Aga Khan Academy
Bangladesh
The Aga Khan Academies aim to support long-term national and regional development by providing an international standard of education to students based on merit, regardless of socioeconomic background.
This school is located on a 20-acre site near the centre of Dhaka, Bangladesh and is part of a network of academies being established by His Highness the Aga Khan across Africa, the Middle East, Central and South Asia and Europe.
The Academy, which provides residence for 1200 students, is arranged around a central ‘Maidan’ amenity space and sports field, linked by a continuous colonnade with courtyards used for social gatherings and outdoor learning.
The landscape design is based on the concept of ‘a natural layering of landscape & knowledge’, which includes 3 key design principles:
1. Articulation of levels and geometry to create flexible amenity space, outdoor educational rooms, rainwater attenuation, playful landforms and views over the Maidan.
2. As inspired by Shatotto, the geometric reference to the Buddhist universities creates the sense of a discovered landscape, ‘layers over time’.
3. The value in providing simple green spaces in a dense urban environment.
Construction of the Academy began in 2018 and the school opened in September 2022.
Read more: Aga Khan Academy Khan opens its doors
Project Info
- Client
- The Aga Khan
- Architects
- Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Shatotto, Dhaka
- Engineers
- Max Fordham, AKTII, EMCS, Dhaka