There has been quite a few Nirjhars’ over the years – an active architect and filmmaker in Bangladesh trying to break out of stereotypical concepts, an art organizer, award winning photographer and an all-round creative activist applying his skills to develop a process of collaboration. With interdisciplinary interaction with the young creative he hopes to inspire human spirit.
Most would rather settle on the identity of a maverick for this restless creator born in 29 November, a decade the people of Bangladesh rediscovered themselves. With so much done and so much seen he still never fails to keep the biggest happening in his life alive in his mind – the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971 – when Bangladesh rose from the ashes to tell the world how the spirit of a nation cannot be killed ever. It is difficult to forget the war that burnt down the very house he grew up in. It is even more difficult to stop persuading near impossible dreams and realizing them, too.
It takes a very conscious decision to choose from his many incarnations, all equally successful. It takes a very conscious decision to choose from his many incarnations, all equally successful. From working in a letter press with wooden block letters to high end building design, he has journeyed a long way to where he is now. To him this journey of working in various different mediums is his biggest asset. Now a days he is successfully running his own studio SYSTEM architects with commercial, residential, industrial and institutional projects and trying to find own architectural language. From mid 90s to 2005 he designed a number of popular restaurant like White Castle, Bukhara, Asparagus, Santoor , Voot, Bonanza, Hotel Agrabad , We in Dhaka, Chittagong and UK. With works of architecture like Ninakabbo, Fera, Voot, platinum residence, Fera, jethay and more, he has attempted to create an unique vision of connecting culture with architecture. He won numerous national & international awards for his works in Architecture. In 2005 he won AYA JK Architect of the Year honor for British American Tobacco headquarters in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In 2013 for ninaKABBO he won 6th Excellence in architecture award by Berger.
He started film making after a long journey of graphic design, photography, interior design, architecture and having done a few documentaries like TINI- The Architect, The shadow Gap & 1:3 Manush, Koyta, Asche as an exercise. He also won KODAK FIAP National Award for photography. Finally he made his first fiction AHA!, for which he was awarded with the National Award as the best director in 2007 with other 3 awards best cinematography, best playback song and best editing. After receiving acclamation from various film festivals like Cairo, Dubai, Munich it was the National Nomination for the 81st Academy Awards in the foreign Language Film category from Bangladesh.
Photograph By: Roudro Sakib Karim