Khudi Bari / Marina Tabassum Architects

Architects: Marina Tabassum Architects
Area: 64 ft², 100 ft², 144 ft²
Year: 2020–ongoing
Client: Marginalized population of Bangladesh
Country: Bangladesh

Khudi Bari is a modular housing system developed by Marina Tabassum Architects to address the urgent needs of communities displaced by climate change in Bangladesh. First conceived during the 2020 lockdown, the project offers a lightweight space frame made of bamboo and steel connectors that can be rapidly assembled or dismantled by three people with basic tools. Designed with two levels, the houses provide flexible living arrangements: the lower level serves as a space for daily activities, while the upper level functions as sleeping quarters and an elevated refuge during floods. The design incorporates corrugated metal roofing for ease of transport and maintenance, while façades are left open to adaptation using locally available materials. Its modularity and affordability make it both resilient and accessible, echoing vernacular building traditions while responding to contemporary challenges. Implemented by the Foundation for Architecture and Community Equity, Khudi Bari has been deployed in vulnerable riverine zones and refugee camps, where its system has been adapted into community centers and collective facilities. Recognized in the 2023–2025 award cycle, the project stands as a model of architecture as a tool for dignity, resilience, and self-reliance.

Khudi Bari is less a single object than a system of survival, developed for communities whose lives are shaped by displacement and instability. In Bangladesh, where rivers consume land and seasonal floods repeatedly alter the landscape, permanence often yields to mobility. Marina Tabassum Architects engages this reality by refining vernacular models of portable shelters into a structural framework that combines technical rigor with cultural familiarity. The use of structural bamboo paired with steel connectors creates a frame that is at once light, durable, and capable of withstanding wind and water pressure, while remaining easy to transport.

Each unit is deliberately modest in scale yet designed to maximize function. The lower level accommodates daily domestic and social activities, while the raised platform doubles as a sleeping space and a flood shelter. By stacking two levels within a minimal footprint, the design transforms scarcity of resources into spatial efficiency, offering households a measure of security against environmental uncertainty. The roofs, built from corrugated metal sheets, emphasize practicality, being easy to replace and transport. The façades, however, remain flexible, encouraging families to source and assemble their own cladding from locally available materials, thereby embedding the structure in its cultural and geographic context.

The project’s impact extends beyond individual homes. Through the Foundation for Architecture and Community Equity, Khudi Bari has been implemented in vulnerable communities across Bangladesh and adapted for use in humanitarian contexts such as the Rohingya refugee camps. Scaled-up versions of the system have been constructed as community centers and aggregation facilities for women farmers, highlighting its versatility as a platform for collective life. Crucially, Marina Tabassum Architects has shared construction knowledge directly with communities, ensuring that residents can build, adapt, or rebuild independently, fostering resilience not only in structure but also in process.

Its recognition in the 2023–2025 award cycle situates Khudi Bari within a broader architectural conversation about the role of design in addressing the climate crisis. Rather than presenting architecture as a static form, the project positions it as a living framework—adaptable, participatory, and rooted in dialogue with those it serves. Khudi Bari demonstrates how modest, locally grounded interventions can carry profound social and environmental significance, offering a model of architecture that prioritizes survival and dignity in the face of precarious futures.