In December, the BRAC University Campus in Dhaka, Bangladesh won the 2025 RIBA Sustainability and Resilience Asia Pacific Award.
Situated on a compact site in Dhaka, BRAC University sets a new benchmark for climate-responsive design, integrating green spaces, water-saving strategies, and waste composting to serve over 20,000 students.
This project achieves the impossible: it adds both built and open space to the city.
The building is designed with plenty of open breezeways creating about 40 % of the area as natural ventilated semi enclosed informal interaction spaces. Only where needed, decentral mechanical systems are located floor by floor and central mech rooms and shafts are reduced to a minimum. Water recycling and rainwater collection reduces water use by nearly 50%. Photovoltaic panels and beekeeping transform the roof into a productive environment. The new university building hosts about 17,000 people in one single building of about 100,000 m² on 11 floors. More here >