The RIBA has announced the winner of the world’s best new building. The Friendship Hospital in Bangladesh designed by Kashef Chowdhury/URBANA will be awarded the RIBA International Prize, the global accolade for design excellence and social impact.
The remote community hospital was commissioned by the NGO, Friendship, and provides a medical lifeline for thousands of people from Satkhira, an area of the coast that was heavily affected by a major cyclone in 2007.
Winning this global accolade, the hospital was described by the Grand Jury as embodying an “architecture of humanity” and as an “exemplar of innovative architecture that addresses critical global issues – unequal access to healthcare and the crushing impact of climate breakdown on vulnerable communities.”
Situated in the southern region of Bangladesh, the project faced demanding environmental conditions due to rising sea levels impacted by climate change.
“In a sublimely important moment, RIBA and the jurors have identified a project from the global periphery to bring to the centre of architectural discourse and be the subject of one of the most important global awards. I am encouraged that this may inspire more of us to commit, not in spite of, but because of limitations of resources and means, to an architecture of care both for humanity and for nature, to rise collectively to the urgencies that we face today on a planetary scale,” says Chowdhury .
“Having worked with communities most impacted by climate change over the last 20 years, I have seen, time and time again, proof of my belief that ‘The poor cannot afford poor solutions’! Friendship Hospital brings new hope of a better tomorrow to some of the most climate impacted people on this planet,” says Runa Khan, Founder and Executive Director of Friendship.