Meditations in Entropy is the first full monograph on Kashef Chowdhury / URBANA, documenting 18 realised works that confront ecological fragility, extreme climate, and urban density across one of the world's most meteorologically demanding regions.
About This Book
Since 1995, Dhaka-based practice Kashef Chowdhury / URBANA has built in conditions that test the limits of architecture's social and environmental responsibilities: hospitals serving communities threatened by rising oceans, cyclone shelters along Bangladesh's southern coast, and interventions within one of the planet's most densely populated cities. Meditations in Entropy frames these projects not as humanitarian gestures but as critical architectural positions — designs that take ecological precarity as their essential brief. Photographed by Hélène Binet and accompanied by essays from Kenneth Frampton, Robert McCarter, William J. R. Curtis, Philip Ursprung, and climate specialist Ainun Nishat, this is a volume of genuine intellectual and visual substance for anyone working at the intersection of architecture and climate.
Key Features
- 518 pages of architectural photography by Hélène Binet alongside plans, drawings, sketches, and project documentation
- Essays by Kenneth Frampton, Robert McCarter, William J. R. Curtis, Philip Ursprung, and Ainun Nishat
- 18 realised projects documented in detail, including a hospital, cyclone shelters, and metropolitan interventions in Bangladesh
- Illustrated catalogue of Kashef Chowdhury / URBANA's full project and building history
- Published by Park Books, 2024
What You'll Discover
- How architecture can function as a critical, ecologically sympathetic response to climate vulnerability rather than a neutral technical service
- The formal and material strategies Kashef Chowdhury / URBANA deploys across radically different typologies — from civic infrastructure to intimate shelter — within the same regional context
- How distinguished critics including Kenneth Frampton and William J. R. Curtis situate this practice within broader architectural discourse
- The intersection of water resource expertise and architectural thinking, through Ainun Nishat's contribution on climate and ecological fragility in Bangladesh
About the Author
[Details available upon request]
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 518
- Dimensions: 23 x 28 cm (portrait)
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9783038603290
- Publisher: Park Books
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Architects and designers engaged with climate-responsive practice, researchers in South Asian urbanism, students of critical regionalism, and anyone examining how architecture responds to ecological and humanitarian urgency.