International Lecture Series: Saif Ul Haque

Open lecture by the architect Saif Ul Haque. The lecture is part of the ‘International Lecture Series’ at the Royal Danish Academy where prominent international architects are invited to present their views on significant topics in architecture.

The work of Bangladeshi architect Saif Ul Haque exemplifies architecture’s ability to engage with complex environmental and social conditions. His Arcadia Education Project won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2019 and demonstrates an architecture that uses its spatial and aesthetic sensibilities to address climatic and social conditions while engaging with local cultural and material resources. The brief was to build a low-cost, low-impact school on a plot of land that is flooded by three meters of monsoon water one third of the year. A buoying amphibious structure was created through experimental and collaborative teamwork, providing a solution that offers crucial experience and inspiration on how to build environmentally and socially viable, not least in the wake of our planet’s rising sea levels. 

The lecture will explore Saif Ul Haque’s practice and the principles informing it. First through a keynote by Saif Ul Haque, which will be followed by a conversation between him and a moderator. The conversation will also invite the audience to contribute with questions. 

Saif Ul Haque is the principal of Dhaka based architectural practice Saif Ul Haque Sthapati (SHS) and executive advisor to the Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements. He has been a visiting faculty and reviewer at various institutions, organized several exhibitions on architecture, and written about architecture, urbanism and environment. 

The lecture will be recorded.

About the International Lecture Series
The lecture series forms part of the Academy’s engagement in the UIA2023CPH World Congress which will be hosted in Copenhagen in July 2023. The world congress has dedicated its programme to articulate the profound agency architecture has in shaping our societies; securing human and non-human wellbeing, shaping behavior and innovating practice to enable a sustainable, equitable and inclusive future for all.

The Royal Danish Academy is leading the Science Track of the World Congress, fostering new research and knowledge exchanges across the breadth of architectural research and practice with the aim to provoke new perspectives and concrete actions.