Rohingya Community Space: A dignified response to the crisis
In an interview with The Business Standard, three architects talked about working on the award-winning Community Spaces for the Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar camps
Community Spaces for Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar camps has received this year's Aga Khan Award, one of the most prestigious recognitions in architecture. Six infrastructures, a collaboration of Brac and ActionAid, were designed for sheltering the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
Creation of these spaces were overseen by a team of three young Bangladeshi architects, Rizvi Hassan, Khwaja Fatmi and Saad Ben Mostafa. In an interview with The Business Standard, the three architects talked about working on this project and on being awarded the esteemed Aga Khan award.
Of the three architects, Saad Ben Mostafa was the first to get involved with this project. According to him, the project is an emergency architecture – in response to emergency situations, involving quick design and implementation of the structures. Emergency architecture is unconventional in Bangladesh and rarely does any Bangladeshi architect work on such projects.
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Soon after the influx of refugees, Brac, the largest NGO in the world, started working with them. Brac had an assignment to create workspaces for the Office of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC), the agency responsible for the refugee camps in Cox's Bazar.
In early 2018, Brac was looking for an architect who would work in this difficult situation and be able to deliver quickly. Saad was part of the team responsible for building Camp-in-charge offices for RRRC in each of the 30 camps.
Saad said, "In the projects prior to mine, there was not much planning behind them, and in some cases there was no involvement of design professionals. For example, someone related to the programme would sketch out a basic plan with pencil and tell the procurement people to build it with local contractors."
When Saad first got involved with the project, there was a huge load of work. Other than these offices, various centres were created, such as health, education, childcare facilities. A few months later, Rizvi joined Saad.
"We felt the need for the involvement of architects to create a beautiful common space with the same limited budget and existing natural materials. Outside of our regular assignments, we were discussing our plans with our Brac colleagues and bosses. They were positive and appreciative," said Saad.
As soon as the centre was built, it became a hub for the sheltered. Government, agencies and donors – all benefited from the project, which was funded by the UNHCR. Later, other agencies showed interest in similar infrastructure. Shortly, the requests poured in.
The facilities are used by people from the Rohingya community and officials of different agencies. It is intended as a place for the Rohingyas to gather together, communicate and socialise with one another. Rohingya women and girls learn handiwork, sewing clothes, etc; they are provided with various types of facilities to reinforce themselves in society. Training and workshops are also arranged.
There were many challenges building the project, said Rizvi, due to it being an emergency architecture endeavour. Camps were in hilly areas where trees were cut down in the middle of the jungle. As it was ecologically critical, materials needed to be temporary, biodegradable and affordable.
"The challenges were huge. We had to keep in mind that every step and decision we took should not come back to bite us later. For example, we might think that our work would dignify refugees, but in the local context, it might create a conflict later. So, we worked in a subtle way by maintaining a minimum life quality. We could not do anything excessive. Balancing between the minimal and necessity was a big task," added Saad.
As the first community space became popular, other agencies were interested in similar ideas. One of them, ActionAid, contacted Brac to seek collaboration. As Saad and Rizvi were already overworked, ActionAid was asked to bring in more people who have experience in similar work. And that is when Fatmi entered the scene.
"We were loaded as Brac's operations were vast. We could not give much time to each project. In the first project, the design was done in five days and built in 45 days – in total it took 50 days," said Saad.
"Our projects created ripple effects. The kind of establishment that we created is now followed by others. This example was exactly what was needed. In response to the refugee crisis in many places, it is being emulated worldwide. If Bangladesh can take care of this huge number of refugees gracefully, in a dignified way, others cannot give excuses."
In the construction of the spaces, the affected community was also involved in the process. For instance, the Rohingyas would come up with small designs or models themselves. Informal conversations took place as the projects went forward. And their thinking would have an impact on the overall project.
According to Fatmi, two types of knowledge had a role to play. While the architects had the formal and trained knowledge, the people of the community had the practical knowledge with local materials, weather, etc.
"We had to create a middle ground between our formal ideas and their technical know-how," said Fatmi. "It was not that we had formal discussions with them, because of time constraints and language barriers. But throughout the process, they were involved."
The artisans were mostly Rohingya men and women. At the same time, some decorative works were done by Rohingya women. There were scenarios, for instance, where masons were Bangalees but labourers working with bamboo were of ethnic minority groups.
During construction, locally sourced materials were utilised as much as possible, including bamboo, straw, and tarpaulin. The majority of the labour on the structure was done by Rohingya men. Many of them were already skilled in building structures with wood and bamboo. Interior design was mostly done by girls and women. The spaces were covered by colourful artwork and design elements. The approximate construction cost of each community space ranges from eight to 22 lakh taka.
"One guidance was that everything should be temporary in the camps. Natural materials like bamboo and straw with steel, tin and tarpaulin were main elements. Moreover, these were easily affordable within a limited budget. We tried to create a composition that is temporary, easily available, and less costly," said Rizvi.
He added, "One of the design priorities was protection from rain, especially in hilly areas. By protecting the bamboo houses from rain, the structures can last a long time. Moreover, maintenance becomes easier. We also tried to build modular designs – where parts can be disjointed and be moved to another place easily. Materials would be reusable and wastage would be much less."
"Usually, experienced architects working 20 or 30 years in the field can hope to win this award. We won this award at a very young age, which means a lot. This brings happiness not only to us, but it creates inspiration for younger generations of architects," said Rizvi.
Established in 1977 by Aga Khan IV, the award is presented every three years. Its goal is to recognise and honour the architectural ideas that deftly addresses the aspirations of Muslims, while also taking their hopes and dreams into account.
In 2022, other than the Rohingya Community Space, another Bangladeshi concept was honoured with the award: Urban River Spaces, Jhenaidah, Dhaka.
The award's jury citation said: "The six temporary community spaces of the Rohingya Refugee Response programme provide a dignified, sensitive and ingenious response to emergency needs related to the major influx of Rohingya refugees into Bangladeshi host communities, with particular attention to the safety of women and girls. The concept and design of the six spaces are the result of appropriate planning, solid partnerships and inclusive processes involving the diverse refugee and host communities, such as defining spatial and functional needs."
