Located in the dense urban fabric of Dhaka, where green and public spaces are scarce, BRAC University offers an oasis of greenery and inclusivity for both students and the community.

The campus park is the public interface and heart of the university. Given the urban lake site, the vision is to present an innovative and sustainable inner city campus that exemplifies tropical design strategies in response to the hot, humid, monsoon climate while demonstrating the sensitive integration of nature and architecture. The main design strategy is to create two distinct programmatic strata by floating the academia above the lake and revealing a campus park below.

WOHA prioritized creating a building that would not only serve its 20,000 occupants but also become a catalyst for positive urban change, offering shared spaces for learning, relaxation, and interaction.

View of public concourse and rain garden.

Sustainability is deeply integrated into the building design, from thermal zoning to serious reductions in the use of energy and water.

Social interaction spaces are incorporated throughout the university to allow for both planned and spontaneous student activities. Differing scales and types of social spaces cater to varying group sizes, all designed for maximum comfort and interaction, with dynamic visual links across levels allowing students to observe activities happening across voids. The building section is designed to catch the breezes and direct them to these gathering spaces, while providing shelter from sun and rain.

South to north aerial view of university: the university is composed as an assemblage of components which echo the scale and proportion of the surrounding developments, unified by an energy harvesting canopy.

Main strategy is to create two distinct programmatic strata by floating the academia above the lake.

The design strategy reflects the synergistic coexistence between mankind and mangrove.

Rooftop sky park holds a liberal open playing field, running track, swimming pool and cricket pitch.

Site plan.

First floor plan.

Section A.

Section D.

Section E.

WOHA Directors.

Sim Choon Heok (centre) and Richard Hassall (right) of WOHA receive a Global Awards Finalist 2018 certificate for the design for BRAC University’s new campus in Bangladesh on behalf of the project team including WOHA, J A Architects and Transsolar Energietechnik from Edward Schwarz, representing the LafargeHolcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction.