In a landmark recognition, an 80-bed Bangladeshi hospital in the coastal district of Satkhira has been named by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) as the world's Best New Building.
The development came on Tuesday as the British institute declared the Friendship Hospital project -- designed by Urbana, a Bangladeshi architecture firm—as the winner of the RIBA International Prize 2021.
The prestigious prize is awarded every two years to a building which exemplifies design excellence and architectural ambition and delivers meaningful social impact.
It is one of the world’s most rigorously judged architectural awards, with every longlisted building visited by international experts. Delayed a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it was last awarded in 2018, when a school in rural Brazil was named the world's best new building.
Earlier in mid-November last year, the hospital located in the remote Shyamnagar upazila, was shortlisted along with two other projects: David Chipperfield's gallery in Berlin and Wilkinson Eyre's cycling and footbridge in Denmark.
Selected from 16 finalists in 11 countries, these were the last three on the list.
This project, constructed on a limited budget of just under $2 million, serves as a medical lifeline for thousands of people in the area devastated by a devastating cyclone in 2007.
How is it so special?
Satkhira is a natural disaster-prone area and therefore resilience of buildings and green building concept is the need of the hour there.
The low-cost building, constructed from locally-made bricks, was designed to work with and withstand the tangible climate change effects of rising sea water in the surrounding area, according to the RIBA.
A series of courtyards bring in natural light and ventilation, while a canal traversing the site collects valuable rainwater, since the groundwater remains unusable for most purposes.
This channel of water adds visual relief, helps the micro-climatic cooling and provides a welcome distraction from the anxiety and unhappiness related to illness, for both patients and their relatives.
The man and the story behind it
Dhaka-based architect Kashef Mahboob Chowdhury of Urbana designed the hospital with a sustainable healthcare facility.
In November, he had told Dhaka Tribune that recognizing the work was to recognize the real and tangible threats of climate change, to understand that small but well-considered effort and solutions can help, subtly but surely, to mitigate the sufferings of those directly affected by natural disasters in that area.
However, designing this hospital was not an easy task.
He then said: “When we visited the site, we saw that the groundwater of the local water tanks where they store the rainwater was salty and unusable. We knew we had to come up with a practical solution to hold the rainwater.
“The 'canal' now harvests all of the rain falling within the main campus. The filtration system for the groundwater was also set up at very low cost using local equipment and suppliers,” Kashef added.
The RIBA commended the hospital's design for blending in with the surrounding countryside and creating an "uplifting and inviting experience for visitors, patients and healthcare professionals."
Talking to The Guardian, Kashef said: “When somebody is ill or needs care, one of the most important things is the mental aspect of it, not just the physical care.
“I think the kind of spaces you inhabit during treatment – with a view of water and trees, the sounds of birds, the feel of a breeze – goes a long way towards healing,” Kashef observed.
Kashef vows commitment
On winning the award, he described the jury's decision to honor a project from the "global periphery" as a "sublimely important moment."
"I am encouraged that this may inspire more of us to commit, not in spite of, but because of limitations of resources and means, to an architecture of care both for humanity and for nature, to rise collectively to the urgencies that we face today on a planetary scale," he said in a press statement.
