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Tuesday, August 18, 2026
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THE GRUDGING URBANIST

Adnan Zillur Morshed

THE GRUDGING URBANIST

Adnan Zillur Morshed, PhD, is an architect, architectural historian, urbanist, and public intellectual. He is a professor of architecture and architectural history at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, and executive director of the Centre for Inclusive Architecture and Urbanism at BRAC University. Morshed received his Ph.D. and Master’s in architecture from MIT, and BArch from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, where he also taught. He was a 2018 TEDxFoggyBottom speaker at George Washington University. He is the author of multiple books; among them, Impossible Heights: Skyscrapers, Flight, and the Master Builder (University Minnesota Press, 2015), Oculus: A Decade of Insights into Bangladeshi Affairs (University Press Limited, 2012), DAC, Dhaka in 25 Buildings (Altrim Publishers, Barcelona, 2017), and River Rhapsody: A Museum of Rivers and Canals (BRAC University, 2018).

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Restore Askar Dighi, revive Chattogram’s ecological memory

3 August 2026
In any civilised society, a historic reservoir such as Askar Dighi would have been protected as a public heritage asset. What can we do today?
3 August 2026
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The moral calculus of footpath evictions in Dhaka

27 April 2026
The footpaths of Dhaka have again become a political flashpoint of late.
27 April 2026
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The promises and perils of a ‘Notun Tej’ in Bangladeshi architecture

28 February 2026
Nearly a hundred years ago, in 1927, something “revolutionary” happened in Stuttgart, Germany.
28 February 2026
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A cry for a liveable city

25 January 2026
In conversation with Adnan Morshed
25 January 2026
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What does ‘good history’ look like?

4 November 2025
No historian should be able to answer the question on good history without a degree of trepidation, ambivalence, and uncertainty.
4 November 2025
Bangladesh’s eunomia problem

Bangladesh’s eunomia problem

10 January 2025
In the ancient Greek society, eunomia outlined how things should be in an ideal society.
10 January 2025
Prof Shamsul Wares

Shamsul Wares: A teacher who inspired generations of architects

21 June 2024
Aristotle once said, “Those who know, do. Those who understand, teach.” Shamsul Wares understood, and hence taught.
21 June 2024
Faujdarhat Cadet College campus.

Faujdarhat Cadet College / A post-Partition heritage campus worth preserving

25 May 2024
FCC should not be viewed simply as one of the cadet colleges; it is a heritage campus that can be showcased to the world.
25 May 2024
Dhaka nightlife experience

Planning for Dhaka's new night

Dhaka should be readied for a nighttime culture that offers a potpourri of entertainment options to people.
17 May 2024
Has Dhaka become a status city?

Has Dhaka become a status city?

The status city often serves the privileged, while the huddling masses eke out a minimal existence
26 January 2024
Is human civilisation at an inflection point?

Is human civilisation at an inflection point?

Our brains are being reprogrammed to look for the easiest solutions to our most vexing social and political questions.
1 December 2023
Architecture for marginal communities

Is there an architecture for marginal communities?

Our experience of designing Brac regional offices across rural Bangladesh.
2 October 2023
How to make flyovers more people-friendly & environmentally beneficial

How to reclaim flyovers as people-centric ‘green’ infrastructure

Characterised by a culture of ad hocism, these valuable urban lands below elevated road infrastructures rarely reach their full potential.
12 August 2023
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Forging a Bengali identity through modernist architecture

After completing his Bachelor of Architecture degree at the University of Oregon, Eugene, in June 1952, the 29-year-old Muzharul Islam (1923-2012) returned home to find a postcolonial Pakistan embroiled in acrimonious politics of national identity.
5 August 2023
The legend of Louis Kahn

The Louis Kahn mystique: 20 years after ‘My Architect’

The legend of Louis Kahn remains strong.
6 July 2023
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How we should design the next generation of parks

Do we need the 24/7 hustle and bustle of Dhaka – the cacophonous dramas of this sleepless city – reproduced in its parks too?
15 June 2023
heatwaves Bangladesh urban planning

Heatwaves, global warming, and the ethics of our cities

We must rethink how cities are planned, designed, and administered to combat the adverse effects of both the heat island problem and climate change.
26 May 2023
What makes great research?

What makes great research?

Research cannot flourish in an environment where critical enquiry is severely discouraged.
31 March 2023
What makes a classroom great?

What makes a classroom great?

A great classroom is one that is conducive to learning.
17 March 2023
Deciphering the student-learner

Deciphering the student-learner

What makes a good student? A definitive answer to this question is difficult.
11 March 2023
What makes a good teacher in 21st century

What makes a good teacher in the 21st century?

Today, the question of being a 'good teacher' generates a new vernacular.
3 March 2023
A dangerous time for history

A dangerous time for history

Governments are trying to control what could or could not be taught about their past.
10 February 2023
Metro Rail journey on December 29, 2022 by Prabis Das of The Daily Star

Can the Metro Rail be a Great Equalizer?

A “new” type of urban mobility comes to fruition in the month of the country’s emancipation
30 December 2022
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Footpaths of Bangladesh: Our complicated relationship with walking

Walking, sadly, is not part of our shared value system, and there are many reasons behind this.
16 December 2022
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Researching Rural Transformation 2.0 in Bangladesh

We need new research methodologies to understand the complex nature of the rural change in Bangladesh in the last two decades.
10 November 2022
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Mid-sized cities are our new urban frontier

A resilient and adjustable urban development policy for mid-sized cities is necessary to decentralise Dhaka.
30 October 2022
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Rural Bangladesh needs next-generation village roads

The streets of rural Bangladesh should value the safety and wellbeing of its users.
15 September 2022
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How has rural Bangladesh transformed in the last 20 years?

Ever since the 1980s-90s, our typical perception of a rural village has been changing.
16 August 2022

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