLAM MONAMEE

An interdisciplinary exhibition exploring how architecture can foster more inclusive, climate-responsive, and community-oriented public spaces is now underway at Bengal Shilpalay in Dhaka. Titled Dialogues in Coexistence: Shaping Inclusive Public Spaces in the Bengal Delta , the exhibition runs from June 27 to July 25, 2026.

Commissioned by the British Council as part of the Women of the World (WOW) Bangladesh 2026 programme, the project brings together architecture, art, and public engagement to explore coexistence across gender, community, and ecology.

The exhibition was inaugurated in the presence of Planning Minister Zonayed Abdur Rahim Saki, MP, and British Deputy High Commissioner and Development Director to Bangladesh James Goldman. Bengal Foundation Director General Luva Nahid Choudhury and British Council Bangladesh Country Director Stephen Forbes presided over the opening ceremony. Led by architects Saiqa Iqbal Meghna and Suvro Sovon Chowdhury, and curated by Luva Nahid Choudhury and Wakilur Rahman, the exhibition presents architecture as more than a process of constructing buildings. Instead, it frames design as an act of care that responds to climate, encourages participation, and strengthens civic life.

The exhibition’s central premise is that the Bengal Delta should not merely serve as the backdrop for architecture; rather, it should actively shape how architecture is conceived. In a region where rivers constantly shift course, where landforms are redefined by seasonal flooding, and where permanence is often an illusion, architecture must learn to adapt rather than resist. Spanning 16 years of the architects’ practice, this philosophy is explored through a series of interconnected themes.

The first, The Bengal Delta as Condition , examines the region’s ever-changing geography and the cultural practice of “ ghor badha ” (making a home amid uncertainty). Rather than viewing instability as a problem to overcome, the architects present it as a condition that demands flexibility, negotiation, and coexistence. The second theme focuses on the practice’s design philosophy. Emerging from Dhaka’s rapid urbanisation and environmental vulnerabilities, their work rejects architecture as a neutral exercise in construction. Instead, it frames design as an ethical practice informed by feminist values, egalitarianism, and care, with the goal of creating spaces that encourage dignity, reciprocity, and collective responsibility.

These ideas are translated into a series of immersive installations that form the exhibition’s central experience. Constructed using handcrafted clay tiles, bamboo screens, and fabric canopies, the installations create porous, monsoon-responsive spaces that filter light, breeze, humidity, and movement. Rather than functioning as static exhibits, the structures invite visitors to move through and inhabit them, demonstrating how architecture can become an atmospheric experience shaped by climate and collective craftsmanship.

One installation resembles a woven bamboo cocoon, creating an intimate interior where visitors can sit and experience changing light and texture. Another employs suspended fabric modules that recall clouds or rain canopies, suggesting temporary shelter rather than permanent enclosure. Throughout the exhibition, the emphasis remains on openness rather than monumentality.

The accompanying manifesto reinforces this idea, arguing that resilience in the Bengal Delta lies not in resistance but in coexistence. It envisions public spaces as porous to difference, generous to care, and hospitable to uncertainty, proposing that architecture should become not an object but a conversation.

The exhibition extends this conversation beyond the gallery walls. Its final section introduces temporary public interventions that will relocate some of the structures into the city as nursing pods, resting spaces, and community shelters. By testing these installations in everyday urban settings, the project explores how climate-responsive and gender-inclusive design can contribute to more accessible public spaces.

Born and raised in Dhaka, Saiqa Iqbal Meghna and Suvro Sovon Chowdhury have built an architectural practice centred on three guiding principles: climate, context, and care. Their Zebun Nessa Mosque, recognised for its climate-responsive and socially inclusive design, was named one of TIME’s World’s Greatest Places in 2025, becoming the first Bangladeshi landmark to receive the distinction.

Through its combination of immersive installations, architectural research, and proposals for public intervention, Dialogues in Coexistence invites visitors reconsider how public spaces can be designed not only to withstand environmental uncertainty but also to encourage care, inclusion, and shared civic life in the Bengal Delta.