The founder of modern architecture in Bangladesh, and the man who decided the country should not build it alone. Trained in Dhaka, Oregon and at the Architectural Association, Islam returned in the 1950s and set the terms with the Faculty of Fine Arts at Dhaka University: brick, deep verandahs, a plan that runs with the monsoon rather than against it. He then used his standing to bring Louis Kahn, Paul Rudolph, Richard Neutra, Stanley Tigerman and Constantinos Doxiadis to work in East Pakistan — it was Islam who steered the National Assembly commission to Kahn rather than keep it. His own campuses at Chittagong and Jahangirnagar step down their hillsides in staggered terraces. He was also a political activist, and his work is on Bangladesh’s World Heritage tentative list.
